Burundi Happenings

People and places

2011-09-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hello again. I want to tell you something very cool. Colton was at the CRIB house and Isaac and I had gone to get some household things at the Chinese shop. From what we gather from our friends here, if it's available, it's most likely to be found here. The quality of most of the items is equivalent to what you would get at a dollar store. So we were picking out these mugs, 6 to a pack. The package was very dusty and greasy, with even the mugs inside the package being dirty. The store by Canadian standards is not a place you would go shopping.
Normally the cook would wash our dishes, (we've been told that if we do them, that means that he doesn't do a good enough job.) but he wasn't around when Isaac and I got home. As I'm washing the mugs, all of a sudden I get a flashback of a dream that I had years ago. And guess what!? It's the Chinese store!!! I knew instantly that's what it was. It was very vivid. My guess is that I had that dream about 5 yrs. ago, and never would have remembered it had it not been from the Lord. It's confirmation that God has us right where He wants us! That's the best place in all the world to be. Man that's exciting to us!!
Continuation of our first days here before we had internet:
Day 3: We met Deo, Rosa's husband today. Deo & Rosa and Everiste & Anick each, with their families, live in a house that is located on the CRIB compound. Rosa is just over 8 months pregnant. She's super nice.
On Friday morning Maryanne picked us up and we went to Club du lac, which is a resort. It's right on the beach and it's beautiful. Colton, Boss David, who is Pastor Ray and Maryanne Bale's 5 yr. old son and Doo-Doo, who is an 18 yr.old boy that the Bale's have taken under their wings spent hours swimming in the beautiful pool while Maryanne, Isaac and myself sat under a tiki hut having Burundian coffee. Pastor Ray was still in the Congo, officially opening an other

Sabe Village - part two

2011-09-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Pastor Ray, Maryanne and Boss boarded a plane here in Bujumbura about 2 hours ago. They’re flying to Ottawa, where Pastor Ray’s parents lived. His mom passed away in June of this year, and on Sunday he received a call saying his dad had been found dead that morning in an armchair, presumably having suffered a heart attack. Please pray for them.
There’s no school again today, due to the fact that Burundi is commemorating the death of another past president. We really don’t mind though, a little R&R is very welcome.
We took the opportunity to go to Sabe village again with Honda and Libby. I will try to post pictures today; there are some other “mzungu’s” in some of the pictures, namely Andrew and Christine from England; he teaches at secondary, she teaches at primary; there’s Luke and Caleb, 2 guys from Niagara, Ontario who graduated from high school in June and are both at primary as well. The well dressed Africans in the pictures are some of Honda and Libby’s 60 plus boys that they’ve rescued off the streets of Bujumbura and have been transformed by Jesus Christ. There’s also sweet Donah, who’s from Uganda; she teaches at secondary. The kids wearing the soccer jerseys are the poorest of the poor, sporting the brand new jerseys that were donated by the head of a soccer club in England. This guy, a non-Christian, is coming out in April.
We went into the village today. No World Vision program could prepare you for what we witnessed today. Last week when we were there, we stayed at the edge of the village, and I stood there with tears rolling down my face. Today we went in, and there were no tears; tears may come once the shock has worn off.
The sewage system (holding tank) is only effective if it is utilized. Using the street is much faster and more convenient. The stench made Isaac’s stomach sick. The houses I wrote about last week, saying they’re the size of a small bedroom were the ones on the edge of the village. Today we saw many homes where I don’t know if a grown man could stretch out in; children with seemingly perpetually runny noses wearing short rags on the top part of their bodies with nothing at all on the bottom part. We saw the men sitting in the shade whiling the day away, leisurely sipping on their yellow banana hooch, gradually, wilfully blinding themselves.
We saw their tiny “market” consisting of perhaps 5 makeshift tables with the wares, mostly questionable to bad quality vegetables and fly covered little fish displayed. These are awful images. But the ones that get to you are the ones that are etched on the inside of your eye lids; when you close your eyes you see the big, empty, staring at nothing eyes of some of the children. Where is the happiness of childhood in these eyes; the curiosity of an ever inquisitive mind, the occasional glint of mischievous behaviour? Where is the hope in these big, black eyes?
Enter ‘Restoration Of Hope’. The Lord has given Honda a massive vision for this place. Believe me, apart from the Lord, one would think, ‘where do you start’, but we serve a God of all possibilities!! And when the Lord calls He makes a way.
The village is about the size of a residential block or smaller, housing about 400 dwellings. Like I said previously, it’s home to 1700 people. ‘Restoration of Hope’ is renting a large shed that is situated about 30 seconds from the entrance of the village. A congregation from England is paying for the rental of this property; a one time gift from an English lady paid for the water installation. Honda has plumbed in fresh, safe drinking water to this location in the last while. There are 6 taps where people come with their little jugs twice a day to get water. There is no electricity. Both times that we’ve gone so far Honda brings in a generator and the rescued street boys give haircuts; about 200 heads, male and female, get shaved each time. Meanwhile, some of Honda’s other boys organize kid’s games on the compound. It’s a wonder that these malnourished children have the strength and energy to run.
In one corner is a tiny chicken coop that Honda wants to grow into a big operation that will yield a few 1000 eggs per day. One chick costs $2500 francs - about $2.50 CND.
Honda and Libby, Lord willing, are planning on starting a school in January. Initially they will limit it to about 60 students. They’ve held 2 crusades here to date, with 153 people having accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour!!!
We are praying about how the Lord wants to use us in these peoples’ lives. Even though we pray the people that we touch will feel the love of Jesus through us, or that they will see the love of Jesus when we look into their eyes, this does not fill their distended bellies, or improve their hygiene, or provide much needed medicine or clothing. Will you please pray about how God wants to use you as well? Christmas is coming up; perhaps instead of buying gifts for family and friends, you want to contribute to the realization of the vision that God has given to Honda. If so, please email us at: ircfroese@gmail.com

Colton and Josiah, son of Honda and Libby.
Honda is Burundian, Libby is from England.

Children taking care of children.

The “barbers” are risking infection from var-
ious things.

The smartly clad soccer players.

What a joy to see the children having fun!!

Camera distraction

Libby showing up to where the flood waters reached
In April. Her daughter, Abigail (Abby) in front,
Andrew on the left.

Immediately to Isaac’s right is the entrance to the village.

Sewage holding tank with stairs going up on the
Other side of the tank.

A wealthier hut with a wooden door instead of a rag
Sheet for a door.

A tiny portion of the UN compound in the background.
This village is literally almost on their doorstep. The ab-
sence of their involvement here is mind blowing. But be-
Cause this village is about 17 yrs. Old, it obviously
Doesn’t fall under refugee status and doesn’t meet the
UN criteria for aid.

Preparing lunch, and it’s not just Bugali today!!

I wish you could see the flies feasting here.

Home sweet home.

Many people, adults and children alike, ask you to take
A picture of them.

This is a wide distance between the two houses. In
Many instances you have less than half of this.

A village senior. This lady would be considered very
Old, especially for this village, but for Burundi as a
Whole, as the female life expectancy is 46 and the male
43.

There were trucks like this lined up for many, many
Blocks about 100 feet from the dire poverty; laden with
Supplies, presumably for the UN since their property
Is all around, perhaps for a flour mill that ships in wheat
From Tanzania, and once ground up, gets shipped back
To Tanzania.

All the trucks have dried thorn bushes like this pulled
Through the bumper to discourage people from
Grabbing on when they are on their bikes for a free,
Life-threatening and all too often life taking ride.
The thorns are about 1 inch long. Also, this way
It’s much more difficult to get on board to hitch a ride.

The water station that houses 6 taps with fresh water.

This boy is in obvious need of medical attention.

Restoration of Hope Centre

Colton having fun with the boys.

The tiny chicken coop that by Gods’ grace will grow into a
Huge operation of producing a few thousand eggs per day
To help support the village.

Bethany, the eldest of Honda and Libby’s 3 children holding a
Distended bellied child.

How precious. If this picture could speak to you, it would say that
This and the next scene, more than any others, where the most heart
wrenching. These two cherub faced darlings are just being children,
Cradling a very filthy teddy bear. The tenderness of this moment…

What can I say? He was just lying there. He didn’t look well.

Some children scream in terror when they see a white person because
When they misbehave, the adults say that the ‘mzungu’ will come and
Eat them. Most, however, want to hold your hand or just touch you;
some carefully inspect your white skin that won’t rub off.

The middle one was the one lying down a few pictures up.

Isaac joining in the fun and games.

Luke, Caleb and the Astington’s with Isaac and Colton.

Look at the distended tummy of the little one on the right.

This new little one was completely naked under the cloth.

Sweet!!
Thus concludes a taste of what life is like for a large part of the Burundian population. A vast majority of the people of this capital city of 700,000 are very poor; however, they are the rich compared to most of the country of 8 million.
Does your heart hurt?
Rosel
P.S.(This was written last week Wednesday, the 21st , but due to not having internet access quite frequently, things get a little behind. Sorry for the delay.)
P.P.S. So apparently you'll have to imagine the pictures, as today is an off day again with the internet, but because it's taken so long already, I'll at least post the text.

Bubanza Crusade - Part 2

2011-09-15T16:31:00.001-07:00

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 2

2011-09-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

After pushing the vehicles out

2011-09-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Birthday Blessings

2011-06-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

I had the absolute best birthday of my life!! (By the way, 29 and holding for those of you that are wondering. :)) Not!!!
It started with ’Happy Birthday’s’ from my 2 favorite boys, and a brilliant variety of freshly picked flowers from our garden, all beautifully arranged. Over breakfast Colton presented me with the drawing he had made for me; another one of his incredible creations, this one being the head of a lion.
Like always, we were at school before 7, and before we were even in the gate, kids were already chorusing ‘Happy Birthday Miss Rosel.’ (yes, I’m Miss, just like other married Mzungu teachers - it’s easier and faster than Mrs. The locals are Madam.) During staff devotions Isaac and Olive had some very powerful words of blessing for me. This was the high light of the day for me, because God poured so much into me.
The kids were reminding me for about 2 weeks that my birthday was coming up; they were so excited about it. I received probably 50 or more cards, and some small offerings of gifts like a little package of ‘Maria” cookies, and such. My favorite/most interesting/unique gift? A gooey, melting, sticky mess of a 2/3 eaten KitKat chocolate bar!! Now you need to understand that real chocolate bars are very rare out here, and they are stored in the meat fridges in stores to prevent them from melting. They are crazy expensive, and we never buy them. So, I had a dilemma on my hands; was I going to let all that good ‘chocolatetiness ‘ go to waste? I mean, this was the real McCoy!!! Not just flavoured wax!! True, the thought of Carol opening the wrapper with probably unwashed hands, and consuming over half of it minutes earlier wasn’t appealing to me, but honestly!!! Chocolate! And… it was a gift…! What to do…?
Well, I did the only thing any chocolate starved chocolate lover would do… I ate it! With great enjoyment!
At break time sweet Madam Olive surprised me with a party. She truly is a wonderful friend; I love her so much.
Isaac is a very gifted artist as well, and he too drew a picture of a lion’s head for me, only this one isn’t docile like Colton’s is; this one looks lethal with his teeth bared and his head back as he lets out a fierce growl. God had spoken to Isaac a few days before my birthday about something that He wanted to impart into me, and this picture was inspired by that. I’m planning on getting the 2 pictures I received from Isaac and Colton matted and framed in Canada. I’ve received many brilliant drawings from both of them, but these two have a very special meaning.
Isaac also got me a fabulous ‘igetengi’ - which is the 3 piece outfit commonly worn by women here. It’s simply 6 yards of fabric cut into 3 equal size lengths - one for wrap around skirt, one for wrap around the wrapped around skirt or to drape over one shoulder, and the last pc is the headpiece. You wear a shirt of your choice with it. I have a number of African outfits - gifts a lot of them. And yes, I plan on wearing my African clothes in Canada.
In the evening Isaac and Colton and I went out for supper by ourselves - a rare occasion to go out.
We had celebrated with some of our closest friends the Sunday before my birthday, which was also a huge blessing. Olivia (wonderful you!!) suggested that we go around the table and each one say 3 things that each one loves about me, and 3 things they like about me. Wow!! If you want to really bless someone on their special day, this is great. Thankfully, Astrid wrote as people spoke, and I have 2 wonderful pages to remind me that I am loved and special.
Because of not having had internet at our house now for over 2 months, I did not get to my emails/Facebook messages for a while, but a big thank you to all who remembered me on my birthday.
It was a truly blessed day!!!

Christmas in May

2011-06-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

We had the blessing of going up country with Drs. Aline and Euloge and Evariste to distribute Christmas Shoe Boxes.
Dr. Aline is the country director of African Revival Ministries, and as such has connections with many wonderful organizations, ‘Compassion’ being one of them.
We started the morning by going to A.R.M. headquarters and completely filling up 2 large SUV vehicles with 300 beautifully wrapped packages. We headed out to the beautiful mountains where the cooler weather greeted us mercifully. After a long, winding, and very bumpy road, we finally arrived at our destination - a Bat’wa village - situated high up in the fog and clouds and rain.
We were immediately greeted by local ‘dignitaries,’ and ushered into the tiny building that was bursting at the seams with people, waiting with anticipation. Upon our arrival, the tiny choir of about 8 people started singing as we were ushered into the building to take our seats at the front of the church. After introductions and greetings, Dr. Euloge preached. He spoke on Jesus being the best gift of all, and many people accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. After this I (Rosel) had a short message about God being their provider, not man.
At this point the adults were asked to vacate the small building to make room for the 300 children. You should have heard the noise and excitement as their eyes alighted on the huge stacks of presents at the front. We separated the boys and girls, and then further separated them by age. Our piles of presents were organized into age/gender specific piles as well. We started with the smallest ones, and worked our way up to the oldest kids. They were instructed to not open their gift until every one had received theirs.
We literally tripped over presents and bodies as we worked in our cramped quarters; finally, everyone was clutching a box of blessings to their chest.
Ready, set, OPEN!!!
Imagine children that have nothing… nothing…. tear into those shiny parcels!!! The noise of the excitement was almost deafening as they began to wave little trucks and pretty dolls and bags of candy and pencil crayons and socks and stuffed animals in the air. Radiant joy!
Our team just stood at the front and watched all these precious ones. At one point I looked at our team and I’m not sure who was beaming more, the givers or the recipients, with the exception that we just quietly took it all in.
After some time I noticed that there were children that were still clutching their unopened box to their chest, as if the pretty package was the gift itself; they didn’t understand that they had to open the present for the true gift that was inside. I knelt down and showed them that they had to rip the paper off and see what’s on the inside. This yielded much more happiness and satisfaction when they saw the contents of the package.
How often, I wonder, do people accept Jesus just for fire insurance, and they never unwrap more of who He is, or of what He has to offer them.
Without a doubt, the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ is the absolute best gift there is. But, let’s not stop there; He has so many added gifts for us, if only we pursue a vibrant relationship with Him.

Food Distribution at Sabe Village

2011-05-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

If you’re a regular blog follower, you’ll recall some of my previous entries pertaining to Sabe Village. It houses almost 1500 people; prostitution is common to provide food for the empty bellies waiting at home. Drunkenness is also very common; can’t say I blame them. (The home made banana beer is known to cause blindness, but at least it numbs their sorrows for a few hours.) What with the life they’ve lived for many, many years, with no glimmer of hope in their lives. I mean, if they aren’t living for Jesus, why even get up in the morning??
This might sound depressing; it is. These people live in almost unthinkable conditions. Their tiny plot should house probably no more than 4 families if they would have average Canadian size yards. But there are 400 families crammed into that space. The houses are about 1 foot apart from each other. They are the size of a small washroom - perhaps 4”x6”; I don’t think any bigger. The walls are made of sticks covered with mud; the roof - any plastic garbage bag or other ‘usable’ garbage.
They have no washroom facility; you really watch your step when you walk in the village.
There is a swamp a few feet beside the outside row of huts with standing green water; perfect mosquito breeding grounds. Malaria has claimed many lives.
Till September 2010 there was no school, but Honda and Libby hired 2 local teachers, who now teach a few age groups. Not perfect, but so much better than nothing. The kids can’t go to public school because they don’t have money to buy a school uniform. A locally made uniform costs about $10.00.
The kids have no toys; none. Little boys improvise with clay bricks instead of pushing big yellow Tonka trucks around in the dirt. Or they take an empty jug and tie something on to it and drag it around.
Well, as I said earlier, I’ve written about Sabe before and some family members have sent money for the village on a number of occasions. Last week someone sent enough to buy almost 2 tonnes of food. So, last Friday afternoon, together with some of our friends we packaged 1000 kgs. of beans, 1000 kgs. of bugali flour (a staple in Burundi, made from maize, or from cassava root), 200 kgs. of salt, and 1200 bars of locally made soap.
On Saturday morning it was off to the village. Honda had already alerted the villagers about our visit the day before. He organized everything really well, and had given the women a ticket which they had to present upon receiving the food. This prevented them from going through the line more than once. (Though one in particular tried again and again to get more.)
What a joy to see how grateful these moms where. Food for the children!! For their family!! They started singing and dancing. After another prayer by Honda, the women balanced their treasure on their heads and left, all the while singing and smiling for the mzungu with the camera.
I am very happy to tell you that the UN has responded to the plight of these people, and on Monday, 2 days ago, the UN moved the entire village to higher ground.
After being flooded out again a few weeks ago, finally someone realized that something had to be done on a much larger scale than was possible for Honda and Libby.
They are now temporarily residing in 12 very long UN tarp tents, one beside the other; men on one side, women the other. This arrangement we were told is for three months till a permanent location can be found.
We found out about the impending move 2 or 3 days prior to the food distribution.
Pray that an ideal location will be secured for the village. Each family is to receive a plot about 15 meters squared. Subsistence farming on this land will provide for the people.
I’m so very thankful that these people are getting a bigger reason to get up in the morning… Who knows, perhaps the banana beer will no longer blind their eyes, physical nor spiritual….

Indescribable Love

2011-04-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Good Friday - in this country it goes by almost unnoticed it seems; it's business as usual for most people. Makes me sad. May we truly reflect on the indescribable love of both; the Father in giving His Son, and the Son as He paid the price to reconcile sinful man to God.
We're doing well; Colton and I are currently enjoying a 2 week Easter break. Isaac is busy as usual between CRIB, school, Chrissie's, Pastor Ray's, and others.
Next week we are planning on going to Kigali, Rwanda with a good buddy of ours. Scott, who hails from Vermont, has been in Buj. since October of last year. He is setting up an organization for drilling wells for the villages. We're driving up with him, and staying at another good friend, Olivia's (from Colorado) auntie and uncle. So thankful for God's provision.
Planning on visiting the genocide memorials....
We're starting to think more and more about all the things that we have to say bye to in just over 2 months.
I seriously can't imagine being in the west again - I don't know how we'll be able to process everything without going crazy. I mean, I know how, with God's help obviously, but it will be so awfully hard to see/do life in absolutely filthy rich Canada. Excessiveness, waste, greed... I am really dreading that. I think God's going to have to physically hold my mouth shut often times. I know the temptation could be to just try and turn that part of me off completely and go with the flow, but I know that would be like a slap in the face for every person that lives without on this continent. I'm close to tears even now as I think of the extreme contrast. What we're gonna need is balance, and right now I have no idea what that will look like. Oh Jesus help us.
We had a grenade attack with heavy shooting at a communication tower 2 blocks from our house about three weeks ago - closest that it's been to our house up to this point.
Haven't had internet at our house for about the same amount of time... with the exception of a few rare times. However, don't let that stop you from emailing us. It's so encouraging to receive emails when we are able to access them.
Happy Easter!!!! Jesus is Alive!!

Let the little children come to me. Jesus

2011-03-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

You gotta sit down for this; mind you, you probably are.
In the last week and a half 32 children have become Christians!!!!! How sweet is that!!?? And every one of them filled with the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues!!
Of these 32, 11 are Hindu and Muslim. All the kids are famished for the Word of God, and very eager to grow in their new found faith. They come into my room every single break time now just to pray and learn more. I have 20 + kids at a time, coming of their own volition. The Spirit of God comes on me and I start preaching. When I’m on duty on the playground, the kids gather around me and we form a circle and pray. I asked the kids to start praying that many of the Secondary kids are going to become Christians.
What an incredible sight - these youngsters earnestly calling out to God for the lost!!! Most of the kids are in grade 5 and 6.
Every soul that comes to Jesus is priceless, but I must confess that the Muslim and Hindu kids - seeing the Spirit on them - wow!!! What joy!!! You know, these kids could undergo severe persecution at home. In extreme cases girls are killed by their dad; boys I believe are generally disowned.
There are about 10 kids that were Christians before already, but they wanted, and received the in-filling of the Holy Spirit.
We’re praying for more children to come and experience the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Oh, by the way, in my previous blog about 3 or 4 weeks ago, I asked you to pray for 2 girls that both of them would receive Jesus. Prayers answered!!!! Shortly after I blogged, kids came into my room and said that one of them was scared and had cried when other kids had said the world was going to end because of the tragedies occurring in Japan. What a golden opportunity to speak truth into her. Praise Jesus!
Please pray for all the kids as they continue to grow in their relationship with the Lord. Pray for me as well, that God will continue to guide and direct me. And please pray for Isaac, Colton and myself because the spiritual warfare is not easy - the enemy is losing ground and he doesn’t like it one bit. Stand with us for a bigger harvest.

We had an all time low in temperature this week since our arrival in Buj 21 months ago. When we got up at 5:45 it was a mere 22.7 degrees!!! Brrrrr
You must have all watched footage of the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake. One of the teachers at King’s is from that city. She did not lose any loved ones personally, but knows many that did. Please continue to pray for that situation there as well.
I dreamed that I was eating farmer sausage; boy, I dream good! (at least if it was Pioneer Brand ;-)) I wish I woulda’ continued dreaming; I definitely would have enjoyed a large slice of chocolate/rum cheese cake for dessert.
There is a great increase in rebel activity in the last number of weeks. There is much violence in the province of Bubanza, which is about ½ an hour from us. This is were we went a year ago with Honda to do the crusade.
But the blood shed is also very close to our home. Not even a mile from our house there is a large, very rough neighbourhood called Kanyosha. This is where our friend Deo (the husband of Divine who died of cancer last June), together with his 6 kids lives. A while ago we had gone for a visit to his house in the evening. A few hours later, just down the street from Deo’s house, there was a grenade attack. It killed 3 young children - siblings - and a women. The parents of the children were injured.
About a month ago, another friend Deo (Deo and Rosa - CRIB), lost a cousin in the same neighbourhood, together with 3 other men. These are just people/situations that we know of; there are many where we don’t know the details.
We often hear gunshots during the day, but it’s night time that they are the worst. At night time you don’t hear just 4 or 5 ‘pops’; sometimes it goes on and on. I lie there in the dark and imagine the people lying in a pool of blood….., and I pray. It’s hard to believe, but Isaac and Colton usually sleep through it all, except if it’s pretty close.
Please pray for this country.

New Creations in Christ

2011-03-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Spring is around the corner for the western world - yeah! Daylight savings begins today we were reminded by a friend over lunch today. Enjoy!!
I have the huge privilege of teaching Christian Education to 3 grades, and very often I also incorporate Christian teaching into the art lessons that I teach from grades 1 - 6.
One project that I did recently with some of my kids was making a bamboo scroll. I spent much time prayerfully selecting the verses that Jesus wanted to have me teach them. So once I had compiled them and designed all the scroll ‘pages’ to match with the verse the kids would write on them, I started by having the kids memorize the verses in fun ways. Following that I thoroughly explained the meaning of each verse.
I get very passionate when I present the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit was so present. My heart’s desire is to see the students come to an experiential relationship with Jesus, and as I expounded on the verses, you coulda’ heard a pin drop. I ended by telling them that if they wanted to respond to what they had just heard, they could come and talk to me in my room any time during break time.
Well, in grade 3 there were 2 Muslim boys that responded with great sincerity, as well as 2 other boys that had already accepted the Lord. What I’ve learned is that sometimes kids think they have to accept Jesus again when their understanding of the gospel is deepened. I tell them that when they first opened the door of their heart to Jesus, He came in and closed the door behind Himself, and that He hasn’t gone out. This reassures them about their salvation.
Back to the 2 Muslim boys. Wow, there is hardly a greater joy than to see the Father snatch children from the clutches of satan. Isaac and I spend every morning in prayer for the kids (especially Muslim), school, etc., and to see God drawing these precious ones to Himself is so terribly exciting. I fully believe that there is not one Muslim student at The King’s School by coincidence. The parents want the English education, but God has so much more for them. I believe these 2 boys are going to influence many people for the kingdom of Jesus in the Muslim world.
I made sure that the boys understood and believe who Jesus is and what He’s done for them.The boys and myself held hands as God’s kingdom grew by a few more chosen ones!!! What incredible joy to witness this!!
Right after we prayed and rejoiced, I told the boys that now that they were Christians, God had just given them a very special gift. I explained what speaking in tongues is, and I asked if they wanted to start using that right away, to which they eagerly responded with a ‘yes’. I laid my hands on them, prayed, and almost immediately these boys where conversing with the Father in that heavenly language. Praise Jesus!!! Wow! Is there anything more fulfilling than that?
The following week another Muslim boy (grade 4) walked into my room. I went through the same steps as with the other boys, and him and I knelt down and this child also had his name written in the Book of Life!! He comes into my room now sometimes just to talk, and once we both just worshiped God together in tongues.
The 2 grade three boys came to The King’s School after school had started in Sept., and so they did not receive a Bible when Gideon’s distributed them last school year. I was able to bless them both with a Bible, and I love how they have special smiles for me when they see me now.
A few days later a grade 4 girl came into my room, and God performed one more miracle! This one was shy about praying in tongues. I told her that was okay, that she could do it alone at home, and that I’d love to know once she did. The very next day she excitedly came to tell me that she had!! How sweet is that!?!
I so love how kids believe and accept the Truth so readily. I think we as adults often underestimate their ability to understand and respond to Jesus. And I also think that sometimes we perhaps subconsciously think that there is a ‘junior’ Holy Spirit for children. Wrong!!! Jesus knew explicitly well what He was talking about when He said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Young children tend to have an unadulterated understanding of who Jesus is, void of religion and man’s traditions. I love that!! No wonder they can hear and respond to the Father’s voice when they hear Him calling their name.
So I want to ask you, please pray for the precious souls that have given their lives to the Master.
There are 2 other girls, both Muslim, that we’re praying for. I believe that Jesus is really touching them through the conversations we have a few times a week during break time when they come to hang out with me in my room. Please include them in your prayers, and I can hardly wait to give you the good news…..

