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As I stood up to preach, I burst into tears in the pulpit.

It was July 2003 and I had flown back from Burundi and on to the USA for my first preaching tour there. I was with a wonderful church called St Andrew’s in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina.

Memories of this moment came flooding back a few days ago when I visited my old office on the outskirts of Bujumbura. It was a time of reminiscing and rejoicing.

Back in 2003, I was distraught because at the very moment I was preaching at the midweek service, in Burundi rebels had attacked the capital. Indeed, they had taken over my office and were using the upstairs balcony as a launch pad for their RPGs on the nearby military camp (see the video clip above).

Many people were being killed, and I was concerned that my colleagues were among the dead. I found out later that our neighbour was killed, but none of my team. In fact, one of them had crept back through the carnage to rescue key documents on the computer for the printing of the annual national Bible-reading notes, risking his life in the process! Tragically, as it later transpired, most of the dead were 11-15-year-old child soldiers, high on drugs and believing the bullets wouldn’t affect them, sent in as cannon fodder by their cowardly superiors.

Over the coming days, three of our partner organisations – Youth for Christ, New Generation, and Harvest for Christ – teamed up to go and minister to the traumatised inhabitants. Risking their lives amongst unexploded mines and grenades, they cleared away debris, helped rebuilt trashed houses, prayed with people, and – very significantly – sang songs of praise. It’s hard for us to understand, but the rebels had sung those same worship songs (the roots of that rebel group were in Seventh Day Adventism) as they wrought havoc a few nights earlier; so for our brave young disciples to now be singing them again was to reclaim those songs and help remove the trauma and negative association that came from them. It was a powerful witness.

Bullet holes remain to this day.

Back to my preach at St Andrew’s. They ministered to me by washing my feet and allowing me to weep. It was holy ground. And I believe a deep connection was forged, which led to a long-standing fruitful relationship over the last few decades. In fact, we ended up living there for two years to set up GLO USA, and I’ll be back visiting in a couple of weeks again.

The rejoicing I mentioned that accompanied the reminiscing a few days ago on my recent trip was because of what has happened 20+ years later. That trashed Scripture Union office lay vacant for a number of years, becoming more and more decrepit, until we created a brilliant win/win. GLO would pay for the rent of the building, and put in four of our partners, who would love the chance to have free office rental and would take care of the property.

Meeting with the dynamic UGGB student ministry team last week, in an office once occupied by rebels.

So I was thrilled to take my visiting team around the building. Some of the old bullet marks remain in the window frames, walls, and doors, reminding us of darker days. But a lick of paint or two, and with furniture filling the various rooms, it was vibrant with life. There was Evangelism Explosion, one of (if not the) strongest movements in Africa, which has seen hundreds of thousands of people coming to Jesus over the last two decades; there was Igniting Communities for Jesus, who have created a store at the back and have 28,000 Bibles to give out in the coming months, to complement their discipling widows and orphans out of poverty; there was UGBB, who work on 26 campuses throughout the country and are full of vision for the student scene; there was Restoration Burundi, working with returning refugees, as well as raising emerging leaders and producing radio programs accessed nationwide. And each of them are doing way more than the one sentence I’ve written on them. 

It was bursting with life, and full of synergies, which is exactly what GLO is about: identifying, empowering and equipping the best local leaders of passion, integrity, gifting and vision, for the transformation of the nation bottom up and top down.

Back then we had six partners, now we have twenty-five! Beautiful!

Thanks to all of you who journeying with us. Even last week whilst we were there, nine people were killed by a different rebel group just a few miles to the North of us, so please pray on for peace and prosperity for this precious nation.

Could you support our strategic, nation-shaping work with a regular donation?

BlogGeneralInspirationPodcast

What do you make of Halloween? 

I’m conflicted. 

On one level, it’s just an excuse for a good time, and I love the chance to engage with the community and be out and about. But on another level, I’m uncomfortable with the sinister underbelly and know that as a follower of Jesus, I need to be awake to those darker realities. 

So I thought I’d share with you two of my friends’ stories, who were witches themselves. I think their opinions and experiences are more important and authoritative than mine, and what happened in their lives is frankly mind-blowing. Well worth the listen:

From Witch to Prophet
Chris Wickland

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Into the Light!
Kevin Wilson

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Witchcraft manifests itself in different cultures in different ways. The following two stories are from our recent summer outreach teams in August in Burundi:

In Makamba province in a town called Kivoga, Nadine was a contemporary ‘Gadarene demoniac’, just like in Mark chapter 5. Her father had sought treatment at a mental hospital because of her deteriorating condition, as well spending all he could on traditional medicine and witchdoctors. Eventually the family gave up, and she lived on the rubbish dump, roaming the streets at night, half-dressed. She was feared and mocked by the whole community for her unsettling behaviour.

