Extra news letter 2
Progress at PTI
Do read this, I think you’ll find it very edifying:
The rollercoaster journey of starting up PTI (Partners’ Trust International) continues apace! Six weeks ago I wrote introducing you to this new exciting church fellowship and Bible training venture (CLICK HERE TO RE-READ IT), and God’s hand is clearly leading the way. The owner of the land we are trying to buy is not (yet) a believer himself, but for some reason is behaving in the most amazing way. He, Edward, is totally behind the vision without understanding it, to the extent that (as a businessman) he has reduced the rent from $5,000/month (which he was getting from the previous people) to $1,750. Amazing! It turns out that he was supported through school by a Methodist missionary who wanted him to become a pastor, but Edward went ‘wrong’ and chose business over God.
Well, God seems to be on his case, and Edward is exhibiting extraordinary integrity. We have paid the rent up front for a year, with a verbal agreement to buy it before the year is up. Meantime (look at this through the lens of spiritual warfare), as soon as we express an interest to use the land for the Lord’s work, the World Bank shows up and wants the plot, then an Arab businessman, and also a top Rwandan trader. To put them off, Edward quotes them $200,000 more than the land’s value, and still they want it! How many Christian businessmen would pass up on an extra $200,000 on a deal, based purely on their word of honour from a verbal commitment, not a contract?! Wow! It’s as if Edward is observing this incredible battle going on in the heavenlies over the land, and although he is not a believer, he is getting closer and is telling us to keep praying!
So he has said we can have the land for $400,000, but we now have just ten months left to raise those funds. Meantime, PTI visionary and founder Emmanuel flies to the Ivory Coast to tender his resignation from his prestigious and secure job as head of training for Francophone African countries’ student work. It is a bombshell to the team, and there’s wailing and tears, but as if in confirmation, just as he resigns, he gets an email from me informing him that a friend of mine has just contributed $100,000, i.e. a quarter of the needed sum. Hallelujah! He kneels before the team, and amidst many tears they pray him off with their blessing.
Then I am handed 1,500,000FrBu ($1,500) through a 98-year-old lady in Ireland. You have to understand, the movement has just kicked off a couple of months ago, and is living pretty much hand to mouth. Meantime the church has already outgrown its temporary venue, and needs to meet outside the building, so research is done into buying a big tent. A contact in Dubai reports back that they are prohibitively expensive, and it all seems somewhat discouraging and hard to resolve. But Edward (still not a believer, but for whatever reason doing everything he can to help us) nails a friend of his in the tent-renting business to sell us some tents to meet in. The guy with the tents refuses, as he makes his money renting them and not selling them. But under pressure from Edward he relents and then finds out it is for Emmanuel, and it turns out they are distant relatives! The tent man is willing to part with five tents (to seat 200 people total) and gives an incredible price for them, just 300,000FrBu each, so a total of – you guessed it – 1,500,000FrBu, which is the EXACT money that has just come in from Ireland. I got goose-bumps when I heard that a few days ago. GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!
Two things I am quite sure of:
1 This venture will succeed if we stay in God’s will, listen clearly to what He is saying, and walk in close obedience to Him.
2 This venture will be hotly contested by the enemy all the way. It is no coincidence that the day PTI got interested and sought to purchase the land, immediately big hitters like the World Bank show up to muscle in on God’s turf! Furthermore, some church leaders feel threatened by the model of integrated Bible-teaching and training at PTI, which is so sorely lacking in Burundi. So there is potential for misunderstanding and discord, even though the aim of PTI is to provide a model and resource to the Church in Burundi of holistic relevant empowering training.
So please, pray on with us, so that this incredibly strategic venture will come to pass. Get involved if you can and if you want to. I LOVE this life of faith, embracing risks, taking on the impossible, and acting out our dreams for the transformation of this land and further afield. It’s so clear to me that as we bless others, we get blessed. Emmanuel’s salary with his former employers will soon come to an end, but he is stepping out in faith with his wife and three children. I’m behind him 100%.
I’ll send out an Easter prayer letter in the next few days, but just wanted to share the excitement with you, and say that as you pray with us, so you are a part of it. God bless you mightily,
Simon Guillebaud
simon@greatlakesoutreach.org |
