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Beginning Thoughts of Burundi


On the plane to Johannesburg I dreamed that I was on a plane headed to Jacksonville. I was sad because I felt we hadn't done anything on the whole trip to Burundi. It was like that was it?! Hm the expectation for what awaits! Not an expectation in man, nor plans, but in God to be phenomenal! Extravagant! Himself. 

10/20/13
We have arrived! After fighting with the mosquito net for about 5 minutes I am ready to go to sleep. God is interesting. Why here? Why Burundi?  We will see. It smells like Nepal and it is very simple so far. Simple and peaceful. 

10/21/13
 I got to play the background. There were no microphone stands, so another team member and I held the microphones for the Burundian singers at the leadership seminar. Our role in the body of Christ  is no doubt a supporting role to someone else's... 


10/22/13
I really miss children? I don't know, I cried when I awoke from a dream in which I was just covering some after school students and moving them to a holding place. I miss being around children. :/ 

Children are like sunshine for me. They both make me feel more alive, and their absence brings a change to my countenance. Some people need their coffee. I need some children and or some sun. 

* * * *
Today we met the young men that Alice is working with. They refer to them as boys, and in their stature and disposition they are much like that. Yet, in age they are adults, or close to it. Why the disparity? Years of living on the street. They're not all orphans, but they have all been rejected by their families. What a relief to know that God saw them long before their birth and was able to promise Psalms 27:10 to them.

"Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child]."


While we spent time with them, the teacher in me emerged, just by the way we discoursed through our translator. My group that we broke into in order to get familiar actually was comprised of the two young men who had not lived on the street previously. The mother of our host had included them in her feeding program, and had decided to pay for them to go to school. They're both clearly intelligent, naturals in school.

It was nice to put a face with the name De La Chance. :) This was one of the names that stood out beyond the rest when I prayed over the list of young men before traveling here. His name means by chance, but we know that no one is by chance. Everyone God has individually planned, and knitted together in the womb of a woman. Psalm 139:15-16

Now that I am so sleepy that drool runs down my face as I slip into sleep, I must stop writing.

10/23/13

Today was an interesting assortment of surprises. We met a woman named Jane at one of our meals in the hotel. She is in Burundi to interview widows for her book and post doctorate work I believe. A fellow believer, well familiar with the legacy of David Wilkerson, she gently shared with us the plight of widows in Africa. It's amazing how God can do so many things at once. Widows and orphans are his heart. 

Psalm 68:5  "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling."

One of my teammates, petite in size, but a giant in delivering the Word. Friendly meek cheerleader type she had seemed, until tonight she climbed the stage and exhorted us women from the story of Hagar. God sees us and our circumstances. He also saw what I couldn't see in my teammate. I think he is showing me slowly that there are many things that I cannot see about my teammates but are indeed there... talents, giftings, blockages, but he chose us all with reason.

Tonight ended with pizza. We were at some fancy spot, but I had had a craving for pizza, and boy was it delicious!





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