Character character character by One of the Warrior Priests deep in the enemy territory

Do I need this stuff or can I live without it? Well, you could exist without it but it’s because of character that you were born.

Put it this way, God said, “Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. We will let them rule the fish, the birds, and all other living creatures.” What does this “like us” refer to? You guessed it – character. Why? Because character is who and how we are each day – God’s Son has all the brightness of God’s own glory and is like him in every way.  This is the reason we were made: to know GOD and fill eternity with all HE IS.

Easy hey? Not.

We as the human race chose to follow the ways of Lucifer, a rebelling angel. God’s eternal WORD said: “Your father is the devil, and you do exactly what he wants. He has always been a murderer and a liar. There is nothing truthful about him. He speaks on his own, and everything he says is a lie. Not only is he a liar himself, but he is also the father of all lies.”

This is why JESUS came and died for us, so that through HIM being raised from the dead, HE could now set us free from serving satan the devil, so we can know and become like GOD in character to the rest of the human race so they can get to know HIM and obey HIM through you!. Our instructions for being made and responsibility for having a body are clear: obey GOD by getting to know HIM first. How do I do this? By believing HE exists and desiring to find HIM. GODS SPIRIT will lead you but it’s your choice to obey.

The bible introduces us and speaks as GOD HIMSELF. This might all sound simple and on paper it is, but because our world is so full of disobedience to GOD, we sometimes don’t realise how much changing GOD actually wants from us. All I can do is encourage you on and say never give up until GOD is done – you won’t regret it.

Christ encourages you, and his love comforts you. God’s Spirit unites you, and you are concerned for others. Now make me completely happy! Live in harmony by showing love for each other. Be united in what you think, as if you were only one person. Don’t be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. Care about them as much as you care about yourselves and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: Christ was truly God.

‘But he did not try to remain equal with God. Instead he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us. Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross. Then God gave Christ the highest place and honoured his name above all others. So at the name of Jesus everyone will bow down, those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And to the glory of God the Father everyone will openly agree, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” My dear friends, you always obeyed when I was with you. Now that I am away, you should obey even more. So work with fear and trembling to discover what it really means to be saved. God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey him. Do everything without grumbling or arguing. Then you will be the pure and innocent children of God. You live among people who are crooked and evil, but you must not do anything that they can say is wrong. Try to shine as lights among the people of this world, as you hold firmly to the message that gives life.’ [Philippians 2]

Hot off the Press in Burundi

Hi!

In a week when two of our partners are opening new schools which have been built in conjunction with Fields of Life, I wanted to fill you in on some recent activity. So much is going on. If you want more regular (twice/month) news, then do get back to me requesting to be added to that list, but otherwise I know that many of us already get too much email as it is.

Anyway, this time last month I asked you to pray as our young teams of evangelists were about to launch out on a week of bold outreach in Burundi. All I can say is, as with every year we do this, thanks so much for praying. I’ll just share a few of the incredible stories below from the many that could be told. God is amazing! Take a read of an extract of what Onesphore sent me:

A famous witchdoctor called Makari from a place called Isale received what he thought were prospective ‘clients’ into his den. His reputation went before him and so our evangelists wanted to challenge his authority. When they revealed their identity, the power of God came on him and he fell to the ground. When he came to, he sat and listened to their preaching. He believed in Jesus and asked them to return two days later when he would burn all his charms publicly. When they duly returned, they found Makari had invited all his relatives and other witchdoctor friends. He declared before all of them that he had turned to Christ, and proceeded to burn his charms. At that point our team preached and a further fifty people decided to follow Christ! Makari is now a member of Emmanuel church, along with his family.

Also in Isale, a team of evangelists went to share the gospel in a bar. While they were talking, a young man became very angry with them. The following day, this antagonistic man came to see them, and gave his life to Christ. He then told them that when they were preaching in the bar he had been about to beat them, but when he had tried to stand up to attack them, he had felt a mighty hand jamming him down in his chair, and that undeniable power is what forced him to surrender his life to Jesus.

