Sobriety and Shelling in Burundi
Dear Team, 18th April 2008
Last night was the biggest attack on the capital for several years. Earlier in the day policemen were stationed on every street corner and rumours were flying around. Then at about 845pm gunfire and shelling kicked off in a big way as the FNL rebels embarked on an audacious/futile attack on various military installations about town. We had fourteen people in our lounge for home-group at the time. It is a surreal thing to listen to the big thuds of shells landing, the occasional whoosh of a rocket hurtling through the air, and the rattling of machine gunfire whilst knowing that it is all real, that people are dying - maybe friends - certainly plenty of innocents caught in the crossfire.
This morning I rang various people to check they were OK. American friends across town had a gun battle going on right next to them on the street. They shifted their 3-year-old and newborn into the corridor on the floor and the kids managed to sleep through the incredibly loud noises. Ours slept through as well, but it was all a bit further away from our part of town. Shadrach, who works for us, came to work and asked to be excused. Two of his children were missing, as they’d fled during the night and got separated. He’s looking for them right now.
Keep praying for Burundi, for the many Shadrachs, for lasting peace. People expect there to be more attacks over the next few days. An aircraft flew overhead this morning to do some ‘mopping up’ a few miles south of us. Hopefully this violent episode is just a blip, but the truth is that the economy is trashed, inflation is soaring, there have been fuel shortages and a recent substantial price hike, regular people struggle to afford to even eat, and with the alarming rate of population growth there simply isn’t enough land to for everyone. Through human eyes, the outlook is bleak.
The death toll will be given in due course. However many it is, last night’s attack highlights to me the urgency of our situation and our need to get people ready to meet their Maker – wherever we are. Maybe bombs aren’t raining down where you are, but I suspect many of us need a good kick up the backside in terms of complacency and priorities. I know I do, and often! It’s so easy to get distracted and caught up in things of little eternal significance. The battle is raging, but are we even engaging?
As Piper says, “Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for… But what have millions of Christians done? We have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance. No strategic planning. Just easy peace and prosperity. And what did we do with the [prayer] walkie-talkie? We tried to rig it up as an intercom in our houses - not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask for more comforts in the den.”
Another manifestation of the battle for Burundi struck me again a few days ago when I was preaching in one of the areas hardest hit last night, just a couple of miles away. As I preached, the local Muslim evangelism team set up their loudspeakers and gathered a crowd. They held up the Bible and blasted full volume all sorts of half-truths and distortions, which are very effective and compelling to most nominal Christians without rigorous Biblical foundations. They gave the microphone to a totally untrained representative of the Christian faith and trashed him before the crowd.
They have four such teams in the capital, and each one goes out into the streets every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with great success; and as our work with Muslims who have converted to Christ shows, Islam is almost a one-way-door. Those leaving Islam invariably get kicked out of their families and rendered destitute. Talk of a religious war is premature, but only because as yet they remain a very small percentage of the population. We support four evangelists who try to get along to those meetings, and they face very real danger as they stand up for the truth claims of Christ (one of the team was murdered last year). Do pray for those guys, for the ministry which is seriously lacking in financial backing to achieve what they want to do, and for the overall situation – that the sleeping giant which is the Church would wake up and address the challenge of Islam in unity and love.
I could say more, but that’ll do. What we are involved in through GLO is having a massive impact, and despite current developments I am hugely encouraged on a ministry level. God has opened up unbelievable doors, and I just hope we can keep up with Him in terms of the challenges He is laying before us (more info on request if you don’t get the more regular ‘warriors’ missives). On a family level things are also going strong. We thank God, recognizing it’s all due to His grace.
My colleagues are aiming to be back in their houses by 3pm in case things flare up again. Thankyou for praying. I’ll put something on the website in the next few days for those who want to keep abreast of events.
So as the battle goes on in each of our different contexts, I’m challenged to consider that if my life is a lesson to others, what am I teaching them about how seriously I take my faith in God, how passionately I care about the fate of people around me, and how sacrificially I am willing to follow Jesus? It’s a sobering thought…
Simon Guillebaud
Great Lakes Outreach
www.greatlakesoutreach.org
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