| | | "Why did you go? Don't you know white people can get killed there?" A Kenyan asked Don this question after we had returned from eight days in Burundi. We knew the facts. We knew the US government warned American citizens not to go; they've just allowed US Embassy workers to return, although without their children who are less than 18 years old. We knew that if an American must go, they warn him/her not to leave the capital city, Bujumbura. There are still rebels hiding in the mountains. The peace has been tentative and short-lived. But do you know that kind of peace that passes all understanding? When the "facts" say one thing and the Spirit of the Living God says something else? God's presence was so comforting and so mighty, we knew He wanted us to go. There was no doubt. |  Baptisms in Lake Tanganyika
Ten members of GOA Bujumbura church had completed two months of training about the basics of Christianity and now we were blessed to witness their baptisms. You should have seen their big smiles when they came up from the water - full of joy! |  Business EthicsDon taught one session on Christian ethics in business. He taught about what honesty and integrity mean when one applies Christ's teaching. The world's definition of honesty and integrity in business can be quite different. Yes, one needs to make a profit, however, in everything one must not sully the name of Jesus or hinder the spread of the Gospel in any way. For example, if you are charging hidden costs, or in any shape or manner cheating a customer, how can that do anything but hinder the cause of Christ?! That might be ok in today's culture or the world's standard, but now we must live by a different standard - Christ's. We have found too that some Christians rationalize not being full of integrity in business as long as they continue to support the Gospel, plant churches, or help the hopeless. But no matter how much good you do, it does not cancel out the bad. Good and bad are not measured on the same scale so that if you do enough good, you can outweigh the bad, or somehow God won't be able to see the bad if there is a lot of good. No, they are measured on completely different scales. His next session was explaining all the rules regarding the micro-finance loan application and paying back. Some of the rules are that one must be a member of GOA for more than 6 months, must be a faithful tither, and not have any other outstanding loans nor take any loans for the duration of paying back a GOA loan. And Don always explains very clearly that one must never become a member of GOA in order to get a loan, because loans have never saved a soul-only Christ Himself provides salvation. If you're interested in seeing the application and the rules, send a request to don@dickersonmissions.com. | Micro-Finance Loan Applications Pastor Felicien Juma (Overseer of GOA outside of Kenya) and Pastor Dieu Donne (Pastor of GOA Bujumbura) did an excellent job in screening applicants and checking the applications against church records. Don has found that if someone marks that they are a faithful tither, sometimes the pastor doesn't actually look at the records to see if that is true. (The micro-finance board has found that if someone is not a faithful tither, the chances of that person paying back the loan is very small. Thus there is no money for another generation of loans.) However, Juma and Dieu Donne did not take any short-cuts and as a result, the micro-finance program has a great chance for success in Burundi. Don spent another two sessions actually going through the application step by step and answering questions. Pastor Andrew, who studied in South Africa and knows English well, helped the applicants translate their Kirundi or French answers into English. We appreciate him so much. He spent over ten hours volunteering his time! | | Living a Prayerful Life  My first session was about living a prayerful life. We all know we're supposed to do it, yet somehow, before we know it, we've forgotten or only said a perfunctory prayer. Sometimes without even realizing, Christians substitute church work or ministry for prayer, and somehow as long as we are doing something for the church, not even our guilty conscience can reach us. I think that's exactly what the enemy wants; he knows the great power of prayer so he distracts and keeps us away from it. So I went through some steps of how to pray through the power of the Holy Spirit and not using the flesh to obtain that power. If we use the flesh to pray, we cannot last for weeks, months, and years in truthful, vulnerable prayer. Our flesh is completely opposed to the things of the Spirit and will always be in battle, until Christ comes or we go home. However, the Spirit is stronger than the flesh, thank the Lord! | | Revival Is Coming! Now, I'm very careful about using this word "revival". It has been misused over the generations, attributing revival to excessive emotionalism, the preacher shouting loud enough, or sometimes even tent meetings or special evening services. Revival is when the presence of God Himself comes down and in His presence, you are so overwhelmed by your sinfulness and inadequacy and completely awed by His perfection, majesty, and holiness. Revival produces lasting change. You no longer care what others think; you only want to please your God. And you make greater sacrifices in time, money, and your life in order to share this glorious God with other people. Even those unsaved recognize something different is going on! This kind of revival is coming to Burundi, and God told me to tell them to prepare themselves; prepare themselves through serious prayer, alone and with the church. Also, throughout history, revival seems to come when women are involved in leadership and their insight is valued. So I taught them on how to prepare themselves and the church for revival. Three pastors came to me after the service saying that others have also come and told them that revival is coming is coming to Burundi. May it come to pass, and may the Burundi people do their part so that the world may know Christ! | Church Planting Dreams - Kardona, Ngozi Province, and Kirundo Province  Pastor Juma's and the Board members dream of planting a church in each of the corners of Burundi and one in the center. We traveled with Pastor Juma to Karonda, about three hours outside of the capital city, to visit his family members and to check two potential plots for a GOA church. This is a difficult area. With the first plot, I felt in my spirit that it was definitely not the one. We walked and prayed over the second plot and