When our team of evangelists showed up, they overcame their initial fear and started praying for her. The demons manifested, but the team called on reinforcements, took her to the local church, and over the next three hours of intensive prayer, battled through for her total deliverance. Suddenly, after the last demon was cast out, Nadine’s screams ceased. She looked at herself and began weeping. She had no recollection of what had happened, but now asked for some clothes. 

When her father arrived and saw her ‘in her right mind’ (like Mark 5:15), he was so overwhelmed he fell to the ground. Our guys shared with him how Jesus had set her free, and he and seven other people present gave their lives to the Lord! 

Baltazar was a notorious witch doctor from Bugenyuzi. He was feared by all around him, and loved the reputation he had. Nobody challenged him as they didn’t want him to cast a spell on them (I know, many of you struggle to believe this stuff. Suffice to say, out there you don’t need to convince them the power is real).

One day, a neighbour approached and asked him to stop his witchcraft. A few days later, that previously healthy man was found dead at home. So that was the context when our team showed up. They heard the stories and decided to camp out on Baltazar’s hill and pray every night.

When he heard what they were doing, he went out to confront them. But as he approached them, he was overwhelmed by a greater power and fell to his knees. He asked for prayers and surrendered to Christ. He invited the team back to his home, where his wife likewise repented when she heard what had happened to him. A crowd came to watch as they burned all his charms, and he and his wife repented of all they had done to their neighbours and in the community. Everyone was amazed at this total transformation.

As the picture at the top makes clear, we can’t afford to treat this stuff as funny mumbo jumbo, be it in Africa or the Western world. There is a spiritual realm and a spiritual battle going on. That’s why we need to wake up and pray seriously. Piper highlights the critical issue as follows for us in the West: “Probably the number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for… But what have millions of Christians done? We have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance. No strategic planning. Just easy peace and prosperity. And what did we do with the walkie-talkie? We tried to rig it up as an intercom in our houses – not to call in firepower for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask for more comforts in the den.”

Be challenged!

(Do subscribe to these weekly Inspired podcasts here.)

BlogInspirationSermons

This is the third talk in the ‘Hot Pursuit’ series, delivered at Lee Abbey in August.

Pursuing His Purpose – Lee Abbey 2023

This is the story of one of my heroes: Robert Jermaine Thomas (1839-1866) from Kingsley Armstrong’s book:

After Robert Thomas found the Lord, he began preaching at age 15. He went to train at New College, London; met Caroline Godfrey, got engaged, married, ordained and sailed to China the same year. In 1863 Robert said goodbye to his homeland. He was twenty-four when he travelled with his new wife on a ship from Gravesend to Shanghai, a four-month voyage. 

On the journey, Caroline got pregnant, but within five months of their arrival in Shanghai, she died from a miscarriage. They had not known of her pregnancy and he had gone off to another city to seek better accommodation for them. He wanted the best for his new bride and tried to make things good for her so what a blow to him to get such heart-shattering news.

In one letter home, he writes: “My heart is well-nigh broken. I must seek somewhere a complete change. All that could be done for a sufferer was done for my dear wife… I trust to give myself more completely than ever to the noble work on which I have just entered, but at present I feel weighed down by deep grief.”

Can you imagine how his parents must have felt? They were devastated back home in Wales when they got the letter from Robert telling them that their daughter-in-law was dead and also their first grandchild. What grief! Can you imagine what everyone would have said: A young family – what a waste! She died before they even accomplished anything in China.

But was that the whole story?

In Robert’s grief he had two very close friends and comforters, Joseph Edkins of the London Missionary Society and Alexander Williamson of the Scottish National Bible Society. Williamson introduced Thomas to two Catholic Koreans who were eager to read Bibles but did not yet possess any, and Thomas was touched by God to try and help them. He committed himself to getting hold of Bibles for the Korean people even though he was warned of how dangerous that would be.

He talked with the Scottish Bible Society to take Chinese-print Bibles to Korea. Eventually, Robert took two missionary journeys along the west coast of Korea. This was such a dangerous mission as ten thousand Korean Catholics had already been killed and it was well known that the Korean authorities would not welcome any Christian visitors.

He then made contact with an American ship called the General Sherman. It was shrouded in mystery, as the mission was so difficult. It is not known whether it was a merchant vessel or what the purpose of the expedition was. However, Thomas’ purpose was clear; get the Bibles to the Koreans. Some have suggested that he agreed to be the Captain’s interpreter to fulfil his mission.

