Burundi Mission Alliance (BMA) is a mission organisation with a vision to see the body of Christ in Burundi acting in unity to take the message of the Gospel to the unreached in Burundi and to the rest of the world.
During the days of the repeated civil wars in Burundi, the division and ethnic conflict extended to the churches, many of whom had lost their commitment to unity. Instead of collaboration, there was undermining and competition. Then in 2017, Christian leaders from different denominations and organisations came together for the first-ever Burundi Mission Congress, a conference to celebrate the introduction of the Gospel to Burundi, and to reflect on how the Church in Burundi could move from being a “mission field of overseas churches” to being a “mission base”. At that conference, missionaries to Burundi prophetically handed over the responsibility to indigenous leaders. Burundi Mission Alliance was born as a direct result of that first conference.
Today, BMA gathers believers from multiple Burundian churches and denominations, as well as other Christian organisations, who work together in evangelism, overcoming the historical barriers that previously brought division and actively addressing the challenges related to the Mission that God has entrusted to his Church.
Onesphore Manirakiza, one of the leaders involved from the very beginning writes, “It had been always my dream to see church leaders from different churches in Burundi sit around the table discussing local and global mission. I held this dream from 1997 when God called me to be a part of such a movement which seemed so inconceivable at the time.
It is with tears of joy that I am writing these sentences.
Many of us who had been waiting for this time were convinced that the Lord was bringing to a close a dark chapter in the history of the church in Burundi and opening a new chapter of hope, unity and partnership in local and global mission. I am so grateful to the Lord, who has orchestrated all these things. I honour my dear friend and colleague Simon [Guillebaud] for having laid down his life as a worker for the renewal of the Burundian Church. May the Lord bless all the people who responded to Simon’s call for help from his first step in Burundi until now. God used them to fuel this vision and catalyze the transformation in Burundi. What was a dream twenty years ago is now a vision and has many leaders to accomplish it. Praise the Lord!”