Oreos and Pomegranates

2011-02-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

February 14 - Happy Valentine’s Day
Some recent BurundiHappenings: (or soon to be happenings)
We are getting some lovely visitors.
Feb 28 - March 6 - Dave and Edith from our church (Calvary Chapel) are coming to spend some time with us.
In April (dates pending) my (Rosel) brother John, together with his wife Carol and their daughter Becki are coming for a very short visit. They are going to Uganda to be present when the water gushes out of the well that will be drilled on the property that was donated to Ramona’s Reach for the orphanage that will be built on the 5 acres of land. Love it - Ramona lives on……..
Colton’s new year wish/prayer was that a cousin would come to visit us this year. There was positively nothing of the sort even on the radar as far as we knew. So you can imagine the rejoicing in this house when I read, out loud, the email from Carol announcing their plans to come for a visit.
We are very excited to welcome our guests.
Colton is now taller than me. He likes that.
There was a green, venomous snake found in one of the classrooms at Primary last week. And killed.
Two weekends ago I got bitten by our friend’s pet monkey - Pete - on the inside of my right hand wrist. Our friend released Pete last week. Sad - I liked Pete; apparently he liked me to - or not….
The weekend after that I got bitten by another friends’ dog on my right foot. She cut deep. It’s still painful when I apply pressure on the wound. I didn’t know I was venturing close to her pups….
This last weekend I didn’t get bitten by anything. Actually, come to think of it, the flu bug!
We have what we thought was a long dead tree branch that holds up one end of our clothes line. Colton was outside when he excitedly called Isaac and myself to come out and look at something. There, at the top of that used-to be-dead branch were lovely green clusters of leaves at the ends of young, tender new twigs. Reminds me a lot about God and mankind - He transforms the dry, dead parts into something that again is full of life and vitality. But sometimes that too takes a long time…
February 21
Well, I’ve tried posting this and every time I try it doesn’t work.
So….
My dog bite is healing nicely.
Only one week from today that our first visitors arrive… yippie!!
Isaac often works long days; between both schools, Chrissie’s, CRIB, Pastor Ray’s new house (new for them), other teachers’ houses, etc, it’s often well past six when he finally comes home.
Recently he had to rescue Colton’s home room teacher from in the washroom; lucky for her, it was after school. Doorknobs are awful quality here, which in this case was the problem as well. She had to yell for a guards attention through the window, who then had to go to the teachers house to tell one of the teachers to call Isaac about the predicament. All in a days’ work… J
Debbie, the head teacher, has lovely parents that come to visit every 3 - 5 months from the UK. John and Hazel, bless them, have brought us 2 small pkg. of Oreos twice when they come for a visit. You should see the ceremony we make out of the event when we consume these wonderful morsels of nostalgia inducing treats. Mmmm!
Colton took the plastic wrapper of one of the pkgs. and taped it to his bedroom wall….
Funny, the kinds of things that make a person miss another era in one’s life.
Will return - going for a walk with sweet Ali…
Colton and I just returned from a walk around the neighbourhood with Ali. I spotted a tree laden with pomegranates so we decided to knock on the gate to inquire if we could buy some. They were very surprised to see 3 mzungus at their gate, and yes, we could have a few fabulous fruits. As we were walking down the street, I verbalized the fact that I loved walking and eating a freshly picked tropical fruit - certainly not something we would be doing in Canada at this time of year. Just saying…

Christmas Season 2010

2011-01-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone;
Hope you’ve had a great start to 2011.
Some recent Burundi happenings:
The pre-Christmas season was easier this year because we knew better what to expect, and by far the bigger reason is that we know a lot more people and were with them a lot over Christmas. A brief run down of what it looked like:
Astrid organized a cookie exchange with some expats. Interesting how the biggest challenge is not which delectable treat to settle on based on preference, but on availability of ingredients. Choices are very limited.
Our school Christmas program was again very good. The absolute best thing is that so many Muslim and Hindu families come to watch their children. I am repeatedly reminded what it says in Isa 55: 10-11: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Dec. 24 - morning. A family member sent $400.00 for Sabe Village, so after consulting with Honda and Libby (the friends that are the hands and feet of Jesus in that awful place) it was quickly decided where exactly the money would go. Last year we had the honor and privilege to help them with the distribution of some Christmas goodies to the children of Sabe. This year, however, they had no idea how this would be possible due to a lack of funds. Well, with this $400 we bought 20 crates of Fanta, 1200 “doughnuts” (pieces of deep fried dough), and a big box of lollipops. What a joy to see these kids come running to meet you!! With distended bellies and skin covering their fragile limbs the thought crosses your mind that the money could perhaps be used to buy nutritious beans instead, but when you see the sheer delight of those little ones receiving an “extra”, it just changes everything. We were able to bless about 600 children that morning.
Dec. 24 - afternoon. Straight from Sabe Village we headed to the beach down the street to meet our precious Canadian friend Ali, together with Deo and his kids. (Remember Divine that died of cancer in late July? Deo is the husband. We met Deo and Divine through Ali ) We spent a great afternoon enjoying each others company. Those kids are great; they really felt the loneliness of Christmas without their mom.
Dec. 24 - evening - As is our tradition, we opened some gifts. Another wonderful friend, Olivia, went home to Colorado in Nov., and she offered to bring back some stuff for us, so we took this opportunity to ask her to bring some items for Christmas for Colton. He was so surprised!!! So much fun to watch his reaction.
Dec. 25 - Christmas day - morning. After breakfast Colton opened a few small gifts. At 9:00 am we again went to CRIB to watch all the kids rip into their presents. Every year they have all their presents flown in from England - so this is a sight to behold as they dive into the gifts. After helping the kids with figuring out how this game or that ‘thing’ works, installing batteries, Isaac setting up the soccer nets they received, etc., Dave and Sheena (England), who are the house parents at CRIB, invited us and the other guests in for tea.
Home for Christmas lunch - not your typical Christmas spread. We had vegetable beef soup and flour tortillias. We just simply couldn’t cough up $167.21 US for a 3 kilo turkey. (I almost went cross-eyed when I saw that price!!!)
Dec. 25 - afternoon til evening. Olivia, together with the wonderful folks that live with her, invited us, Travis and Astrid, Ali, Deo and his kids, and a few other people over. Felt so blessed to have these people in our lives.
Dec. 26 - Ali over all day, Tim and Jeannette - friends from South Africa - dropped in, as well as Astrid with a visitor of theirs.
Dec. 27 - Dec 29. Astrid, co-founder of Sozo Ministries (see my fb likes) had asked if we wanted to part take in a three day church leader training seminar that Sozo was doing. Isaac is not on the school holiday schedule and therefore had to work, but Colton and I attended, and are now qualified to train and teach PowerClubs with Kids in Ministry International.
We again witnessed a beautiful working of the Holy Spirit during this seminar as God became very real to one of the attendees and had a super encounter with the Almighty. During a teaching on the Holy Spirit, she for the first time was filled with the Holy Spirit. At first she said that she thought she was having a heart attack - it was so powerful, and also foreign to her. I immediately whispered to Colton, “spiritual warfare, pray.” One pastor, Colton and myself quickly went over to her and started to pray for her. Within moments the power of God was so heavy on her…. I sat with her for about two hours and prayed as the Lord was “on” her. What a joy to see some of the fruit that God did in that time.
The seminar was in a one room mud and brick church, dirt floor, tin roof, walls only partially completed due to a lack of funds. We had wonderful respite from the heat, as it rained all three days for a majority of the time. Astrid and the translator where often drowned out by the absolutely beautiful sound of the rain hammering on the tin roof. We just gathered around them closely and continued. Colton helped with worship on African drum and guitar. There were no doors, so we had an audience for most of the three days; by the third day they didn’t just stay in the very back, sitting on the partially completed wall, but came in and sat on the wooden planks. We surrounded the people and prayed into their lives; man, I’m telling you - that’s life!!!
On the third day in the afternoon we went out into the neighborhood and did an actual PowerClub. We had 4 groups; Colton and my group, together with a few local pastors and other locals from Bujumbura had about 100 kids and adults combined that attended. We just walked around for about 5 minutes and our entourage just grew out of curiosity. It’s very rare to see mzungus in that part of town - it’s very poor and incredibly crowded. So the mzungu factor, I believe, played a huge factor in being able to see about 85 adults/kids come to Jesus!!!!! Curiosity leading to salvation - love it!!
These were long days - Astrid picked us up at about 8:00 am or sooner, and the latest we got home was well past 6:00 pm. Tired but so pumped to see God move so powerfully.
Dec. 31 - New Years Day. Months ago some of us already started talking about going down to Makamba province for New Years. This is where Travis and Astrid are starting a children’s village for orphans, and they are in the process of acquiring land right on the lake for this mission and vision that God has given them. They are not 4 km, as I said earlier on a Facebook entry, but only 2 km. away from the Tanzanian border. They’ve rented a small house in the village that serves as the field office and 10 of us flooded their tiny compound with 4 tents; 5 in total with their existing one.
The villagers are all returning genocide refugees from Tanzania. They have almost nothing; literally. It’s not uncommon to see children naked up country, apart from a rag that serves as a shirt, but in this area there were so many children with no clothes or just a rag for a shirt. Many, if not most or all, had ever seen a mzungu before. (About a month ago Pastor Ray told us that there are probably no more than 200 mzungus in this country of 9,000,000)
When we were leaving and had to stop on the road due to one of the vehicles having trouble, we were completely surrounded by faces. At one point I counted and there were 11 looking in my side window alone!!!! The ’front’ row literally had their faces pasted against the window. If you don’t think that’s possible, experiment with some friends. We often have 5 - 6 at any or a few of our windows, but that felt a little claustrophobic.
We had 24/7 soldier security. Three, armed with their AK-47’s at night, and 1 or 2 during the day, on top of other security. When Travis and Astrid (Withrow) are at the house this is the norm.
The Withrow’s left on Sat., but the rest of us stayed till Sun., the 2nd. Isaac, Colton, myself, Ali, and 4 other friends decided to hike to Tanzania. We were escorted by two armed soldiers, the border chief, the town chief and others. And of course our entourage of curious mzungu watchers grew as we went along.
The scenery was beautiful; the dirt road turned path turned trail was right along Lake Tanganyika, surrounded by huge mountains. We were allowed to take only very limited pictures because we crossed the border without visas, and the border chief seemed a little jumpy when I asked if I was allowed to take pictures. We received very warm welcomes everywhere we went - immigration office, police “station” etc., but no photos. HAHA!!
Enough for today.

Rejoicing Angels

2010-12-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

Hey family and friends;
Happy December!!!!
The only clue that we’re in the Christmas season as far as the senses go is the Christmas songs the kids at school are learning for the program and the Christmas projects that I’ve been doing with all the classes for a month.
I miss the beautiful winter wonderland that is all lit up at this time of year where many of you are sitting. In fact, 2 nights ago I dreamt I was driving by field after field that was beautifully decked out with lights, and I was just mesmerized by the beauty, and was slowly making my way along. There were others around me that were rushing me and telling me to speed up. I gently told them that these were the first Christmas lights I’d seen for the year, and was enjoying the sight.
I encourage you to stop and really take in the beauty that surrounds you and not just rush from party to party and appt. to appt., without really pondering Whom and why we are celebrating.
So, I was supposed to go to Kigali, Rwanda last week Thursday morning till this past Monday for a women’s conference. I was very excited to go. Jabe Iglese Vivant blessed us so much when they volunteered to pay for all my expenses minus about $17.00 US. Around nine in the evening the night before we were to leave, Aime, the very helpful admin. from school that helps the expats with Visa’s, Passports, etc., called and said that he had just heard that the Rwandan border denied David Micklefield (Pastor Andrew’s brother that was visiting Buj. and wanted to go to Rwanda with a buddy) entry into Rwanda because he didn’t have a Visa.
Till 2 weeks ago Canadians did not need a Visa for entry into Rwanda, but we heard that Kagami - Rwanda’s president, slapped this on Canadians because Canada doesn’t give Rwanda enough aid!!!
To process the Visa takes between 24 - 48 hrs., so that meant I could not go. Pastor Ray’s wife, MaryAnne, and her guest from Vancouver were supposed to fly out the following evening to the conference, and they had to cancel their flight.
Oh well, this way I got to spend the weekend with my 2 boys, and we had a great weekend. Went to the beach on Saturday and Sunday with friends. Lake Tanganyika is perhaps 6-7 blocks from our house as the crow flies; we can see the lake from our kitchen window with the Congo mountains behind the lake.
On Sunday was our 18th anniversary for when we got engaged. Wow, that makes us sound old. God has so richly blessed me with the gift of my Isaac.
Today was so cool. On Wednesdays I do Christian Ed. with the year ones. Almost every week I reiterate what it means to be a Christian, what Jesus did for us on the cross, and why, etc. I do this because of all the Muslim/Hindu kids in all the classes, and because I have a passion to see them come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A number of these kids come with the religious signs painted on their faces day after day, and with their bracelets and necklaces that are supposed to protect them.
Let me start at the beginning….
Last year, there was this little boy (don’t know whether he’s Muslim or Hindu) in kindergarten that would worship the sun when outside. When his teacher saw this she would obviously stop him. We as staff prayed for this boy and his family, as it was pretty obvious that the parents are very devout followers of the religion, and as such could bring that spirit into the school when dropping off/collecting the son.
This boy is very intelligent and hangs on to every word I say as I tell them about Jesus. He repeats what I say almost verbatim when given the chance. He’s usually the first to raise his hand to answer questions, learns Bible verses well and easily, etc.
So this particular day I’m in their class again, he answers a question, and without a seconds warning, the Spirit comes over me in power and I instantly stretch out my hand to him and declare: “One day you will be a mighty man of God!” I immediately started crying and I quickly turned away so the kids wouldn’t be alarmed to see me cry. Luckily, sweet Olive, the teacher, happened to be in the class as well, and saw the whole thing unfold. She started asking questions about the lesson as I regained my composure.
Well, after this event, this boy was on my heart so much. I prayed for him often; during summer holidays, he continued to be in my prayers. In my spirit I knew what was said about him was not of me, but entirely of God, and I prayed into that. I would often think and wonder how much God would be glorified in and through this “mighty man of God.”
Well, that little boy started that journey as a mighty man of God this morning, praise Jesus!!!
After explaining again that Jesus was born so that He could die for our sins, that He is the Son of God, that God raised Him on the third day, and He is ALIVE, and if we invite Him into our hearts and lives and ask Him to forgive our sins, and we live for Him, then we are Christians and His children.
I often have the children repeat after me core truths pertaining to Jesus and or God, because I know the power of hearing yourself speak words, whether positive or negative. Over the months when I would have them repeat some aspect of those truths, I would always look at this child as he loudly proclaimed those truths, and in my spirit I would rejoice. His mouth was speaking truth, it was only a matter of time before God would line up his heart/soul /spirit with his mouth.
Today was the eclipse of his heart and mouth. He raised his hand and said; “I want to be a Christian.”
Man, I’m telling you, inside I was just yelling and screaming and praising Jesus and doing flips…..
I asked him to come to me where I was sitting on the little kiddie chair. I put my arm around him and asked him if he believed who Jesus is and what He did for him, to which he answered yes after each question. He very clearly and succinctly said the sinners prayer after me.
I told him that the Bible says that the angels in heaven rejoice when one sinner repents, and that he had just caused that to happen. This child was absolutely beaming as I raised his hands with mine and rejoiced with him.
Meanwhile, the whole class quietly sat on the mat in front of us and observed the scene as it unfolded.
Now let me back track.
When ‘A’ raised his hand to say he wanted to become a Christian, ‘B’ was right on the heels as he raised his hand for the same reason. I wasn’t surprised by this, because I had sensed that God was really working in this little Muslim boys heart as well. So after ‘A’ prayed, I asked ‘B’ to come to me, and went through the same steps with this boy.
Wow, what an awesome time!!!
I ask you with great, great sincerity, please pray for these 2 boys very regularly. The opposition will be extreme, both from parents when they find out, and obviously from the enemy.
“The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 Jn 4:4b

Remembering Ramona...

2010-11-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

Remembering Ramona….
Today, November 27th marks the 1 year anniversary of when our sweet Ramona put on her heavenly dancing shoes…
There is so much that I could write…

Colton's fleece is white....

2010-11-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

Nov. 10 2010
Oh, I know, this is again so long overdue….
So, you know the song ‘Mary had a little lamb’ - it has a new version amongst Colton’s classmates. The last line goes; “it’s fleece was white as Colton.” Cracks me up!!
I had the fabulous opportunity to lead a year 6 girl to Jesus a few weeks ago. Her mom, she told me, is/was Muslim, so this is very exciting, but at the same time this girl, Karen, needs a lot of prayers because of the Muslim teaching. It’s very serious if Muslims convert to Christianity - in very extreme cases they can be killed. Karen’s mom and dad are currently separated with mom living in Tanzania, but she says they are getting back together again at Christmas.
I gave Karen a notebook on the day of her conversion in which I wrote some godly truths and encouraged her to use the notebook to write down prayers, meaningful Bible verses, journal, etc. About once a week now for the last three weeks she brings the book to me to read the things that are on her heart. Wow, what an incredible joy to read her confessions of her faith in Jesus Christ, and the love that she has for her new found Saviour!! Some of the things that she talks to God about are so sad, like her family situation. Please pray for this precious girl and her family.
The other Muslim girl that I was able to pray with last year has not yet returned to school. She informed me last year that they would likely stay in India for longer than just the 2 months of summer holidays. This is the case, and doubtlessly being in that predominantly Muslim culture must be hard for a year 6 girl to stay grounded in the Christian truths and values that she believed. Please lift her before the Lord in prayer as well.
Right from the start when we arrived God has put the Muslims in my heart and in my path. There is a Muslim couple from Kenya that live on the compound where we get some of our groceries, and they had us down a while ago and expressed a desire to form a friendship with us. They’re a lovely couple with a 2 year old daughter. Naima, the wife, wants to teach me how to make Indian samosa’s - yum. She makes them in the house and sells them at the shop on their property. Please pray for this relationship as well.
Isaac just got home now at 6:45 P.M. - doing work in one of the teachers houses again.
Colton is doing very well in school - so far his percentages are almost all mid 90’s to 100% (on 4 tests). Even French is a subject that he’s attacking with determination to do well in. In fact, at the parent/teacher meeting 2 days ago his French teacher said he’s top of the class in that as well, believe it or not!! Considering there are a number of first language French speakers, that’s quite a feat! We’re very proud of Colton.
Nov. 12
Yesterday Colton serenaded Isaac and myself at lunch time with ’Jesus loves me” in Swahili, Kirundi and French. He said that he had put the song together between classes while he was on his way to his math class.
Almost two weeks ago when we were at the lake Isaac and Colton swam out to a boat that was on the water, and as Isaac hoisted himself into the boat he seriously hurt his rib. The water was pretty choppy, so with the movement of the waves and the boat rocking, he slammed into the top side/edge of the boat. We believe that it was probably broken. He was in lots of pain, and it began to swell up; laughing hurt, moving, walking, everything hurt. It was hurting him a lot that night, and after really praying, it improved dramatically. He’s tried to down play the severity of it all, which is his nature, but he’s still not completely without pain.
On that note, my neck and shoulders have really been acting up in the last few months. At times, for a number of days at a time, it’s very painful to move my head to the left. We would appreciate your prayers in these matters as well.
I don’t know how much or how accurate the news coverage is about Burundi, but things continue to brew in this country. There are currently two rebel groups; one that is very active and has killed many people. The other one is called Al Shaabab; it is a subsidiary of Al Quida, and it is made up of mostly younger Muslims. They have made threats since well before the elections this past June, and in fact the whole block that occupies the president’s offices has been blocked off with huge concrete pillars since about mid June.
The beef that they have is that Burundi and Uganda both have peace keeping soldiers in Somalia, and they want them out so they can run amok with their ‘holy war’. During the soccer World Cup in the summer this group was responsible for a bomb blast in Uganda that killed 75 people.
Makes me shake my head - the unstable state that Burundi is in itself, and they send out peace keepers…. It’s pretty close to home though - one of the assistant teacher’s husband is slated to go to Somalia for the second time.
One of the assistant teachers just had an almost 10 pound baby with no drugs, and when she had started to scream during delivery the doctor had slapped her in the face and told her to shut up!!!!!
But that’s not an isolated incident - women out here apparently hardly make a sound during child birth, no matter how much pain they are in, and if they do, the doctor puts an end to that very abruptly. Yikes, if I would have ever been in that ‘position’, it would probably have been hard to not allow my foot to ‘slip’ into the doctors face. During a silent contraction of coarse!!
Wow - Calvary Chapel family - thank you so much for the wonderful distraction that we received at school yesterday!!
We had no idea that David Micklefield (for those that don’t know, that’s our lead pastor’s brother) was coming out here, and so that was a pleasant surprise. The letters and cards are a huge encouragement, and we treasure them.
If I may be so bold and say this: It only costs $1.70 CND to send a letter/card out here, and we have lots of space to put all you readers’ Christmas family picture cards up……
When I was a babe in Christ, Jesus put a deep desire and passion in my heart to do prison ministry. I spoke with different people that where involved in that over the years, but I guess it was never God’s timing. Well, it seems that it is His timing now.
There’s this little church (about 125 people) that we’ve been going to that’s called Trinity Tabernacle. The pastor couple are super - he’s from Uganda, she’s from Rwanda. This church has a pretty huge impact in the prison - in fact there are 9 ex-convicts in this tiny congregation. One of the guys, an interpreter, was on death row two times for murder. He served 9 years and was miraculously released!!!
Pastor Paddy has invited me to join a small team that goes to the prison every week to minister there. It’s really an awful place; it was built for about 1000 prisoners, but these walls contain 3000 inmates!! There are many women serving time who have their children with them, ranging in age from infant to pre-schoolers, criminals of every kind, high ranking government officials, etc., etc.
In this country you are guilty until proven innocent - honestly. But if you have enough money you can “buy” your innocence if indeed you are guilty. A person can serve years before their case is tried, and if you are innocent, that’s just too bad.
Pastor Ray said last week that Jabe is also very involved at this prison, and so he said he could set me up with the team that goes every 2 weeks. Please pray that Jesus will empower, anoint and equip me to minister to the people that He wants to reach through me, whether it’s salvation, an encouraging word, a plate of beans and rice handed to them with a loving smile, or whatever.
As for Trinity Tabernacle - we were going there for about 3 months. We met the pastor couple - Paddy and Joli - at a mutual friends’ engagement party. When they said that their church is in English our ears perked up. After a few months we decided to visit the church; we were at this point really struggling with the length (sometimes over 4 hrs.) at Jabe, the heat for that amount of time under a tin roof, the earphones for translation are not good so you have to push them against your head to hear, which gives us bad headaches after a few hrs., and the novelty of all these things had just totally and completely run dry.
And so that’s what brought us to Trinity. We prayed all along that God would show us which church He wanted us in. We didn’t have peace about making Trinity our home for some reason, we missed some aspects of Jabe, we had visited another church about 4 or 5 times where a lot of our friends go to…….
Anyways, we had talked to church leadership about it and they said to talk to Pastor Ray. Well, P. Ray said that because we are here serving under African Revival Ministries we should at least sometimes go to Jabe, as Jabe is an A.R.M. church.
So we went there again this last Sunday, and it felt like we were home. Praise Jesus. However, we will need extra measures of grace for the heat, length, earphones, etc. And we’re still probably going to visit other churches sometimes.
I’m about talked out!!

