Dear ministry partners,

Thank you for your prayers for the recent trip in Burundi. This trip was an eight-day sprint, filled with travel, meetings, trainings, learning about coordinators, and considering plans for the future.

The primary purpose of the trip was to assess this new location and key players to see if the time and place are right for launching a new Pathways network. I believe that question was answered, although not in the way we anticipated. On the way home from Burundi, my Pathways colleague Matthew and I stopped for the day with Kenya coordinator Silas and we had some important time together forming a good plan for Pathways future in Kenya. It was an unusually exhausting trip, but I learned a great deal about the location and key people to move forward knowledgeably.

Perhaps the best summary of the trip is calling it a series of contrasts. While one of our key contacts in Burundi was consumed during our time together with a voluntary financial audit of his large ministry, indicating extreme (and unusual) accountability, the other key contact had no accountability and in fact deceived us and kept back a large portion of our money for his own purposes. Very discouraging. The story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 was remarkably parallel, except for the dropping dead part!

Another contrast was that the potential impact of one of the proposed networks in Burundi was to reach a total of 47 churches in a small denomination. That is great. But it is dwarfed by comparison to the potential impact of reaching tens of thousands in a refugee camp in northern Kenya as we strategized with our Kenyan coordinator Silas during a brief visit in Nairobi on our way home. May God grant us wisdom and courage in selecting well the paths He would have us proceed with Pathways in Africa.

The trainings in the two locations we visited in Burundi were received very well. The coordinators and participants are all eager to launch Pathways in their locations. Two key leaders in Bujumbura were “Apostle Tarsus” and “Bishop Oliver.” Oliver said, “There are 18 provinces in Burundi, and every one of them needs Pathways networks. There are many preachers in Burundi, but most are bad preachers, and we can share many testimonies about our need for Pathways, and we need it soon!” Tarsus concurred, adding, “Verse by verse preaching like you have done helps us to understand the Word and use it well.” 27 were present for training in Ngozi and about 24 for training in Bujumbura. We also attended and preached at a long church service on Thursday afternoon in Ngozi, a good learning experience for Matthew during his first trip to Africa.

Here is a taste of some praise and worship in Burundi:

I was greatly encourages by Pastor Isaiah’s story that he shared with us, a testimony to God’s grace in his life. He was a complete orphan, losing both parents, and at age 14 he moved with his older brother to Tanzania where he lived in a refugee camp. Burundi experienced genocides in 1972 and 1995, but unlike Rwanda, the government kept the massacres quiet and out of public eye. Isaiah’s brother left him after three years, and Isaiah was on his own, struggling to survive. After 12 years in Tanzania, he returned to Burundi, worked his way to get an education, built his skills and reputation, and started an organization (UCCD – United Christians for Change and Development) that oversees a host of diverse ministries. They are linked with schools in the States, and offer programs like N2N Bible school with thousands of students, GLS, children’s programs, crusade ministry, government programs, pastors retreats, etc. Isaiah is a godly man who gives glory to God for the success he is experiencing in life and ministry.

Thank you much for your prayers for this trip – we needed them!

This video catches a portion of our drive between Ngozi and Bujumbura, watching kids catch a lift on a semi.