Young Libere was on one of our teams in Busiga. He’d never seen a healing miracle. And yet, he found himself witnessing to an old woman who had been paralyzed for three years. He sensed the Lord telling him: “Miracles accompany the preaching of the Word.” So he responded in obedience and faith, and commanded the lady to stand up. She stood up immediately and started dancing with joy! Libere was amazed to see the power and faithfulness of God. He exclaimed: “Now I believe that God is powerful and can work with whoever believes in him regardless of his age or denomination. I will spend the rest of my life proclaiming the love of God.”

Zubeda was a Muslim woman from Bubanza . Her son was very sick and she was in despair. When the evangelists visited her, she didn’t want to listen to them share God’s word but she did agree to let her son be prayed for. The following day, the evangelists found Zubeda full of joy and testifying that her son was healed. She asked them to share the gospel with her that she had formerly refused, and promptly gave her life to Christ.

There are many more stories, but that’ll do to give you a taster. The staggering statistics of the week are as follows:

•    607 young evangelists from different provinces of Burundi were sent out to 34 different areas. They spent a week visiting people in their houses, in market places and wherever they could meet them.
•    During that week, 41,020 people heard the gospel shared one-on-one, with opportunity to ask questions and discuss.
•    Of those, 17,789 people accepted to pray to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives. Among these people were 103 Muslims and 51 witchdoctors.
•    20 persons paralyzed were healed, 8 deaf people recovered their hearing, 2 blind people were able to see again, 23 couples on the brink of divorce reconciled, 5 people on the point of committing suicide gave up with that plan.
•    Five new churches were planted and now have regular meetings (the idea in the main was to work with existing churches).

Please do pray for the follow up and discipleship of all these new believers, which we are committed to, although in some areas it will be stronger than in others.

Also please pray for the situation in general in the nation as there is seemingly a new rebellion forming, and a number of people have been killed in the last few weeks. If the war is renewed, it would be simply terrible for already broken Burundi. Let’s stand against that in Jesus’ name.

Thanks so much for your involvement. I hope the above encourages you, and I pray that God will grant each one of us something of the urgency, boldness, and willingness to step out and take risks that characterize those guys in what they did just a few weeks ago. Different context maybe, but same Lord, same gospel, same command to go and be his hands and feet in this messy world.

Go for it!

Simon Guillebaud
Great Lakes Outreach
www.greatlakesoutreach.org
www.more-than-conquerors.com

Out of this World by Anthony Ricco

So, what is the deal with this whole persecution thing?  We need to know it is still happening today – A LOT.  This isn’t some kind of torture back from the Roman days – it is here now and in a very ugly way.

In fact, everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.  Our King of Kings was persecuted, who are we that as servants we deserve any better?

In countries like Eritrea, Christians are locked up in shipping containers, they are packed so tight they have to take it in turns to sit down. There is just 1 small hole cut into the roof for air to come in – so small that no one can squeeze out, so they take turns standing on one another’s shoulders to breathe fresh air. There are no toilets, so they have to do their business inside there, somewhere, and it is the middle of the desert in a metal shipping container, the days are boiling and the nights freezing.

These people are put into jail, labour camps and sometimes killed because they want to spread the Good News of the Gospel (which is everyone’s call by the way – Mt 28:18-20), but we who are free won’t even go out and reach the lost, we are willing to let people go and burn in eternal hell because we are too lazy and spiritually complacent to do anything about it.

You see, the Bible says quite plainly that we are not of this world; we are just in it (Jn 15:19).  And I think people like those in Eritrea and other persecuted nations live in that revelation. I think we in the western world live with the mentality that tomorrow we need to work so we can eat and feed our families, and we think we need to do stuff – even stuff for God.  The problem is I don’t think God wants our stuff, He wants us – and by that I mean every fibre of our beings.  Now I’m not saying go and forsake your calling that God has given you, but make absolutely sure that you are not living out your calling as your relationship with God: first and foremost must be your relationship with the Most High God and your calling will flow out of that.

And anyways, what can we really do for God? You think He wants you to warn someone about something? He used a donkey for that (Num 22:30). You think He wants you to give food to people who need? He used ravens for that (1 Kings 17:6).

I mean, does He really want us to do stuff, or does He really want us – our hearts, our worship?