We have to move

2010-11-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

                                                                                                                                                      October 14

One of the pastors at Iglise Vivant passed away last week Friday. He started feeling unwell on Wednesday, suffered a stroke, and on Friday died of a heart attack. He leaves behind his wife and 5 children, the youngest of which is in year 2. I teach 2 of them in Primary and one is in Colton’s class. The other 2 attend a public school. Please pray for this family. The funeral was on Tuesday, and the following day, Aaron, the son that’s in Colton’s class got hit by a motorbike while riding his bike. The only injuries on Aaron were some bumps and bruises and a few stitches on his foot, but the driver of the motorbike is not known if he will pull through.
So this Saturday my niece Ramona, who passed away last November, her brother is getting married. Another brother got married on August 7th. My heart and thoughts are again so much in MB…..
Things are again getting more uncertain in this country. There is a large rebel group that is pretty active, having killed many people already. For about 2 months after the elections at the end of June we didn’t hear many gunshots from our house, but in the last month or so they have increased drastically again. The worst ones are at night when you’re woken up by them, and they sound as if they are on our block; that has only happened twice that they are so close. Please pray for safety for us, and for peace in this country.
Colton is off to a great start in school, receiving a few tests back this week on which he scored 100%. Over lunch today he related how he had tried to swap his snack with the monkey that likes to hang out at school. The monkey was enjoying a nice ripe mango he picked off one of the trees next to Colton’s classroom and wasn’t about to hand over his mango for a bland tasting ‘Maria” cookie imitation. Smart monkey.
We still haven’t found a house; Aime is really looking for us. Some houses are just tiny, others are just plain not liveable, so the search continues. So far we haven’t seen any personally; we can’t be on the scene till the price is completely settled upon because if they see that we’re mzungu the rent automatically skyrockets. Please continue to pray for the right house, and remember to ask the Father to kick in that yard so Colton can continue to kick his soccer ball around.
Speaking of soccer, Colton has gone through about 10 or so balls in the 14 months we’ve been here. No, it’s not that he’s got a kick that flattens the ball like a pancake (though he’s really good), but the thorns etc. wreak havoc on them. We brought 3 balls from Canada, bought 3 in Kenya when we went in August, received on from Honda and Libby for his birthday and the rest we’ve bought here. And he gets them patched time and time again, so it’s not that as soon as one pops its garbage. Many times he’s playing with a half deflated ball, and the sound coming from the buddies he’s got over is an indicator that deflated or not, they are having fun.
Isaac is not so bombarded by requests for this and that to be done, asap, by so many people now. He’s more caught up, though still busy. Seems at the beginning of the school year is the best time for people to do repairs on their houses as well. Once people know that he is knowledgeable in many areas they are quite eager to have him come and fix this or that. Obviously, CRIB and school (and affiliates) are priorities.

                                                                                                                                               Nov. 10

Wow - I wrote this close to a month ago when we didn’t have internet access for about 4 weeks. I will post it though, thankfully with a very wonderful house update!!
We don’t have to move - PRAISE the LORD!!!!! The landlord called Aime up and told him that his son and daughter-in-law don’t need the house now till August. Thank you to the many of you that prayed for us in this regard. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective!

Colton is a teenager!!

2010-09-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hey; Sept.16 2010
So we’ve settled back into the school routine. Colton is in year 8 and enjoying it. It was much more fun to start this year compared to last year when we didn’t know anyone.
Isaac is crazy busy from 7:00 AM till past dark many days, plus Saturdays. This should slow down soon once everything has been built/fixed for the schools, teachers’ houses, CRIB (ongoing), etc.
My teaching schedule is only a little fuller this year with the addition of one more class per week. It’s really busy, but it makes the time go by quicker.
So… Colton is a teenager!! I can hardly believe that we have a young man and not a little boy any more. He very much enjoys standing in front of me and measuring up to where he measures on me…. Not so long ago he was up to my mouth, then my nose, eyes… well, he’s got less than 1 and ½ inches to go and he’ll have sprouted past me!!
He had a good birthday, his second here in Burundi. He made a long list of friends that he wanted to invite to his party. I again made my boys’ favorite cake, and I’m telling you, the texture is sooo different here. It just wants to fall apart. So once I had inverted the top layer, it split down the center vertically and horizontally. We christened it “the Christian cake”, ‘cause of the cross that adorned it. ( In the past, the old perfectionist me would not have found this funny at all, but praise Jesus, He’s helping me to be a little softer around the edges.)
I want to publicly say a huge “thank you sweet Desirae!!!” This lovely lady (Colton’s cousin) spent a lot of time into a scrapbook that she put together of her life over the past year, and mailed it out for Colton’s birthday. He was so blessed to receive a package from our other home. Just the fact that he’s not “outta sight, outta mind”, is nice to know, with the huge added bonus of such a personal gift. Missing grandma’s, cousins and friends is sometimes hard for Colton.
Remember my blog from a number of months ago about this tiny little cat - Belle - that was in dire straits that we spoon fed for 5 days, it died in my hands while feeding it, Jesus raised it from the dead, and it permanently died the following day? Well, our friends Travis and Astrid’s cat had 5 black babies ( Colton and I witnessed the births of the first 4), and the momma cat stopped feeding the babies on the fifth day and died on the sixth. Knowing about our very limited knowledge about feeding an orphaned kitten, they asked if we wanted to take one. Long story short, we’ve had Zima for over two weeks, and he’s doing great. Colton is the best at feeding him out of the three of us. ‘Zima’ is short for ubuzima, which means ‘life’ in Kirundi; speaking positively into the little critters life. Colton is pretty confident that Zima will get to stay in the house permanently; “after all,” he stated, “ he’s worked his way into your heart already, next it’s into the house.” Even Isaac enjoys holding the little guy, listening to Zima’s “motor running” - Isaac’s terminology for purring. I thought cats have an aversion to water, but this feline seems to enjoy his two plus baths per day.
All three of us are in this awesome Bible study. We started about two months ago, and we meet every Tuesday; we’re doing an audio series by Bill Johnson and Chris Vallotton. There’s a couple from South Africa, Tim and Jeannette (he teaches pastors here), three Korean ladies that are starting a local NGO, Olivia, who’s from Denver Colorado, manager of King’s Conference Center combined with lots of different ministry involvements, Marieke, part of Travis and Astrid’s team, but currently working with CRIB kids, and Travis and Astrid. These people are very near and dear to our hearts. We have wonderful and deep personal ministry and prayer times together; we feel so blessed to have these friends. If Jesus is done with us here in Buj. after our two years, it will be very hard to say bye to these wonderful friends….. I don’t even want to go there just now.
We have to move out of our house by the end of December; our land lord wants it back so his son and daughter-in-law can move in. This is a pretty huge prayer concern as rental houses are very hard to find in this area. And it has to be furnished which makes it even harder to find. So please pray that we will find a house that is suitable, and that God will kick in the added blessing of a yard that allows Colton to play soccer in the back yard. For example, often yards are not even big enough for a trampoline.
Our fridge hasn’t worked in months - at least 5 months. There are brief times when it cools so much that it freezes the food, the odd time it cools a little, but for the most part it just doesn’t cool at all. We’ve told the land lord a number of times, to no avail. So moving will bring a stop to me attempting (and failing) to keep the fridge cold with frozen water bottles. (The freezer section works fine.) It used to be that if we put food in the fridge it was the one place that the ants couldn’t get to - this is no longer the case.
Man, animal and land is greatly looking forward to the rainy season. Since April we’ve had one light sprinkle on June 29th (the day after elections; kinda’ symbolic of the Father cleansing the country). The temperature is consistently hot, hot, and hot - low to mid 30’s. Nights are a few degrees cooler than day time. However, last week Sunday we had a gentle shower, as well as a few more times during that week. Two of those mornings it was so cold; the temperature dipped down to an all time low that we have witnessed - both mornings it was a mere 23.8 degrees!!! We sat at the breakfast table covered in goose bumps. Colton put his long PJ bottoms on under his school uniform. This cold yet wonderful respite from the heat dissipated after about an hour. (Till last week the lowest we’ve experienced is 24.8.)
The same thing happened last year; we had a few “teaser” showers beginning of September, followed by another few months of harsh, dry heat. But hopefully we won’t have to wait that long this year, as last year there was a ‘mini famine’ up country because of the delayed rains.
With the dry season come the unpleasant and very unwelcome electricity and water cuts. The novelty?? tolerance?? of not having hydro and water wears off after months and it just gets old and very frustrating. Try as we might to have and maintain a godly attitude about it, we just simply fail sometimes. It really wreaks havoc with the fridge situation if I can’t freeze water to somewhat keep the fridge cool. And in this country of sweat and dust and filth, water is even more essential than just for cooking/drinking. We’ve had a lot more water cuts this year than last; for washing we store water in pails and for drinking in jugs.
When you are aware of incredible govt. corruption it makes it pretty hard to just ‘live with it’, when you know that things could be drastically different; but the public, it seems, isn’t important enough to supply them with basic necessities, as long as some of their pockets are thickly lined… Televised promises by top govn. personnel to make a complete stop to cuts go unfulfilled.
What’s especially annoying is when water and hydro are cut at the same time, which happens frequently. Aarrrhhhggg!!! No hydro, no fans!!! Yeesch that’s hot.
Sept. 22 2010
“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Luke 10:19
Isaac has prayed into this almost daily for many months…
Colton found and captured a scorpion at school yesterday. It is currently approximately 4 feet from where I’m sitting in a clear plastic pencil case. I took it to school today to show some of my students. It seems most people don’t know that there are scorpions in Burundi. Aime, a colleague of ours, was down a few weeks ago and we told him that Colton had stepped on one in the shower about a month ago, and he could hardly believe that they exist here - he had never seen one - and he’s a local. And we’ve had two encounters with them in the span of about a month. The one Colton stepped on was much bigger than the one he caught yesterday. We also get snakes and centipedes in that same shower.
I’ll leave you with that warm and fuzzy thought. ;-)

Tired and refreshed!

2010-09-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

Cont. from previous blog….
So on Sunday, Wycliff, who is Mercy’s husband, picked us up at our hotel and we walked to their church - Anglican - a massive and ancient stone building with beautiful stained glass windows. After church more touring of the city, then hopped on a matatu again and went to Mercy’s for lunch.
Monday we boarded the train for Mombasa at 7:00 P.M. The trip was about 15 - 16 hrs. long; the cabins weren’t posh, but all we needed: beds, sink, etc. The farther away from Nairobi we went, the hotter it got. Mombasa’s weather is much like Burundi’s - hot, hot, and hot!!! Thank goodness for my trusty umbrella to shade me from the sun combined with my 70 SPF sun block.
Mombasa was fabulous!!!! A large part of the city is on an island, accessible by bridges, but we also opted to check out the ferry. That was really beautiful. We went to this absolutely amazing park that had baobab trees galore. The trunks are incredibly thick, kind of like the Redwoods of California. Colton and I both have this thing for trees - Colton loves to climb them, and I just love the look of trees; and leaves. So Colton scrambled from tree to tree, climbing like a monkey. Things that wouldn’t necessarily garner much attention in the western world are much cause for locals to stop and take in the sight as a mzungu goes about his business, including tree climbing.
We visited Fort Jesus - google it for a bit of East African history, followed by a scrumptious Chinese lunch on the ocean. After this we headed to the Indian Ocean. Wow!!!! God sure knew what He was doing when He spoke this into existence! Breath taking powder white beach that goes on mile after endless mile. We could go out into the water over half a km. and the water was only up to our chest.
The camel ride that we had on the beach was awesome. It walked very slowly, clodding along just like the camel on the Veggie Tales movie, Jonah.
The three of us really enjoy shell collecting on the beach, and this was even more fun than on Lake Tanganyika, the 600 km. long lake that we can see from our house.
Thursday we spent more time at the beach. Considering that I’m not a beach bum, nor can I go in the sun, it was fantastic. And the fact that I wore a sport shirt with short sleeves and shorts for once was not cause for people to stare, as anything goes on the beach in Africa.
At 7:00 P.M. we boarded the train back to Nairobi. It was all-inclusive, so dinner and breakfast are served in the dining cars. The animals had us glued to the windows for hours; we saw many herds of zebra, antelopes of varying kinds, wildebeest, ostriches, other large land birds, etc.
Saturday we went to this huge Maasai market; the colors, the Maasai body piercing, the haggling, the loud banter, the ‘smell’ of Africa, it truly is a place where the senses are engaged!!
Afterwards while walking around, just taking in more of this busy city, we stumbled on this fantastic little coffee house that served real, brewed coffee!! Super, super strong stuff. It’s my new favorite coffee house in the world; no joke - move over Second Cup and Starbucks. We bought three mugs there and I got a t-shirt with the logo on it - “Nairobi Java House”. If time and finances allow, book a flight to Nairobi Java House, and since you’re in the city anyway, make sure you check out the rest of the city as well.
For supper we wanted to have things from the supermarket that we miss from Canada and enjoy them back at the hotel. So after careful deliberation and having to make choices from the overwhelmingly many aisles of food, we decided on yogurt (Colton and I each polished off a one litre no problem), Ritz crackers (imitation, though the label was the Ritz label), apples, which we don’t buy in Burundi ‘cause they’re a dollar a piece, and tiny and not fresh at all; a very large bag of delicious potatoe chips, Pepsi!!! (yaaayyyy!! For devoted Pepsi drinkers like us; though I must say that the Coke in Burundi is good - must be due to the fact that it comes in glass bottles), and imitation Oreo’s. Oh… the little pleasures of our Canadian home!!! Yikes, maybe I should check how many food groups we covered before I print this…..
On Sunday morning we went back for another great coffee at the above, chilled, than headed to the airport to catch our flight back home. We had a short layover in Tanzania, and came home feeling tired, refreshed and rejuvenated; a contradiction in terms, I know, but a vacation is probably the only time when “tired and refreshed" makes sense.
We thank God very much for our time away; we really needed it. We know we are where the Father wants us, but that doesn’t make it easy.
I came back with a new fire and excitement for this coming year. I like that.

Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya, here we come!!

2010-08-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

We left on Wednesday, August 11th and came back on Sunday, August 22nd.
We arrived at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi and immediately were thrown into a world of many white faces and shops filled with more chocolate and “things “ than we had seen in over a year. And not just any chocolate, but LINDT chocolate!!! Amongst almost every other kind you can think of. Yummmm!!
We went to our hotel, just chilled for a while, went downstairs for dinner, nothing hugely exciting. Oh, wait, we went to this huge supermarket that had everything; we just walked around trying to take it all in - clean, brightly lit and fully stocked shelves of anything you could wish for. It was as if we were transported into another world in the span of a few short hours. We bought lots of junk food and went back to our hotel room and pigged out on our scrumptious finds.
Mercy, a Kenyan, was a teacher at The King’s School till June. She got married to a Kenyan just before Christmas in their native Nairobi. She came back to Burundi to finish the school year, while her new husband, Wycliff stayed behind. In June she moved back to Nairobi, but not before she offered to show us around Nairobi if and when we came. Well, Mercy is just a darling, and she (and hubby Wycliff on Saturday) was a great tour guide on Friday and Saturday.
Thursday - First we went to an elephant orphanage located in Nairobi National Park. Hung out with, petted, laughed at, got dirtied by about 15 elephants.
Next stop - Giraffe Center. This was THE best. There were buckets of food pellets that made it very easy to befriend these beautiful creatures. At first the sensation of their long, rough and slimy, black tongue wrapping around your hand was … umm… I don’t know, I guess just plain gross. But just the realization that you were actually feeding a giraffe made you forget about the grossness and give them handful after handful. One of the employees asked me if I’d like to be kissed by a giraffe, and without thinking about it I said yes. The guide demonstrated by putting a pellet of food between his pursed lips, and lickity-split, (pun intended), the pellet had exchanged lips!! First I was up, followed by Colton who had to do it time and again because Isaac kept missing the camera shot. Hee-hee!! This one time when Colton had this necking experience (pun definitely intended), he kept arching his back more and more, but the giraffe’s neck just kept coming and coming, till finally it got the pellet, leaving a thick line of saliva hanging between Colton’s chin and his mouth. Loved it - me, not Colton!!
When it was Isaac’s turn I kept missing the shot as well, and no, it wasn’t intentional; this also necessitated numerous attempts, somewhat to Isaac’s chagrin. Thankfully they had a washing station nearby, complete with soap, that we made good use of.
Following this we went to Mamba Village, which is a large crocodile place. We’ve seen crocs. in Burundi lots, so this wasn’t a big deal. We came for the lunch that is served in a beautiful outdoor setting by a little lake.
Next it was off to Westgate Mall, a 5 story shopaholics paradise. It is located in a very posh area of Nairobi. Many of the shops are high European fashion brands, whose prices made our eyes spin. Here too, we just walked around trying to take it all in, thinking back to Burundi and the incredible contrast between it and where we were now. And you know what we bought?! Spices!! I’m not kidding!! Spices!! Finally in a real store and all we bought was spices.
At about 8:30 P.M. we went to Carnivore, which is this really huge place that serves meats that you might not ever even have heard of. For example, how ‘bout some zebra tonight? Perhaps a nice slab of medium-well done crocodile; not suit your palate today? No problem - maybe hippo will hit the spot. Oh, you just want something mundane? Well they cater to that as well. Does steer heart (Isaac’s favorite) sound better? Or ostrich meatballs? Colton’s fav. - pork sausage; my favorite - boring ol’ chicken breast.
They just keep bringing different types of meat till you tell them no more. We must have had at least 10-12
varieties that night. I’m not that keen on meat as a rule, so the cat that was roaming between the tables was very well fed beside my chair.
Regretfully, we weren’t able to take any pictures at Carnivore because we had completely killed the camera battery at our other excursions that day, and we didn’t go to the hotel before dinner to recharge them.
That was Thursday, a super fun day.
Friday, Mercy came to our hotel after breakfast and we headed out to Nairobi National Park. We saw lions, albino zebra’s, cougar, leopard, cheetah, hippo, wildebeest, numerous antelope species, crocs., monkeys, ostrich, etc. etc. Our mode of transportation was the ever popular matatu, which is what we would call a hippie van in the west; blaring reggae music, brightly decorated, windows rolled down, swerving in and out of the absolute craziest traffic you can imagine. Burundi traffic , as awful as it is seems almost like child’s play by comparison. At night these matatus turn into a kaleidoscope of colors in motion as the lights that the owners install illuminate the insides.
After lunch we toured around the city, and met up with 2 other Kenyan teachers, which was really cool. In a city of close to 5 million people and running into someone you know is pretty sweet. Oh, and when we were at the giraffe center we ran into another Kenyan teacher!!! Three in total, not counting our planned encounter with Mercy.
Irene, one of the teachers who lives up country in Kenya during the summer months had come to the city for a few days and was staying at this hotel that was a fraction of the price that we were paying for our hotel. Our hotel was very, very basic by Canadian standards, but it is the high season right now, so it wasn’t cheap. Anyways, Irene suggested seeing how much a room would be for the three of us at this cheap place. Isaac and I agreed that we would first check out a room, and take it from there. Well, before we could hardly blink, and without seeing a room, we were booked into this place for three nights. Imagine what $15 US per night gets you!!! In much lower standards than you and I are used to. Let it suffice to say it was an experience, and thankfully we spent very little time there except for the nights.
In Canada I would hardly think twice about buying Kenyan coffee. It was surprising to find that it’s almost impossible to find an establishment that has brewed coffee; almost everyone just serves a pretty poor instant coffee. So after a number of days Isaac and I wanted a real cup of coffee, and while staying at our wonderfully cheap hotel we decided that we’d check out the 5 star Hilton’s restaurant to see whether they served real coffee. Much to our delight they did, but it came at a crazy high price; we splurged on a very tiny cup of super strong java, but opted out of the $30 US breakfast per person.
The lack of availability of coffee in Kenya is because the growers get much more for their coffee beans when they export. In Burundi, very, very few locals drink coffee even though we have superb coffee grown up country. Reason being most people can’t afford to drink it.
In the afternoon Mercy and Wycliff took us to the August 7th Peace Memorial. This is the US Embassy site that was bombed by Al Quida on August 7th, 1998. Two hundred and eighteen people died. Pretty awful.
In the evening we went to Wycliff’s parents house - super fun people. His dad is the director of admin. in the Kenyan parliament and was very eager to give us a tour of parliament, whether in session or out, which ever we preferred. Across the street from Wycliff’s home is where Mercy grew up with her aunt and uncle because her mom died . So we went and had a nice time with Mercy’s family. Kenyan’s are so friendly and welcoming, and we left with warm invitations to come back, feeling loved and accepted. By Kenyan standards we were, after all, almost family now as well.
To be continued…..

Burundi Hospitals

2010-07-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

So, I was going to tell you a bit about the hospitals here.
We’ve had a tour of 2 private hospitals, which is what I’ll start with. I won’t go into much detail.
A large room houses between 10 and 12 people; rooms can house men and women together; beds are literally back to back, no curtains to separate them. Linens may or may not be provided. It’s very dirty and smelly. AIDS patients are beside malaria patients who are beside anal hernia patients who are beside…. All food and drink has to be brought in by family/friends. If this does not happen because of lack of family or funds, the patient literally does not eat. Family/friends are also the caregivers. Nurses and doctors primarily administer drugs etc.; equipment is almost non-existent. Beds are probably at least 50 years old. People, I think mainly care givers, lying on the ground outside. Laundry spread out on the ground to dry.
Camping tents are the overflow - I’m very serious. When we had a tour there was a surgery in progress, and the door was not completely shut. This was a normal `house door`, no double or triple doors leading to the O.R, just a regular door off the hallway. The person that was giving us the tour opened the door further, and there, splayed on the table was a patient undergoing surgery, open to gross contamination.
There was a high pile of broken beds stacked up against the one wall outside, not far from the `tent ward.`
The government hospitals are much, much worse. The one where Divine stayed and died in was almost unbearably filthy. No linens are provided. The walls are so splattered with ``stuff`` that has run down that it seriously almost looks like a wallpaper pattern. Every Band-Aid, every needle, every dressing, absolutely every single thing that the patient needs for the treatment of the ailment they are suffering from has to be bought by the family/ friends. Again, caregivers of the sick tend to almost all needs. There’s a big metal barrel cut in half just outside a cluster of rooms that serves as the needle/blood transfusion/empty IV/food scrapes disposal. It reeks.
Emergency service - The day Mama Queen was brought in and died she had to wait about 5 hours before she was seen by a doctor; this is completely normal. There is much that I could say, but won’t.
One thing I ask of you, the reader. Please don’t whine and complain and get angry about our western medical system when things don’t go as you wish they would. And please don’t whine and complain and gripe about the high taxes that you pay, because a large part of the taxes you pay goes toward your medical coverage. You have no idea how blessed you are. Thank God for what you have.

