After visiting Burundi this year, he was truly inspired by the projects he saw, in particular those related to sport bringing the community together. So he decided he would run the famous Boston Marathon to support former Olympian, Charles Nkazamyampi’s work (FCN). As one of the GLO’s Partners, FCN brings beautiful healing to hurting communities using practical methods, such as organising sporting events, educational initiatives, and also teaching and outreach to the local communities.

While Daniel was in Burundi, he took the opportunity to join in one of FCN’s local runs with athletes from the area. He was excited to see how a simple 5 kilometre run could bridge the chasm between damaged communities, allowing people from different ethnic groups to unite in fun. It was all the motivation he needed to dedicate the Boston Marathon sponsorship to this life-changing ministry.

Daniel covered all his own expenses for the trip and stay in the USA, so every bit of the resources raised went to support his efforts, and the full donation will support the efforts in Burundi.

If you’d like to use your talents to raise money for GLO, we’d love to support you with the resources to set you up for success! It could be a sporting event, selling cakes, hosting a coffee morning, or something else entirely! Find out more here:

The post Running for GLO appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

In the past year, with just 14 staff, CEF trained more than 300 teachers from 77 churches. Through their training, teachers are learning how to share Jesus with children in a clear and engaging way. As Anastase, the country director, puts it: “We train and equip teachers so that whenever they stand up and teach about Jesus to children, they will be confident and ready.”

Vanessa knows this change personally. She has been teaching Sunday school for two years, and was filled with enthusiasm but lacked training. Her classes felt difficult, and attendance was intermittent, but after attending a two-week training, things changed. Today, she stands in front of about 50 children every Sunday with confidence. “The training was mainly focused on how to lead a child to Christ effectively,” she says, “since then, I’ve seen a tremendous change in the lives of the little ones I teach!”

Anastate is backed by a dedicated team. Bienfait started as a volunteer in 2022 and is now leading the Bujumbura branch. He continues to train teachers like Annabelle, who are in turn reaching more children. Last year, more than 2,500 children were reached. Many of them are now growing in their faith, not just hearing about Jesus but learning how to follow Him. The teachers can see the tangible outworking of their classes.

Blessed Kind, 14, joined a Christian Youth In Action workshop, during a school break one day, expecting something simple. But after a week of learning, singing, and praising God, he went out with other children and teachers to share the message with others in the streets for their Open Air, street evangelism programme, where they preach to street kids and share the Gospel.

“Preaching to young children like me during the Open Air season built a lot of confidence in me. I was truly touched by seeing children kneeling in the middle of the street to be prayed for. It was my proudest moment, and I will forever cherish it,” he says.

This is the ripple effect of faithful investment. When one teacher is trained, many children are reached, and seeds are planted in young hearts. And as these children grow, so does the hope that a generation firmly rooted in Christ will rise, walking faithfully along the path they have been shown. 

The post Train Up a Child… appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

Former Olympian Charles Nkazamyampi’s (FCN) Team reach out to a local community through sporting events. They encourage youth to commit to principles of peace and nonviolence and share a Gospel message. As they have travelled around Burundi, they have impacted a wide variety of communities with many thousands responding to the Good News.

While re-visiting a community in Kirundo back in April, they found a group of young people who had recently given their lives to Jesus through a previous outreach event, making a beautiful contribution to the village where they lived. 

Spotting elderly people in their community living in crumbling mud huts with roofs that leaked, they grabbed their machetes, climbed up on the roof and re-thatched them (with permission) so these old Batama* would have the shelter they so desperately needed. Nobody asked them, they just did it – Gospel in action! 

As the pictures show, these young people are climbing on top of fragile buildings, repairing roofs that have been destroyed by the harsh environment of the Burundi climate and rebuilding them to give the older generation a safe, secure place to rest.

The most beautiful part of this story is their motivation. Having truly discovered what Jesus has done for them, and their heart to bless others because of their newfound faith and joy. They could do no other than fully engage themselves in blessing the community around them and saying, “This is done in Jesus’ name.”

The recipients of all this hard work were so pleased with the young people’s efforts. They can truly be peaceful in their homes.

We celebrate with FCN on teaching the young people well. And we look forward to more stories of this good news being worked out in the society of Burundi as the Good News reaches more and more parts of the country.

*Batama is a Kirundi term of respect for older people. In a culture of honour, the wisdom of old age is highly valued!

The post Transformed Youth Get Stuck In appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

This conviction has prompted GLO, together with our partner Heritage TV, to translate, dub and broadcast The Chosen in Kirundi, in partnership with the nonprofit foundation, Come and See.

The Chosen: a global phenomenon

The Chosen is the first multi-season television series based on the life of Jesus, created by filmmaker Dallas Jenkins. Since its launch, it has captivated audiences around the world by drawing viewers into the lives of the disciples and the people Jesus encountered.