So, back to the guys in the container. They are there because they aren’t just doing stuff for Him, they are there because they’ll worship God no matter what. They are no longer of this world – they can see the things God has promised to them and they’re not caught up in the rubbish that this world has to offer.  They want God and they are willing to give up all they have to follow Him.

So you may be asking what this has to do with you. Living in your house in your ‘free’ country.  Well firstly, lets see how free you really are. Here is a challenge: go into an airport and start preaching to people there, tell them that they have sin in there lives and need to repent – or go to street corner or a casino or even maybe inside your church – see how free you are, or here is one, go and tell people what you believe about abortion, or homosexuality or even about sex before marriage.  How long do you think it will be before someone says something to you, or about you, or asks you to leave?

Now please don’t get me wrong – I’m not the burn your Koran’s on 9/11 kind of guy. We need to do things the way Jesus would have – and that is with unconditional love. We can’t knock someone who has had an abortion or sex before marriage, that’s sin and we all were sinners, and if we make them hate us while we represent God then we’ve not showed them the way.  Come on this is common sense.

When we are up front about our God and His Word, that is how persecution starts, not because we are hurting or breaking down the people we are talking to but because the devil cant stand it when God is glorified and people hear about His mercy. By Christians not being afraid to share what God has shown them, by us all having compassion and love for the lost and telling them there is an escape.  When we start doing that then it wont be the ‘in’ thing to be a Christian – I wont just say I’m a Christian because that’s what my parents were.  No, to say you are a Christian will mean you need to stand out, to be set apart from what the world is doing – and when the world sees us as different, not blending in with them, not fornicating or taking drugs or getting drunk or doing the things the world does.

When we do this then one of two things will happen – The first is the more common one:  it is because they see there is something different about us, that we have the joy of the Lord all the time and it is our strength – they’ll want it and come to know Jesus.

The second is that they’ll hate us because we have what they want – and we may be the next ones to be put into a container. Question is – are you willing, or are you still of this world?

The Real Deal by Simon Guillebaud

Dear Team,

When I write about our summer outreach campaign each year, I fear it sounds so amazing that some of you can’t believe what happens, that I’m exaggerating things and being evang-elastic about the reporting – but these guys are the real deal, I promise you. We’re gearing up to rock Burundi this summer. The elections have gone relatively peacefully and permission has now been granted to proceed with this amazing outreach.

So, from 28^th August – 6^th September, 600 young firebrands will be sent out into the bush to go to 42 communes and share the gospel strategically and intentionally in unreached areas throughout Burundi. They will, as they did last year, cast out demons, heal the sick, get beaten, get sick, be well received, badly received, plant churches, see many Muslims and witchdoctors converted, whole communities impacted. This is my most exciting time of the year.

So I’m writing for two reasons:

Firstly, please pray. Onesphore (leader of Harvest for Christ) has said year after year that our network of prayers is what has opened up whole communities that might have been fiercely resistant, and that our prayer backing has minimized the very real opposition to our venture. Could you commit to praying over the period of the outreach? And I’ll give you feedback a month later when the astounding results will have been established. (Last year a staggering 26,000 were converted)

Secondly, to fulfill our aims, can you help us financially? The overall budget for this massive outreach effort, transporting that large number of people all over the country, giving them some basic pocket money, hiring vehicles to show the Jesus film, follow-up, etc, is $60,000. We have raised $41,000, so the outstanding need is $19,000. Every little bit helps, every contribution will mean more lives transformed, so do join us!

For contributions in the USA, please click www.razoo.com/story/Great-Lakes-Outreach

For UK and rest of the world, click www.justgiving.com/donation/sponsor?process=1&query=cGFnZT0xNjI5Njg1

Any problems with the links, just contact me and I’ll sort things out.

God bless you so much!

