“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
Dear Team, 28th May 2007
It’s so very easy to take our eyes off the goal. So many things compete for our attention. We’re bombarded with apparently urgent tasks which need doing. For me in Burundi I’ve found myself almost overwhelmed recently with the number of ‘plates’ I seem to be juggling, concerned that one or more will come crashing to pieces when my guard is down. Well, the good news is that they are all still in the air at the moment, and I don’t doubt it’s because of the likes of you providing us with firepower from around the world.
This last weekend’s outreach got my eyes firmly back on the goal. In general, these trips are the times when I come most alive. I drove our SU team on terrible roads into the bush with a number of volunteers and dropped each one off at a different school with sixty Bibles. The subsidized price for a Bible is just over $4, but that is still far too much for most people (hard to believe, maybe). The system we introduced was that any member of the Christian Union could have a Bible, and they could pay by installments for however long it took. Then the money collected would be used to buy more Bibles, so that each school had a constant supply, and nobody could have the excuse of not having one. There were whoops of delight wherever we went, and many students were touched by the Lord.
At one school, they described what they were going through as ‘living in the times of the Spirit’. There were 230 students in their CU, and they had a choir of 40 new converts from this academic year alone. The pastors said that their biggest problem in these times of revival was following up so many students.
I was with my SU colleague, Leonidas, who as a Hutu had to flee from university back in 1996. Students from the other tribe had thrown a grenade into his room as he was praying, and he narrowly escaped with his life, needing several operations to remove shrapnel from his eye. He has no bitterness towards them, and often includes the incident as part of his testimony of grace. He was forced to go and live in the bush, and used to walk 18 miles each day to teach at a distant school. The believers met each week on his only day off, so even then he walked all that way, through mud, rain, sunshine, whatever; and all these years on, the fruit is obvious as the whole area seems to be experiencing extraordinary times. God is faithful. Leonidas’ eyes - damaged but still shining - are on the goal: to change the nation through the powerful message of the risen Christ.
So after visits to six separate schools on the Saturday, it was twenty schools together on Sunday. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced another Pentecost Sunday in my life where the people assembled have so clearly undergone their own Pentecost! There were nearly a thousand of us packed into the school refectory. The singing was deafening.
A deacon called Agnes was worshipping away a few yards from me. When she was 15-years-old, she suddenly went blind, dumb and curled up into a ball, totally paralysed. For the next 6 years she only moved if her family picked her up and changed her position. She barely ate a thing. Then some young people came and prayed for her, and her sight returned. They persevered in prayer and fasting, and her arms began to move. Finally her paralysis left her completely, but she was still unable to speak. Surely God would grant her full healing… She joined the church choir as an unsung member(!), and months later after an evangelistic outing, her mouth opened suddenly and she screamed ‘Jesus!’. She will soon be ordained pastor. Her testimony has been heard on the radio and has impacted many lives.
You see, God’s Spirit is doing great things in Burundi. The obstacles are huge, the challenges are constant, but He is faithful. Thanks for your prayers for us, and I pray in return that He be powerfully at work in your life as you surrender to Him.
So if obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal, I guess you and I need to ask ourselves:
and, irrespective of any obstacles,
- Who or what are my eyes focused on?
Hebrews 12v2: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy (goal) set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of throne of God. Consider him…”
Here’s to changing the world,
as wide-eyed passionate disciples
sacrificing everything for the cause
with a clear sight on goal!
Simon Guillebaud
