PRAYER LETTER NO.35.
www.greatlakesoutreach.org
Dear tigers, 16th March 2005
Hope all is well your ends. Two quotes have struck me recently, one by a Muslim, the other by a Hindu:
Ayatollah Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah in Lebanon, said to Brother Andrew: "You Christians have a problem." The latter enquired: "What do you think our problem is?"
Fadlallah
replied: "You are not following the life of Jesus Christ anymore."
Andrew
asked again: "So what do you think we should do about that?" "You must go back to the Book."
Referring to the Bible, Mahatma Gandhi said to a group of
missionaries: "You
Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilisation to pieces, turn the world upside down and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature."
Well, God help us truly to follow the life of Jesus Christ, to get back to the Book, to take hold of this spiritual dynamite and be taken hold of it such that we do turn the world upside down and bring peace to our battle-torn planet!
A girl on our Scripture Union youth camp was on her way to blow up her Mum, Dad and sisters' killers with a grenade. She was touched by the Lord, brought out the grenade, confessed and repented in Jesus' name. That's the power of the gospel! Last week a lad tracked us down at SU to say that after our last camp, when people prayed for his Mum, whose hand had been withered for many years, he returned home to find her healed - he had searched for SU for ages to share this great news. Wherever we go, we constantly hear from people telling us that they gave their lives to the Lord during our last visit, or at a meeting in some other part of the country. It is thrilling just to be a part of God's work out here.
More encouragements met me on my return from the States, as two of the
groups we had been working closely with who were having a torrid time (one involving outreach to Muslims, the other working with students) have experienced amazing breakthroughs and reconciliation, which humanly-speaking did not seem possible. So I am absolutely thrilled to see them working in unity and being used to touch many lives.
Briefly on my visit to the USA: I made my second visit to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. After seven weeks sick in bed in Burundi and then in the UK, having done all the tests possible but nothing showing up as being wrong with me, the Lord healed me just in time to go and preach over thirty times during a manic few weeks. Lizzie joined me for part of it, and we shared at all sorts of meetings. It was hectic but great fun. We experienced incredible hospitality and friendliness, and got to meet a whole bunch of wonderful people. Hopefully many lives were impacted and challenged by
stories of God at work in Burundi, some key contacts were made, and we trust more invaluable prayer and financial support will come in as a result.
Everyone knows about Rwanda and humanitarian aid has flooded in there, but Burundi seems to be largely forgotten still. Well, forgotten by the international community maybe, but not by God!
Returning from beautiful and opulent Mount Pleasant back to the extreme poverty of Burundi, I struggled yet again to reconcile the fact that we are living on the same planet. How can we believers in the West justify the lavish excesses of our lifestyles when our brothers and sisters can't even afford essential medicine or food? I do not ask that to give anyone a guilt trip - it is something that genuinely fries my brain. In terms of numbers of children dying of preventable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, there is the equivalent of one tsunami EVERY WEEK. The world is so unfair. I guess ignorance is bliss, because then we don't have to address the issue.
One of
the most powerful lines from the Oscar-nominated film 'Hotel Rwanda'
was
when the US journalist had managed to get some live footage of people hacking others to death. The Rwandan hotel manager said something
like:
"Great! You must show it to the world and then they will come and stop this mass murder." But the journalist replied: "The truth is, people will probably say 'O my God' and then carry on eating their supper." And so
upwards of 800,000 were systemically hacked to death, whilst we (myself
included) carried on eating our supper.
That is why I thank God for each one of you - because you are choosing not to be ignorant, not to change channel to some mindless reality show, but rather to intercede for our suffering brothers and sisters out here in
Burundi (or in Congo, or Sudan, or China, or North Korea, etc).
I have just returned from preaching at a school half an hour's drive away, situated in what is currently the only province where the rebels are still active. The kids were so grateful to us for coming and risking our lives to be with them (not that it is half as dangerous at the moment as in previous years). We heard stories of what goes on regularly in the area. The grimy ring-wormed faces exhibited massive cheesy grins, and they sang with gusto.
When we announced that we had brought eighty New Testaments for them, they whooped with delight. Together we praised the Lord in an open shed with sprayed bullet marks. The kids were smelly and filthy, plenty of them sick and hungry. Things seemed grim, but there was also great joy.
On the political scene, praise God the referendum took place peacefully two weeks ago, so elections are due in the next few months. The last elections in 1993 precipitated the genocide of c.200,000 people in a few bloody months, so you can appreciate how big a deal these elections are. And the Church has a huge role to play, so unity is badly needed.
On a personal note, please pray on for good health for both Lizzie and I.
Safety too, as crime is spiralling - I was ambushed in town by five streetkids yesterday. They tried to rip off the hubcap, get into the car with me and steal what was on the back seat, which was a bit traumatic. I have just bought a motorbike, and the roads are treacherous, so I need to be extra vigilant, and value your covering in all our travels.
Lizzie is doing brilliantly, cracking on with learning two new languages, as well as preparing for a house move, which should be any day now.
Everyone
says how well she has fitted in and how blessed I am to have landed her! Don't I know it?!
That'll do for now. So I take Fadlallah's and Gandhi's rebukes on the chin, and vow to live passionately and wholeheartedly, surrendering everything for Christ's sake. After all, how far is too far when he went so far?
In Him,
Simon Guillebaud
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