felt so strongly the great battle that will take place to stop an evangelistic church here. There is much traditional religion and the two Christian churches there are almost empty as they simply wait for others to come to them. They don't seem to be any threat to the enemy. Juma's church would be a serious threat. We decided not to join Pastor Juma and Evangelist Jean Claude to the northern part of Burundi (Ngozi and Kirundo Provinces) to investigate two other church sites. Don felt through the Holy Spirit that it would not be safe for us to go at this time. So I spent an amazing day (five hours!) praying for Juma, Jean Claude, and the rest of the church members. (In fact, I think I will plan an intercessory prayer day in the middle of other mission trips. It proved very helpful!) They returned the next day jubilant, yet tired. They began speaking to people on the street about Christ and the hope that comes only through Him. People followed them everywhere, continuing to ask questions about who is this Jesus and why are they leaving so soon! They wanted to hear more! These northern areas are also still reeling from the destruction of war and, more recently, a great drought. Homes are in rubble, streets bombed out, and people are starving, physically and spiritually. | | Pastor Juma is a sound leader. I like that he wants the "mother" church in Bujumbura to be strong enough to be able to support other church plants in their initial stages. (Even the United Methodist Church does that - gives some small financial support to a new church plant for the first year or so.) Currently, the Bujumbura church cannot afford any support to Pastor Juma or to Pastor Dieu Donne. We're hoping that through micro-finance loans, whether within or outside of the GOA program, people will be able to feed their families and be able to give larger tithes. With larger tithes, the congregation can support its pastors and be able to plant new churches with fewer financial struggles. Currently, the annual average salary in Burundi is $100. The poverty line, at least in Kenya, is about $200 per year. I want you to know the heart of these people. Pastor Juma wanted to begin giving Pastor Dieu Donne a small portion of the tithe, and taking none for himself. Dieu Donne gently refused, citing others in the congregation are poorer than him. (Dieu Donne's wife is a teacher so she gets a very small, but steady income.) He could have stated like Paul that he is entitled to payment for all the work he does, however, also like Paul, he doesn't want to do anything that may cause people to think he's getting rich from their poverty or hindering the Gospel. He decided at this time, not to receive any payment so that the ones worse off than him would have something to eat. May the Lord bless him and Juma for their sacrificial love. | Returning to Home After War  After fleeing the country in separate directions in 2001 and finally meeting again in Kenya, Pastor Juma, his wife Dina (DEE-na), and their five children will be returning to Burundi on November 27, 2007. Juma worried whether Dina would want to return. Their home and everything in it was burned twice, she had to deliver her own child alone in the forest while running for her life, and she thought her husband was dead for over a year. Juma also shared in the trauma of war. When he ran home from church, he found his home completely burned. He thought his entire family had been killed. His friends were lost, one of his brothers was kidnapped by rebels, and Juma went to Nairobi to search for his other brother. This is a much, much longer story, but God eventually got them back together in Kenya in 2002. They've been here while Juma finishes schooling in theology and biblical studies. Please pray for their adjustment. Yes, it is their home, but they have also experienced so much trauma in Burundi, their return may bring up some old wounds. Also, their children have been going to school in Kenya, which is taught in English. School in Burundi is in French. There is an English school in Bujumbura, however it's expensive for a pastor. Please pray for their children! | | Conclusions  Everyone we spoke to had a horrific war story; children killed, young men forced into the front lines of the rebel soldiers, young girls raped, and mothers and fathers killed. War has been off and on since the 1960s. Don and Dieu Donne were the only men I saw that were around 50 years old. Dieu Donne said the others had died from war and from AIDS. But now there is a rising hope. Their president is born-again and a preacher. He stills does evangelistic crusades! (No problems of separating church and state.) The banks are open (although the government closed one while we were there to investigate corruption). Brussels Airlines announced their return to Burundi. (Last time they were in Burundi, their planes were shot at by rebels.) And not one person asked us for money. That is huge. (Everywhere we go, there is someone pulling us aside to ask for money. And many times, they have very legitimate needs!) But here, no one asked. They have a confidence about God's provision like I've never seen. They are so poor, but they are so wealthy. They have such a confidence that their provision does not come from me or Don or other visitors, but only from God. People fail. People sin. But they know God and they know He is faithful. They have been through a fire that the rest of us only can read about. And they have been refined. Maybe that's why God has chosen them for revival. | | On Saturday, May 5, 2007, in the midst of a thunderstorm, the midnight flight of Kenya Airways KQ 507 took off from Douala, Cameroon bound for Nairobi, Kenya. The normally six-hour flight ended 30 seconds after takeoff for as yet undetermined cause(s), with the plane crashing in a mangrove swamp about 3 miles from the end of the runway. All 100+ passengers and crew lost their lives, including the friend of a fellow Kenya Airways pilot whose child attends Zack and Drew`s school of West Nairobi. Kenya President Mwai Kibake has established Monday, May 14 as a national day of prayer for the families of the survivors. Please pray for the families along with us. Certainly this is another reminder that our lives are but vapors yet still considered most precious in God`s sight; so we all press on in an effort to glorify Him in everything that we do. God bless each of you richly this day and year. | | In Christ we stand,
Don and Laura Dickerson
www.DickersonMissions.com | | | | | | We've set up our web album at Google! Now you can download any pics, print, or just browse. | |
