Kenya and Burundi
April 2005
Cast your mind back to the BBC’s ‘Cash In The Attic’ broadcast, covering Flame’s fundraising for a two week trip to Burundi and Kenya. The £1300 made from the auctions went directly to our mission there in April 2005. In July 2004 a small team had travelled to Burundi and had been able to minister at a War Widows seminar and in the Burundi Military Hospital. The verse given to the team at that time was from Exodus 23 ‘See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.’ With this assurance, a good measure of faith and at the invitation of the Chief Chaplain to the Armed Forces in Burundi, we returned in 2005.
Our first stop was the Military Hospital, to meet some of the patients
and distribute bibles. After that, we ministered at a Military Widows conference,
to ladies whose lives had been torn apart by war and poverty. We
saw the beginning of restoration in many of them, through the transforming
power of Jesus’ love. As widows they were outcasts, rejected
by society. It was therefore such a privilege to help bring them
into an encounter with the One who never rejected the outcast or the widow,
but who healed and restored the broken and hurting.
On the final evening in Burundi we heard three lots of gunfire and some wailing just outside the Mission where we were staying. We heard the next morning that a man had been killed. We are grateful for the Lord's hand of protection upon us, but sad at the violence so close to our door. It served as a sobering reminder of the threat that the people live with day by day.
In Kenya we were greatly encouraged by the testimonies of the ladies who had gathered for the annual conference of the Military Christian Fellowship of Kenya. Not only did we witness healing and restoration but also a new boldness among the delegates. Each time we venture abroad our experience is that many lives are touched by God but also that seeds are sown for future missions. Kenya was no exception and it was whilst meeting with the Sudanese congregation at St Luke’s Anglican Church that we were invited by the Bishop of Rumbek, Sudan, to minister there in September 2005.