As they approached the land of Korea, they received many official warnings to turn back. However, they continued despite the opposition. On 3rd September 1866, the authorities in Korea commanded that the General Sherman be attacked and destroyed. They sailed several burning boats toward the Sherman and set it on fire. The crew jumped overboard and waiting for them on the shore were their executioners; not one survived.

Robert Jemaine Thomas stood on the burning deck and opening his cases flung his Bibles to the soldiers and villagers waiting on the shore shouting “Jesus!”  Finally, Robert himself caught on fire and jumped overboard. 

As he swam to shore he begged the awaiting soldier to take a Bible from him. The soldier killed him. He was 27 years old.

When news eventually got home to Wales, his family was once again devastated. It was bad news when his wife died. Now, the second time, tragedy again. This time he had not even completed his mission. They had known of his desire to share the Word of God but he had kept this mission secret. What did he think he was doing! What a tragic waste of a life that could have been so useful to God.

I wonder what story they would have told to Jesus on meeting him in heaven. Would they have told him of the tragic waste of their family’s life, of their son who nearly made it as a missionary but failed?

But was that the whole story?

What about when Robert faces Jesus in Eternity. I can imagine him falling at the feet of Jesus, crying, “I am so sorry; I have failed!” His story would have been as the ‘almost made it’ missionary.

But that is not the end of the story.

Let us go back to the shores of North Korea.  Some of those watching did not destroy the Bibles as print was so precious and took them home, some even using the pages as wallpaper.  Some then started reading the pages. And here on the walls of their houses they began to read about a Saviour who died for them and would forgive them for everything they had done wrong. Even though Thomas was gone, the story was continuing.

About 50 years later a huge revival broke out in Pyongyang, Korea. In 1904 ten thousand became Christians; in 1906, thirty thousand became Christians; in 1907, fifty thousand more. 

And then beautifully in 1907 as the Holy Spirit moved in Pyongyang at a revival meeting, an old man, Choon Kwon Park, came forward repenting that it was he, who in his youth as a soldier, had beheaded missionary Robert Jermaine Thomas. He had also read the book given to him by the man he had killed and through it found the Saviour.

That 1907 Revival was part of something amazing that the Lord was doing in the world at the beginning of the 20th Century. It started in Wales in 1904, went into India through Welsh missionaries in 1905, then on to Asuza Street in the USA in 1906. From Korea, the revival went into parts of China.

Going back to Thomas crying at the feet of Jesus begging forgiveness for his failed story; I can imagine Jesus stepping back and asking him to see the true story. To look and see the millions of Korean Christians who had come to faith through his sacrifice. I can imagine Robert’s parents having a similar experience when Jesus would also show them the fruit of their sacrifice.

That was not the end of the story; Jesus had not finished writing yet.

Robert Jermaine Thomas was never that well known in the UK, but there is still a chapel in his home town Llanover, South Wales:  Many Koreans have visited to give thanks to God for sending him to Korea.  His life was extinguished at the age of twenty-seven, but even today, his memory still lives in the hearts of the Korean people. 

Robert Jermaine Thomas did not write the whole story himself but he certainly was obedient and faithful in allowing God to write over his life.  Remember today, that God is writing your story and, though you may never have the privilege of reading the last chapter, one day you will see the end of it.

Some more notes/quotes/illustrations from the talk:

1648 Shorter Westminster Catechism, over 100 questions, first one was

Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Gil Bailie: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

“Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, wrote, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world; yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; yours are the hands with which God is to bless people now.” 

I love Bob Sieple’s line too: “If we know something is wrong, we are accountable for that knowledge. We are accountable for what we know. If we can do something about it, we are also responsible. Accountable knowledge allows for pity. Mercy demands responsible action.” 

Graham Cyster shared a painful story about a personal experience decades ago when he was struggling against apartheid as a young South African Christian. One night, he was smuggled into an underground Communist cell of young people fighting apartheid. “Tell us about the gospel of Jesus Christ,” they asked, half hoping for an alternative to the violent communist strategy they were embracing.

Graham gave a clear, powerful presentation of the gospel, showing how personal faith in Christ wonderfully transforms persons and creates one new body of believers where there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, rich nor poor, black nor white. The youth were fascinated. One seventeen-year-old exclaimed, “That is wonderful! Show me where I can see that happening.” Graham’s face fell as he sadly responded that he could not think of anywhere South African Christians were truly living out the message of the gospel. “Then the whole thing is a piece of sh—,” the youth angrily retorted. Within a month he left the country to join the armed struggle against apartheid—and eventually gave his life for his beliefs.