Mama Queen is dancing for the King

2010-07-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day!!!
Take time to thank God for our wonderful country.
Much has happened in the last few weeks.
We got to spend some time with Sara and Peter Ndaruhutse, children of the late David Ndaruhutse, founder of A.R.M. - African Revival Ministries. Sara is 20, lives with her mom in Kigali, Rwanda and she studies in Uganda in communication. After completing this she’s planning on going to Bible college in the UK. I didn’t spend much time with Peter, so I don’t know what he’s studying. They both love and serve the Lord.
School’s out - hooray!! Colton did absolutely phenomenally well; he received 7 academic awards. With school being out I also get some breathing space, which I needed. Isaac’s schedule will be very full in a few weeks as he has a lot of things to fix/install/build for both schools.
Since the beginning of the school year I’ve had a daily stream of mostly girls, some boys, coming to my room during recess, just to chat. We have two 20 minute breaks, so that’s a lot of time I’ve spent with them. On average I’d have probably 6 -8 girls, (some grade 3, mostly grades 4 - 6) per break, sometimes up to 15. I often struggled with this; I had so much work to do and wanted to work through the breaks, but I had to keep telling myself that relationships are more important than working through break. Many of these girls are Muslim/Hindu. One year 5 girl accepted Jesus as her Saviour, and said she would not tell her parents. She came back the next day, very distraught, saying she had told her parents and that she couldn’t be a Christian. In this religion the father has full rights to kill his family if they convert to Christianity.
This particular girl, Bhagyashree, was hard for me to always love; nosy, serious chatterbox, etc. She loved to tell me about their Muslim festivals and beliefs, ceremonies and rituals. So after listening to her I would tell her what Christianity is. This particular time she informed me that they were in the middle of this 2 day festival where the father lights a big fire in the back yard and walks around it 4 times, after which their sins are forgiven. I reminded her that only God/Jesus forgives sins. I told her if she ever wanted to accept Jesus as her personal Saviour and wanted to have someone pray with her, or if she had questions about that or anything pertaining to Jesus, she could ask me anytime. Immediately she said she wanted to accept Jesus!!! I was soooo excited!! I had been praying for her for a long time, and now I got to witness this miracle.
Please pray for this precious girl and her year 3 sister. These kids that come from Muslim/Hindu families are so confused. Some have told me that at school they pray to Jesus, and that they believe in Jesus, but at home they pray to their false gods and idols. We have an almost 25% Muslim/Hindu student body. Naida, year 6, is really struggling; her dad is laying on the pressure at home, and she is torn.
One year 3 girl told her teacher and myself that she saw men with turbans and a huge snake in her room. One of the men had touched her on her head and she was transported to their temple, and the man touched her again and she was back in her room. Recently all the kids got a bible from Gideons and this girl, Angali, brought it back at her fathers’ request. He had specifically forbidden her to read it at school, and threatened her that he was posting “a man” demon, by the ceiling of her classroom to watch her, and if she read in the bible this “man” would tell him. These are only 2 stories; there are many more; please pray for these children that every word they hear that come from the Fathers’ heart will take root and will with time bear much fruit. I fully believe that the Lord has them at the King’s School for a purpose.
We as staff are very aware of the spirits that could be brought into the school by these kids and parents, and we corporately pray against them very diligently.
There is a King’s School grad (2007) that was helping out since January that also has spent a lot of time in my room. She comes and tells me things that are going on at home, she cries, and I just pray, “Jesus help me.” I pray with her, listen to her and love and affirm her. I asked her if I could blog about her situation so you, the reader, could pray.
Evangeline is going to be 20 in October, and her father treats her like a little child. In fact he compares her with her 7 year old sister. She is not allowed to socialize, she’s in a prison. Her mom and dad have been separated for a number of years; mom lives in Nigeria. Dad is a pastor of a local church here. Dad beats his girls regularly. Evangeline says she far rather would have his physical abuse than his verbal abuse. Her last physical beating was when she was 16, but he’s threatening to start beating her up again. One sister is doing her A levels (grade 13 equivalent) in Uganda, one sister is going into year 9, and one into year 3. Evangeline also became a Christian recently (March); she hasn’t told her dad yet, she says he would use this against her. The spiritual abuse is awful. Evangeline failed her A levels in Uganda; it’s a 2 year program.
These girls are docile, yet carry a lot of anger and hurt in them. Often when he beats the girls he does it in front of the sisters. He says they are evil and wicked, and that they are dangerous.
Even though Evangeline is treated like a small child, she’s expected to raise her sisters and manage the home, as well as work full time; on top of this, she tutors some kids. Since starting work as an assistant at the beginning of the year she has not been able to keep one single franc that she’s earned. Not one. Her dad takes it all. I could write much about this situation, but I won’t. Please pray for this friend and her family; and pray that I will be a good friend to her.
There are other teachers that come into my room, tell me their problems and cry, though crying is very un-African. I guess they saw me cry when Ramona was sick and died, so perhaps they know it’s okay to cry around me. All I can do is listen and hug them and pray with them. I’ve wondered though what Jesus is doing in and through all these people coming to my room.
Two days ago we had 3 people speak over us that Isaac and I are spiritual parents. They know nothing about the above relationships. Two of them just flew in from the UK a week and a half ago, and one from South Carolina. We were praying together, and God showed up pretty powerfully.
The spiritual parents thing totally resonates with us - towards the beginning of our time here in Burundi, I had three dreams about adopting someone. I never felt it was a physical adoption; I’ve wondered about these dreams, and we believe God has revealed to us what they meant. Please pray into this with us.
We’ve met some pretty incredible people in the last 10 days - people that we fully believe God has brought into our lives for a huge purpose. Some are local, others are not. It feels like we’re on the cusp of something new.
Divine….. sweet, precious Divine….dancing in heaven, worshipping Jesus together with my daddy that died when I was 2, with my incredible niece Ramona and my beautiful friend Charlotte….
Divine was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 yrs. ago. Shortly after she got pregnant, unplanned. One week after Bearnu (girl), was born she had a mastectomy; one week after this, she started chemo. in Uganda, as Burundi has no cancer treatment. She was doing pretty good till about three months ago. Her other breast started showing very rapid signs of cancer. Her lungs started filling up with fluid. She had an excruciating lung puncture. By now her breast was literally being “eaten” away by the cancer. She was refusing another mastectomy. Her wound/scar from the mastectomy started leaking lots. Both sides had to have daily dressing changes, due to lots of awful drainage. The last 5 days she could not lie down because she couldn’t breath, and because of being in agony. She hardly slept a wink in this time; exhaustion hardly touches what she felt I think.
Early Monday morning the 21st, Deo - her husband, and Alli took her to the hospital. Alli kept me informed all morning while I was at school as to what was happening via texting. Nothing happened all morning medically, hospitals here are almost enough to……….. more on that later.
Finally at about one in the afternoon she was seen, and was put on I.V. An exhausted Alli went home, and Deo went home to organize meals to be brought to the hospital. They were told that she first had to have a blood transfusion before they could do another lung puncture. At about 3:00 P.M. Isaac, Colton and I arrived at the hospital. It was awful; she was not fully “there”, her heart was hurting her so bad, she was fighting to breath. I held her head as she sat in her wheelchair, too weak and tired to hold it up herself.
At about 4:15 they finally started the transfusion, and they made her lie down. She begged and begged to sit up because she couldn’t breath, and her heart hurt her more when she laid down. As weak and tired as she was, she tried to get up time and again, and the family members that were there literally held her down. I coulda’ decked them. I realize they were just trying to help, but it was so incredibly hard to see. The family didn’t seem very compassionate at all, using harsh tones, etc.
Alli came back shortly after they started the transfusion. At about 4:30 Deo came back. At about 4:45 they put a hose by her nose with oxygen coming out of it. Divine was begging for help, every little while trying to get up. Close to 5:00 things got horrible, and 5 - 7 minutes later she died. She suffocated….. you can’t imagine…. the look on her face, her eyes…..
She leaves to mourn her passing her husband Deo, 6 beautiful children: Queen, Destine, Caleb, Esther, Dedi, and little Bearnu, and lots of family and friends, which we are blessed and privileged to be amongst.
Please pray for Deo and the family.
And please remember to pray for us as well

2010-06-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

Our sweet Mama Queen (Divine) died at about 5:00 P.M. today while Alli, Isaac, myself and a few family members where present. Colton was outside the door. It was horrible.
Please pray for Deo and the 5 children, ages 1-12.
More details some time.
Rosel

Bubanza Crusade - Part 2

2010-05-26T10:07:00.001-07:00

Bubanza Crusade - Part 1

2010-05-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

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.”

Up Country Crusade

2010-04-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

April 23 2010
Hi again; I know, three blogs in a week, what’s going on!!??
An update on the CRIB kids with Malaria:
The 5 kids that have it are:
1. Kwizera - 80% - at home, seemingly not much improvement yet
2. Francois - 80% - hospital, much, much better today than when we visited him two days ago
3. Clavier - 50% - same as Francois
4. Claude - 70% - at home, improving
5. Jacob - 70% - wasn’t responding well to meds. at home, so he was admitted to hospital last night; looked better already today.
Keep praying for them please.
Honda has invited Isaac and myself to preach at a crusade that he is organizing for up-country for Friday, April 30 - Sunday, May 1. Previous years there’s been about a thousand people in attendance. One evening “The Jesus Film” is being shown. On top of preaching two times (with a translator), we are likely to be involved in personal prayer ministry. We are very pumped about this weekend and can hardly wait to see how the Lord is going to advance His kingdom.
We will be in a very poor area; showers, if any, out of a bowl, behind some palm leaves. Bed - on the ground, with a straw “beach” mat is what will be provided, but praise Jesus, the day before we left Canada I was getting a few last minute necessities at Superstore, and I for some reason (thank you Jesus) bought 3 thin camping mats that are a scant 1/2 of an inch thick, so that will be luxury compared to just the straw mat.
This year Honda wants to try and drive further than previous years so the hike up the mountain to reach our destination isn’t so long and strenuous. It’s in a very remote area, so to carry all the gear up is quite taxing; this includes a heavy generator to power the mics. and movie projector gear. We will also be bringing basic things like soap that will be given away. Thankfully, the sponsoring church sends guys down the mountain to meet us to carry the brunt of the load. Honda said last year a guy carried the generator on his head, whereas normally it takes two people to carry it!!
Please pray for Honda, Isaac, Colton and myself for a rich anointing, empowerment of the Word. Pray that the people will come hungry and expecting to meet with the Lord in a very intimate way. Pray for protection, both in transport and from the transference of evil, especially in personal prayer times, This is Africa, and as you probably know, witchcraft and occultism run many generations deep in many people. Just this past Sunday afternoon at a function in church we witnessed two women get delivered from the clutches of Satan. It took four people, three of which were men, to restrain one women. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom, insight, knowledge, understanding, discernment, an increase in faith, perseverance in prayer……
…….energy, good restful sleeps, tolerance of the food - I tend to lose my appetite once I start chewing on rocks or sand left in the beans; Isaac and Colton can generally resume eating after picking the extra roughage out. Some of the African cuisine is pretty awful. Seriously!! Sombe is very common - a cooked, mushy, deep green dish which tastes like what I imagine fermented silage/grass clippings to taste like. Tiny fish with heads intact - bulging eyes and all, the infamous bugali - the maize type is not bad, almost entirely void of taste actually; it’s basically just mass to fill an empty stomach. However, the cassava bugali is awful - texture, taste…. Ugghh!!! And we’re not very picky eaters. Honestly!! And thankfully!!
April 26
So… an accurate update, straight from Debbie the head teacher, on the school riots.
The group that came to Primary was much bigger than I said earlier; there were in fact about 500 secondary kids in that group. And they weren’t overly concerned about Primary, since it only goes to year 6. They’ve been out of school now for two months, and things seem to be at a stand still. The possibility of all the grades having to be repeated next year is looming very real on the horizon. Please continue to pray that this issue will be resolved in a peaceful manner.
Our internet connection, or lack thereof, is very problematic as of late. I go on Facebook for a bit when I go online to see what’s happening in our friends’/families’ lives, and once I try to email the connection usually cuts off. The norm lately is that it automatically disconnects every few minutes, which is so time consuming with the system that we have here, to constantly log back on. This is very frustrating - please pray for better internet connections.
We thank you for your support in prayer.
April 27
As long as I can’t post this blog because of internet issues, I’ll just continue it.
All the CRIB kids are well on their way to recovery from malaria; everyone’s out of hospital, one’s back at school already, the rest are just basically regaining their strength. Malaria takes a lot out of a person. Thank you so much for your prayers for these kids. Love and blessings to you, our family and friends.

School's Out!! Hooray.... NOT!!

2010-04-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

School’s Out. Hooray…… NOT!!! April19
The King’s School Primary, where I spend my days, was almost under attack this morning. Here’s what happened, and I want to straight away add that I do not have all the details, but this is what I know.
The public school teachers have been on strike here for about a month, and it’s looking like this whole current year will be a write-off for students attending public schools - in other words, if a student is presently in year 9, they have to repeat it next year.
To protest, students from public schools decided to throw rocks into the grounds of private schools; the thinking behind this is that if they can’t continue with their education and with the next grade next year, than private school students shouldn’t have access to education. This was instigated by teachers, believe it or not!!
So this morning, with quite a bit of commotion on the way to our school, between 150 - 200 students arrived at the school with the intent of throwing rocks over the fence and gate. The gate and the fence that surround the school are approximately 7ish feet high. The nursery class is right beside the gate, and the teacher of that class informed Aime, who works in the office, of the goings on.
Together they went out (brave souls - leave it to Aime and Olive to do this) and Aime started talking to the group. He told them that there were students from other countries than just Burundi, and that if they would get hurt, it would be worse. Moreover, these were little kids he informed them. They also had intentions of damaging Aime’s car which was parked right there.
Well, praise Jesus, this deterred them from throwing rocks, only with the intent on going to the International school (private) which is close by. I don’t know what happened after this.
This is serious, as there has been death as a result of this kind of activity in Gitega, a city that’s up country. I don’t know how many students were killed.
I imagine there will be more info. forthcoming tomorrow, and I’ll keep you posted.
We need your prayers.
April 20
Soooo, I tried desperately to post the above yesterday, but was unable to…. Internet access issues that are very frustrating.
Today there was a very heavy police presence close to our school, as well as the International school.
Like Isaac said before, prevention is so much better than dealing with a potential aftermath.
I know of no fear amongst the children, in fact I don’t think many even know about yesterday’s incident; there’s no talk about it from students. However, the Secondary kids were concerned/scared that they might become a target. We know of one close friends’ friend that was hit by a rock yesterday at a different school.
The timing for this is awful as well - just 2 months before a very sensitive presidential election. So the political parties are having a real go, trying to manipulate and use the strike to their advantage.
The school board has informed the teacher’s that if they continue with this strike, they will not help/support the teachers for the next 5 years. I wonder what kind of ramifications that would bring with it.
We need your prayers for a peaceful resolution.
CRIB is “under attack” with malaria - 5 kids have it as of this afternoon, with a few additional alerts pending test results. Two children have an 80%, two 70%, another 50%. This is how they measure the severity of the illness, with 100% being very, very sick, and death is not uncommon. Two of the 5 are hospitalized; one of the 80% and the 50%. The way they determine if you need hospitalization is if you can keep the tablets down or not. If you can’t you’re admitted. Malaria is accompanied by high fever, and if you can’t keep anything down, there’s a real risk of dehydration. It’s really hard seeing the kids so sick. The one that is the sickest is also one of two that is by far the most difficult at home and at school, but seeing him today made all 3 of us realize how much we love the guy.
The previous 2 subjects are heavy - I don’t feel like continuing, but I will for the sake of bringing you more up to date in our lives; I’m already behind with this.
During the last week of the two week Easter break Colton was so blessed to be able to participate in a soccer ‘school’. Honda and Libby had organized a group of 8 professional soccer coaches from the UK to come and run this. This was intended for Honda’s 60 boys plus 40 others by invitation, but things turned out very differently, as they often do here.
What’s a bored school boy to do when there is no school and he sees others engaged in an obviously unusual training camp, run by 8 muzungus!!?? Join in, of course!! By the end of the week, they played a bit of soccer and the coaches were managing at times near chaotic activity. On Friday there were almost 400 players on the two pitches!! As Honda remarked, “it’s much easier to let them play than to try and keep them off the field, and that way they don’t steal the equipment on the sidelines.” The team from the UK brought in loads of balls that they gave away, as well as huge inflatable nets that they’ll probably use again next year when they return - yep, they already said that they will probably come back next year. This is a huge blessing.
Well, Dave and Lynn, one of our pastor couples from Calvary Chapel is still stranded in London as a result of Heathrow being shut down because of the debris in the UK airspace from the volcano eruption in Iceland. They spent 5 days in London/Paris on a planned holiday after they left here, but involuntarily that holiday is lengthened substantially. What a rough life eh, - to be stranded in London!!!!!
It was a huge blessing to have Dave and Lynn here; we laughed, we cried, we prayed, drove through many potholes, were very grateful for Maryanne’s spirit that accompanied us up country, (only Dave and Lynn will understand this) we had fun, heard some of Dave’s near death experiences, re-positioned the fans in front of them yet again - I’m not complaining in the least tiny bit, it was just funny how hot they were. Oh, and Lynn got Colton pining for one of those cool IPOD touch gadgets. And they brought us Werther’s Originals. And Cows - the caramel ones. And Lynn gave me her ‘original’ , ‘Apple’ travel coffee mug. Lynn, I’m still pumped about it.
Seriously, we are very blessed to have Calvary Chapel as our church family, and that they see the importance of a pastoral visit when you’re so far removed physically. The Lord really knit us together a lot more, and we are very grateful for the visit, and for a deeper relationship.
Enough for today. Happy Tuesday.

Increase my Faith Jesus

2010-04-16T13:39:00.001-07:00

So go back to the Sunday that Isaac, Colton and I watched the movie/documentary on George Muller (a few blogs ago), and once you’re there, you’re in the right time frame.
So on Sunday we watched the movie, and the Lord started talking to me about asking for that kind of faith.
The following day, Monday, our guard found an itty, bitty thing of a kitten next to our yard. He showed Colton, who brought it in.
Now you need to understand, I am so not a pet person - at all! They’re fine to look at, but quite frankly, they gross me out. It’s very important for you to remember that I don’t do pets, so that you’ll see that what transpired was a complete God thing.
When I saw this tiny kitten, which we ‘guesstimated’ to be about 1 ½ weeks old, I immediately felt compassion for it. It was meowing really loudly, clearly needing it’s mother. I went and got a tiny little plastic spoon and started spoon feeding the kitten. The poor thing sputtered, choked, and resisted. I wrapped it in a cloth so that it’s wild paws couldn’t hit the spoon and dump the milk. As it opened it’s mouth to meow, I’d empty the milk into it’s mouth. It was a long, slow process.
Well, it sort of seemed like we had a baby in the house all of a sudden; I had to feed it before school. In fact one day it made us a little late for staff devotions; I had to feed it upon returning from school, before bedtime, before going out, before…
Our domestic help vehemently declined to feed Belle the one time we asked him to. We’ve since found out that to an African a cat is akin to what a mouse is to us. I certainly wouldn’t dream of spoon feeding a mouse…
Isaac was saying that maybe we should (gulp) kill the kitten. Not to be mean or cold hearted or anything, but she was struggling with the feeding, she was far too young to be away from her mom, and that way she wouldn’t have to suffer. Now normally, it would be my nature to have agreed entirely with this suggestion. But not this time. You see, God was doing something in me with, or perhaps through this cat. I couldn’t put my finger on what, or how, but I just liked this little thing, and I had a very strong feeling that God was behind it. I told Isaac this numerous times when I’d be patiently feeding it, or if he would mention getting rid of it again.
I found myself talking to Belle - the name Colton gave her - and I’m thinking to myself, “what’s going on - I’m talking to a cat!!!”
She meowed a lot, and Colton, compassionate Colton, even got tired of it. The second day we had her he announced: “ Yesterday she was my kitten, today she’s our kitten, but I think tomorrow she’ll be your kitten.”
Well, that Wednesday, 2 days after Belle came, I prayed that prayer of wanting that huge, massive faith, and thinking about and wondering about all the ‘implications’ that could come with praying and receiving such a faith.
On Thursday, the next day, I was responding to, and writing emails in the evening. I don’t even turn our computer on nearly every day, so when I do, often there’s lots of stuff to tend to, and it ends up getting late. Isaac had gone to bed before me, and so when I finally finished my stuff at about 11:30, I was going to feed Belle, and hit it as well.
I got her wrapped in the cloth again, and I started to feed her. All of a sudden she died, right there in my hand!! I just stared at her. After some time I started to try and make her move - I held her up, moved her legs, her head, but nothing. She was as limp as a rag doll. After about three or four minutes, her little mouth opened and her tongue came out. Her eyes where still open, so I closed them. This was not good, how would I tell Colton… yes, he didn’t appreciate everything about her, but he wanted to see her grow and thrive.
All of a sudden, this strong feeling came over me and I laid my right hand on the tiny thing that I was still holding in my left hand, and I prayed; “Jesus, in Your name I ask You to raise this cat from the dead.” I removed my hand to look. Nothing. I repeated the same thing and looked again. Nothing.
At this point, two things rushed into my mind. One - Jesus said in Mt 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” And two, the Holy Spirit lives in me, and as such, I have the power and authority to raise this cat from the dead in the name of Jesus Christ.
I laid hands on it again and said; “ In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to live.” I looked, nothing. I repeated the above. Nothing. I repeated it a few more times, to no avail. There was a little puddle on the floor, indicating that her bladder had relaxed. Well, I tried. But then the thought of putting the kitten in the big box that had been it’s home since Monday, and placing her outside and having to show Colton in the morning that she died didn’t appeal to me at all. This compelled me to start again.
And nothing happened after numerous times. I thought, “okay, that’s it, I tried and it didn’t work.” But right on the heels of that was this powerful thought; “persevere.”
And so I persevered. I kept repeating, “ In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to live.” And I’d look, expectantly. And repeat; and look; and repeat... By now a fair amount of time had passed - probably close to 10 minutes, but I continued.
All of a sudden, little Belle began to move!!! I could hardly believe it!!! I started praising the Lord as Belle came to life more and more. I was whooping it up, loudly, very conscious of the possibility of Juvinal, our guard coming to look in the window ensuring that all was well, but I didn’t care if he saw me having a party with the cat in my hands, praising and worshipping Jesus.
At one point I figured I’d go and tell Isaac what happened. With Belle in hand, I went to our bedroom and exclaimed, “ honey, wake up, Jesus just rose Belle from the dead!!”
Isaac, squinting, rolled over to face me and half propping himself up, he said; “oh man, why didn’t you just leave her dead?” and lay back down.
I said, “honey, Jesus just performed a miracle in my hands - he raised this cat back to life.” Needless to say, he wasn’t going to join the praise party, so I went back to the living room and continued on my own.
Little Belle was fine. I set her down, and she walked/pulled herself along as she had done before.
I was pumped beyond words! I saw, with my own eyes, the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ!!! My faith was soaring to new heights.
I excitedly related the previous evenings’ happenings to Isaac and Colton in the morning.
Colton told some of his friends at school, and they had started a debate. Some said, yes it was possible for Jesus to raise the dead, but not a cat; a dog maybe, but never a cat!! : )
Well, after supper that day, Colton was playing guitar on the couch, and I’m sitting beside him on the same chair where I always sat to feed Belle - the chair where Jesus performed the miracle the previous night. I’m feeding her, and all of a sudden, just like the night before, she died. I watched as the life drained out of her; Colton noticed something was going on, and he asked me if Belle was dead. He slid closer to me, and we just looked at her.
Of course, after what happened the night before the thought occurred to me, but there was no compulsion in me to pray over her this time. I just continued holding her, thinking of how much this kitten had come to mean to me, how the Lord had used her to increase my faith in Him. I sat there for about 45 minutes, reflecting on the last 5 days. Finally I handed her to Isaac, and I went and cried on our bed.
I’m talking to Jesus about my desire to see Him raise particularly non- Christians from the dead so that they can have an encounter with Him, and be spared living in hell for all eternity.
Two thoughts - 1. never dismiss God’s sovereignty in using anyone/anything, in teaching, molding, shaping His children, no matter how unlikely. 2. Like Colton’s classmates, do we doubt that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and that he still does radical miracles?

Another Peek Into Our Lives

2010-04-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

Some very long over due updates…
Sabe Village… that awful, wonderful place.
Part of our hearts are here - how can they not be when we’ve seen them so vulnerable, desperate, destitute!?
Life is back to “normal” here; the flood waters have long receded, and it’s back to survival mode. Some hire themselves out for whatever they can find for what ever amount of time, just to fill their tummies; others are back to prostitution, still others are thieving again.
It’s a hard place; the hopelessness, despair… the empty look in some of the eyes…
It’s a wonderful place… the resiliency of children and their delight in the tiniest of things, their sheer delight in a little ‘extra”, their inquisitive looks at these muzungus and the enthrallment of the white skin that they touch very gingerly, as if they might wipe it off if they touch it too hard.
Thank you so much for all you who have and are praying; please don’t stop. And thank you so much to everyone of you who put wings on your prayers and physically made an immediate difference in the lives of these people by responding to previous blogs asking you to consider making donations. May God richly bless you.
On that note, we just want to again say a very sincere thank you to every one of you that support us with your prayers and with finances. Without your help, without your response to God’s prompting to support us, we would not be here. You are in our regular prayers as we partner to advance the kingdom of God.
I was helping at Pastor Ray and MaryAnne’s school for one week. MaryAnne is in Canada for about one month to visit their two grown daughters and their families, so I had the opportunity to get to know the Nyakabaga kids much better. The school is at Pastor Ray’s house, and they have 16 kids ranging in age from 3 - 10, all refugees from the Congo. They are able to understand some English and they have an interpreter. This was a huge blessing to be able to teach these kids; you see the vibrant faith and their deep love for Jesus they have when we go to Nyakabaga, and so to get to know them more was wonderful.
Yesterday when we went (after not having gone for some time), I was told by one of the older teens that I am “mama Florence.” Her name is Florence, and in this culture the mom and dad are called by their firstborn childs’ name. In other words, Isaac is papa Colton, I’m mama Colton.
We love this place dearly; Pastor Rueben asked Isaac and myself to preach here in a few weeks, so please pray for us that the Lord will give us a fresh Word for them.
Pastor Dave and Lynn came out from Canada last week Tuesday, and are staying with us. They leave on Sunday. It’s been great having them; they are a blessing.
Isaac is continuing to work with Gentile. This young man is very likable and pleasant, but really lacks a desire to work.
Colton wrote 10 exams a few weeks ago - there is no such thing as exempting anything here. His report card was phenomenal - his highest mark was 98%. So now we are in the middle of a two week Easter break - no school, hooray!
I was at a women’s conference in Gitega a few weeks ago. What an experience - the only muzungu among hundreds of women; funny thing is, I don’t think I’m nearly as much aware of this than what it seems the African’s are. To me it’s just skin color, to them it seems so often to mean that I’m better, or more important some how. They tried to wait on me almost hand and foot, and I very, very humbly accepted a fair bit, but at one point I just said, “You know, I don’t want to be rude or ungrateful or anything culturally inappropriate, but I can’t accept that.” I think they understood where I was coming from. My desire is to be one of them, and to be elevated like that is not right. Please understand, they want to do nothing but bless me, they have only good intentions. Call me a wannabe African!! : )
We love you, our praying family and friends. Walk, breathe, be, live in the finished work of the Cross, that ultimate sacrifice we just celebrated yesterday. May it govern your life.
Papa Colton, Mama Colton and Colton

Lord, Increase my Faith.