Simon Guillebaud

Great Lakes Outreach

www.greatlakesoutreach.org

www.more-than-conquerors.com

*update*

It’s all happening right now, so keep praying! The 600 young evangelists are half way through the ten-day outreach. I’ve received a few emails from Onesphore, leader of Harvest for Christ, with some news to encourage us. There’s obviously so much going on. God bless you loads, enjoy the one below, which he sent to me yesterday:

Hello brother Simon,

All the teams are doing well on the field. Only yesterday, policemen tried to disturb some of our evangelists in Kayanza but they kept on preaching with great fruit. In Bukemba, a woman who was getting ready to have a covenant with witchcrafts gave her life to Christ. She had bought a white dress and a white lamb for the ceremony. When evangelists shared the Good News with her, her mind changed. She came immediately to church with the white dress to celebrate the love of God.

Minani Pacifique is a 55-years-old man of Kinyinya , in Ruyigi province . He was deaf and could hear nothing. Evangelists visited his village and prayed for him. He immediately got healed in the name of Jesus. Many people of the village came to see the miracle and believed in Christ.

Tell all those who are praying that God is working powerfully.

I also thank God for the deputy president who was chosen yesterday by the Parliament. His name is Therence. He is a born-again Christian who is gifted with a ministry of healing and deliverance. He has a strong home cell at his house and I have preached many times there. I am sure that this is a unique time for the church in Burundi to be free to achieve its mission. Essentially, Protestant churches get an opportunity to have roots and to be established. As far as I am concerned, I would to be much creative during these five years so that HFC may be strong and influential for God’s glory. I am happy to go with you in this process, which will absolutely transform the church of Burundi.

As Caleb said, I still have the same passion and heart that I had ten years ago. My heart is still burning to see the power coming upon this country and bring transformation. I am ready to pay any price that this can require. I have put my life and ambitions on the altar, I am ready to be whatever God wants me to be.

Thank you for your prayers and support which are making difference in my life.

With love,

Onesphore

P.S. Can I also ask for your prayers for healing please? I’ve been sick for a month, and I can’t shrug off this frustrating fatigue. Blood test results show nothing, and we are on family holiday in France right now, but with our impending move to South Carolina in two weeks, I really need to get healthy and strong soon. God bless you all, SG

True Reality by David Elliot

How many times do we get lost in the routine of our lives, and forget why we live the life we’ve been given? Three times, eight times, twenty-seven times… countless times?

I have found as I’ve grown into adulthood that I spend a lot of my time testing the waters, doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and then surprising myself when I find something that I enjoy or am good at. I spend the majority of my time following a busy routine in which I try to fulfil all the expectations that I and others have placed on me. We call them many names: deadlines, assignments, sports commitments, leadership responsibilities, job requirements, and family obligations. The list goes on and on.

Very rarely do we take a step out of the life we know, and throw ourselves into something completely foreign, an alien territory, another world. How valuable it is to be given an opportunity to break routine and capture a new perspective of life, to experience God & hear from Him in a fresh and perhaps quieter place, to discover more about the Father who created us!

This happened earlier this year when I had an opportunity to lead one of the largest teams I’ve ever been involved with to West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The team was made up primarily of High School graduates from Singapore, and young working adults seeking a fresh experience in the Lord, people thirsting to know about His ultimate purpose for their lives. Each of these volunteers had completed a three-month “School of Ministry” course at Tung Ling Bible School.

Each team member was impacted in an intricately purposeful way. One team member, Zhuang Mao described it this way: “home feels like a dream and this is the reality.”

The team began to pick up some broken Bahasa Indonesian and were able to interact more with the children and leaders at the Living Waters ministry.

Hannah said “The dreamy quality of the whole atmosphere there faded and it started dawning upon me that this was reality; a new kind of reality which I found myself getting accustomed to. It was a reality with God being very much in the picture.”

I got to thinking that many times when we think of reality we focus on all that is wrong with the world. Yes, there is evil in the world, and suffering, stress, selfishness and greed. However, experiences like this project have allowed me to check this default mindset and realise that there is a different reality, one in which God Himself displays His Kingdom here on earth. And one of the best parts is that He actually chooses ordinary people like you and I to express this part of Himself to the world.

As twenty-one year old team member Joel explained: “It truly struck me that they [ministry leaders] were normal people just like you and I doing impossible things for God. Their experiences, lessons and struggles truly encouraged me as I could relate to their problems and know God is a faithful God you can depend on.”

