Today the people of Burundi celebrate their national independence with a morning parade which means we were delayed in traveling to our mission point sites after which I was able to return to Tiriri, the refugee village where I met on Sunday afternoon following the worship at New Vision Church with Pastor Domitian.
Each morning three teams climb into the van to be dropped
off at their sites that were suppose to be within 45 minutes from the hotel.
However, it seems that each day I find myself sitting shotgun for at least
twice that long until finally arriving at my destination. It’s not a problem
really since I’m getting use to this African pace of life.
Upon drop off, I walk to the new church site with my trusted translator, John Claude, where I’m greeted by about 10 faithful congregants eager to join God’s work of evangelism in this area. We meet together for prayer, re-training on use of the evange-cube, and a couple of songs. I made the mistake of mentioning to someone that I’ve learned a simple song in Kiri-rwandan, “Imana ni ziza.” I say it was a mistake to mention this because now we sing it ALL the time. I guess they think it’s my favorite song, but it’s just the only one I know the words to.
Imana ni ziza, allelulia God is good, alleluia
Imana ni ziza, allelulia God is good, alleluia
Imana ni ziza, ni nziza cane. God is good, He is so very good.
We walk out of the church in teams of three and begin walking the dirt roads prepared to share the gospel with whomever God puts in front of us. And it’s not long until I find myself surrounded with a handful of locals so we pause, ask their permission to share the story of God’s love with them, and proceed with the message as the group quickly grows from a few to few dozen. They listen, laugh with me or at me, I’m not sure which, and ultimately bow their heads as John Claude leads them through the sinner’s prayer to receive God’s forgiveness and eternal life.
It’s an amazing, unexplainable scene that gets repeated over and over again throughout the day. By the time I return to the church in the afternoon, over 135 people in this village of outcasts and displaced people have discovered a new kind of acceptance through God’s grace.
That’s not to say the day was easy. The goal is to train the
people who walk with me how to share their faith using the evange-cube so after
a few stops and letting them watch and learn, I began challenging each one to
attempt to share. As you might expect, they were nervous and cautious, but they
did it. The problem came as we kept finding ourselves witnessing to Muslims, as
you might know, are very resistant to believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God and the only way to having a personal relationship with God. My new
Christian friends in Tiriri were being thrown into the fire of opposition and
hostility, but they stood their ground as they tried to answer the questions
that the Muslims raised, but ultimately they would not accept the real Answer,
Jesus.
As we walked away from these “failed” witnessing attempts, I found myself quickly coming alongside the one who shared exhorting him or her not to become discouraged since God is in charge of drawing people to Himself and we are simply called to be obedient and faithful in sharing the message.
Any discouragement was short lived because soon we were surrounded by a new group of eager listeners who would open their hearts to the good news.
We returned to the church site at 2:45pm where a large crowd began to form for worship and discipleship. David, Marina and the van came to pick me up at 3:30pm, but I wasn’t told. Instead, the church leaders went out and told them to go away and come back later because worship was just getting started. Just getting started?! I was tired and very ready to go! Oh well, after standing and singing for another hour and being asked to share/teach/preach two different times, they had finally had their fill of Pastor Randy and allowed me to depart in peace.
After a plate of grilled Sangara (fish) and rice and a fruito (juice), I fell onto my bed for a blessed night’s sleep.
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