The young man was right. If Christians do not live what they preach, the whole thing is a farce. “Western Christianity has largely failed since the middle of the twentieth century,” Barna concludes, “because Jesus’ modern-day disciples do not act like Jesus.” This scandalous behaviour mocks Christ, undermines evangelism, and destroys Christian credibility.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “We are not simply to bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice; we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. . . . Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Muhammad Ali was a great boxer, but perhaps he was an even greater exponent of pride. Once on a plane, an air stewardess said to him, “Sir, please fasten your seatbelt.” He replied: “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” Quick as a flash, she shot back, “Superman don’t need no airplane, now fasten your seatbelt!”

‘I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.’ Søren Kierkegaard

“The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and snivelling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.” Timothy Keller

BlogInspirationSermons

This is the second talk in the ‘Hot Pursuit’ series, delivered at Lee Abbey in August.

Pursuing His Presence
Pursuing His Peace

Pursuing His Purpose
Pursuing His Power

You can listen here:

Pursuing His Peace – Lee Abbey 2023

Some notes/quotes/illustrations from the talk:

Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

What is Shalom? Completeness, soundness, welfare, peace. At ease, favour, health, peaceful, prosperity, safety, secure, security, rest, trust in relationships, wellness, well-being. 

  1. Acknowledge your fear
  2. Become aware of his presence 
  3. Claim his promises

“The beginning of fear is the end of faith; the beginning of true faith is the end fear. Fear or anxiety never strengthens you for tomorrow – it only weakens you for today.”

“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face … we must do that which we think we cannot.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Henri Nouwen: “Look at the many ‘if’ questions we raise: What am I going to do if I do not find a spouse, a house, a job, a friend, a benefactor? What am I going to do if they fire me, if I get sick, if an accident happens, if I lose my friends, if my marriage does not work out, if a war breaks out? What if tomorrow the weather is bad, the buses are on strike, or an earthquake happens? What if someone steals my money, breaks into my house, rapes my daughter, or kills me?” But if we let such questions guide our lives, we end up taking out a second mortgage in the house of fear.

Fear of other people’s opinions: “We would worry less about what people think about us is we realized how seldom they do.” Whose opinions matter? The Audience of One. Brennan Manning: “Freedom in Christ produces a healthy independence from peer pressure, people-pleasing, and the bondage of human respect. The tyranny of public opinion can manipulate our lives. What will the neighbours think? What will my friends think? What will people think? The expectations of others can exert a subtle but controlling pressure on our behaviour.” “When I was eight, the impostor, or false self, was born as a defense against pain. The impostor within whispered, ‘Brennan, don’t ever be your real self anymore because nobody likes you as you are. Invent a new self that everybody will admire and nobody will know.’” 

“The cost of non-discipleship is far greater…than the price to walk with Jesus. Non-discipleship costs abiding peace… love.. faith.. hope… power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil… it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said He came to bring.” (Dallas Willard)

Thomas Green suggests this prayer: “Lord let me be just as disturbed about this situation (or this person’s behaviour) as you are – no more and no less. If you are angry let me be angry too, but if you are not disturbed let me share your peace.” He continues: “It is amazing and quite humbling how often my disturbance simply dissolves once I say that prayer and really mean it.”

Oswald Chambers: “When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says ‘Let not your hearts be troubled,’ if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. “My peace I give you,” it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God,’ and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.” 

“You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they find their rest in you.” Augustine

Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam; and at the fork of the branch, almost wet with the cataract’s spray, sat a robin on its nest. The first was only stagnation; the last was rest.

Erwin McManus: “Peace does not come when you finally have control of your life; it comes when you no longer need control of your life.”

Going through a hard time or a crisis? In the Chinese picture-letter alphabet, the symbol for crisis is a combination of two characters – one meaning ‘danger’ and the other ‘opportunity’. We can look at it either way.

Fearful of the future: “Future plans are uncertain, but we all know that there is first God’s plan to be lived, and we can safely leave everything to Him, ‘carefully careless’ of it all.”

There was a Christian man called H.G.Spafford in Chicago. Successful lawyer, married man with four precious daughters, become very wealthy.  One summer, Mrs Spafford and daughters were to go to Europe and do a grand tour of the cities, art galleries etc.  Alas, in mid-Atlantic ship collided with another one and sank quickly.  Mrs Spafford was picked up, reached Fr, sent a cable home: ‘All lost! I alone remain. What shall I do?’  But that was not all – there had been a sudden bank crash in Chicago, and Mr Spafford had lost all his wealth.  Gone from being a very wealthy man to a very poor one instantaneously.  So, what did he do? Did he say, ‘I must not give up. I must call on my reserves of courage and be a man’? No, that is stoicism, and this man was a Christian, not a stoic. He sat down and wrote these words:

‘When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul!

That is what the gospel does.

