Bubanza Crusade - Part 2

Long over due again.
We had three wonderful friends from Canada visit us for 10 days. Marvin and Rachael, together with Andrea were a breath of fresh air. We love you guys!!
So, part 2 of the Crusade:
The church wasn’t nearly big enough to hold everyone, so the event was held outside which proved to be problematic at times due to short but intense rains. We were under a canopy of tarps and palm branches resting on bamboo sticks. The edge of the mountain was about 20 feet from where we sat. The view was beautiful; there was a deep valley/ravine separating us from other majestic mountains - real mountains, like in B.C., not just ’wannabe’ mountains. (Mind you, all Burundi mountains are the real kind of mountains.)
People had walked/hiked from a distance of up to 15 km. from all directions. First introductions where made -  the visiting team as well as all the local pastors representing their churches.
Eddy, who is Honda’s administrator did most of the interpreting for us, and time and again he said how the various choirs were singing songs of condemnation. He said this is very common in rural churches, where worship is often not worship, but judging. The choirs can sing beautifully, and often times are very, almost painfully long winded. They always have synchronized movements throughout the entire song - often times quite funny to watch. Whether it was mixed adult or childrens’ choirs, babies were on the backs of the choir members, bobbing back and forth. The ground was saturated from the rains, and so all the dancing was on slimmy, red mud. Most are bare foot anyway, no need to worry about their expensive Lacoste or Adidas getting ruined.
 Many, many responded to the alter calls, and the angels in heaven rejoiced!!
Isaac spoke on the Holy Spirit, and I spoke about who we are in Christ Jesus according to Eph.1:3-14. In the evenings people were able to watch ‘Pilgrim’s Progress” and another Christian movie. The first evening Honda figured there were close to 1500 people, the second night there were more. They stretched out a white sheet on tall branches, thus enabling viewers on both sides.
The second night after preaching, Isaac very suddenly felt very sick. We had just entered the church to have supper, and Isaac knew he needed to get out - now!! We excused ourselves in the nick of time. After vomiting a few times he was completely well again. We fully believe this was a spiritual attack, as Isaac had previously felt a heaviness and darkness in his spirit. But praise be to Jesus - He who is in us is more powerful than he who is in the world!!!
I know I’ve written very little of the spiritual things, but really, when Jesus sets free the captives, that’s the bottom line. We were blessed beyond measure by being able to pray for, encourage and walk along side a beautiful people.
Isaac, Colton and I were all changed on that mountain.
Our dear friend Alli, the one that runs the sewing/mechanic project with ex-prostitutes and child soldiers, has a guy working for her by the name of Deo. Deo is her “right-hand-man” at the project; he’s an extremely soft spoken, gentle spirited father of six. He had malignant cancer from 2002 - 2004, with a huge visible lump on the side of his throat. He was hospitalized, and the doctors gave him just a little while to live. However, God told him that he was healed, and so Deo would tell people this, all the while having this lump on his throat. Well, Jesus completely healed him, and that was 6 years ago!!!
Deo’s wife, Divine, age 30 (Mama Queen - oldest daughter’s name is Queen), was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago; it is now all over her body. She is very sick, and in need of prayer. The way things work out here is if you have someone working for you, you are responsible for the medical bills that the employee and his family accrue. Well, needless to say, the bills are stacking up, and Alli is left almost by herself to pay for them.
Burundi does not have any kind of cancer treatment, so before Christmas Deo and Divine took a bus to Kampala, Uganda 6 times for chemo. Alli said it’s not a pleasant ride at the best of times, never mind when you’re so sick. Hospitalization in a government facility is not expensive by our standards - not even $10.00 per night, but this does not include any medicines, painkillers, tests, nothing. Also, hospitals do not feed the patients, so all food has to be brought in by family/friends. The custom here is that there are many people with the sick almost constantly, so these people also have to be fed. So for the most part, Alli is feeding 5 - 6 people daily on top of all the medical bills. We have come to know and love Deo and Divine, and have been so blessed by them.
If Jesus prompts you to help out with the bills, please email us at:    ircfroese@gmail.com
Blessings!!!

