PRAYER LETTER NO.20.

Gilbo@cbinf.com www.su-burundi.org
BP2260, Bujumbura, Burundi, Africa Tel: 00 (257) 962411
Dear Tigers, PLEASE PRAY FOR BURUNDI! 5th December 2002

Someone once asked me: “How much do you want of God?”

What would you answer?

Their answer was: “Because nobody has less of God than they want.”

Do you think that’s right? It could also have something to do with how much I let God have of me…

An example: Last week, I was with Tearfund in Makamba, in the far South. The team had just completed a corporate three-day fast to plead with the Lord for the release of their colleague and friend Adelbert’s sister, who was kidnapped two months ago by Mai Mai rebels. He was near giving up, and presumed she was dead. But when we drove back to Bujumbura together, he phoned up straightaway and heard that she had been released on the last day of the fast! We were all blown away, and one of the team said: “When we’ve got so much power available in prayer and fasting, why don’t we use it more?” It made me think that maybe it is because we simply don’t want that much of God... How hungry am I to see Him work in my life? What price am I willing to pay? Do I really believe what I profess regarding His absolute right to my life? Or do I simply pay lip service to the lyrics of the worship songs I lustily sing in church on Sunday? Hmm…

It has been an emotional few days. My flatmate Anne’s son, Daniel, went missing in Nairobi. He had left home as usual to go to school, and seven days later he was still nowhere to be found. There was naturally a real heaviness in the house. It was horrible. Lots of prayers were offered up. And then the dreaded call… Her uncle relayed the news: “Are you ready?” … “He’s alive!” He had been taken at gunpoint, driven into the bush, stripped, tied up, and abandoned. A herd-boy wandered by with his goats, spotted him, and freed him. Daniel stumbled 200km through the forest, before his exhausted and tick-ridden body was discovered collapsed outside somebody’s house. We were laughing and hugging and singing with joy.

What I considered my most important week of the year, doing Evangelism Explosion (EE) training, was a huge success. We were equipping pastors and laypeople to go out and share their faith, as well as to be able to train others to do likewise. The enemy fought it hard, with materials going astray on the regional director’s flight here, the Satanist next door causing us trouble, one trainer never arriving after having a motorbike crash, another having to miss most of the week as a family member died, and the rebels launching their attack on Bujumbura during the morning of our last day. It was surreal to look up from my teaching and see plumes of smoke rise up in the hills above me as shells landed indiscriminately. So it lived up to its name, and the results were indeed explosive! We went out each afternoon, working alongside a local church, going door-to-door in teams. We spoke to eighty-two people in the week, of whom forty wanted to receive Christ as their Lord and Saviour. I was so thrilled to see my apprentices observe how it really worked, and gain confidence to go and launch it in their respective churches. Praise God!

One humourous and encouraging time I used the EE approach to share my faith was when I went to the bank to deposit some money. I was talking to two lady cashiers, and they asked me how it was I spoke Kirundi. I told them I was a preacher. They simultaneously said: “Right, preach to us!” “What? Now? Here?” They both said an emphatic: “Yes!” So I shared the gospel for a quarter of an hour, during which nobody disturbed us. I led them to the assurance of salvation, took their names, invited them to church with me, and we parted as friends. They were thrilled to receive our SU Bible-reading notes on my next visit, and one of them invited me to meet her family.

Burundi is making the headlines more now than it has for a long time in the West. Government and rebel groups have agreed a ceasefire, but things are critically tense. It could hit the fan at any moment, as extremists on either side do not want to make any compromises. Oxfam this week released a briefing which sounds quite alarmist, but must be taken seriously (do read it on the website – well worth it to put you in the picture. They paint a frightening scenario of what might happen in the next few months…). The poverty and suffering in the country is unimaginable. Over a million Burundians are in urgent need of food aid. I was at a therapeutic distribution centre last week and saw a few of them - wretched, smelly, desperate, and many dying.

Below is a poignant excerpt from yesterday’s ‘Independent’ newspaper:

“On a recent morning the Ndayishimiye family huddled from the seasonal rains in their tin-roof hut. The women wept softly, the men were stony-faced. An army soldier had just murdered their daughter Jeanine, a Tutsi. "He demanded to see her ID card," said Renovat, a cousin standing by a puddle stained with her blood. "She handed him the Bible and said that was her identity. He got angry and started shooting."

Very sad – but a powerful witness to what our message is as followers of Jesus. And as always, when so many are being killed around us, we are confronted with the necessity of being ready to meet our Maker. A friend of mine in hospital was woken up the other night by incessant knocking at 3am. A woman needed his help to lift her husband to the toilet. He begrudgingly crawled out of bed and lugged the man to and from the lavatory. But before going back to bed, he asked the man if he could return in the morning to tell him about Jesus. The man replied: “No, if you want to tell me about Jesus, tell me right now, because I might be dead by the morning.” My friend spoke of the love and mercy of God, and the lady watched her husband pray to receive Christ. In the morning he was dead. But at least he was ready. Last Sunday I preached on the Congolese border. The last time I was there, my sermon turned out to be disturbingly prophetic, as I asked them if they were ready to die. Two days later, rebels came through and killed a number of them. Were they ready? The message is indeed urgent – for all of us, wherever we are.

So in the obscenely commercialised build-up to Christmas, I pray that each one of us may not lose sight of what we are meant to be celebrating. What is your Christmas gift? What is your Christmas wish? Mine is more of God. What a present! What a privilege! How much do you want of God? Because nobody has less of God than they want…

Thanx for your prayers, wishing you a MERRY CHRISTMAS,

Gilbo