2010-03-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

Boy did we have church today!!!! “Our” very own Ron McLean from Winnipeg was preaching, and I’m telling you, African preachers have nothing on them that Ron hasn’t got!!!
For those of you who aren’t Calvary Chapel family, Ron is the pastor of Gateway on Panet in Winnipeg; it’s our ‘sister’ church. We used to attend Gateway almost every Saturday evening, where we where richly blessed.
Ron spoke on the Holy Spirit baptism, … and the Holy Spirit took over!!!! Glorious! Powerful!! Wonderful!! Life changing!! WOW!!!
We knew Ron was coming, but last week when I was in the middle of teaching year 6, I was completely taken by surprise when all of a sudden, there was Ron!! I was so excited to get a Canadian hug.
Yeah, it’s hard when you see some one from the west and you say bye to them, knowing that they are stepping on an airplane and soon they will be in their familiar surroundings, their “cosy” life. Often when I hear the sound of an airplane flying overhead, my mind fast forwards to July 2011, when we’ll be stepping on an airplane to go home. It’s a bitter-sweet thought - and if Jesus says He’s not done with us here, we’re coming back. As hard as it is sometimes, it truly is where we want to be.
In fact, 2 weeks ago was a huge turning point for me. We were going to the boucherie and as we pulled into the parking lot, I saw a non-descript car and I looked at the licence plate, as I often do, and in that moment, weird as it sounds, I had a deep feeling of contentment, of “homeness,” of “yeah, life is good.”
It’s not that I wasn’t feeling that this was home before that, or that I wasn’t content and happy, but somehow it just went much deeper, or to a higher level. That week I had several of those ‘moments,’ and I’m very grateful that God is allowing/making our roots go down deeper.
Let me take you to Sunday, the day before this happened.
We had borrowed the movie/documentary on George Muller from Honda and Libby. George Muller was born in Germany in the earlier part of the 1800’s. He was a thief, a cheat, a drunkard, and was imprisoned for a time. He left Germany and went to England to attend university, where he encountered Jesus.
God put it on his heart to start rescuing the orphans of Bristol off of the streets. In today’s money he raised a staggering one hundred million pounds - that’s two hundred million dollars!!!! to provide homes and welfare for 120,000 orphans in Bristol. He did this without making any pleas, without any fundraising techniques, but simply by prayer. There were times when the children were sitting at the table, ready to eat, but there was no food. They would pray and there would be a knock at the door, and there was a baker, loaded down with fresh bread. The baker would relate how the Lord had woken him up early and put it on his heart to bake bread for the orphanage. This nineteenth century pioneer took God at His Word, and the work of George Muller continues to this day. The faith of this man did a huge number on me.
So that evening, when Isaac asked me what he could pray for me (something we’ve done for years every night - we ask each other what we can pray for the other - I encourage all couples to do this.), I was grappling with a monumental question; dare I ask him to pray that I will have a faith like George Muller!?
I told him what was churning in my spirit, and we started to talk about the ‘implications’ of such a prayer. What would we face where we would need such an incredible faith…. Did we want to be in such circumstances….
In the end I asked Isaac to pray about whether I should pray for a faith like this. I mean, this is huge; I pray for an increase in my faith very often, but the “George Muller faith” - that’s a whole new level.
Next day, Jesus was still talking to me about this issue, and Isaac and I talked about it to Colton. We knew this wasn’t going to be a flippant prayer spoken almost half heartedly, but if this would be prayed, it would have to come from the very marrow of my soul, my spirit.
On Tuesday when I lay down for my siesta, I asked the Lord, “ what will you take us through if I pray for this kind of faith?” I was very deliberate in saying ‘through’, and not ‘into’. Almost immediately, very clearly, I heard: “war, famine and hardship.” Yikes, my first response was, if war and famine aren’t hardships, what is?? But right on the heels of that was the fact that I had prayed “through” and so I knew we would make it. We wouldn’t be defeated, not spiritually nor physically. In my spirit I think I already knew that I was going to pray the prayer, it was just a matter of time.
But you see, since Colton was just a little tyke, I’ve thought that one of the things that would be the absolute worst thing for me to experience would be to see Colton starving and not being able to do anything for him.
On Wednesday at school I’m at my desk praying about this again, and I asked Jesus about the war, famine and hardship, and if there is anything else. And as clearly as the previous three, He said “joy.“ Excitement and a great anticipation for what God was going to do flooded over me. I strongly felt to get on my knees.
And I prayed the prayer.

Refining fire - hard and glorious!!

2010-03-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

Where to begin…
“The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.” Rick Warren
“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees. The law from Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. May those who fear You rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in Your Word. I know, O Lord, that Your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness You have afflicted me. May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant. Let Your compassion come to me that I may live, for Your law is my delight.” Ps 119:71,72, 74 -77
A few months ago 2 people, 2 different countries (thanks Jean and Jackie B.), emailed me and both wrote about faith/ hardships, and I will quote what they wrote:
“God has us in the fire and in His tender care every day… and it’s hard and glorious.
“ We can all say we want more faith, but it seems we never want to be in the situations where we need faith.”
I can testify to you that God definitely has His mighty hand upon us, and it is very painful at times, but also gloriously wonderful because He’s answering our prayer to mold and shape us more and more into the children of God that He created, planned, purposed us too be.
But I can also tell you, without a seconds’ hesitation, that I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world!!
We are getting to know the Father in a much more intimate way. And boy, the comfort of Jesus is so absolute and immediate when I fall on my knees and cry out to Him.
“But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.” Ps 5:11-12
The Bible verses I quoted have been very near and dear to my heart in the last number of weeks. I’ve prayed them many times, read them many times, and have been greatly encouraged and blessed by them.
Amahoro!! Peace

Church on the Edge

2010-02-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

Yikes, over two weeks since I last blogged.
We survived a pretty intense heat wave that lasted about 2 weeks. Temperatures were in the 40’s, with 44 degrees being the highest that I’m aware of. Seriously hot!! At night it went down to about 33 degrees. So now that it’s back to normal - high 20’s to low 30’s, we sometimes feel chilled, especially at night. Sounds crazy, I know!!!
Sweet!!! Colton just brought me my first guava from our tree. Norma, Tina and Netty, remember how much I like guava!? Be right back, gotta check this out… Just picked our first harvest of tasty fruits. It’ll be tricky to beat the birds to the guava. There’s a good yield of fruit, but we also have a bumper crop of birds in our yard.
The Sunday before last we went to a church up country with our friends Travis and Astrid. Travis is from California, Astrid from the Netherlands; they met in the States at YWAM. They’ve done missions in Kenya for one year, and in Rwanda for four years. They’ve been in BUJ (Bujumbura) for one year, and are on the tail end of registering their own ministry called SOZO. Anyways, there’s a YWAM team (two Canadians!! one however hasn‘t lived in Canada for years) here for the service part of their DTS, and so they asked us to join them.
We drove up into the mountains, parked the vehicles and started a very strenuous 30 minute trek further up the mountain. The narrow, steep, windy, one person width path took us over two “bridges”, with about half of the logs missing, making the streams under us a real possibility/threat of cooling off our sweat drenched bodies. And all this in a skirt!!! And VANS!! Nice combination, eh?
We finally reached the little church, and I kid you not, some of the YWAMers could have wrung out their clothes!! They had only arrived 2 days prior to this expedition, and had not yet acclimatized to this weather. We were given some time to catch our breath, then ushered to the front of the church. The pastor of the church is the husband of Travis and Astrid’s cook. The worship was typical African - uninhibited, wonderful. Travis preached on Ezekiel 37 - one of my favorite O. T. passages.
It would have been rude and offensive had we not stayed after the service, which ended at 1:30, and allowed them to serve us lunch. So while that was being prepared the pastor couple and a regional pastor took us further up the mountain.
This whole mountain side was where about 10 years ago the rebels were a deadly force as the Hutu and Tutsi were killing each other. This war only ended about three years ago.
The view from high in the mountains is beautiful. Bujumbura lies right on the shore of the second deepest lake in the world at 1470 m at it’s deepest - Lake Tanganyika, which is also the second longest in the world at 673 km. long. The average width of the lake is 50 km. (We can see the lake, with the Congo mountains behind it, from our kitchen window.)
God is really helping me with not really thinking a great deal about the cleanliness of the people that sometimes prepare our food, the food itself, or the places where the food is prepared. Once the food was ready, we were again ushered into the church where they had set up a little 4-6 person table, and 18 of us crowded around it!! Seriously!! The pastor couple served us. The food was… food.
The one side of the church was literally built onto the edge of a steep drop - the bamboo wall was attached to the side of the embankment; this is the side that we sat on. About 1 foot from the end of our row was the edge, with only the bamboo sticks between the chair and “the fall.” We sat about 4 feet in. The roof - tin, the floor - dirt, the presence of the Holy Spirit - awesome and powerful.
Thankfully, our descent was much easier (though perhaps more dangerous with slipping on loose rocks) than our ascent.
We may have future ministry opportunities here, as the pastor was eager to have our contact info. Please pray about this with us. There are 12 churches up country that are affiliated with each other, and the regional pastor was adamant that we visit others as well.
This brings me to another subject. I’ve mentioned in previous entries that we are really praying about what the Lord’s full purpose is for bringing us here. We still believe that it’s for more than we’re currently doing. Yes, I know, we have a tiny influence on people we meet day to day, and Isaac’s influence on the guy that “works” with him is great, and yes, being able to teach devotions to 3 classes, where many of the kids are Muslim/Hindu is a huge blessing, and there are some other “little” things, but we feel in our spirits there’s more. But at the same time, even if one person will be in heaven as a result of us being here, it’s worth it. When I was a little girl, my mom taught me; “Whoever doesn’t honor the small isn’t worthy of the big.”
It’s not that we don’t honor the big, … I don’t know if I’m succeeding in making you understand in one paragraph what we feel… sometimes it’s hard not to see what we’re doing as ‘just’ a job, albeit the fact that we get to talk about Jesus and faith and salvation to people.
But many of these kids come from the wealthiest families in Burundi; they are the privileged. Yes, I know, the privileged need Jesus just as much as anyone else. They learn about Jesus from other teachers as well. And Isaac sometimes wonders where his spiritual giftings are put to use in fixing things. We came here to serve, and we want to serve. And if this is all that the Father has us here for, we want to be content in that.
Please pray with and for us in this regard.
Love as always,
Isaac, Rosel and Colton

This and That

2010-01-23T11:39:00.000-08:00

Jambo;
Isaac’s vegging on the couch with an IPOD, and Colton’s kicking his soccer ball around outside with our worker. Colton and Stany really enjoy each other’s company, and if one of the 3 soccer balls that we brought out from Canada holds air long enough, they’ll go at it for quite some time.
For the past few weeks Isaac’s been busy renovating and painting at Chrissie’s in the ‘baby unit.’ No, she’s not taking in new orphan babies; there are a few of the older CRIB boys that are living in them. Chrissie wants to paint the entire CRIB house in the next little while, so that will keep Isaac busy for some time. It’s a large 2 storey building with many bedrooms, washrooms, common areas, etc. I just hope that won’t be oil paint as well; Isaac hasn’t felt that good, nor has his appetite been what it should be the last few weeks from the awful fumes.
At the same time though, the school also has a ‘to do’ list that needs attention, so he tries his best to keep everybody happy. Between Chrissie’s, CRIB and both schools, there’s never a lack of things to do. There’s this one “hardware” store where Isaac gets a lot of the supplies from, and a few weeks ago, this guy who Isaac thinks is the owner, had said that we’re neighbours. The previous day Isaac had needed a doorknob, and this neighbour was not working, so the price for the doorknob was $55,000, roughly $55.00 CND. So Isaac asked this neighbour for the price, he said $35,000. Isaac said “how about $30,000” and the deal was made. So needless to say, Isaac now deals with this guy as it’s saving A.R.M. money.
Since I’m on the bartering subject…
There are many, many people selling their wares on the street, and if they see a mzungu, the car is beset with up to 10 people, all wanting to make a sale. There may be 4 or 5 selling cheese; one sells cheese that comes from Rwanda, one from the Congo, one from Uganda, one that is local. They’re all shoving their cheese into the car for us to smell, all insisting theirs is the best. One time we must have had at least 8 rounds in the car at the same time!! We had no clue which round belonged to whom. At the same time, there are 3 or 4 people showing us their fruit and vegetable selection, also pushing it into the car; after all, if it’s in the car, chances of you taking the product are higher. This is quite a loud ordeal, as the merchants are all very eager to make a sale. Isaac finds this stressful; I find it intriguing.
We know the prices of most things that we buy regularly, and many of these items we buy on the street. If you are mzungu the price is automatically increased. So when they realize that we know the prices, they are very quick to go down in price. The comment has been made “either they think the mzungu is very rich or very stupid!” In fact, a mzungu pastor at Jabe a few weeks ago said: “ I’m mzungu but I’m not stupid” in reference to having the wool pulled over his eyes.
Tomorrow is the third Sunday in a row that we will have an English speaker at church - hooray!! Tomorrow’s speaker is from Vancouver.
I’ll take you on a typical ride to church/up-town with us. Buckle up, it can be a wild ride!!
On the way to church are a number of groups, ranging in size from about 20 - 200 people that are walking. These are organized clubs, often with the walking club name on the shirt, which is always white. As far as we know, these clubs walk only on Sunday mornings. There are moms with tiny babies tied on their backs (no helmets),perched on the back of the ever present motorbike taxi (mototaxi)as it careens through traffic. There are boys that are pushing huge carts of beer and Fanta. For the male gender the washroom is where ever you need it to be. In one short stretch there are 2 buses (basically what we would call a ‘hippy’ van in Canada- there must be a thousand!!) with a flat tire that are affecting traffic flow. There are many bikes loaded down with massive bunches of bananas, huge sacks of charcoal, a tall rack of bread, a bed, 20 or more foot long pieces of lumber or steel bars (no joke); just to name a few “bicycle transportable goods.”
You need to keep your eye on other vehicles almost more than on your own driving because you get cut off very much and very often. A 2- way highway is a three lane road when ever the need arises, (which is almost more often than not,) not counting pedestrians and bikes. And let me tell you about bikes and pedestrians; they are everywhere!!
Coming up to our church street are the “regulars” - the women with their children sitting on the side of the street in the dirt, close to the smelly gutter. With their hand out-stretched, they hope and wait for generous church - goers to bless them.
This street is almost insanely busy on Sundays; imagine, 7,000 people flooding into 2 narrow gates, wide enough for only one car at a time. These gates are shared by pedestrians and vehicles; by far the majority of church goers walk. Getting on to the church yard is relatively easy; it’s altogether an entirely different matter getting off. You see, being from the west, we believe that if church starts at 9:00 A.M. you should be there by then. For Africans, this is definitely not the case. In fact, some leadership sometimes only arrives after 10:00. But this is fine because we’re still in worship. So coming to church is spread out over a period of over an hour, but after church everyone leaves at the same time. You need much, much patience as you inch forward. The police are always present, armed with their AK - 47‘s.
Some more fun facts:
1. Colton has a girl in his class by the name of Satellite… and Happiness. I like Happiness for a name. Yes, these are given names, not nicknames.
2. Other names that are heard here: ‘Perfect‘, ‘Innocent‘, ‘Blessing’ is fairly common.
3. I teach two boys by the name of ‘Prince‘, and one girl named ‘Princess.’
There’s a wonderfully cool, gentle breeze coming in through the window; I’m so grateful that the Lord sends these, especially at night time. It makes for a good nights’ sleep.
Good night.
Isaac, Rosel and Colton

The deadly tongue

2010-01-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

A very warm (pun intended) hello to you all!
For the last week or so this has been reverberating in my head and heart:
“… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” Phil 2:12b -13
I like how my study Bible expounds on that verse;
1. work out your salvation- Work it out to the finish; not a reference to the attempt to earn one’s salvation by works, but to the expression of one’s salvation in spiritual growth and development. Salvation is not merely a gift received once for all; it expresses itself in which the believer is strenuously involved - the process of perseverance, spiritual growth and maturation.
2. fear and trembling - Not because of doubt or anxiety; rather, the reference is to an active reverence and singleness of purpose in response to God’s grace.
Yikes!! For some days that’s a tall order - strenuous perseverance, spiritual growth and maturation?? Active reverence and singleness of purpose????
Check out the verse that immediately follows: v:14
“Do everything without complaining or arguing.” There are times when the only strenuous activity I’m engaged in is the wagging of my complaining tongue. “ Why doesn’t the government improve the infrastructure?… why don’t people do things this way, why can’t things be like in Canada???” It’s sometimes easy for me at this point to get down on myself about my maturity in Christ, or lack thereof. After all, we all know if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Listen to what James (3:6,8 - 12) says about the tongue: “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole coarse of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”
The Bible doesn’t merely suggest that I shouldn’t complain, it’s a direct command!! “Do everything without complaining…” Everything!!! Man am I ever thankful for God’s grace!!! I’d be very foolish to think that I could ever attain to God’s high standards apart from His divine help through the Holy Spirit, and with “strenuous perseverance, active reverence and singleness of purpose.”
And if I douse the fire that I was about to deluge on someone before it erupts out of my mouth, I can take no credit, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” Verse 15 goes on to say: “so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…” This side of heaven no one will ever be “blameless, pure or faultless”; this is descriptive of only one Man that walked this earth - Jesus Christ!!! But, when we ask Jesus for forgiveness of our sins, and His blood covers the offence, God the Father looks at us through His perfect Son and He sees us as “blameless, pure, faultless, children of God without fault.” Hallelujah!!
Could you please pray with us that Jesus will continue to help us “shine like stars in the universe (Africa,) as we hold out the word of life.”?
For, and because of Jesus Christ;
IRCF

Christmas Season Happenings continued

2010-01-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

So… continuing from yesterday…
December 30-31 We went to Nyanzu lac - a beautiful beach about 2 hours from Bujumbura. We went with friends of ours. In the evening on the 31st, we were invited to a New Years party at Dave and Sheena’s.
January 1 2010 - We were invited to friends for another party.
As you can see, God really provided many friends to surround us during the Christmas season - a time that could have been filled with much homesickness. We truly are blessed by the people the Lord has put, and is continuing to put into our lives.
Fun Facts:
1. We have baby dedication at church every single Sunday, and some of the names are very interesting; but the one that takes the cake is this: twins, a boy and a girl named King and Queen. I’m not kidding!
2. Pastor Ray goes to the Congo (the border is about 15-20 minutes from our house) to minister, and has for some years already. One couple decided to honor Pastor Ray by naming their baby… Pastor Ray!
3. Isaac gets stopped by the cops soooo frequently for no reason, other than to check out the new mzungu, and that his papers for the car are in order. One day he got stopped three times.
4. A nice, sweet and juicy pineapple costs about 75 cents CND.
5. A regular box of Corn Flakes costs about $23.00 CND.
Debby the head teacher (she’s a teacher from England, married to a Kenyan,; he‘s head teacher in Secondary), asked me if I would be willing to do devotions with Nursery, Reception and year one, each class once a week, for about half an hour. I will also be starting with monitoring the year 4 CRIB homework group 3 days a week for an hour and a half. I start both of these next week
Please pray for much energy for me. We’re up at 6:45 A.M., teachers’ devotions start at 7:00, and schools’ out at 1:00 P.M. We come home for lunch, and than I need to go to CRIB for homework group 3 times/ week.. Some of you know about my struggles with fatigue; combined with the energy sapping heat, this will be a huge stretch. We’re praying about possibly dropping some other regular activities we do at CRIB.
Isaac is still spending his work days with Gentile, teaching him and keeping watch over him. This is going very well. Gentile is a pleasant, likeable guy. Now that we have the use of a vehicle, Isaac can do a lot more in a day. Instead of waiting for supplies he can now go and pick them up himself if they are available, and he doesn’t have to walk between Chrissie‘s, both the schools and CRIB. This saves a great deal of time. He was saying yesterday that his ‘to do’ list just keeps getting longer and longer. There’s so much to do since there was no one to do maintenance before we arrived. Also, the quality of almost everything out here is relatively poor, so things break down much faster than usual. If someone would set up a proper hardware store out here, wow…
That’s it for today, I’m tired. We get to sleep in tomorrow.
Please continue to pray for Earl, as well as for Ramona’s family.
Love as always,
IRCF

Christmas Happenings

2010-01-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

Amahoro - Peace!!
Over the next few days I will endeavour to bring you up to date with our goings on over the last month. Sorry for not posting regularly lately.
It’s hot - indoor temp. - 28.5 degrees, quite humid at times; it rains frequently, accompanied with fantastically loud thunder that sounds like it could almost originate in our back yard. Colton loves the thunder.
The flowers are blooming beautifully; when we got here 5 months ago we thought the vegetation was nice, but now that we’ve had regular rains for a few months, God is really putting on a show!!
Speaking of rain, many of you know about my super sensitivity to the sun (interesting how the Lord called us here, huh?), and so since Colton was a little tyke, when there was a warm, gentle summer rain, sans thunder, we would go and play outside, fully clothed, frolicking in the rain.
Well, we’ve had ample opportunity for this out here; our yard is fenced in with a 7 - 8 foot brick wall, so privacy isn’t an issue. A few weeks ago during a ‘thunderless’ and ‘lightningless’ rain Colton and I went out, and Stany, our worker, a normally relatively serious yet friendly guy, couldn’t hide the fact that he was quite intrigued by the scene. As we were chasing each other around the house we noticed that our deck was seriously slippery when the smooth cement is wet. Well, this could lead to only one thing - a Burundian skating rink!! We took a running speed or pushed ourselves off the house and sped across the deck. Very cool, but not cool enough! I sent Colton for dish detergent and then we were in business. Stany in the meantime is standing and watching us, chuckling as he’s watching two mzungus having fun.
We invited him to come and join us, and at first he declined; however, it was evident that he was curious about the experience, and before we knew what happened, he was in there like a dirty shirt. What a sight!!
Soon he was replenishing the water on the deck with buckets of water. What fun!
Isaac, who was trying to fix Colton’s popped bike tire nearby chose not to join the fun.
December 22 - Isaac’s birthday. (23 and holding!!) In Canada we always have both sides of the family over for birthdays, and we couldn’t stop now. So we had our living/dining area full of our Burundian “family” - people that the Lord has blessed us with out here. You should have seen the cake that I made… it looked quite awful! Isaac and Colton always opt for my ‘Midnight Cake’ for their birthday; I hadn’t made it here yet, due to the exorbitant price/and or unavailability of some of the ingredients. ( Would you pay up to $19.00 for a little container of cocoa?! Cream cheese and vanilla are not available.)Well, for birthdays you sometimes splurge.
Keep in mind, altitude, oven variances, flour, who knows what else (I suppose the skill of the baker would come into play as well), these are all contributing factors as to how your baking turns out. Well, let’s just say this oven is not like my convection one in Canada - in other words, do I want a big, medium or small flame. This determines the rate at which the bottom of the baking is burnt if I’m not right on top of things and every little while rotate and re-position the pan. So after the cake was dizzy from all the movement - and a bonus was it hadn’t collapsed from all the movement, I let it cool so I could invert it to ‘decorate’ it, which consisted of piping his age in the center and a border around the edge. The problem arose when literally about an eighth of the cake simply did a “land slide” on to the counter. The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got, so Colton and I just stuffed our faces with the land slide. It was different than usual, especially the crumbly texture, but still tasted good. I had no choice but to incorporate the land slide crater into the piped border decoration. Our guests were very gracious in over looking the appearance of the cake.
God again proved Himself to have a sense of humor with this event. Before Colton was born I was decorating cakes at Penner Foods - fancy cakes - wedding, anniversary, birthday,… nice cakes. On top of that, I’m a ‘re-covering’ perfectionist, so this event had the makings of being disastrous. Strictly by God’s grace I found the whole ordeal amusing.
December 23 - Isaac’s at Chrissie’s working; Colton asked if he could do my toenails. He couldn’t open the nail polish bottle, so I tried. It was so tight that the bottle broke into pieces as I tried to open it, with a big piece of glass still attached to the cap. When it suddenly gave, it sliced into my thumb; yes, the one that previously, as a little girl had the encounter with the cement mixer. My hand, including the deep gash, was covered with nail polish, mixed with blood. Running water over it did almost nothing as far as washing the polish off, so, bracing myself against an even more intensified sting, I asked Colton to pour nail polish remover over my hand. Yikes!! Ouch!! WOW!! At this point I realized I needed to sit down… now… on the floor in the washroom if I didn’t want to faint and collapse.
Colton called Isaac and we went to the hospital to get stitched up. This proved to be a very eventful experience. I’ve not experienced it, but I would liken the repeated freezing needle on the outside, tip of my thumb to having a needle shoved under your nail repeatedly. Excruciating!! The rest of the story will remain untold for now.
Christmas Eve. - late morning. Honda and Libby asked us if we wanted to join them in distributing a Christmas treat to the kids at Sabe Village. Wow, what an incredible experience!! Each child received a lollipop, an orange Fanta, and two “doughnuts” - really they are small round portions of dense dough deep fried. We had enough for about 480 children.
The kids knew they were getting a treat, over and above breakfast, so when they saw us pulling into the compound you should have seen and heard the excitement. Some children could hardly contain themselves, and were lightly hitting their head with their fist. Once they were calmed down, they were taught more about Jesus, followed by singing. Once everything was organized, the children, single file, came and received their treats. Colton was asked to help with the distribution of the doughnuts. What joy to see him thoroughly enjoying himself as he smiled and bent down to look in the little ones’ faces as he handed them his offering. I kept watching him as I was helping nearby, and at times Colton’s face showed such great love and compassion as the kids filed by, a number with nothing on except a filthy, tattered shirt. I often wonder what all God will accomplish in and through Colton through experiences like these; things that will have eternal value and purpose, not just for the here and now.
What a beautiful sight, all these destitute ones enjoying an ’extra’. You might be thinking, “well why didn’t they at least buy healthy food?” You know, Jesus gives each of us so many “extras” every day, things we don’t need, but things He just enjoys giving us. It reminds me of Matthew 7 where it talks about us humans, though sinful, yet giving good gifts to our children, and how much more our Father gives us good gifts when we ask.
After this we went to Chrissie’s birthday celebration at CRIB. In the evening we had our Christmas at home, and Everiste and Annick dropped in.
Christmas day - 9:00 A.M. at CRIB watching all the kids open their presents that are shipped in from England, followed by Isaac assembling toys and things for about 2 hours. We were invited to friends of ours for lunch, together with some other expatriates. It was great - Christmas dinner outside on the deck, dessert (another one of my famous “land slide” cakes) under a sun sheltering gazebo, followed by lawn games.
At about 5 we went to Honda and Libby’s who had invited us to spend some time celebrating with the ‘Restoration of Hope’ boys - all 65 of them. These are street boys they’ve rescued and are providing a safe, godly home for them, as well as discipleship, a chance at a future, etc. You shoulda’ seen us dance to…. Boney M. Christmas songs, being piped into the yard via big speakers. Loudly!!! It was fantastic! So much fun.
If Boney M. members are still alive, I’d be curious to know their thoughts on a yard full of people in the middle of Africa dancing to “Winter Wonderland!”
December 26 - more time spent with Honda and Libby, and Libby’s parents who are out from the UK.
December 27 - we went to the local beach; me with my trusty sun-shielding umbrella.
It’s getting late, past 11:00, and we’re up and at ‘em at 5:45 A.M.
To be continued…

African Christmas - different but the same.