BlogGeneralGLOInspiration

You might struggle to believe some of the following stories from last month’s outreach. I hope not though. ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Hebrew 13:8).

So here are some feedback highlights, having asked folks to pray last month as we sent out 1,439 young evangelists from 88 churches for two weeks all around Burundi. 

The top-line summary is that they saw over 23,000 people come to faith! It’s the modern-day Acts of the Apostles! Here goes:

An Urge for Healing

In the small village of Bwambarangwe in Kirundo province, 41-year-old Diomede had lain paralysed from the waist down and in increasing despair for the last three years. Our team visited him and shared the gospel, which he accepted as he was desperately in need of hope!

Interestingly, they didn’t pray for his healing initially. But as they parted ways and stepped out of the compound, he felt the urge to call them back to pray for him to be completely healed. Once they’d said ‘Amen!’, he took his crutches and stood up. He then let them go and carried on walking! He burst into tears and shouted for joy. 

Hearing his cries, people rushed to see what was happening. Just like in Mark 2:12, they were ‘all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” Thirteen people responded to the miracle by surrendering their lives to Christ.

There were multiple showings of the Jesus Film shown around the country with lots of people responding positively.

In Her Right Mind at Last

In a town called Kivoga, Nadine was a contemporary ‘Gadarene demoniac’, just like in Mark chapter 5.

As her condition detoriorated, her father sought treatment at a mental hospital, as well as spending all he could on traditional medicine and witchdoctors. Eventually, the family gave up, and she wandered around Kivoga deranged and half-dressed, feared and mocked by the whole community. She lived on the rubbish dump and roamed the streets at night.

When our team of evangelists showed up, they overcame their initial fear and started praying for her. Demons manifested, but the team called on reinforcements, took her to the local church, and over the next three hours of intensive prayer, battled through for her total deliverance.

Suddenly, after the last demon was cast out, Nadine’s screams ceased. She looked at herself and began weeping. She had no recollection of what had happened but asked for some clothes. 

When her father arrived and saw her ‘in her right mind’ (like Mark 5:15), he was so overwhelmed he fell to the ground. Our guys shared with him how Jesus had set her free, and her Dad and seven other people present gave their lives to the Lord!

From Cursing to Repenting

Baltazar was a notorious witch doctor from Bugenyuzi. He was feared by all around him, and loved the reputation he had. Nobody challenged him as they didn’t want him to cast a spell on them (I know, many of you struggle to believe this stuff. Suffice to say, out there you don’t need to convince them the power is real). 

Witchcraft charms to be burned
Witchcraft charms to be burned

One day, a neighbour approached and asked him to stop his witchcraft. A few days later, that previously healthy man was found dead at home.

So that was the context when our team showed up. They heard the stories and decided to camp out on Baltazar’s hill and pray every night. When he heard what they were doing, he went out to confront them. 

But as he approached them, he was overwhelmed by a greater power and fell to his knees. He asked for prayers and surrendered to Christ. He invited the team back to his home, where his wife likewise repented when she heard what had happened to him. A crowd came to watch as the team burned all his charms, and he and his wife repented of all they had done to their neighbours and in the community.

Everyone was amazed at this total transformation.

Wow! Wow! Wow!

There are more stories, but I’ll stop there. It’s a different context to ours maybe, but the same gospel message – the same Holy Spirit in us, the same power in the name of Jesus, the same Heavenly Father who longs to forgive his children and lavish them with his amazing grace.

Be encouraged. Be stirred. Be bold.

Thanks for your encouragement, support, and prayers – they make all the difference! Please keep them coming!

BlogInspirationSimon Blog

This morning was holy ground.

I’m back out in Burundi with a team of supporters for a week of introducing them to our various wonderful partners. As I knew would happen, the team members are blown away at the calibre, integrity and commitment of these Kingdom warriors. As Justin noted, the repeated story is that almost all of them had the chance to take the easier option and leave for whichever affluent peaceful country, but they chose to stay and make a costly difference here, in beautiful but broken Burundi.

Ephraim shared how he’d fled to the Congo during the war, but after a few years felt convicted to return to bless his nation. As he was on his way back, he was taken by militia who beat him to (half) death, tried to dump him down a latrine (he didn’t fit through the hole), and then hanged him from a tree. He said to them that they couldn’t kill him because God had told him he would go back to Burundi to preach healing and forgiveness in Jesus. They carried on beating him up. He was bleeding from his nose and ears and left in a crumpled heap. His last words to them were (as with Stephen in Acts when he was stoned): “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing!”

I love my brother. He’s doing truly beautiful work with sexually-trafficked ladies, prostitutes, widows – basically the most vulnerable of society. If you’ve got scornful sceptical anti-Christian friends, they should come and meet Ephraim and friends. This is undeniably wonderful.