I really hope you and I can attempt these impossible things for God without reservation, and to be that light in the darkness directing people that are lost to the anchor of all reality – the One that created us and loves us through and through.

Only in Him can we find what is meant to be, our true reality.

For more testimonies from young adults serving with Nations 2 Reach visit our blog at: http://nations2reach.blogspot.com To find out about opportunities to serve, visit: www.nations2reach.com

Are you a day dreamer or a dreamer of the day? There’s a massive difference. The former’s a waste of time, the latter would make you a dangerous person, as you’ll ‘act out your dreams with open eyes to make them happen’. So here’s an invitation to live your dreams. Come on, you can do it!

Dreamer

This is a link to one of the videos in Simon Guillebaud’s DVD series called More Than Conquerors.

Check it out at www.more-than-conquerors.com

The More Than Conquerors Book and DVD go hand in hand or individually, and are both a call to radical discipleship. The DVD has 13 short films on it which deal with various themes covered in the book, like radical risk-taking, trust, prayer, sacrifice, justice, surrender, perseverance, etc. Each short film stands alone and is suitable for showing in churches or home/cell groups, at youth events, at outreaches, basically in any context. They are a mixture of challenge, beauty, rawness, grimness, and hope. Shot in six African countries, in sometimes dangerous places, the aim of the series is to stir up, envision and challenge followers of Jesus to embrace a costly authentic discipleship.

Burundi news – keep praying for peace, stability, and a functional opposition so that the democratic process will have some credibility over this electoral season. It’s pretty messy and who knows what’s going to happen, which is where our prayers come in!

Bitter/sweet or sweet/bitter by Simon Guillebaud

Bitter/sweet or sweet/bitter news of death in Burundi Sarah is dead. It seems so wrong. Many prayed and fasted – some believed and even claimed – but all hoped that God would heal her, yet finally she lost in her protracted struggle against breast cancer. The night before she graduated to glory, frail Sarah had called her six children around her, and with poignant strength of voice told them she was leaving soon. She then gave each advice about the future once she had gone. And now Peter has had to break the news to the kids, although the youngest is only a toddler (born 2 weeks before the mastectomy) and cannot possibly comprehend what has happened. On learning of his mother’s death, 4-year-old Dedi blurted out: “O Papa, if Mama is with Jesus, will you take me there too?”

It seems so deeply wrong in this case because of Peter’s story. The sting of premature death (she was thirty one) is always doubly painful, but God’s intervention in healing Peter seemed to suggest He would surely do the same for Sarah. Peter is one of the most Godly men I know. His testimony is a powerful one. He was a wild womanizer and musician who worked for Burundi’s secret service, and so got up to all sorts of colorful and unsavory acts before his conversion.

I first met him about eight years ago when he’d been miraculously granted leave from prison. He was very sick, and needed medical treatment, but the head of the prison had refused him permission, saying: “You’ll only ever be allowed out of here over my dead body.” Under the influence of a massive fever, Peter had replied: “You will watch God take me out of here under your very nose!” He returned to his cell, and an overnight prayer meeting was convened. Nobody was allowed to leave before the Lord had answered their petition. They prayed through the night, and after 9am, one of the group said: “I believe the Lord’s just told me that you’ll be released by 4pm.” They packed his bags in faith, and at 3:45pm a prison officer opened his cell, looked at his packed bags, and said: “Who told you that you are to be released? Give me your telephone!” Peter replied: “I have no phone. It was God who told us!” And he walked out of prison past the head honcho who had said “over my dead body”.

Peter was very sick, and I used to visit him in hospital. He had an armed guard to make sure he didn’t try to escape, but that wasn’t needed. Peter exuded peaceful joy amidst his personal suffering, and drew other sick patients to the Lord. He grew thinner and thinner, and I flew back in the spring of 2003 to prepare to get married to Lizzie, not knowing whether I’d ever see him again.