2009-12-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

Belated Christmas greetings to you all!!!
I kept meaning to blog over the last two weeks, and yes, I know, intentions don’t amount to a hill of beans!!!
Christmas sure was different for us this year; almost no trace of commercialism in sight, no Christmas carols being played where ever you go, not one house decorated outside, no snow and sub zero temperatures : ), almost no Christmas treats, no mad dash to get the latest must have gadget, no turkey, no Santa (very thankfully!!), but praise the Lord, the true, joyful meaning of Christmas - the celebration of the birth of the Messiah, JESUS CHRIST, yes, that was as real here as it was out there!
The fact that the Father knew from eternity past that we would need a Christmas so that we could have an Easter has taken on a new deeper meaning. The ineffable love that was demonstrated by the Father and the Son when they both knew what was awaiting the Son. What perfect love!
In the weeks coming up to Christmas we were very busy, both at school and at CRIB. At school we put in many “overtime” hours getting ready for the school Christmas program. It was wonderful; Fabi wrote the play, which began with Adam and Eve and the fall of man, continued with Noah and the flood, went on to the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, what’s so wonderful about this is the fact that a very large percentage of the audience were staunch Muslim/Hindus!! A large sector of students in both primary and secondary are of these faiths; reason being we’re the only English speaking school in Burundi, and English is becoming more and more common as a business language.
And so this affords us the fantastic opportunity to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to these folks. Isaiah 55:11 tells us that God’s word will not return empty, but will achieve the purpose for which it was sent. These people heard the word of God, many through their own children’s mouths. I love that!!!
At CRIB we made a huge 3D wall mural out of felt/bamboo/fabric/paper, etc. of the nativity scene, as well as assorted Christmas decorations, snowflake placemats for the Christmas dinner as well as crowns for the King’s birthday, and cards for Chrissie and Dave and Sheena.
I have much more to write, and I will soon; time just has a way of running away, just like it did out there.
I do want to leave you with a warm thought though. Tomorrow morning we’re off on a tiny little mini holiday with friends we’ve met here. We’re planning on spending one night at a very basic they-may-not-have-running-water-or-electricity-$10-per-night guest house; but here’s the warm part: it’s very close to a pristine beach, complete with snorkelling!! What a rough life!!! No, seriously, a little R&R will be great.
But in the mean time, we wish you a blessed new year, filled with the love, joy and peace that comes only from our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Christ,
Isaac, Rosel and Colton

Ramona lives on in my heart

2009-12-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

You know, I just can’t imagine Ramona… not alive. The same thing happens every time; she sits bolt up right with her radiantly beautiful smile and her eyes twinkling with sheer joy and happiness, and also a tiny bit of mischievousness. I like this picture though because this was her in life, and I know that the citizens of heaven are now enjoying this vibrant new comer.
Perhaps it won’t seem real until we come back and I see the family/physical/relational void she has left. For this reason I don’t ever want to come back.
This has been so very difficult; I can’t even begin to imagine Earl and my brother John, wife Carol and siblings Kevin, Randy and Becki. Please continue to pray.
Rosel

In honor and in memory of sweet Ramona

2009-12-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone;
Sometimes when you’re down you get kicked yet as well. Not a very positive way to start a blog, I know.
I cannot recall ever having felt as awful from the flu as I’ve felt since Wednesday, early afternoon. I’ve been so weak that the only thing I can do outside of lying in bed is going to the washroom. Yesterday when I managed to eat something, Isaac literally had to put the bowl under my face while lying on my side as he fed me. It’s not been pleasant. We’ll probably check for amoebic dysentery tomorrow - not a pleasant thought. I feel much better already than I did, but ‘much better’ is still not good.
And so, as I lay in bed on Wednesday at 7:00 in the evening, our time, 11:00 A.M. yours, all I could do was pray. The service for Ramona had just begun. Final goodbyes were being said; there would be deep, deep mourning, yet celebrating a beautiful life that lived for Jesus with abandon. Rejoicing over the fact that her pain wracked body is completely healed and liberated. Tears of sorrow and grief that only Jesus can understand, and only He can wipe away.
Throughout sweet Ramona’s three and a half year battle with cancer, I’ve prayed Romans 8:28 into the situation; “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” That’s a promise that will not go unfulfilled.
I asked to be excused from my teaching responsibilities for Wednesday, the day of the funeral (I still can’t believe there was a funeral for Ramona.), so that I could go to Sabe again to help with the feeding, this time in honor of, and in memory of Ramona. Working with orphans in Africa was her dream and passion.
Colton fully believed that God would heal her here on earth, and was shocked when we heard the news on Saturday morning. Isaac and I both wanted to fully believe as well, but having lost a very dear friend a few years ago from cancer with whom we almost fully (99.9?) believed as well…..
I asked Colton if he was disappointed with God; he said he was disappointed, but not with God. Pray that he will come through this with a strengthened faith, and for wisdom for Isaac and myself as we help him process everything.
My whole family, all 10!!! siblings and my mom were there; I was the only one missing. This added much pain. It’s been years since we were all together, as we’ve lived scattered in 3 countries for years, now with us here in Burundi, it’s 4 countries.
There’s so much more in my heart, but I’ll leave it at this, at least for now.
Thank you very much to everyone that’s prayed for us, for personal emails, and for the blog comments.
It means so much to us, and the peace in the midst of it all is a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness.
Please don’t stop praying for Earl and family.
Love and blessings, IRCF

The peace of Jesus

2009-11-30T05:14:00.000-08:00

It is extremely difficult for me to be here right now, but I have the peace of Jesus, knowing I am where He wants me. That is my only comfort right now.
Please pray for Earl and family.
Rosel

Ramona is dancing with Jesus.

2009-11-28T01:49:00.000-08:00

Peacefully, on Fri. Nov. 27 at 10:00 in the evening, Jesus took Ramona home. The family needs your prayers.

Car and Crate

2009-11-27T04:27:00.000-08:00

Hello family and friends;
God is awesome!!
We have some very good news! Life is not about material things, but we're very thankful for some pretty "basic stuff" that God's provided for in the last little while. I will simply post what I wrote on Sept.11

Sept.11 2009
Blessings to all our family and friends.
God is so awesome!! Isaac, Colton and I use the time to pray as we’re walking to school in the morning, and yesterday I prayed that the Lord would in His “almightyness and all powerfulness” miraculously provide a vehicle for us. At lunch, which is 1:00 P.M. here, Isaac and Colton came to Primary school as always so we can walk home together. Isaac had some very good news. Chrissie Chapman had told him that she had been thinking that it doesn’t’t make sense for us to have to walk so far to get to work/school/events, so she is blessing us with the use of her car!!!!!!!!!!!! When Isaac told me this I could hardly stop thanking Jesus. This may only happen in a few months, as Chrissie wants a car from Japan to replace her current one, but even the fact that this is the plan is comforting. Walking to and from almost everywhere is so tiring and hot, and very often we walk the 20 minutes to and from at least twice a day, sometimes three times.

So we didn’t post this till we got the car…….. WE GOT THE CAR!!!!!!!
And it’s got AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!! Praise JESUS!!
The King’s School is filling in one tank of gas per month as Isaac uses it for school related things a lot, and for personal use gas we’re trusting the Lord, as this wonderful surprise isn’t in our budget.
This really opens the door for more ministry opportunities, which we’ve been praying about for some time.
We also received the items from in the crate. Back in February we had ordered bed and bath linens from Sears and drop shipped it to Vernon BC, which is where Pastor Ray and Maryanne’s home church was filling a crate to be shipped here. Our church put a bike in there for each of us, which is a blessing, and also a bunch of tools for Isaac to use. Isaac still doesn’t have access to the tools, which is frustrating, but there are storage issues that are beyond Pastor Ray or our control. It’s just the African way. The crate arrived in Bujumbura at the end of August, was tied up in customs for about 2 months, and then a few days after it’s release Pastor Ray and Maryanne went to Canada unexpectedly for three weeks for his dad’s funeral, so upon their return we finally got our long awaited stuff. Wow, it was like Christmas opening the boxes!!! We now have real pillows - down pillows - my neck and shoulders still almost cringe at the thought of what we were using before. You should have seen and heard Colton rejoice when he saw his bike in our living room, fully assembled!!! Isaac had brought the bikes home when we were at school in the morning, and we hadn’t told Colton. That was fun!
Colton can, however, only ride the bike a little ways on our street so he’s in sight of our guard. It’s not safe for a ‘mzungu’ boy to go out by himself, especially on a nice bike. So the only time he can venture out is if we go with him. After we had gone out a time or two on our bikes, it occurred to me that I’ve never once seen a female riding a bike in Burundi. There are bikes everywhere, thousands and thousands - it’s a cheap mode of transportation, however, there seems to be an unwritten rule that it’s only for the male gender. Females commonly sit on the rack on the back as bikes are used as taxis very much, but they never ride themselves. We’re accustomed to many comments and stares when we’re out and about walking, but people do a double take when they see us on our bikes.
The temperature “dipped” down to 24.8 degrees in the last week during the night 2 times. Till now we had not seen it go below 25 once, and I tend to watch it quite closely. Laugh all you want, but we felt cold.
Speaking of temperature, it’s almost unbearably hot in church most of the time. It’s got a tin roof that offers shade, but seems to intensify the heat; combined with the bodies of 7,000 people worshiping and dancing, the heat is stifling. I was curious what the actual temp. is in church, so I took our little digital thermometer to church in my bag a few Sundays ago. 33 degrees on the nose!!! And, that particular Sunday happened to be probably the coolest we had experienced. And keep in mind, it doesn’t last only a tidy one and a half hours, but at least three and a half hours, very easily four. In all honesty, the thought of not going to church some Sundays is pretty strong, but then when we think of the powerful move of God and the way we are encouraged and touched by the Father, we can’t stay away.
A question we’ve had through email is whether people can send us stuff. Absolutely! You can send it to:
The King’s School
Box 1560
Bujumbura, Burundi
Africa
We have no school today, it’s a Muslim holiday, so we’re about to go, I mean drive with our car and not with a taxi or walk (awful grammar, I know) to get some supplies.
Please continue to pray for Ramona and family.
We love you, and thank you all very much for your continued prayers, emails, and words of encouragement.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
The Froese’s

We ran out.

2009-11-21T10:02:00.000-08:00

We went to Sabe Village again this morning to help feed the kids. When they see Honda and Libby’s familiar vehicle pull up they come rushing towards the vehicle with their cup. We prayed that Jesus would multiply the food, as there seemed to be an almost endless line up of children. We prayed as we handed out, seeing the supply decrease steadily; the last bit of food was served before we reached the end of the line. We helplessly ran out. This time it was my turn to cry as I watched the moms’ anxious faces when they saw there was nothing left for their little ones. I couldn’t help but to put myself in their shoes; if I couldn’t provide Colton with food…
I saw one mom sitting with a tiny one that wouldn’t stop crying. I went over and laid my hands on the baby and prayed the peace and comfort of Jesus into her. Almost immediately she completely relaxed and became totally quiet. Tears were rolling down my face as I prayed. The mom seemed touched as well.
The water has receded in the village, but it’s still very wet and muddy. The collapsed huts need to be built up from the ground, and the ones where only the mud was washed away and the stick structure remains are getting ‘remudded’.
Last week there was a woman with a tiny baby that came by, and Libby said she couldn’t refuse her. She’s 17, epileptic, has a 3 month old baby girl, has no family to live with - she was in dire straits. During the week she had a seizure and had fallen on top of her baby; thankfully the baby seems fine. Some women had told Libby that this young mom had told them that she was going to take the baby and walk both of them into the lake. Well, Honda and Libby now have both mom and baby living at their house. The mom is happier, she knows where her next meal is coming from, and the baby is gorgeous and smiles easily.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to those of you who responded to my previous email, saying you want to help financially. Pastor Andrew phoned last night and said that Calvary Chapel is actually taking Sabe Village on as a ‘project’; so for anyone wanting to make a donation, on the memo line write ‘Sabe Village’, and send it to:
Calvary Chapel
30 McKenzie Ave.
Steinbach Manitoba
Canada
R5G-2E5
Calvary Chapel will issue you a tax receipt.
… it’s rained a fair bit the last 2 days, we need it, but Sabe doesn’t. Please pray that the government will take responsibility and re-locate this village to higher ground. As is, they know that there is some food coming in, and so they rest on their laurels, not doing anything to improve the lives of these citizens.
Please continue to pray for Ramona and family.
Blessings; The Froese’s

Food for the hungry.

2009-11-15T05:05:00.000-08:00

We went to Sabe Village yesterday (Saturday), with Honda and Libby. These people, due to the flood, have not a crumb to eat unless it is given to them by some one, and Honda and Libby are the only ones that are bringing anything to them. The meal was very simple; a cup of porridge. But it’s better than nothing, and that’s what they’d have were it not for this.
The moms with the little babies were crowding around the 2 big containers holding the porridge with a look of desperation on their faces even more than the large-eyed children. Normally this culture has almost no regard for people standing in line, never mind if your baby is lethargic due to hunger. Very reluctantly they started moving back, somewhat forming a line, because they realized we would not start serving if we were almost covered with bodies.
The finances are not available to do mass feedings like in February of this year, so only the children and some women were fed. So they came by, quietly, holding their plastic cup to have it filled with what likely will only stave off death for a few hours for some. They sat down with their cup, again mostly quietly, except for some babies that wouldn’t stop crying. On Friday when Honda and Libby fed them, they had run out of porridge before all the kids had received some; on the way over to the village, Libby was telling us that she doesn’t cry very easily anymore, she’s seen so much already; but when they had run out and this little boy had come and she couldn’t give him anything, she had lost it. I didn’t want to experience this, so once there and the people were coming by, I got down, laid my hands on the container and asked Jesus to multiply the porridge like he multiplied the fish and bread for the 5000. There was enough, and they made the same amount both days!!! Praise Jesus!!!
The stench is almost unbearable at times; the smell of their filthy bodies and clothes only add to the disease infested surroundings that are contaminated by sewage. ( It just started raining, please pray for Sabe.)
I very earnestly ask you, pray that your heart will start hurting over the things that hurt the heart of the Father, and let that pain spur you into action to help where God leads you to, where ever that is. If you want to help Sabe, please email us at: ircfroese@gmail.com
Please continue to lift Ramona and family up in prayer. We need Jesus!!
In Christ,
The Froese’s

Ramona and Sabe village prayer request

2009-11-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Please pray for Ramona and family.
As I wrote last night, we’ve had rain every day since Sunday, which is greatly needed, but this is not the case for Sabe village. As of this morning, they have half a meter of water standing in their tiny village. This is the same place that was flooded with one meter of water in February. But that’s not the worse, there have been four deaths there this week; three children and one adult. One mom and baby died, presumably of AIDS, and the other two children of malaria.
So in the midst of grieving, this community of 1700, is living on the streets again. The national police had come this morning, but when they saw the scope of this situation, they left, knowing they did not have what it would take to help.
The ground obviously is already saturated at Sabe, and it appears we’ve just come into the rainy season.
Please pray for Honda and Libby; pray for wisdom (at Libby’s request), and resources, strength, peace, and whatever the Lord puts on your heart. These people need a lot of help, and a lot of Jesus.
Please pray for us as well, as we do what we can. There are so many things that are so hard to see.
Blessings, Rosel

Please pray for Ramona's healing.

2009-11-11T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone;
Please pray for Ramona and Earl and family. Check out there blog at: earlramona.blogspot.com
We need a miracle!!!
We have a friend here who has AIDS (she was born with it),and she’s had ‘flare-ups’ in the past, where the disease seems to be a lot stronger. She’s had a ‘flare up’ now for over 2 months. We’ve talked a lot about faith and healing and praying, all of which she says she’s lacking in. She’s also lived almost 16 years longer already than the doctors said she would. Please pray for her as well.
We had a little bit of a tense Sunday last week. I’ll start at the beginning. Colton’s neck had been some biting creature’s meal, with about 8 or so definite bite sites. The following day it looked pretty awful, with a bad red and raised rash spreading on his neck and onto his face. We consulted some people from here, applied a few different creams to it, and it got worse. Sunday during lunch Colton said that he had a bad head ache. I went to lie down with him, and in his sleep he jumped really much 4 times. We had to go to CRIB at four o’clock for worship, so we had to wake him up and once awake, he said he was very tired, and still had a head ache. He looked quite unwell. We are aware of what the symptoms of malaria are, and extreme fatigue, head aches and intense dreaming are part of the symptoms.
Everiste picked us up and we told him what was going on. He said we needed to have Colton checked out by Dr. Euloge. With it being Sunday, that meant going to his house. He checked Colton, asked some questions and ordered a malaria test.
We went to Jabe Hospital, which is run by Iglese Vivant (“our” church), and received a (praise the Lord), negative result for malaria. So the bites where serious enough to cause distress in Colton’s body, but it wasn’t the dreaded “African killer”, as it’s sometimes referred to. Dr. Euloge prescribed meds., and in about a day and a half it was starting to improve.
Pastor Rueben’s good friend had a 12 year old daughter die of malaria a few weeks ago, a fellow teacher’s husband had it a few weeks ago, etc. It’s quite common. Please pray for protection for us from this horrible sickness. And yes, we sleep under a mosquito net every night, since day one.
Power cuts are continuing to be an issue. For the most part we can take it in stride, but sometimes it gets very frustrating, especially if it’s been off for 36 hours straight and all the food is 100 percent defrosted in the tiny fridge/freezer. It’s not uncommon to have no electricity for about 24 hrs., than on for 4-12 hrs., and back off. We also had the water shut off for a large part of the day for three days in a row. I kept telling myself, “Be joyful in all things, be joyful in all things.” On one of these ‘no water’ days, we had a wedding to attend, and had to walk to CRIB to shower.
The public is not happy about the power cuts because it’s costing people lots of money, especially businesses. To run a generator at these exorbitant gas prices puts a huge dent in any ones pocket, never mind the bigger generators needed to run a business. Never the less, we sometimes wish for a generator. Having access to the internet is also sporadic, more for some than for others. One of the teachers who’s here from Arizona couldn’t get on for three weeks! On a fantastic note, we’ve had hot water now for two days!! There was something wrong with the power lines having to do with the hot water tank since the second day of our arrival, and things generally take very, very long to be addressed here; so we’re very thankful for this luxury. It honestly feels strange to just stand under the water right away, and to not gradually, limb by limb, get used to the temperature.
We are supposed to have been in the rainy season since beginning of September, and if this week so far is indicative, we are finally starting it now. We’ve had almost no rain so far, with the exception of one good down pour about 5 weeks ago, and a few light rains here and there. This is very unusual. It seems many things are very unusual here this year. The power outages, which some say is a result of the lack of rain (hydroelectric dams too empty, others say it’s because Burundi buys power from the Congo and they owe so much money to the Congo that they are constraining the supply); the internet problems, water cuts. It’s an interesting time for the Lord to send us here. Anyways, back to the rain. Since Sunday we’ve had rain every day, and boy, is it refreshing!!! And other years it rains at about 1:00 PM, and often again at 4:00 PM; apparently so much so that you can almost set your watch to it; where as now it rains anytime of day, numerous times, and also during the night. In fact right now, at 6:25 PM, it’s coming down fantastically. The power has also been on without interruption since Sunday.
Everiste took us up country (into the mountains, big, huge, massive, elevation - 8000 + feet, wonderful, cool 20 degrees instead 30 +), and he said there will be famine in January/February as a result of the lack of rain. These people almost exclusively live off of the land, and most are extremely poor, so this is likely to be a huge challenge for the country of Burundi, as most of the people of Burundi live up country. With a population of 7 - 8 million people, the effects will likely be huge. Please pray about this situation.
You’re most likely wrapped up in Christmas activities already, where as here it feels nothing like the up coming celebration. In fact, if I wasn’t preparing Christmas art projects for my students and Fabi wasn’t practicing the Christmas program with the students within my earshot at school, you’d never guess it’s that time of year. There are no visible signs of the season, nor will there be with the exception of a very few homes decorating a tree or something. Christmas wasn’t celebrated in Burundi till about 10 years ago, and after all, can it really be Christmas without snow!!?? Praise the Lord, that manger contained the Savior of the world, whether dwellers in snow covered lands or not!!
Again, please pray for Earl and Ramona and family.
Talk to you soon.
The Froese’s

