More From The Heart of Africa

On Saturday, I met with Pastor Edmond Kivuye. He leads one of the largest churches in the nation with a Sunday morning attendance of 8,000. Many key government leaders attend the church. As we visited, we were both pleased to discover that we had several common friends and acquaintances, including Langton Gatsi, the Zimbabwean national leader that we had just been with. Listening to this charismatic and engaging man, I was struck by his authority and confidence in what God had given him to do. He has a great vision to see the Kingdom come to Africa. Already they have planted a number of churches beyond the borders of Burundi--the D R of Congo, Rwanda, and Senegal. He spoke knowledgeably about the political and spiritual challenges and opportunities in those nations. I was struck by his conviction that meaningful progress is always possible, no matter what the circumstances.

On Sunday morning, I attended his church, where I was asked to preach. During the worship, as thousands of voices sang out their praises, it was impossible not to be aware of the very powerful presence of God’s Spirit. It was as though His presence hovered over the entire place, then would touch down upon pockets of people around the building. In this strong presence, before I preached I had people with a particular physical ailment stand up. Many stood all aroud the huge space where we were assembled. Healing was almost instantaneous all over the room. It had little or nothing to do with the power of my prayer; it seemed like in that atmosphere it would be impossible NOT to be healed.

That afternoon, I met Everest. He is a gifted administrator who works with ARM. But he also has a passion to see village transformation among the villages in the hills of Burundi. For the past two years, Everest has been working with a group of Pigmys, teaching them principles of farming and small business. Beginning with one Fresian cow (which he had importated for Tanzania), he slowly but steadily convinced them to raise these dairy cows that produce 10 liters of milk a day, then develop this into a small business. Everest described the challenges of the past two years--cows dying, some villagers rejecting what he was trying to do with them--but with great pleasure, he told me “This village has been completely transformed.” Every family now enjoys a greatly improved standard of living. He has also taught them farming principles like crop rotation, proper spacing etc. The results have been excellent. This is Everest’s passion, to see whole communities transformed. Obviously, many of us at Impact Nations share a similar passion.

One of the purposes of this African odyssey is to determine where we can help to develop transformational projects. I have written of several possibilities in previous reports. Here is what we are considering for partnership with ARM in Burundi:

We will conduct a Journey of Compassion in November 2010.
Building simple houses with metal roofs for the Pigmy people so that the rains won’t wash them away
Dr. Eulogy’s lab needs an incubator. The old one has stopped working and cannot be repaired. This will be used to test more that 50 patients a week for conditions like malaria, TB, HIV and other infections. Without this, proper diagnosis is very difficult.
We will recruit volunteer dentists to come for 1-2 weeks to Burundi. All of the equipment is waiting to be used. This will be in both the city and up in the hills.

Once again, I have been impacted by the courage, determination and thankfulness toward the Lord. Though one of the poorest nations on the planet, the people are incredibly rich in faith and joy. I look forward to the privilege of partnering with them, and the pleasure of coming back to Burundi again.