However, a year later, when we returned, a new fatter Peter greeted us. During my absence, two men had come to him and told him: “We know that you have AIDS, but we believe God is going to heal you for a purpose.” And here he was, living out that healing. His weight had almost doubled. But he was still separated from Sarah and the kids because of now being back in prison. His crime? He had allowed a ‘friend’ to use his bank account to transfer some funds, and it transpired the money in question was stolen. It showed up on many accounts including Peter’s and his ‘friend’ fled the country. Peter was immediately put in prison and would not be released until that money was returned or the guilty man gave himself up – neither eventuality very likely. But the believers in prison set aside four days to pray and fast on the issue, pleading with the Lord to convict the thief to give himself up. On the fourth day of their fast, he was in neighboring Congo about to commit suicide when the Lord spoke to him and said: “Go back and give yourself up because many people’s lives are ruined because of your behavior.”

And so he arrived and admitted his guilt to the police. Issues of corruption delayed Peter’s release another two years, even though it was clear he was innocent. He developed rare incurable cancer in his throat. I have a photo of him with huge swollen jowls. A mutual friend sponsored him to go and get treated abroad at significant expense. He finished a course of drugs and then just surrendered the issue to the Lord.

When Sarah subsequently contracted cancer herself and they traveled repeatedly to the cancer specialist hospital in Uganda, the specialists refused to accept that Peter had had the cancer he described. Even when he produced the paperwork they said there had to be a mistake. It simply wasn’t possible. The rollercoaster story has more in it, but I’ll stop there. That’s why we thought Sarah wouldn’t die. God has intervened repeatedly and undeniably in Peter’s life. They had been forced to spend extended time apart, and now at last they were back together. Surely the Lord would do for her as He had done for Peter…? And yet slowly, inexorably, with the occasional upturn, the cancer took her.

Faith means embracing question marks for much of the time. There aren’t always tidy answers to our big questions. Yet Sarah was so grace-filled and dignified in her fight, working until just recently as the family needed the money to survive. Peter’s job is to help rehabilitate former child-soldiers and prostitutes and equip them to choose better lives. Despite incredible odds heaped against him, Peter managed to earn distinction in the first two years of university where he is doing a 4-year degree at evening classes. He earns about $100/month. Now he will somehow have to care for his six children without his life-mate. Aaarrgh! So Sarah is dead. It’s terribly sad. There are lots of tears being shed right now.

But today as I think about her, death really is more sweet/bitter than bitter/sweet for followers of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection and the Life. For the first time in years, she is free from pain. For her loved ones, the bitter grief is slightly mitigated by the fact that “we do not mourn as those without hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” (1Thes.4v13-14)

As I say so often, life is a gift. Live it fully! Health is a gift. Appreciate it! Loved ones are gifts. Cherish them! We have so many gifts… So let’s enjoy them, maximize them and share them. Do pray for Peter as he faces up to the latest massive challenge in his ongoing pilgrimage. And if anyone wants to help him and the kids, do get back to me.

God bless you, Simon Guillebaud

Great Lakes Outreach

www.greatlakesoutreach.org

www.more-than-conquerors.com

PS Burundi elections yesterday went peacefully, please pray on…

Burundi Update

I wanted to send an URGENT EMAIL to request prayers for Burundi, as the Presidential elections are scheduled for this Monday 28^th. The situation isn’t good with daily grenade attacks due to instability following all the opposition parties having pulled out of the electoral process citing fraud. So the current President is the only one standing, which is obviously not ideal. The main rival has fled the country and we hope will not ferment violent opposition (he was the rebel leader until 2009 when his party reintegrated, but he made the war drag on far longer than was required). The EU and Catholic house of bishops have said elections should proceed. We are aware of massive spiritual opposition in terms of people from outside being drafted in to pray against the election (can’t go into details). So these are key times. Please please pray repeatedly over the coming days. Burundians are plain tired of war.