Sabe Village - part two

2009-10-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

Introducing Sabe village - part one

2009-10-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

We’re getting more and more involved with the CRIB kids. The pastor couple from England, Dave and Sheena, are allowing us to walk along side them with doing a weekly Monday evening Bible study for all the CRIB kids age 11 and up. We started this 3 weeks ago. The first week Dave and Sheena asked if I would do a call to salvation. Three people responded and caused the angels in heaven to rejoice!!! “… I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Lk 15:10b
We prayed over them and they where baptized by the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord, He is so good!! Every week so far we’ve had a deep moving of the Spirit. God is really working in these kids, but not surprisingly, the enemy knows he’s losing ground and is doing “overtime” to try and destroy what Jesus has and is doing. Things have happened among a handful of kids that make this very evident. Please pray for the blood of Jesus to cover the compound and every person that steps foot on it. Please pray for Dave and Sheena, Isaac, Colton and myself as we seek to minister to them and love them with the love of Jesus Christ.
You know, they know Bible stories and most of them say they are Christians, but once they step out of Dave and Sheena’s living room and life happens…
So every Monday at 4:00 we trek over to the Pailthorpe’s, who live in the CRIB compound. We spend a lot of time praying for the evening, discussing the lesson, etc., followed by tea. (People here, including us, have “tea” and not supper. Basically what this means is that lunch and supper are just reversed here - the main, hot meal is at 1:00 - 1:30, and “tea” is a lighter evening meal.) After this we get the space ready for 32 people and at 7:00 we begin.
On Saturday mornings, also starting 3 weeks ago, we go over as well and just play active games. This is “family time” for the kids. The aim is to teach them to play together as a team, without fighting, without screaming at each other, just good clean fun. Keep in mind, when you put almost 50 kids in a fenced space without parental love, guidance, teaching and discipline, things can’t be without challenges.
We are planning on starting an art time as well. Oh, and we’re on a rotating schedule to supervise groups of kids when they go swimming at Chrissie’s. I think that’s all for the structured time we spend there.
There’s a guy who dropped out of high school and ran away from CRIB in late winter that was a very bad influence on the rest of the kids. He lived with some buddies and on the street till about a month ago. At this time his buddies kicked him out, which left him solely on the street. He came back to Chrissie’s, being at wit’s end. The CRIB kids didn’t want him back, so he is living at Chrissie’s with the guard/house worker. To occupy his time and to hopefully teach him some things, he is spending Mon. - Fri. with Isaac. This can be very challenging for Isaac, as he has to watch him at all times. Please pray for Isaac in this regard, and pray for this guy.
We finally got to see the “real” Burundi today. With our busy schedule, we had not yet seen Honda and Libby’s village till this morning. With today being a national holiday commemorating the death of a past president, which meant no school, we finally had the opportunity.
You know the saying: “what you don’t know won’t hurt you.”? Well, Honda and Libby had told us lots about the village and showed us a video they made, but nothing prepares you for seeing and smelling and living what we experienced today.
This tiny “village” of 1700 people is hidden behind a massive, high- fenced UN compound that stretches on for probably a few miles. Honda was introduced to this village in November of last year by a mentally challenged guy that they partially support. Almost nobody knows about this village; the government has chosen to turn a blind eye to the absolute poverty conditions almost without fail. In April of this year they had a huge flood, where many, many of the stick/mud huts collapsed in the approximately one meter plus flood waters. The huts, which are the size of a small bedroom, house families of up to 13 children plus the parent. They are 1-2 meters apart; there is no furniture; the roof consists of mostly garbage they’ve strategically placed to serve as a roof; they have one meal a day consisting of bugali ( basically nutritionally void, root of a common plant made into flour mixed with water), and maybe a bit of beans, but some days there isn’t even this. Some days there is nothing. The flood was a blessing in that now they at least have a sewage system, a holding tank for the sewage, which they collect in a bag and deposit into the tank which is located at the entrance of the village. Mothers deliver their babies on the bare ground, as this is their bed. The wealthier may have a straw mat to sleep on, but even with just a normal rainfall, the water comes into the hut and that mat doesn’t do much good anyway. The villagers’ entire wardrobe is that which they wear, day in and day out. A majority of the clothing is rags really, and worse, held together by dirt and filth, especially the childrens‘. Even though a child is wearing a skirt doesn’t mean it’s a girl, but that’s the only piece of clothing available. Diapers consist of a bit of material covered with a plastic bag.
People die of aids; alcoholism is a problem; the hooch, which is made from bananas, blinds the consumer with time. Education is non-existent - there is no school. Of the 1700 people, about 900 are children.
I need to go now, I will continue with this next time I blog. However, I want to add that for the last months I’ve prayed that the Father would make my heart hurt over the things that hurt His heart; my heart hurts.
Rosel

Dry Bones and Sandals

2009-10-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

I was telling my boys over lunch that I had dreamt about bags of chocolate chips. Colton quite longingly sighed, “I wish I would have had that dream.” Yea, we’re missing food from home.
Have I got something to tell you!!!
I had bought a really nice, comfy, expensive pair of dress sandals before we came out here. I don’t walk to school in them, but put on my trusty Vans, and yes, I look like a geek walking to school every day wearing a skirt and Vans, but anyway, once at school, I change into my sandals, which I just left at school in my art room closet everyday after changing into my Vans again to trek home in.
So 2 weeks ago I come to school after the weekend, and my shoes are gone. Vamoos!! I couldn’t believe it. Someone went into the closet and helped themselves to my shoes in a Christian school. I was pretty ticked, I mean if they would have just been in plain view on the floor, that’s one thing, but to snoop in the closet and take them, that just irritated me. By the way, I “happened” to bring another pair of sandals to school that day - thank you Jesus - so I didn’t have to look geeky all day.
The next day I told Irene, the head teacher. She was pretty upset about it for the same reasons as I was; you should be able to trust in a Christian school. The next morning after staff devotions she announced what happened, and by now I’m feeling kind of sheepish, after all, they’re just shoes!! I’d been praying about my attitude, and yes, I’d like my shoes back, but really, it wasn’t a big deal. That day I had many of the teachers and guards come into my room wanting to see where they had disappeared from. People were really taking this serious. They too saw this as a violation in trust at The KING”S school. They prayed. We prayed. This is God’s school, the enemy has no right here.
The next morning it was Antoinette’s turn to do devotions. She told us how she used to come by the gate of The King’s School and prophesy, out loud, that this would be her place of work. She wanted to teach here rather than at the public university where she was. Needless to say, she’s a great teacher there now. Her Scripture passage was Ezekiel 37:1-14. This really went deep into my Spirit; I mean, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.“ 2 Ti 3:16. In other words, the account of the dry bones coming to life is not just a really cool event that took place years ago, but God ordained it to be in the Bible to impart something to believers; it’s relevant for today. So this means that, as silly as it may sound to some of you, we can , in the ALL mighty name of Jesus Christ prophesy to even inanimate objects!! How sweet is that!!?? God is so good. He’s provided us with everything for life and godliness. Also, “ For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Heb 4:12. I was praying the Word of God and I was also acutely aware of the spiritual warfare raging as a result. God was on the move to spur me ( and fellow staff ) on in my/our faith.
Please read Ezekiel 37:1-14. It’s about the Lord telling Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones to come to life. So he did as the Sovereign Lord commanded. As he prophesied, “there was a noise, a rattling sound,” GOD was on the move!! Bone came to bone, tendons and flesh and skin appeared on the bones! God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath to come from the four winds into the slain that they would live. So the breath entered the slain and they came to life, and they stood to there feet!!! A vast army!! Alive!! By the power of the Sovereign Lord.
Prophesy is one of the nine gifts of the Spirit mentioned in 1 Co 12:7-10; being seated in Christ Jesus in the heavenly realms ( Eph 2:6 ), and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have authority and power over all rule, power, authority, dominion and every title. The same power that God exerted when He rose Jesus from the dead is available to us when we pray in the name and will of Jesus Christ. (Eph 1:19-21).
Before I go on, I want you to know that if the issue at hand was just a pair of shoes, I would not bother to write any of this. Stolen shoes is simply the “vehicle” that the Lord chose to use for a huge revelation of Himself, and the power of believing, biblical prayer.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Heb 11:1
So I prayed. I prophesied in the name of Jesus that my shoes would be returned. I prayed for the person that stole the sandals. I sensed such a great power in and through the praying, I actually felt sorry for the person who took them, because I knew the conviction they were experiencing. The battle raging in them, knowing they should return them, but what if they got found out, … etc.
Well, the power of the Lord overcame the deeds of darkness yet again, and my shoes were anonymously returned the following Wednesday. First thing every morning I checked, expectantly, in my closet to see if they were there; this particular morning I did the same, they weren’t there, so I just started getting art materials ready for the day; I opened the other closet, and there they were in plain view. I was so overwhelmed by God’s faithfulness!!! I went on my knees and praised and worshipped God for coming through; and please remember, it wasn’t about the shoes, but about how God heard and answered prayer.
I was so fantastically pumped!! The word spread quickly as I had told 2 teachers, and there was rejoicing and relief. God was certainly at work at The King’s School.
I am currently praying/prophesying about 3 huge “only God can do that” issues. And I believe in God’s time, they will come to pass.
I had read Ezekiel 37 many times thinking, “yeah, that must have been so cool to see all those bones coming to life,” but never seeing the relevancy of it for my life. Now it’s chock full of relevancy. God opened the eyes of my heart to reveal the power of that passage, and I will never be the same again. This will be one of a growing pile of Ebenezer stones in my life. In 1 Samuel 7:12, Samuel sets up a stone of remembrance naming it Ebenezer, saying: “Thus far has the Lord helped us.” I want to testify to you, “thus far the Lord has been so gracious and compassionate to me, revealing Himself to me in wonderful ways.”
Look at Eze 37 again. Verse 11 says: “… Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” That sounds like the epitome of destitution of soul and spirit. (Though in this case it’s literal.) If you’re anything like me, sometimes you feel dry, hopeless and alone. But listen to what God says in response:
“… O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them.” I think sometimes our faith is near death, and sad to say, some people lose their faith altogether because they think that God hasn’t answered their prayers the way they want Him to. But God wants to resurrect us from our spiritual graves and fill us anew with hope and faith and an abundant life.
Another thing that now jumps out at me is v: 9 where it says: “…breathe into these slain, that they may live.” These guys were killed, they did not die a natural death. It was a premature death. Life was snatched from them. What has the enemy snatched from you that you need to, and can, by the power of the indwelling Spirit take back from the enemy? Like the song says, ”Well I went to the enemies camp and I took back what he stole from me, took back what he stole from me, took back what he stole from me, I went to the enemies camp and I took back what he stole from me, he’s under my feet, he’s under my feet, satan is under my feet.”
Check out verse 1 and 2: There weren’t just a few bones; no, “it was full of bones. He (God) led me back and forth among them…bones that were very dry.” Sometimes, when it rains it pours. That is, sometimes we haven’t got just a few challenges to deal with at once, but we feel we can hardly, if at all, stand up under the burden of all our problems. And they are persistent problems, problems that just don’t get resolved and that bog you down. But if God can resurrect “very dry” bones, bones that aren’t still meaty fresh, he can surely breath life and truth into your 20 year old problem! And what about the “led me back and forth among them” part?! Why can it not be just a quick sprint through? How often have you heard the phrase’ “It’s in the desert that you grow the most.” Maybe it’s taking a while for you to attain all the growth that the Father has intended for you. But you’ll come out stronger for it.
Verse 3 God asks: “ …can these bones live?” God knew what Ezekiel’s answer would be, but it’s good to verbalize our faith, or lack thereof. Where is your faith meter? Do you believe that God can and still does the impossible?? A daily prayer of mine is found in Lk 17:5 - Lord, increase my faith in you!!!
The bottom line is this: v 14a says; “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.” Hallelujah!! 2 Co 3:17 says; “…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Freedom means you’re not in bondage, you’re not oppressed, you’re not beaten down. Freedom in Christ means you’re VICTORIOUS !! Live accordingly!
In Christ, Rosel

Lord, send me.

2009-09-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hey, hey everyone!!
I pray that you, the reader, is doing well spiritually, physically, emotionally, relationally, in every sense.
The enemy has taken great measures lately to get us to loose our focus on Jesus Christ. He knows that the Lord called us here and has and continues to equip us, and that the Kingdom of God will increase as long as we completely trust in Him and allow Him to flow into and through us, - praise His holy name!!!
Now that we’ve settled into the school year, and things aren’t as foreign anymore, we’re really focusing our prayers on God’s “hidden agenda.” Before coming out we knew, more or less, what we’d be doing here. You know, things we knew we could do; build, fix, teach, love, hug kids, encourage, pray for others, etc. Things that don’t necessarily stretch us. Things we can do with our hands. Thing’s that we can do “on our own.“
You see, a few months before we left home, Isaac said to me that he believes that God is calling us to do much more than what we are currently doing at CRIB, school, New Hope, etc. But if God had revealed to us all the things He wants to accomplish in and through us, we would most likely have said, “No Lord, you’ve got the wrong people, send someone else.” - the Moses syndrome: God calls Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and Moses says, Lord you’ve got the wrong guy, I don’t speak very well. Send someone else.
And so here we are, serving in different areas, and yet sensing in our spirit that we haven’t yet tapped into all that we’re called to do here.
We believe that God started illuminating His will in this regard almost right after we got here. We were spending a lot of time at the CRIB home, and almost immediately noticed there was a lot of fighting between the kids, they were watching unwholesome movies, listening to music that doesn’t edify their souls, etc. A person might be tempted to think that this is normal and natural in today’s world, especially in a home with about 50 kids. But this could be very different by the power of God. I mean, for anyone, but also especially for these kids; God hand picked them; they too could have been killed along with many other children during the war; He spared them. He wants them to have an abundant life. Many of these children and teenagers know Jesus as their Saviour; they receive a Christian education and have a number of other Christian influences in their lives. But they also have a lot of strikes against them.
We feel that God is calling us to do a weekly Bible study with the kids. Not just skimming over the surface, shallow stuff, but a deep, Spirit led and filled time of praying/studying/discipling. A time where we would allow the Holy Spirit to use us to speak into these kids’ hearts and lives with words of knowledge, wisdom and prophesy. A time to pray over them for a powerful, life changing, personal encounter and baptism of the Holy Spirit. A time to walk along side them and model purity in heart, a deep love and need for studying the Scripture; a passion for prayer, a complete submission and devotion to Jesus Christ.
Wow, as I read this last paragraph, it hits me again. We can do none of this on our own. None!!!!! We don’t even live like this all the time. We sin; we stumble; we fall; we’re so far from perfect. But praise be to God, He calls sinners saved by grace to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.“ Mt 28: 19-20.
So we shared our hearts with Chrissie, the “mama” to the kids; the founder of the orphanage. She informed us that there would be a couple coming in a few weeks, the pastor and his wife from her church in England, and they would be living on site at CRIB for 6 months; their main focus here would be to pour into the kids. At this point we’re like, “okay Lord, did we hear wrong, there’s someone with fantastic credentials coming to minister to the kids, they don’t need us.” But we told Chrissie that if this couple wanted, we’d be willing to help them. We continued to pray.
Last week Pastor David and Sheena arrived. They are one dynamite couple! I would guesstimate they’re about 55-60 yrs. old, but boy do they have spunk in them. David is used very powerfully by the Lord in the area of prophesy. This last Sunday we were so blessed to experience, along with 7,000 other people, a huge outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Jabe church. Pastor Edmond was introducing them to the church as they will be doing some work with Jabe, and immediately after the intro., Pastor David opens his mouth and pours forth the heart of God. This released the Spirit, and it was probably 30 minutes before Pastor Edmond could start the message. (By the way, church is always between three and a half to four hours long. We worship for an hour and a half to two hours.)
On Tuesday we were at CRIB after school, and David and Sheena said that Chrissie had told them about our willingness to help them. I wonder how much helping we’ll be doing versus soaking up what this couple has to offer. Please pray for a deep anointing and equipping for us; for eyes that see the kids the way our heavenly Father sees them; for our hugs to soothe hurts and mend broken hearts as if the arms of Jesus were enfolding them; for humble hearts, fully committed to administering all that the Lord imparts to us for these kids. For the kids to allow themselves to be vulnerable and ‘moldable’ by the Potter. Please pray for constant guidance and direction as we seek to be and do all the Lord calls us to.
And finally, pray that we will “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Lord, send me!!
In Christ
Isaac, Rosel and Colton

Run to Jesus

2009-09-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone;
We’re missing my (Rosel) favorite season - fall. The beautiful and colourful oranges, reds and yellows in the foliage, the crisper air, the lengthening evenings, ahhhh, all signs of relief from the heat of summer.
The rains are late in coming; as I wrote last week, we had one down pour, but the daily, almost torrential rains is what the land and the people are waiting for. Because of the delay, the electricity generating dam up country is at low levels and Bujumbura is on a very tight conservation schedule. For the last week plus, generally, we have power 24 hours on/24 hours off.
A few days ago I was thinking that I’d much rather go without electricity than without running water. Showers have always been important to me; long, relaxing ones, not rushed. Now in this heat, the thought of going to bed in sticky skin and not being able to wash my hands many, many times a day is most unwelcome. But not having running water is also a very real possibility here. I’m getting some where’s with this. The question I was wrestling with is this: in the event there would be no running water for even just half a day, never mind an extended period of time, would I be able to endure this joyfully, patiently, even thankfully!!! with a godly attitude?
I’m reminded of the apostle Paul, who was imprisoned, flogged, exposed to death, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked thrice, hungry, thirsty, cold and naked. Did he grumble and gripe? In 2 Co 1:8 he talks about suffering hardships far beyond his ability to endure, so that he even despaired of life. Sounds pretty dire. But he continues on, stating that this happened so that he would not rely on himself, but on God.
Being thankful seems like a huge stretch, but 1 Thess 5:16 - 18 admonishes me to: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Ouch!!
Heb.12:7 says: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.”
2 Ti 2:3 & 4:5: “Endure hardships with us like a good soldier of Christ. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” You mean I’d still have to serve, in public, humbly, faithfully, joyfully, obediently, the people that the Lord has called us to when I haven’t showered in days and I’m stinky??!!
In contrast to Paul‘s hardships, our “light and momentary troubles” - 2 Co 4:17, sure seem insignificant. I mean, running water and refreshing showers compared to being stoned!!??
But praise be to God, He cares about the smaller ’what if’s’ in our lives too, not just apostle Paul sized hardships. So whether or not we will be faced with no running water, one thing I do know without a doubt is this: when Jesus, in 2 Co 12:9 said, “My grace is sufficient for you…” He meant what He said. The rest is up to me… will I accept and walk in that all sufficient grace?
What is your ‘what if’ concern, or a very real issue that is burdening you? Run to Jesus and leave it at His feet. He is more than able, He is more than sufficient, He is more than we can imagine!
I’m preaching to myself.
Please pray for us. We’re in a hardship, and it has nothing to do with running water.
In Christ,
Isaac, Rosel and Colton

God's providing for and stretching us

2009-09-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone; we bless you, our dear family and friends in the name of Jesus.
God is faithful - He continues to protect, equip, strengthen and stretch us.
We had a really good down pour a few days ago, so now with the rising temperature we also have humidity. The fact that we haven’t had hot water since the second day we got here is, for the most part, becoming less of an issue. After the initial shock of the cold water hitting your hot body in the shower, it’s wonderfully refreshing.
Power outages have posed to be stretching for us. In the last week we’ve been without electricity far more than with. In the last 72 hours we’ve had power for about 6-8 hours. This is problematic for many reasons; the food spoils in the fridge, classes at school have to be revised because of the photocopier not running, you can’t get any relief from the heat from the use of fans, which also affects your sleep, etc., etc.
But in all this, God truly is helping us cope. Yes, there are times when you wonder why the government doesn’t do things differently and channel money into infrastructure instead of some other things, but I believe that we are being stretched by this for a purpose. Leave it to Colton to often bring humour into a situation; yesterday as we sat down to our simple evening meal, he quipped; “ I thought candlelight dinners were supposed to have fancier food than this.”
School is going well, both for Colton the student and myself the assistant/teacher. Both Secondary and Primary begin with devotions every day - what a huge blessing to corporately start the day like this. Isaac joins the staff devotions with me at Primary. So far Pastor Ray does them, however, we will start a rota shortly. There is so much power in welcoming the Holy Spirit into every aspect of the day, and being challenged to incorporate a godly principle into every lesson that is taught. What a joy to see Muslim/Hindu children enthusiastically singing Christian songs, learning Scripture and praying. Twenty two percent of our students come from these homes; the reason they are at this school? It’s English - the only one in Bujumbura. Being knowledgeable in English is very important to this community of people, and they are willing to have their children fully integrate into a Christian school to accommodate this. What a fantastic opportunity to evangelize and disciple these children. Parents as well have seeds planted in them when they come to school programs and celebrations.
The Lord is answering our prayers as He gives Isaac creative and often unusual ways to fix/do things in his work. For instance, Isaac had tried to fix our constantly running kitchen faucet to no avail. With no plumbing parts and only a screwdriver, your options are limited. After a few attempts, he used a pencil for the solution; the metal part that holds the eraser makes a wonderful faucet part; who would have known!? With God all things are possible.
Isaac does find it frustrating that there are so very few materials available to do his job. He knew this would be the case before we came, but when you live it every day, and the things are so very basic that he needs sometimes, it can be taxing. Please pray for continued and an increase of creativity and improvisation skills for Isaac.
Jehovah Jirah -God our provider. There’s a guy by the name of John who’s from England, who’s lived here for about 20 years that donated some tools yesterday that people have shipped out to him over the years. He works for the President of Burundi, and I don’t know exactly what else he does. All of a sudden he’s at the Primary school, wanting to see Isaac to arrange the donation. It’s so faith building, the Lord putting it on John’s heart to do this now, at the perfect time when there’s someone here that needs the tools.
Speaking of tools, the crate that contains more tools that our church put in there is held up here in Bujumbura because of red tape. It arrived close to two weeks ago; hopefully we’ll get possession of it this coming week. Please also pray in this regard.
You’ve probably heard stories of how living things have crawled through sewer pipes into toilets. I had, and the thought wasn’t pleasant. Neither is the experience!! Here’s what happened: I was at Secondary, the main building was locked, so I had to use the outdoor toilet. It was relatively dark in there compared to the bright sunshine outside, and my eyes took some time to adjust. Obviously, you never sit down in public facilities, so as I hovered over the loo, I happened to look into it. At first I thought that the girl that came out of the loo just before I entered had forgotten to flush, but then I saw “it” move!! I suddenly didn’t need to go anymore, as by this time the creature was in sharp focus and trying to scale the side of the toilet. ( My hair at the nape, even in the re-telling of the event, is doing weird things.) I flushed, hoping to rid the earth of this intruder, but “the thing” was determined not to co-operate. I stood and watched as it flailed and wiggled and struggled to not be sucked under by the powerful current. African toilets have a much more powerful flush, more like a vacuum. So when the waters had calmed, there he was, all 7-8 inches of him, shiny black and much more relaxed. At this point I high-tailed it out of there and informed a guy standing nearby about the goings on. He came to evaluate the situation, sauntered off and came back with a long branch. He was going to rescue the thing!! He stuck the branch into the toilet, and slowly it climbed onto it. He brought the approximately 3 inch circumference, snake-like, ugly thing with 4 short legs out and it scurried off. I wonder who it’s next victim will be!?
We get to sleep in tomorrow! We have to get up at the uncivilized hour of 5:45 A.M. to get to school by 7:00 for staff devotions during the week, so with our earplugs in place to shut out the loud sounds of the night and early morning, the slumber will be most welcome.
I’ll try and post some pictures tomorrow.
Goodnight, we miss you, we love you.
The Froese’s

Gecko's and surprise

2009-09-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

So folks, we’ve had some emails gently asking for another update. I keep thinking I need to sit down again and do this, (yes I know Dave, intentions don’t get things done; bless you!!) but first off, I only turn the computer on 1-2 times per week; and second, we’re seriously busy. But I want to keep all you guys updated so you can pray specifically, and remember, we’re in this together, we really need and appreciate your prayers. I truly believe that your prayers strengthen us, and also allow us to laugh at some situations that otherwise would be quite upsetting. Things are just so very different here, and often there doesn’t seem to be any logic as to why situations are as they are.
Gecko’s, gecko’s, gecko’s!!! Wow, are there ever many gecko’s. Last week one evening we had the group from England over and exactly that night the gecko’s decided to come out in droves. One of the team members is a zoo keeper, so he didn’t mind trying to herd them out the door, but they’re awfully fast, and the ceiling is really high ( they prefer walls and ceilings), so this can be a funny sight - man versus gecko. It doesn’t help that there is about a 1 inch gap between the door and floor; once Isaac has tools, we can hopefully rectify this problem. Ladies, how would you like to share your bedroom with elusive critters like this. It’s a good thing we’re tired from the day’s activities; we sleep soundly apart from the noises that are so much a part of the night here.
We live smack across from a large Catholic church, and the churches here are mostly open on the sides to allow for much, much needed air flow. This means that the singing is heard from far away, never mind across the street, with a bedroom window facing the church, as ours does. They have nightly services, but the Sunday 6:00 A.M. service really is a challenge. They sing beautifully, albeit to/about Mary, but on a morning that we don’t have to be at school at 7:00 A.M?!!? I’ve wondered from the beginning, how can they sing so enthusiastically when many of them worship a dead woman? Yes, I know there are born again Christians in the Catholic faith, but when you hear former Catholics talk about going to the front of the church to kneel before a statue of Mary, and the only word in a song that you know as it filters through your window is “Maria, Maria,” you can’t help but wonder. Can you imagine the wonderful worship that would greet our ears at 6:00 A.M. if they worshipped the living Lord Jesus!!!???
This last Sunday we went to a different church than Jabe. We met a pastor - Andy Kennedy - through Everiste a few weeks ago who was here from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for 3 months, scoping out what their ministry could do in Burundi. Through Andy we met Chris, a dynamite Christian guy that’s becoming a good friend. Chris invited us to his church as Andy was preaching. It was so nice to not have to strain your ears to hear the translation of the message through not great ear phones. The message was on grace - grace that is un-earned and un-deserved, but so real. Chris has a French website where he posts a new sermon 6 days a week. He has listeners in over 80 countries.
So I had a surprise this week. I started work at school, with this week just preparing the classrooms and resources etc. After staff devotions led by Pastor Ray we were all introduced, where people are from etc. (Andrew and Kristine Astington are from the UK, however they were teaching in Saudi Arabia for the last six years. They’ve both taught for many years, Kristine’s starting her 42nd year. I am going to be an assistant in her year 6 class part of the time. Anni-Mette is from Denmark, she’s here till February, Kristy Jones is from Arizona, there’s 2 guys from Canada coming on Sunday, Debbie, the head teacher for Primary is from the UK; the rest of the teachers are from various African countries.) So…. the surprise… When Pastor Ray said what I’d be doing he said “ Rosel’s our arts teacher and will be assisting in years 2 and 6.” That was news to me, I thought I was only assisting. Here’s what happened. The above mentioned head teacher, Debbie, is currently on mat. leave in the UK. So Irene, the year two teacher is presently the interim head teacher. So a few weeks ago when Irene came over before going home to Kenya for two weeks, she asked me if I would be willing to help her with art. I said sure. Well, I guess she had in mind “helping her” was, as in taking the arts position; only I thought “helping her” was doing year 2 art, at least partially with her together, since I’m already in that class. So I’m teaching years 2 - 6 art, with each lesson being 70 minutes long. Each grade has art once a week. Amanda, I’m so grateful for your files that you left - they are a huge help. For you non- Calvary people, Amanda was here last school year and taught art and sports. You know what the cool part is???!!! God prepared me for this. A few days before we left Manitoba, I went and bought more art supplies than I had already purchased up to that point to take with us, presumably for the New Hope and CRIB kids. I just saw myself doing art with kids, and here’s how our awesome Father orchestrated it all. Isn’t that sweet??!! Later I told Pastor Ray about the surprise, which he found humorous as well.
I think perhaps Irene was a little over zealous today; she asked me if I would be willing to teach sports (gym) as well. I told her I’d pray about it, but I don’t have peace about that, as all sports are done outside (no gymnasium), and I’m already struggling with walking to and from school every day in the sun. ( in case you didn’t read in a previous blog, I have what my Dr. calls a near allergy to the sun.)
Speaking of the sun, it’s generally a few degrees hotter now already than when we came a month ago. Because we’re so close to Lake Tanganyika, we get a pretty strong wind off the lake mid day, exactly when we’re walking home from school. It’s a challenge to control my umbrella against the wind as our tired and sweaty bodies trudge the mile plus home. Rainy season is around the corner when the temperature really rises!! We’ve been told a few times, you can almost set your clock to the rain. It comes at noon, and often again at four in the afternoon. Immediately following the rain, the sun is out, and steam rises from the ground.
Isaac’s gecko hunting again.
Sending our love and blessings to you all - our team.
Isaac, Rosel and Colton