Ephraim and I

As he carried on sharing, he broke down in tears. It’s very rare to see a Burundian man cry. As the proverb goes: “Amosozi y’umugabo atemba aja mu nda” (‘A Burundian man’s tears fall inside in his stomach’). His passion and compassion for his countrymen, coupled no doubt with the pressures of daily living and looking out for others, led to the dam of emotion breaking within him, and there was a holy release. The team sensitively reached out, laid hands on him and prayed, as our tears merged with his.

There is so much weariness, despair and crushing poverty in this the poorest nation in the world. But there are also many Ephraims and Lyduines (his wife) exhibiting truly remarkable and vibrant resilience coupled with incredible vision, fruitfulness and lasting transformation. As I’ve often said, some of God’s best troops are in Burundi. It’s a privilege to serve them.

Holy ground indeed…

BlogInspiration

I love these stories! We get bombarded with so much bad news in general, that all the more I see it as part of our job at GLO to tell inspiring tales of overcoming. Meet Divine:

She was an orphan living in Nyanza lac in the South of Burundi. She was married young to a boy who mistreated her, indeed whose family rejected her and maligned her such that she preferred to flee to the streets. She was left with no apparent options other than to sell her body to survive. 

That was five years ago.

Just a few months back, she came across the work of our partner Together for Development (TfD). She got trained up in sewing. She discovered that she had value, that God loved her, and wanted a healthy pure relationship with her.

What a transformation!

Divine leading a group of ladies in Bible study

She is such a dynamo that she now organises a self-help group of 30 ladies. She’s led 15 of them to Jesus, and 12 of them out of prostitution. Each Wednesday she meets with them to share God’s Word and encourage them through life’s trials. 

Ephraim, leader of TfD, visited her two weeks ago, and she said to him: “I don’t have any family – no brother, no sister – you became my family, don’t abandon me.” He won’t, and in the meantime gave her a chicken! Here he is filming her and translating some of her testimony.

Love it! Go Divine! Thank you Lord!

BlogGeneralInspiration

Earlier this summer, I asked for prayers for our huge team of evangelists during their two-week summer outreach campaign, and the results and stories are in. As promised, here’s what happened. First, the stats:

We sent out 850 evangelists across the country for two weeks.
They worked alongside 47 churches in their respective areas. 
13,831 people chose to give their lives to Christ.
16,474 people who had drifted in their faith renewed their commitment. 

Amazing! And there were other stories of marriages being restored, suicidal attempts thwarted or abandoned, community reconciliation and more. 

So here are a few of the many stories – all I can say is ‘Wow!’ and ‘Praise God!’ Enjoy the snapshots:

Sylvère had dropped out of school in 2018 because of mental ill-health or demons – demons is what the parents believed. He ran around the community in a crazed state until he was forcibly locked up and sedated. His parents tried both recognised medicine and witchcraft potions, but things only got worse. But then, a few weeks ago, his father Jacques met a friend who advised him to go to a nearby church, where he had heard of an evangelistic outreach taking place.

I was exhausted on that day. The doctors had told me there was nothing left to do for my son but take him home. I felt hopeless and had already given up. My wife encouraged me to give it one last try and take him to that church. I was very reluctant. I had heard many stories of people whom churches had scammed.

When we got to the church, we were greeted by a group of evangelists who were praying. They immediately started praying for my son. While praying, my son screamed and shouted and moved hysterically. The more he yelled, the more they prayed.

Suddenly, he stopped moving. One of the evangelists talked to Sylvere and asked him a question, to which he responded verbally. I was in awe. It was the first time hearing my son speak for three years. I fell to my knees and immediately repented.

Ten members of his extended family gave their lives to the Lord and burnt all their charms.

Sylvere, left, is recovering from years of suffering.

Goretti had been paralysed for three years. The team visited and prayed for her. She was healed, and straightaway gave her life to Jesus. Six of her family members and five neighbours also came to Christ on the back of witnessing her healing!

Éric and Aline had travelled 35km to consult a powerful sorcerer. Our team interacted with the trio, who were each deeply convicted. They renounced witchcraft, gave their lives to Jesus and did away with all their paraphernalia!

A poor 48-year-old widow in Gahombo had been blind for ten years. She was prayed for, healed, gave her life to Jesus and returned to her home where seven neighbours were blown away at her miraculous healing and likewise chose to follow Jesus, amidst huge rejoicing!

Makobero had been a witch doctor for sixty years. Having encountered the evangelists, he felt convicted and converted; at that point, six of his family also decided to follow Jesus, whilst he burnt all his idols!