Simon Guillebaud

Great Lakes Outreach

www.greatlakesoutreach.org

www.more-than-conquerors.com

PS

Meantime our work is thriving with our local partners. Here’s a quick testimony from Onesphore of Harvest for Christ from a couple of days ago:

“Manariyo used to work as a representative of the Batwa (pygmies) at Busiga. He was repeatedly let down by many Non-Governmental Organizations who promised much but delivered nothing. When we went to work in Busiga, he didn’t want to be identified as the Batwa community leader. His heart was wounded. Six months later, Passy (who is our HFC lady working with the Batwa there) saw him coming to church. He decided to give his life to Christ. And when Passy asked him why, he brought all the agreements that NGOs had signed with him which hadn’t been respected, and said: “Since you have come here, I carefully observed you. I discovered love that I have not seen in any other persons who visited us. I am sure that you are people of God and you love us Batwa. I decided to give my life to the Lord you serve and who pushed you to come to us.”  Manariyo is a new convert and Passy is discipling him. His wife also started coming to church. God is slowly opening the hearts of the Batwa.”

I love this, because what we are doing is so holistic and long-term, in the context of costly service and relationship-building. The Batwa are considered the lowest of the low and are the most resistant people group in Burundi, and we are helping them learn to read and write, gain access to clean water, improve their farming methods, rear cows and goats, receive dental treatment, and know their rights for the sake of advocacy. May Manariyo be the first of many coming to freedom in Christ.

Beautiful! Thanks for being a part of it.

Simon

A Starfish called Enoch

This is a link to one of the videos in Simon Guillebaud’s DVD series called More Than Conquerors.

Check it out at www.more-than-conquerors.com

The More Than Conquerors Book and DVD go hand in hand or individually, and are both a call to radical discipleship. The DVD has 13 short films on it which deal with various themes covered in the book, like radical risk-taking, trust, prayer, sacrifice, justice, surrender, perseverance, etc. Each short film stands alone and is suitable for showing in churches or home/cell groups, at youth events, at outreaches, basically in any context. They are a mixture of challenge, beauty, rawness, grimness, and hope. Shot in six African countries, in sometimes dangerous places, the aim of the series is to stir up, envision and challenge followers of Jesus to embrace a costly authentic discipleship.

Burundi letter 66 by Simon Guillebaud

Greetings from Burundi!

GLO (Great Lakes Outreaches) is hosting a team from Sheffield right now and last night I invited Theo to come and share his story with us of what happened in the Burundian bloodbath of 1993. It was incredible. A book is being written on his life, so below are just a few snapshots and some challenges he drew out of them. Keep reading, it’s well worth it:

At the end of 1993, tens of thousands of Burundians were being murdered on both sides of the tribal divide as genocide kicked in following the assassination of the Hutu President. As a Hutu, Theo had to flee or otherwise he would be killed by the other tribe, the Tutsi. He walked several hundred miles through the bush into Tanzania. On the way he had a number of extraordinary escapes.

At one stage, he was taken by a blood-crazed gang of Hutus, who insisted he and his five friends killed some Tutsis to prove they were Hutus. Theo was the leader of the Christian Union at school, and the other five looked to him. The choice was basically to kill or be killed. He chose to be killed. He was forced to lie down on the floor, where he prayed a feeble prayer of resignation, and waited for the machete to land on his neck. But suddenly a military helicopter flew overhead and everyone dispersed in different directions, and so Theo and his friends continued their journey.

Further on, as they crossed a tarmac road, a military tank spotted them and sprayed them with bullets. As they fled, many were mown down, but again they survived and continued making their way through the bush, until later they found themselves surrounded by a Tutsi mob. Their end had come. There was no escape. But then suddenly a Tutsi girl he had helped in math at school years before ran up to him and jumped in his arms. “If you want to kill him, you’ll have to kill me first!” Her brother was influential in the army, so the murderers let him go.

Once in Tanzania, thousands of Hutu refugees were dying of dysentery. Theo lay down to die, questioning why God would have spared him so much only for him to die now without even having had the opportunity to testify to God’s glory. Suddenly a white man drove up in a truck, lugged him and a few others in, and took them to a hospital. One of them died along the way. Theo was given medicine before being dumped back in the bush. That was enough to save him. Later on a female Swiss doctor found him and gave him a job, training him up as a nurse.