Bubanza Crusade - Part 1

The crusade - wow!!!
First and foremost, many people accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour - PTL!!!!!
We left on  Friday at 10:00 A.M. Destination - Kenenga, Bubanza province, a short 40 kilometers from where I sit; duration of travel - 4 hours. Some events/things that laboured our travels:
The last 10 km. is what took about three and a half hrs.
You cannot call what we travelled on a road by any means; at best it was a path that is used by motor bikes, which is almost the only type of traffic they see in these parts, and not many of these even. The path was sopping wet due to heavy rains; the soil is red and when it’s wet, it’s almost like a skating rink. We’re inching our way up the side of a mountain, and a number of  times, in the blink of an eye, the 4 wheel drive would slide a few feet to the side. The edge -  the steep, free fall, 100’s of feet to the bottom - that edge, is only about 2-3 feet from the tires in many places, and praise Jesus that we didn’t slide sideways in those spots……. Many times Honda’s boys had to push the vehicles for long distances. The truck hauling the African drums/ sound equipment etc. blew a tire, but as it has duals in the back we continued on our way (and back home), without changing it; one of the rental vans ran out of gas  (thank goodness that Honda packed gerry cans of gas for the generator); you’d think the driver that came with the van rental would fill up, eh!? The other van’s door all of a sudden gave out and the guys would enter and exit through the windows, which was frequent due to having to push again.
After some time the van drivers decided they weren’t going any further, but the one guy was swayed by an offer of more money. After a while though, he’d had enough and did go back after all, which meant that about 25 people now had to walk the remainder of the way.
We drove through a flooded rice field, over a few bridges that were…. African, very, very African!  Yikes!!!! We were 7 in the cab, sharing our space with our  luggage. As a vehicle hardly ever comes to these parts there were several people, well, actually ten of them that decided to take advantage of motorized power versus muscle power. They just jump on, hang on and enjoy some loud banter amongst themselves, either over the cab of the jeep or through the windows. We had 4 people on the left running board, 3 on the right side and 3 on the back bumper as we made our way up the mountain. The fact that there were 3 mzungus in the vehicle made it even more memorable for our ‘outside’ passengers. In fact, once we reached our destination Honda was told that there had never before been a mzungu in the region.
In my previous blog I stated that it was Honda, Isaac, Colton and myself going. Well, we were a team of about 35 that went; many of them were Honda’s boys that he’s rescued off the streets. They are the ones that set up and operate all the sound equipment, lead worship, and they started drumming two months ago. They’re really good already. Only about a quarter of his boys came - he’s got sixty some guys. There are 6 boys from Sabe that are in the drumming group, and they came as well. Both of the leaders of the two boys homes, Aime and John came as well, as did Honda’s administrator, Eddy, as well as two pastors - assistant and youth from Iglise Vivant. So, after an adventurous trip, we arrived at the church. The guys started setting up straight away as we were late in arriving. We were escorted to the place where we would be staying, about a km. further up the road. We stayed at a couples house - he’s a pastor/head teacher, she’s the leader of the ladies ministry, and they were probably the wealthiest people by far in the area, judging by their house. Even as such, they had almost nothing. Our bedroom was about 6 1/2 feet squared; all three of us shared this narrow little straw mat with our 2 narrow ½ inch thick camp mats on top. Honda shared a bedroom with three others, and three were in the entrance/sitting room on the dirt floor/straw mat.
To brush our teeth (amongst the banana and papaya trees), in the morning we got a cup of brown, dirty rain water that we watched them collect the night before in a wooden trough fashioned out of a hollowed out log. For our shower, we were shown to a tiny, perhaps 3 feet squared ‘room’ with the walls that were about 4 ½ feet high, mud floor that had a few pieces of broken concrete put on it. No drain, just holes at the bottom of the wall for drainage. It was connected to the outside of a neighbours’ house, and they must have been cooking because there was thick smoke pouring into the shower the one morning I was in there from the adjoining wall, as the house wall has a big gap between the wall and tin roof. The second morning I shared the shower with a chicken that came in under the piece of material that served as the door. I stopped and stared, motionless, at the chicken; after some time it stopped pecking and lost interest in the shower. The material was about 1 ½  feet from the bottom, which was risky business, seeing that you had to kneel down to access the few inches of water in a bowl.
Breakfast was a cup of weak tea and a pc. of bread.
Why do I share so much detail? To make you realize the incredible level of luxury you live in. You need to know that these people would almost give the shirt off their backs for us - literally;  they sacrificed hugely to accommodate the 10 of us. To say the least, hospitality has never been my strong point; these people, even in their poverty offered everything graciously, selflessly, lovingly.
Next time I’ll write about the crusade part, but in the meantime, may I challenge you to really think about the life you’re enjoying with all the conveniences/blessings etc.? I’m seriously not wanting you to go on a guilt trip about your  financial status compared to what these people have, but are you living the life that God purposed you to live when He put you where you are?  Are you distracted by materialism, education, career, etc.…. Only God knows why you were born where you were, and not on that mountain.  Make your life count for the kingdom of God.
And for the record, I miss the blessings/conveniences of our home in Canada. I often pray: “ Less of me Jesus, more of You.”