22-year-old Désiré was seen by the whole community as a madman wandering around. When the evangelists visited his family, his parents said they’d only listen to the gospel if the team prayed for Désiré first and showed them God’s power. When he was healed, 31 people gave their lives to Jesus in response!

Beautiful!

Thanks so much for your prayers, I have no doubt they played a huge role!

I hope you are encouraged. It’s our 17th year of doing this, and we’ll be back at it next year.

BlogGeneralInspiration

We are entering a dark period of history, and we need to be ready for it.

I fear we are far from ready.

Are you ready? Am I?

“God did not give us a spirit of fear.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

I believe it is absolutely critical for believers in the risen Jesus Christ to embrace and live out this verse.

We live by faith, not fear. Or at least that is how we are meant to live. But my observation in lockdown was that many believers were as susceptible to fear as anyone else, absorbing endless fear-inducing messages and being crippled into inactivity and despondency when we should have been beacons of hope and light in that dark time.  

Remember the Satanic Lullaby? (Check it out here). This message went viral because it resonated with so many of you. Indeed, huge numbers of people are getting taken out by it. But whether we’re being lulled to sleep or conditioned into fearful living, it’s crucial that we recognise what is going on. The stakes are high.

Folks in the West – I’m not talking to Burundians or many other cultures and nations that have suffered for so long – we need to develop resilience (*see bottom for eleven tips on how to do that). We are possibly the most unresilient generation in the history of humanity. Despite being the most materialistically ‘developed’ society ever, we’re experiencing a darkening shadow of existential emptiness, anxiety, and hopelessness.

Since the Second World War, this largely peaceful period has shaped us over decades to seek comfort and ease above all else, which has weakened our ability to stand firm in a crisis. We’ve simply had it easy for too long – collectively, not necessarily individually – and we need to wake up. Jesus said: “In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

We just weren’t ready for the Covid crisis, and we’re still not ready for the multiple crises to come. Last month I listened to this measured but extraordinary prophetic word (watch it here), and it really chimed with my spirit. It’s 38mins long but well worth the listen. The picture painted is very bleak indeed on the one hand, but provides a glorious opportunity for those of us who choose faith over fear, have a balanced theology of suffering, and develop healthy resilience whilst boldly living out the glorious gospel.

Looking back and learning the lessons of history helps us to be able to look forward with confidence and vision. Tim Dieppe does just that in this excellent article, and challenges us at the end with the question: ‘How will our generation of Christians go down in church history?’ Read it here…

Along a similar line, Dr Stephen Backhouse wrote:

“In 165AD a plague swept through the mighty Roman Empire, wiping out one in three of the population. It happened again in 251AD where 5000 people per day were dying in the city of Rome alone. Those infected were abandoned by their families to die in the streets. The government was helpless and the Emperor himself succumbed to the plague. Pagan priests fled their temples where people flocked for comfort and explanation. People were too weak to help themselves. If the smallpox did not kill you, hunger, thirst and loneliness would.

The effect on wider society was catastrophic. Yet following the plagues the good reputation of Christianity was confirmed, and its population grew exponentially. Why is this? Christians did not come armed with intellectual answers to the problem of evil. They did not enjoy a supernatural ability to avoid pain and suffering. What they did have was water and food and their presence.

In short, if you knew a Christian you were statistically more likely to survive, and if you survived it was the church that offered you the most loving, stable and social environment. It was not clever apologetics, strategic political organisation or the witness of martyrdom which converted an Empire so much as it was the simple conviction of normal women and men that what they did for the least of their neighbours they did it for Christ.”

We can all be those people again in our day! We are here for such a time as this! The cliché is true: we may not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future – and we can live confident in that.

Smith Wigglesworth gave this challenge to followers of Jesus:

“Live ready. If you have to get ready when the opportunity comes your way, you’ll be too late. Opportunity doesn’t wait, not even while you pray. You must not have to get ready, you must live ready at all times.

Be filled with the Spirit; that is, be soaked with the Spirit. Be so soaked that every thread in the fabric of your life will have received the requisite rule of the Spirit – then when you are misused and squeezed to the wall, all that will ooze out of you will be the nature of Christ.”

So if need be, wake up! If awake, then get ready, and live ready! Not on your own, but deeply rooted in an active community of believers. This is no soft sell, but I look forward to seeing what oozes out of us…!