More than 300 million people have watched The Chosen, demonstrating that storytelling about Jesus can reach far beyond church walls. The Come and See Foundation, which supports the production, translation, and global distribution of the series, has a vision to introduce Jesus to more than a billion people in their own language.

In Burundi, the Come and See is funding GLO and Heritage TV to translate and dub the series into Kirundi. Translation by a local theologian has now been completed, and Burundian actors have begun dubbing Season One.

Who will see the show?

The vision for the project is ambitious. The Chosen will be broadcast on television later this year, while clips and full episodes will also be made freely available to GLO partner organisations and churches across Burundi to support evangelism, discipleship, and engagement with Scripture.

• Many of GLO’s partner organisations will visit rural communities and churches with generators, screens and projectors, enabling people to watch the series together as part of evangelism and discipleship initiatives.
• UGBB, which works in universities, plans to hold watch parties in student halls.
• Prison ministries such as Restoration Burundi hope to show the series within prisons
• Youth and Children’s Organisations like Scripture Union are considering using clips in schools as part of Bible studies.
• Organisations like Harvest Initiatives and UCCD may use the show in evangelistic and discipleship events.

Our hope is that The Chosen will become a freely available resource for Christian leaders across Burundi — supporting evangelism, discipleship and engagement with Scripture.

What would a dubbed version look like? Get a taster with this clip in Swahili:

A partnership for the Kingdom

This project brings together organisations with complementary strengths to serve Burundi, a nation with a rich heritage of drama, storytelling and poetry, where spoken and visual communication are often more accessible than reading.

The Come and See Foundation provides financial support and technical expertise. GLO connects the project to local churches and ministry partners, while Heritage TV brings creative talent and cultural understanding.

Please pray

• Pray for Heritage TV, the actors and the translators as they work to communicate the story of Jesus and the disciples faithfully and clearly.
• Pray that The Chosen would encourage peace and reconciliation as communities gather to watch the life of Christ together.
• Pray that hearts would be opened to Jesus as people hear his story in the language they speak and think in daily life, hearts would be opened to him.
• Pray that many people would be drawn to read the Scriptures for themselves.

If you’d like to know more about Come and See Foundation’s work, please visit comeandseefoundation.org.

The post Burundi Has Been Chosen! appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

It is a story we hear often in Burundi, with no medical options left at her disposal, Sophie made a decision: she would have to trust God completely – He was all she had!

From her bed in Kamenge, she listened to Ivyizigiro Radio every day – that means “Hope Radio”! This is a service run by World Outreach Initiatives (WOI). Through the daily encouragement of worship songs and messages of faith, her strength slowly returned. She grew in her prayer life, which in turn helped her confidence in God to grow, believing that healing really could be possible.

It took some time, but after taking various medical tests, they confirmed what Sophie already felt inside – the cancer was gone!

Today, at an amazing sixty years old, Sophie is healthy and full of life. She speaks with immense gratitude for Ivyizigiro Radio, having been by her side through this difficult journey, and calls their team ‘faithful servants of God’.

Her message to others facing suffering is simple – you can put your trust in God. Whatever the outcome, He is good.

Sophie’s resilience and faith are an inspiration, and her testimony was a huge encouragement to the World Outreach Initiatives broadcasting team as they continue to push out kingdom content over the airwaves!

The post Broadcasting Hope! appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

In Burundi, our partner UCCD is seeing stunning transformation in young lives. Through The Mailbox Club, a Bible-based correspondence programme, children and young people across the country are receiving structured, engaging lessons that many of their Sunday schools simply never had before. Teachers are being equipped, volunteers are being resourced, and children are encountering Jesus.

The results speak for themselves. Fifteen-year-old Niokwizigi stopped fighting at school. Alfonsine, aged 14, opened her Bible to Galatians 2:20 and found a verse that reordered her entire life.

Watch the video above and hear their stories in their own words. This is what your prayers and partnership make possible.

The post One Child at a Time appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

Things kept getting harder. Eventually, she had no choice but to move into an even smaller house in the slum of Buterere, on the outskirts of Bujumbura. To make ends meet, she scavenged for plastic at the dumpsite, with her baby strapped to her back,

“This is one of the most dangerous jobs to do. Sometimes we get infections from all the rubbish. There are times when there are sharp and dangerous objects we step on or grab.”

On the most difficult days, she would take her oldest son, only eight years old, to help her collect more plastic. It was not the life she wanted for him, but the need to survive left little room for choice.

Emelyne had heard about microloan groups before. She wished to join one, but she never succeeded because she had nothing to contribute.

“I could barely survive each day. Knowing that I even had to contribute 1,000 FBu (25 pence / 35 cents) would have been a stretch.”

