Today we drove up to the mountains of Ngozi. I was sparkling with anticipation because this was the portion of the trip I had been looking forward to before we even left the States. The drive was filled with beautiful scenery and some comic moments like the bicyclists holding onto a propane truck to pull them up the mountain, and the man holding a literal leg of meat on his head as he rode passenger on a bike up the mountain. The day wasn't just filled with anticipation because of our journey, but because of something that had taken place around 2 in the morning.
I had suddenly awakened from my sleep with such a start, I knew I was about to be ill. After rushing to the bathroom only to find it was a false alarm, I returned to my bed perplexed. I wondered why I had been so suddenly awakened. As I laid there and did not drift back to sleep, I came to the conclusion that it was time to pray. Strange thing is, usually it's 3 AM when I am awakened for such burdensome prayers. Later today, when I consulted with some of my teammates, they expressed the same strange awakening around 2 AM. Little did we know how much those prayers were needed.
Today one of our translators received the news that his grandfather had died, so he had to head back down from the mountains. If that weren't already dramatic enough, two of my teammates weren't feeling well. Yet, it was hard to settle into a spirit of gloom, because the 2nd marriage seminar was tonight! It was rainy and cold, and the electricity went out during the seminar, but the fire of God and the zeal of the people burned brightly.
I took a whole page of notes because I was just as hungry as the married couples for knowledge. I have enjoyed reading relationship books and learning more about the puzzle of marriage since my second year in college. It seems that the more I read, learn, hear, (I often ask people their story) the more I want to learn. And as soon as I learn something, I find that I am quickly passing it on to a friend in need, but back to tonight.
So my teammates shared from their plethora of experiences, 30 years married worth, and then they gave the audience an opportunity to ask their own personal questions. At first the Burundians were hesitant to take the sheets of paper, but once they started, the questions came tumbling! Did I mention that the electricity had gone out?! So with the glow of cell phones people wrote out their questions in Kirundi. Alice and Pacifique, who I will talk more about later, helped to translate as my teammates tried to prioritize which questions they would address. Over 30 questions poured in, tough issues, real issues. One issue was " what do you do when you just don't love your spouse anymore? They do everything that they're supposed to, but you just don't feel the same way you used to." Wow! scary thought to the unmarried single ears!
Yet, the wife on our team answered the question with such grace that probed my heart to reconsider what marital love looks like. She shared with the eager listeners about a time that comes in every marriage where natural love has to be replaced by a supernatural love that only Christ can give. This supernatural love of course rises up when the natural has died. Wow! I gathered many grains of wisdom tonight, so many that all I can say is wow!
10/30
Today was like God said come 1/2 way across the world and 2 hours up the mountain to see these jewels that I've collected. Beautiful children that ugly circumstances have left orphaned. And God loves us so much that he let us take them out and play with them. Amen. This is our God. This is why I came to Burundi. I would have walked up the mountain roads for this. :)
10/31
It's 4:39am in Burundi and there are two very insistent parties at this time. A chicken that insists the morning is coming even though the stars stubbornly maintain their position. And then there is the sound of a man's voice in a valley down below singing. I'll have to ask and double check, but my guess is he is bellowing prayer is better than sleep and is beckoning those spiritual descendants of Ishmael to arise and man their posts of prayer.
Chicken #1 has finished beckoning in the morning, although the sky is dark and the rain falls softly... but he has no need to continue proclaiming what he sees coming, there are many other chickens echoing his proclamation and their voices carry and linger in the stillness before dawn. They are shouting that day is coming. Arise oh sleeper! Redeem the time! Work while it is yet day for night cometh when no man can work!
Pastor Pascal exhorted the youth of Ngozi last night with the words of the Bible that warn of a time when no more work can be done. I too felt challenged to be more singularly focused about the Lord's work. For one of the first times I sensed the urgency of the times. The requirement of obedience because someone else's life is always hanging in the balance. 
But as the night sky has been exchanged for a cloudy dawn, I hear the man of the valley recounting the works of Allah as it is now slightly after 5am and I am reminded that the time is short and night cometh again. Obedient and flowing in his call, at 29. I have got to redeem the call. There are some new chickens repeating what others declared when the dawn seemed inconceivable, they may be late in their start, but their announcement is the same- day is coming, day is here. Are you working while there is yet still time?
11/1
Last night we had dinner on the beautiful lawn of friends of Alice. We talked and laughed late into the night while making new friends.
Today we went shopping and leisurely lounged at our regular lunch spot, Geny's. The inevitable was coming.
We concluded the evening at Mama Alice's, where all bellies leave full. The night was bittersweet because 5 am is coming like a freight train. Our mission is complete though. Believers are encouraged. Former street children at Ziga have been loved on, and the guys actually rode around on the bike with the homemade taxi. Coffee and tea purchased along with earrings galore - but faces slightly glum.
As people began to share tonight, and tears began to fall, one of our translators shared some more pieces of himself. Pictures from the past. Fragments from the life of the old creature, testimonies from the life of the new, boldly declaring Jesus is alive and He does transform!
We got in late tonight and finished our packing- not really wanting to go to sleep because we knew it would all be over when we awoke.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Today seemed surreal. The goodbyes at the airport, the quiet airplane waiting lounge- it's over. Or is it?
The lingering question concerning this trip is: beginning? Ending? Or neither? It is clear that we did not begin anything in Burundi- God did that. Nor did we complete any work in Burundi for God will do that as well. But in me, was this a beginning or an ending?
When I arrived at Times Square Church in August 2007, Burundi was on the lips of almost every congregant. Now I have myself witnessed the harvest of those 2007 laborers. A good ending to a fantastic season at TSC. Or is this the beginning?
It took 6 years for me to catch up, but now Burundi is on my lips too! Ending? Beginning? Only keeping my eyes on Jesus will reveal the answer as I learn to walk with Him in a new way. Thank you to everyone who prayed and gave, it was not in vain.
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