Ramona and Earl(and family) need your prayers

2009-08-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone;
Urgent!!!!! S.O.S. Prayer needed. As many of you know, my niece Ramona has battled sarcoma cancer for over 3 yrs. She was diagnosed 6 months after her and Earl got married. She’s just finished round 23, yes, 23 of chemo, and things are not looking very good. Please check out their blog site at :
The Life and Times of Earl and Ramona Reimer. We need serious, believing, intercessory prayer.
After the above paragraph I really don’t feel like saying anything else, but I also realize I haven’t written anything in a while.
You may have heard in the news about Air Kenya’s strike; they were demanding 130% increase in wages!!
Pastor Ray had never before heard of a strike in Africa. The strike really affected 2 ladies that were here from B.C., friends of the Bales’.
The first week we were here I was terribly homesick for our house 3 evenings.. I’m kinda embarrassed to say that it was something material and not a person, someone I have a relationship with. However, the contrast between our two homes is great, and thankfully the Lord is helping me a great deal in being more and more content. Speaking of being homesick, the first 3 or 4 days or so I kept looking at vehicles’ license plates, subconscienciously wondering when I’d see a Manitoba plate. Around day 4 my brain kicked in and I realized the almost absolute impossibility of this happening, as the vehicle would have to be transported across the big pond for this to happen. Be nice and say that I can blame this on jet lag.
I previously wrote that we have a passion fruit and 2 mango trees on our yard. I’m sorry to report that is not accurate; our botanically untrained eyes did not recognize the half of it!!! BUT, we DO have: a pineapple tree, 2 orange trees, a papaya tree, 2 mango trees, a lemon tree, an avocado tree, and last but not least, a guava tree. The people in Mexico will remember my fondness for guava. Isn’t the Lord so awesome, blessing us with all this stuff!!?? I must add that the pineapple and orange trees are not yet big enough to bear fruit.
My (Rosel) mom has a serious green thumb, and mom, I think you’d be proud of me the way I’ve been working in our yard together with our guard. There’s a lot of shade in our yard in the afternoon which allows me to do this. I’m really enjoying this a great deal, praying as I work and just claiming our yard and everything in it for Jesus. Juneval, our guard laughs when I let out little yells as yet another gecko has crossed my almost immediate path. There are also big lizards, with bright, sky blue heads that frequent our front and back fence.
Fabiola took me to the market one day last week, and it was something that I wanted Isaac and Colton to experience ASAP, so that Saturday the three of us ventured out into this ….. Um… busy city. The fun begins when you’re trying to tell the taxi driver where you want to go. Not all words have hand motions you know!! The market is something that I could not have imagined; it’s huge, Fabiola said it covers over a city block. It’s open air, with a tin roof covering the whole thing. There’s hundreds and hundreds of tiny kiosks, measuring between 4 and 6 feet squared. Laundry detergent and food items are side by side on a tiny shelf; men are ‘siesta-ing’ on sacks of rice and beans; aisles are 2 feet wide if your lucky, sometimes only wide enough to plant your foot on the floor, mostly crammed with very hot, sticky and not fresh bodies. There’s mothers with their children on their backs, children and crippled (and others) begging, there’s loud shouting, requesting room to pass through from men bearing heavy loads on their backs making their way through the maze; there’s enthusiastic bartering, blaring music, beckoning shopkeepers, hearing “muzungu,muzungu” from every side. There are sights you don’t want to see again, there are mountains of the delicious fruits that make up our daily salad, and at the end, we got to say: “hey look, there’s a muzungu.” It’s really quite fascinating.
There’s a group of 6 people here from the UK doing holiday club, aka VBS., with the CRIB kids. Colton is participating in this and having a good time. They are short-staffed and suffering from stomach bugs, so I’m helping them all week. They are a great bunch, and very organized.
Next week I officially start my job(so why am I so busy now already?). All the teachers/assistants have one week to get everything ready; school starts Sept. 8th. Isaac is still spending most of his time at the Primary School, there’s so much that needs doing.
There’s a young Vancouver university student here for 5 weeks whose family is friends with the Bales’. He’s staying at New Hope orphanage, but during the day has helped Isaac for the last 2-ish weeks. We’ve had the blessing of getting to know him, as he comes for lunch most days. He’s a great guy who really loves the Lord. If the Holy Spirit puts Thomas on your mind, pray for him. God’s invested a lot into this guy, and Thomas’s desire is to serve the Lord where ever He leads.
Time to quit. Rosel

Getting more and more "Burundianized"

2009-08-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

Amahoro!! Peace!! Aug. 18 /09
This is day 5 or 6 without being able to access the internet; others we’ve spoken with aren’t able to get on either.
Isaac, Colton and I were going for a walk when we witnessed a vehicle/bicycle hit and run about 30 feet in front of us. (Bicycle taxis are very, very common; they have a make shift “seat” - re-bar wire welded onto the back.) There was a teenaged girl on the back of a bike taxi that was approaching an intersection. This vehicle started backing up, and I don’t know if the driver of the bike didn’t see this, or if he figured the vehicle would stop before it hit the bike. Well it hit them, backed them down really hard and immediately the vehicle sped away. Praise the Lord, neither driver nor passenger of the bike were very hurt. We felt at such a loss that we couldn’t speak the language; all I could do to comfort the girl was rub her back.
Everiste told us that bicycle/pedestrian accidents happen every day. This isn’t surprising, seeing that vehicles share the road with 100’s of bikes and pedestrians on very narrow, one way that frequently turn into 3 lane roads.
I’ve been informed that I will be assisting in year 2 and year 6. The year 2 teacher, Irene, is from Kenya; she’s taught at The King’s School for 7 years. She came over last week, and already I really like her . I think we’ll be a good team. She gave me a whole bunch of prep. work to do at home in the next few weeks.
Isaac is working at the schools, getting the buildings ready for school. As I mentioned earlier, the crate with the tools in it doesn’t arrive till the 29th, so his work is still limited as far as what he can do; however, he’s able to improvise to a degree.
There are many businesses that employ someone that speaks at least a little bit of English. We’ve heard many times: “We are obliged to learn English because it is starting to replace French.” In fact, there are countries that have completely taken French out of the class room and replaced it with English. Burundi’s public schools are taught in French, though you would be hard pressed to find some one that doesn’t speak at least 2, and usually 3 or 4 languages.
I know I said it in the previous blog, but we really like it here; we are becoming more and more “Burundianized.” Colton is so in his element; you should see how he’s already mastered playing soccer wearing nothing on his feet but……flip-flops!! Forget the cleats, soccer socks and shin pads that he’s used to wearing for years. Have flip-flops, will play.
You should see this child’s feet by the end of the day; this red/brown dirt transforms them into something akin to the CRIB kids’ skin color!
Remember 1 Co 4:20: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” Ask the Father for that power to be increased in your life. He will not disappoint you.
Cyber hugs, Rosel

Introductions

2009-08-20T13:03:00.001-07:00

Hello again. Aug.13 /09
Introduction’s that I should have done the first day:
Pastor Ray and Maryanne Bale - A wonderful couple from Vernon, B.C. Initially they came here for 3 months; that was 7 yrs. ago!! Pastor Ray is very involved in The King’s School, the CRIB home, at the Nyakabaga orphanage, in the Congo orphanage together with Pastor Rueben, and he preaches at Jabe church about once a month. Pastor Ray and Maryanne have two married daughters in Canada, and 12 grandchildren. They adopted Boss David when he was just 4 months old; he’s a very intelligent and inquisitive 5 yr. old now.
Everiste and Anick - A beautiful Burundian couple we are blessed to have in our lives. Everiste has been a huge help in getting us settled in. Everiste studied High German so that he could go to Germany to get his degree in agriculture. It’s pretty cool to be able to speak High German to him. He has an agricultural project up country, and he’s getting more involved in shipping “good” cows in from Tanzania that actually produce milk, versus what he calls “useless” cows that just cost money but don’t produce milk.
Just like Pastor Ray, Everiste wears many hats; he’s also Chrissie Chapman’s administrator. They have 4 kid’s. Next week we are helping them move into a house that is much closer to us than where they currently live. We’re looking forward to having them closer.
Deo and Rosa - Another lovely Burundian couple. Rosa is due with baby # 4 in a few weeks. Can’t wait!!
Honda and Libby - They are currently in England, as that is Libby’s home country.
Dave and Debbie - also currently in Debbie’s native (England?)
Chrissie Chapman - Chrissie’s been here for 20 yrs. She’s also from England. She started CRIB - Children Rescued in Burundi, during the genocide 10 yrs. ago. She’s the head of The King’s School here. Currently she is in Manitoba, getting one of her kids settled in at The King’s School in Wpg. Someone offered to pay the way for her daughter so that she could experience life out there.
Aime and Kristelle - Aime is an administrator. His dad was the ambassador to the States for years, so Aime lived in the US for some yrs.
We have the honor and privilege to work with all these very gifted and wonderful people serving under ARM.
Last week Friday Maryanne took us to Club du lac, which is a beautiful resort on the beach. It seems very out of place in this poor country. In the afternoon we all went to Nyakabaga orphanage. There was a Samaritan’s Purse team from Ireland , so Colton had the privilage of partaking in some of their activities, while Isaac and I got acquainted with some of the mama’s and aunties. A “mama” is a woman that was married; an “auntie”has never been married. These are the caretakers of the kids. Everyone in Nyakabaga, also called New Hope,is Congolese, from a village about 15 miles from the Burundi border. Four yrs. ago there was a massacre in this village and 266 people got killed. The survivors make up New Hope. We already love this place. These kids have so very little materialistically speaking, but they are very passionate about Jesus Christ - so poor yet so rich!!
When it was time to leave, one of the mama’s said Colton couldn’t leave. We assured them that we would come back often.
When we got home, Isaac was going to fold some of the laundry that we had previously rushed out to get off the line and spread out on our living room furniture to dry so that the smoke from Renevah’s cooking wouldn’t “smoke” it. Isaac was commenting on how interesting it was to dry underwear on our coffee table; this was almost immediately followed by a shocked: “Ugh, there’s ants in my pants.”. It truly is an adventure living here.
On Sunday we went to Jabe church. WOW!! WOW!! WOW!! Need I say more? 7,000 people worshiping the Lord - African’s at that!! The lead pastor, Pastor Edmond, had the first message, followed by a guest pastor from Rwanda. It was powerful. It was on giving people “Jesus injections”, not just a little of Jesus on the surface, but injecting, pouring Jesus into people and being vessels that He can use. I love that!! We also spent time repenting for the atrocities of the genocide. Vivante Jabe is under ARM, one of 120 ARM churches in Burundi, with hundreds in other parts of Africa.
We went to Pastor Ray and Marryanne’s for lunch and the afternoon. At 5:00 we headed to Nyakabaga again. They have a service there every Sunday evening. They were already worshiping when we got there; what a beautiful sight, these people that had everything snatched from them by evil, now praising their Protector and Provider, their Joy and their Strength. Two of the teens had a very passionate message, followed by a word from the visitors - Isaac and myself. We had previously been informed that this is expected from visitors. This was followed with more worship, getting more and more joyful with each song. Space is tight under the canopy where we were, but the rows we started with soon dissolved as we danced for Jesus. One mama came over to me and motioned for me to dance with her. I had to be careful that I wouldn’t trip over these two pieces of bent re-bar sticking out of a concrete slab. At one point it struck me that I was dancing for Jesus with an African lady on top of a sewer cover. What joy!!!
After the service, 17 of us piled into an old, “hippie” Volkswagon “bus”. We were dropped off at our gate to be met by our ever smiling and friendly guard, Junavard. He wrapped his skinny arm around Colton again as he walked us up our short drive way. Inside there was a real treat awaiting us; there on the table was a cake!! You see, Burundian’s don’t do dessert, so we had pretty much laid even visions of sweets to rest.
But we are blessed to have Renevah as our cook, (temporarily)who has much experience cooking for “muzungus”, white people - and knows about their sweet tooth. However, there are very, very limited ingredients available, and anything beyond a basic, unfrosted, occasional cake will remain a delicious memory for the most part. Having said that though, there is another orphanage right next to The King’s School that sells pretty good cinnamon buns. So that’s a real treat.
Anyways, we had a good first Sunday in Burundi. The One who called us here is taking very good care of us. Not surprising at all.
I keep asking Colton how he’s doing, if he’s adjusting well, what’s going through his mind. After a few days of this he said: “ Mom, I don’t need to adjust. This is exactly how I like life. It’s just like in Mexico.” But let me add, Mexico times 10 or 15!! For those of you who don’t know, we’ve spent a fair amount of time in the “real” Mexico - not resorts. You see poverty there as well, but nothing like here. But anyways, now you know that Colton’s in his God created forte.
We really like this place. It’s feeling more and more like home. The people are generally very friendly. God has richly blessed us with friends already, Jabe church is a Spirit-filled, Christ-centered place where we can go to be fed, we have a good home and a beautiful yard, and so much more. The Lord is providing
We are spending a fair amount of time at CRIB. The crate that contains Isaac’s work tools doesn’t arrive till the 29th, and I don’t start at school till Sept. 1st, so we have the time to do this. Yesterday I spent hours doing girls’ nails. I did them really fancy with different designs. Isaac answers countless questions pertaining to life in Canada from the older boys, and Colton plays hours of soccer, goes to Chrissie’s pool or the beach with the kids., draws, or just hangs out with them.
The kids at CRIB are all Burundians that were rescued during the genocide 10 yrs. ago. It’s so much fun to see them come running up to you when you walk into the gate and they wrap their arms around you. It reminds me of crumbs and ants, but not in a bad way. If there is a crumb on the counter, it is completely beset with ants. These are great kids; they all attend The Kings School, except for those that have already finished year 11 - secondary only goes to year 11. ( I’m getting used to saying year instead of grade.)
I wonder when I’ll be able to post this blog, as we haven’t been able to get online for a couple of days.
I love this: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” 1 Co 5:20
So often we as Christians just do lip service about the power of God, never mind God Himself. Or we may believe that he is all powerful, but not in our situation. That’s like saying our situation has God stumped, that He needs a plan B. Let me gently remind you, God’s plan A - Jesus Christ, is ALL sufficient.
Love, love, love, Rosel…. For Isaac and Colton too

Still alive and kicking.

2009-08-20T12:45:00.001-07:00

You thought we had fallen off the side of the world, didn't you?? Well, here we are again. I'll post writings from the last week that we couldn't get on line.
P.S. Seriously, be thankful for your country with all it's smooth running infrastructure.
Beware, they are long posts.
Rosel

Pictures of our home

2009-08-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

This is our cook/houseboy, Renavah. He speaks a tiny bit of English. We don't store anything in our kitchen, due to the fact that any food/crumbs left on the counter for about 2 minutes, literally, is crawling with ants. He deep fried bananas for us today. They were pretty awful, not because Renavah isn't a good cook, in fact he trains other cooks, and when our "team members" learn that he's our cook, they all say how good he is. You see the 2 charcoal pots he cooks on. The charcoal is a type of wood that's been slowly burnt/charred over a long period of time.

This is our main living area. It was furnished when we moved in. Here's a little carport beside our house. A vehicle would make our time so much more useful. Notice the high fence all around. In the front it's about 8 feet high, in the back 10 feet; it's made of cement/brick. Beside the side walk that runs right around the house is a ditch that runs out into the street ditch. Every street has a fully paved ditch on both sides, ranging in depth from about one and a half feet to about 4 feet deep. This is not a sewer ditch, but water used to wash the outside cooking utensils, laundry water, etc. is disposed of via this ditch.

Isaac and Colton vegging on our front porch. Today when we came home, Renavah was ironing on the porch; jeans, underwear , tea towels, pretty much if it's been washed, it gets ironed. Notice the lack of grass; it's the dry season right now, and the house was vacant for a time before we moved in, so without adequate water it dies till the rainy season. Our back yard has grass all over.

Front yard and the cook and guard's living quarters.

Front yard. My boys under the passion fruit tree.

Colton climbing one of the palm trees with "scivvies" and things drying in the background. The mango tree is behind the palm tree.

This is our yard entrance. Junavard is our guard/gardener. He's a delight to have around; he's got a smile spanning from side to side that he flashes when ever we see him. He absolutely loves Colton, and when ever we come back home after being gone, he wraps his arm over Colton's shoulder as they walk up the drive way. They play soccer together, or just sit and "communicate" using their hands and actions, or Colton seranades them on his guitar. In the other, more close up picture like this, Junavard was holding Colton's hand, which is very common here. The gate has the small door that is open in the picture just for walking through, and the whole thing is opened for vehicles. We live on the corner of 2 streets as you can see, with the sign in front of the fence. The problem with the sign is that whatever was ever written on it has long been bleached by the sun. I've seen I believe one street sign so far that was legible. This makes it much more difficult to navigate your way around, as you rely on land marks only.
Our home has 4 bedrooms, and 2 washrooms, so to have visitors is very "do-able."
You know how the Word says, "let everything that has breath praise the Lord"? Well, let me tell you, the birds are very, very obedient at 5:30 in the morning. You could probably set your clock to it. It truly is beautiful hearing all these new bird songs, I'd just prefer to hear them later in the day. After they've sang for about an hour, they quit.
I finally saw a dog today for the first time, but I was acutely aware of their existence. Every night it sounds like there's a pack vying to out do each other in barking volume.
I'm seriously not complaining, I'm just informing you of some "Burundi Happenings".
We haven't had hot water for over a week. Isaac's done what he can, but without so much as a screwdriver or hammer, there's nothing he can do till the landlord comes. Showers take on a whole new cooling experience!!!!
Speaking of the heat, God is so faithful!! We've been praying for months that especially I, (Rosel) would feel the heat to a much lesser degree than what the actual temperature is. Most people that know me well, know that I have what my Dr. calls a near allergy to the sun. So when the Lord called us here, just a short jump from the equator, this was a huge prayer item!! Friends, we serve such an awesome God!! When He calls, He equips. Yes it's hot, but I don't find it as hot as I did often in Manitoba in the summer time. During the night it's usually 26-28 degrees,and we can't use the fans due to no power, and it seriously is not bad.
It's almost 10:00 P.M. and we still have electricity!! That's fantastic!! It's been shut off before eight in the past, so I'm running on bonus time. Generally it comes back on again between 6 and 9 A.M.
Let me tell you about the driving. It's chaos to the max. There are no traffic lights in a city of approx. 700,000 people. There are some stop signs that are completely disregarded. It seems people have both hands on the steering wheel for two reasons; one, to steer obviously, and two, to honk. Taxis and motor bike taxis make up a very large portion of the traffic. The motor bikes wind their way through what is supposed to be narrow two way traffic that probably more times than not is 3 lanes, at break neck speed. Bicyclists with passengers or massive loads of Fanta or sacks of charcoal share a very narrow lane with vehicles. We saw one pedestrian accident the second day, and where told by Everiste that that is a daily occurrence. Imagine all the families that lose loved ones so tragically. Pedestrians are everywhere. It truly is not boring going up town. Neither Isaac nor I have driven so far. Pastor Ray, Maryanne or Everiste have very graciously relieved us of that so far, taking us where ever we've gone.
We met a couple at the CRIB home today from........... Winnipeg of all places. Sheila, you may know Kyle (don't know the last name), he taught in Secondary two years ago. They came for holidays.
It's late by Burundian standards, so I'll quit for today; but I still want to give you a run down of days 3 -6, as I want to introduce you to some very key people/places we'll be working with that we met during days 3 - 6. Till then, please keep on praying for us; we would not be doing as well as we are without your prayers carrying us. Believe me!! We love you; The Froese's

Back in business!!

2009-08-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hey, hey, dear and patient family and friends;
God is good!!We safely arrived in Burundi last week Tuesday at 1:30 P.M. It was a very long and tiring trip, but also enjoyable. Pastor Ray and Aime picked us up at the airport. We went straight to Pastor Ray and Maryanne's house for a delicious lunch. After this they took us to our house. There was a frenzy of activity, with 4 or 5 people cleaning. When I went to the washroom, I had my first close encounter with a gecko. There in the corner by the tub he sat! My hair at the back of my neck was standing up as I scurried out. Minutes later Colton, quite excited, announced that he, too, had made acquaintance with the creature, only more intimately. He had tried touching it, and immediately it shed it's tail, so when Colton came to get me, the gecko was in the tub, about 6 inches away from it's still moving tail.
Everiste came over to meet us; his wife Anick, who works for the government, was in South Africa on business.
The house is better than we had envisioned, thank you Jesus!! Our yard is beautiful; get this, we have our very own mango and passionfruit trees!! How sweet is that?! There are palm trees, lemongrass, aloe vera, a large variety of shrubs and flowering plants. Mom, you would love our yard; I think of you when I walk around and admire the beauty. I will email pictures soon; believe it or not, I haven't taken one single picture yet since we left home.
The following morning, Everiste picked us up to go and meet with Drs. Euloge and Aline, a husband and wife team. We went to the African Revival Ministries headqaurters for Burundi, as Dr. Aline is the director of this organization for Burundi. We then headed off to different stores, buying the bare necessities for the house - on the top of the list were 2 fans!!
We than went to meet Everiste's children, Mama Rosa and her children, and the CRIB kids. After visiting for some time, we needed to do some more errands, and Colton stayed at the CRIB house. They had informed us that bugali was on the menu. When we retrieved Colton later, with many of the kids surrounding us, I asked how it had been. The kids laughed as they explained that Colton had gagged, but not only that, he had also eaten it with a spoon instead of with his fingers. We could hardly leave because they all wanted our attention.
Well, that's a rundown of our first two days here. I'll continue hopefully tomorrow, as I've been sitting here in the dark for about the last hour. The electricity goes off every evening, and doesn't come back on till sometime in the morning. Sorry for not writing sooner, but as some of you know, things just take much longer here, and we just got hooked up with our internet late this afternoon. We have marvelled at how the Lord has carried us thus far. Please continue to lift us up in prayer as we adjust to life here. love, love,love, Isaac, Rosel and Colton

Four more days

2009-07-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

This is really happening!! When we're not too busy to stop and think, we're very excited about what our lives will be like starting in just a few short days. We've said many, many tearful good-byes already, with many more to come. But we have peace!! And that is not of ourselves, but straight from the throne room of our God!! Thank you Jesus.
Please keep praying for us. We're going into this together; we are the hands, your prayers is what will continually keep us before Jesus so we can draw strength, wisdom, guidance, discernment and love from Him. May He receive all the honor and glory and praise! We love and appreciate you.
Blessings, Rosel

Hello from Isaac, Rosel and Colton

2009-07-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, we've got about one and a half weeks till our departure for Burundi. Our remaining time here is very full with wrapping everything up here at home.
We spent all of last week at Christian Enrichment Family Camp, where the Lord did some major equipping in us for our ministry in Burundi. It was truly, truly life changing. I'm telling you, God is so awesome!! We experienced and witnessed many things straight from the hand of the Almighty, living GOD!!
We can hardly wait to start our journey in Africa. We want to share with you, our family and friends, a sampling of what the Lord will be doing there, in and through us, by communicating with you via this blog. Our number one request is this: Please pray for us. We're in this together. "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 4:16b
many blessings, The Froese's