11 Suggestions (amongst many possible ones!) On Developing Resilience

  1. Live connected – in a community of faith, down your street, with family and friends. We can’t do this in isolation.
  2. Acknowledge and welcome God into every part of your day – I try to picture myself wearing glasses, and the lens through which I see everything is Him. I invite Him to filter everything. That brings much more peace and stability.
  3. Switch off the news – it’s good to know what is going on in the world in order to pray effectively, but you don’t need to absorb relentlessly negative news 24/7, it’s so depressing! That’s why I started my ‘Inspired…’ podcast, to counteract all the bad news with wonderful stories of overcoming faith.
  4. Memorise Scripture – storing up God’s promises in your heart and standing on them gives strong backbone.
  5. Get exercise – ‘healthy body, healthy mind’ – it’s true. Push yourself, even if you don’t want to. It doesn’t have to be much but it makes a huge difference.
  6. Be grateful/thankful – acknowledging and focusing on the blessings in your life brings joy and lightness that can blast away the negative thoughts.
  7. Keep things in perspective – as my Burundian brothers taught me, you will make it! God is still on the throne. The sun will rise tomorrow. One step at a time.
  8. Embrace the reality that you can’t be in control, and that change is a given – Remember the serenity prayer? “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference”.
  9. Take care of yourself – not in a narcissistic or self-absorbed way, but make sure you’re getting enough sleep, eating well, working reasonable hours, not stuck indoors the whole time, doing activities that bring joy, make you laugh, etc.
  10. Listen to the right voices – God’s voice, your friends’ and families’ voices, trusted voices, not the relentless bombarding cultural lies we are being fed. Seriously limit time spent on social media. Get off that screen, cross the road and talk to a neighbour over a cup of tea!
  11. Ask for help – We all have tough seasons. Find a trusted brother or sister in Christ and share it without shame. Allow yourself to be encouraged by them and remember, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (1 Corinthians 12:9). Likewise, look out for those who may be in that place now.
BlogGLOInspiration

United Christians in Evangelism

Last Sunday night, we had an evening meal with GLO Partner United Christians for Evangelism (UCE). They are a superb outfit doing incredible things on minimal funds, which is what I find so utterly inspiring. When I was last out here in October, we had done an outreach in Gatamba in Karuzi Province, which had been a real adventure and very fruitful – some of you might remember the demon-possessed lady Teresa who had thrown both her shoes at me from the crowd who was then prayed for, set free, and helped to make a fresh go of life having fallen on very hard times.

Well, with this latest visit and team, we joined up again with UCE at a different location, and again there were some beautiful stories including Ananias, who was on his way to kill himself (having just been released from prison after a previous suicide attempt) when he walked past our meeting and encountered God in a powerful way. I love his smile in the photo below, and you can be sure his wife is a happy woman! Click here to hear his own words on what happened at last week’s outreach, as put together by UCE’s Pacifique.

Ananias

Anyway, back to our evening meal. UCE had lined up a few people (as seen above) whose lives had been transformed during the outreach last October, for us to hear their stories. It was very encouraging. Here’s what happened to them at the Gatamba rally (from left to right):

Lambert came to the gospel rally with liver and stomach problems. He was also known as a drunk. But he wanted to be set free, so he came forward for prayer and received God’s touch. On the spot, his desire for alcohol disappeared, and he is a totally new man. As a side note, I have never seen anyone eat as much in one sitting (see below), probably three times my healthy portion – we had a good laugh together about that, he took his eating very seriously!

Lambert eating an extremely full plate of food
Lambert with his unbelievable plate!

Liberate’s brother had told her of UCE’s powerful ministry because he’d been healed previously at one of their rallies. She’d been bedridden for six months with horrific pains from her head to her toes. She’d visited three witch doctors who had only made her poorer and certainly hadn’t helped improve her health. So in her desperation, she was the first to come forward at the Gatamba rally to receive prayer. In her words, she felt ‘a strong warm wind go through my whole body, blowing away all my body pains and leaving me free!’ She is now an active member of her church community.

Rose hadn’t walked for two and a half years. One of her legs was paralyzed, but as she received prayer the paralysis went. She is now back cultivating alongside other women in the community.

Eric had long-term intestinal problems, which medicine and herbal remedies gave fleeting relief to. He heard the noise of the rally, came to listen, sought prayer, gave his life to Jesus, and was healed on the spot. He is now busy evangelising, has joined his church’s choir, and longs for others to encounter the Jesus who changed his life.

Diomede had a seriously swollen knee. After prayer, the swelling disappeared, and he got up on the stage and demonstrated his complete healing. On the back of experiencing that undeniable miracle, he became a follower of Christ Jesus on the spot, and over supper testified that he had never experienced such peace as he does now.

It was a joy meeting them and I like sharing such stories, to stir us in our own faith. Many Burundians are so open, hungry, desperate, and a whole lot less cynical than most of us in the West. They have much to teach us. We thank God for His gracious work in their lives. And keep up the great work, UCE!