As the refugee camps became more established, all young men were being forced to join the rebel Hutu movement, but Theo didn’t want to, so he fled to Kenya. He was caught by the Kenyan authorities and was going to be deported, when a mystery woman (most likely a prostitute from her manner) for whatever reason came to their aid, going to the immigration officer who was about to sentence them to deportation and imprisonment, and arranging for him to release them. They were whisked off to the judge’s house, given clothes, food, a chance to wash, and false Tanzanian papers enabling them to get into Kenya and apply for asylum.

The remarkable journey continued as a missionary he hardly knew sent off an email on their behalf, and Theo was able to go to Bible college – first in Kenya and then at All Nations (where we studied together) in England. He is now an influential and gifted leader in Burundi, passionately reaching out to the most marginalised and destitute, particularly those suffering with AIDS.

That concise summary doesn’t do justice to the whole story. When the book comes out, I’ll get the details to you. In any case, Theo raised some issues from his experiences, which profoundly challenge me:

1. He said that God’s faithfulness does not depend on man’s faithfulness. As he lay there waiting to have his head chopped off, he said his prayer was utterly faithless. But God in his grace had mercy.

2. He had a wholly inadequate grasp of what constitutes salvation. He’d been taught that you come to Jesus to be saved from hellfire and to get a ticket to heaven. But he wasn’t equipped to live on earth. We don’t just believe in life after death, but life to the full before death, and a fuller understanding of salvation equips us to engage on both levels more effectively.

3. There was the time when he was languishing in the Tanzanian refugee camp. He was angry at everyone – the other tribe for killing his tribesmen, the international community for not helping them fast enough, the manipulation of politicians etc. People were dying all around him, and his greatest anger was directed at the Church. “Where is the Church?” he asked. Islam grew so fast in the refugee camps because Muslims were there, providing the emergency relief and sharing their things, whilst the Tanzanian churches stayed away. Many converted to Islam, purely because they said: “The Muslims are the ones who love us.” However, as his anger boiled over at God, he heard the Lord reply: “YOU are the Church!” And with that understanding, he got his hands dirty, mucked in, and shone as a beacon of light in the darkness to counteract the advance of Islam and all the evils being perpetrated in the camps.

4. He said: “Don’t ever underestimate small acts of kindness.” – the bits of food people gave him, the medicine, the mystery prostitute or white man in the truck, the email sent to a faraway Bible college. Sometimes looking at Africa the problems can seem so overwhelming that we resist getting involved, but his story included lots of crucial little acts of kindness and intervention that kept him alive and led to him now being able to fulfill God’s destiny and make a big impact on his nation.

5. His legitimate and deep-seated prejudice against Tutsi was profoundly rocked by that young lady risking her life to save his. She was prepared to die for him. No longer could he lump all Tutsis together as evil people. There were good and bad amongst both Hutu and Tutsi.

I was humbled. I hope in some way you are too, and challenged. So, following on from above, maybe we can learn some key life lessons:

1. God’s faithfulness doesn’t depend on my faithfulness. Thank God for that! Choose to live a life oozing grace and gratitude for his intervention in your on-going journey.

2. A full view of salvation includes both before and after death. Is my view defective or imbalanced? The stakes are high so I want to give my all to seeing people saved for eternity but also so that they fully engage in this life too.

3. When I’m tempted to get angry, despairing or frustrated about the Church – when I next rubbish or disparage Her – may I stop seeing the problem ‘out there’ and instead hear God’s rallying cry: “YOU are the Church!”

4. What small acts of kindness can I do today, which under God’s sovereign hand could lead to beautiful fruit in the future?

5. For me, my prejudices aren’t so much towards Hutu or Tutsi. But I most certainly have them. We all do. And as followers of an immigrant, a refugee, an outsider, we Christians have ironically had a very mixed track record in this area. So what is my attitude and how am I actively engaged in helping the foreigner, the outsider, the immigrant, the alien, the marginalized? Or is following Jesus about being a cosseted member in the safety of the in-crowd?

It’s worth thinking about…

God bless you all. Keep praying for Burundi. Elections are coming up in the next few months and these remain critical times. GLO partners are doing a fabulous job as I have been evaluating over the last week. It’s a wonderful privilege to be involved in this work, and I thank you all for joining us.

Keep firing!

Simon Guillebaud
Great Lakes Outreach
www.greatlakesoutreach.org