Everything changed when she attended a small-business training program conducted by Greenland Alliance. The training focused on saving money, growing small capital, and understanding how savings and loans groups work. For the first time, the idea of joining a group did not feel impossible.

After joining the Bihunduke Self Help Group, her life began to turn around. She started small. With her savings, she bought one goat. That goat has now given birth to four more. Her vegetable business has grown. She no longer scavenges at the dumpsite.

These savings and loan groups have changed the lives of thousands of families. With an increase in capital of just 100,000 FBu, just £25 / $30 each, Emelyne’s group of ten members have been able to grow their businesses and strengthen their families.

Today, Emelyne is dreaming bigger. She hopes to reach 1,000,000 FBu, around £300. She plans to sell her goats and buy land. On that land, she hopes to build a small house for her children. 

“I thank God for the steps I have already taken. I pray to reach even further.”

The post Small Investment – Huge Impact! appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

From birth, Francis* life was plagued by adversity. As the 11th child, by the age of 5, she had already lost 6 of her siblings. Due to extreme poverty, her parents didn’t expect her to live past five.

As a young child, she loved playing with her friends and going to school, but she was forced to drop out and work as a housekeeper.

But life continued to deliver more blows. At the tender age of 15, Francis had to leave Nyanza Lac and search for work across the border in Tanzania. She thought she would be working as a nanny, but soon after arrival, her employer started sexually trafficking her. During the day, she would nanny, and at night, he would take her and force her sleep with strange men in exchange for money. 

She couldn’t bear it anymore, so she decided to run away. But that life had deeply affected her; it caused depression and a mental breakdown that led her to live on the streets of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania for 3 years.

She thought her fortunes had turned for the better when she met and married a man who seemed to be kind. Sadly, after the wedding, he and his family became physically abusive towards her.

Francis couldn’t take it anymore, so she decided to leave and return to Burundi to her parents, pregnant with twins. After giving birth, she had no choice but to rely on God to care for this new family.

Just a few months after her return, she heard about Together for Development Birashoboka (TfDB), which trains people at risk in sewing. With nothing to lose, she approached Ephraim, the leader of TfDB. “I saw so much destitution,” Ephraim shares. “At just 22 years old, Francis had lived a miserable life. I knew I had to first treat her psychological wounds.”

Francis went through trauma healing sessions with several other women before joining a sewing class. But without any income to support her twins, she found herself returning to survival sex. When Ephraim learned of her situation, he didn’t judge her. Instead, he helped her with a loan and a sewing machine.

Francis and her former classmates run a tailor shop, and she also contributes as a teacher to new students in the programme. Her work with other women at Together for Development has completely changed her life. She now earns a steady income and can support women who have had similar experiences, as well as others who have faced difficult moments.

Thanks to TfDB, Francis and her children live in a good home, after TfDB built her a decent home.

Her greatest desire is to raise her twins in a loving and stable environment, which she never had a chance to experience.

The post A Turnaround from Tragedy appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

For Mayoya, a 39-year-old mother of two, that £4 was a matter of life and death. Mayoya knows what it means to feel forgotten. After her husband left her to marry another woman, she was chased from her home with her children. With nowhere to go, she survived by working in other people’s fields, earning barely enough to buy food for the day.

Her children were often sick with malaria and high fevers. Without insurance, there was no clinic visit or medication to buy. She would sit beside them at night and pray, hoping their small bodies would recover.

Then one day, she fell sick herself. Malaria struck hard. Her leg, already injured from long hours of labour, gave way. That same week, she received a health card from Restoration Burundi.

“Receiving this card just in time saved my life,” she said. Mayoya was taken to a nearby clinic, treated properly, and today she has fully recovered. She is back on her feet. 

For Godelieve*, 70 years old, that £4 stood between her and hope.

She was not the only one, Godelieve, 70, has become weaker as her body has grown older. Malaria and the constant recurrence of tuberculosis had become part of her reality. Whenever she fell sick, she had no choice but to stay at home and wait for her strength to return, since she had no money to visit a clinic

Godelieve was thrilled to receive her very first health insurance card.

“Thank you for thinking of me,” she expressed. “I had lost all hope that I would ever get this card. Receiving this card just proved that I matter, whereas I thought I didn’t matter to anyone.”

Over the past year, through GLO’s partners, including Restoration Burundi, Greenland Alliance, and others,  more than 2,800 vulnerable people have received health insurance cards. Recently, a further 390 cards were distributed specifically to mothers, the elderly, and families who could not afford them.

The post The Card That Saved Mayoya’s Life appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

In this video, you’ll find out about Jimmy’s background and how his journey grew with GLO to where, now, he is one of the leaders who has international influence for the Kingdom.

Community Rise has an excellent Website, you can check it out through the link below:

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