BlogGuest Blog

The timing of my last visit to Burundi was in order to attend the strategic congress launched by Burundi Mission Alliance. It was the brainchild of Onesphore Manirakiza, so I asked him to write a report in summary. Over to you, Onesphore:

“For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; It will surely come; it will not delay.”

Habakkuk 2:3

It had been always my dream to see church leaders from different churches in Burundi sit around the table discussing local and global mission. I held this dream from 1997 when God called me to be a part of such a movement which seemed so inconceivable at the time. The reality on the ground was so very different. There were many obstacles preventing it from happening. The repeated civil wars had divided the churches along ethnic lines, but also many churches had lost their commitment to unity and collaboration, instead competing and undermining each other.

I had to wait until 2017 to see the first gathering of leaders from different denominations and backgrounds celebrating the introduction of the gospel in Burundi and its impact on society. We had the opportunity to meet those (or the living descendants of those) who brought us the gospel. That was 20 years on from when I first had the dream of a mission conference. During that particular conference, missionaries to Burundi prophetically handed over the responsibility to indigenous leaders.

onesphore-manirakiza

What had begun as an event (mission congress) gave birth to a mission movement. The following year, we had a follow-up conference during which leaders expressed the need of a platform that would host and facilitate this movement of taking the gospel from the heart of Africa to the ends of the earth. That is how the Burundi Mission Alliance was born gathering 3 denominations, 3 independent churches and 5 para-church organizations and operating through 7 task forces in order to catalyze a missional movement from Burundi to the nations.

We met again this year in another mission conference to celebrate the achievements we had made thus far and to remind each other that local churches are indispensable in mission. We had 150 delegates from different denominations, independent churches and local mission organisations.

During our plenary sessions, we had a breakthrough where you could see that people wanted to overcome the historical barriers that divided the church of Burundi and prevented it from participating in the global mission. The leaders of the Baptist Union shared with the participants how missionaries and the first Burundian leaders had worked in unity and had been able to overcome the divisions in the country and the persecution against the emerging evangelical church.

Younger delegates were moved to hear leaders of the Baptist church – just about every Baptist pastor was murdered in 1972 – affirming and thanking the leaders of the Anglican church for the role they played in protecting their churches for 7 years. The Holy Spirit used that holy moment to unite participants and heal the wounds of the past. You could sense God’s reconciling Spirit tangibly filling the room.

It is with tears of joy that I am writing these sentences.

Many of us who had been waiting for this time were convinced that the Lord was bringing to a close a dark chapter in the history of the church in Burundi and opening a new chapter of hope, unity and partnership in local and global mission.

Simon guillebaud

How have we come to this momentum? The Lord has been putting together the pieces of the puzzle during the last 20 years. Simon Guillebaud came to Burundi as a missionary following in the footsteps of his ancestors back in 1999. Though his beginnings were small (working with Scripture Union), he quickly came up with a vision of empowering the body of Christ in Burundi for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). That is how Great Lakes Outreach was born. When he came back from 2 years in the USA back in 2012, he started gathering the leaders of the organisations GLO was supporting in a monthly breakfast meeting. Those meetings became a great connector that transformed former competitors into genuine co-workers.

When the crisis broke out in 2015, those leaders were among the few in the country who could stand up and speak for peace and non-violence. What had begun as evil God turned it to be a blessing for the Burundian church. We formed CIP (Christian Initiatives for Peace) through which our trust increased and led us to this missional movement.

I am so grateful to the Lord who has orchestrated all these things. I honour my dear friend and colleague Simon for having laid down his life as a worker for the renewal of the Burundian Church. May the Lord bless all the people who responded to Simon’s call for help from his first step in Burundi until now. God used them to fuel this vision and catalyze the transformation in Burundi. What was a dream twenty years ago is now a vision and has many leaders to accomplish it. Praise the Lord!

BlogGeneralGLOGuest BlogSimon Blog

This is a guest blog by my Norwegian friend Arne. It’s something we’re looking to get involved in. It is so strategic, so empowering, so beautiful. 

This short film (under 4mins) explains the concept:

Over to Arne:

Hello folks!

Why do we think that the solutions for those who are poor in Africa are different from the solutions in the UK, USA and Norway? Every human throughout the world has God-given talents, as well as needs.

The need for a job, to feel wanted and valued, to provide for the family, and to have a relatively predictable and secure future – it’s the same for all human beings no matter where they live.

And the children need good role models of how to work to provide for the family, how to save and plan for the future, how to use and develop their own talents, how to be involved in community development and wealth creation, and finally how to submit to rules and authorities, and to God.

A transformed and sustainable Burundi is in need of transformed mindsets – a new way of building value-based foundations and strategies. We need to use methods bringing skills and a good character resulting in hope and a good future, one with dignity. If not, the next generations will find themselves in the same helplessness and hopelessness as is the case for many today. 

So how can a bank (microfinance is like a small bank, but for the poor) be a tool for such a transformation? We say that everything we do, we do to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor people in Burundi. And to glorify Jesus by using our God-given talents as for God (Col 3.23).

We’ve been doing this in Burundi now for 10 years, training people and providing loans to start up new small businesses. We’ve learnt plenty of lessons, and now have just under 20,000 beneficiaries, with a loan repayment rate of 96%. That is truly wonderful and amazing, and so many lives have been empowered, transformed and given dignity. I have no doubt it is the way forward. Not handouts, but hand-ups. Not giving out fish, but teaching people how to fish. Not short-term but long-term. 

Below are two typical stories from thousands that we could share. Enjoy them, and if you want to get involved, feel free to connect with us directly or through GLO:

“My biggest joy is that I now can afford education for my children,” says Odette. She lives in a remote village in Bubanza province where Hauge now is operating. I have never seen such a smile from people receiving aid, only when being enabled to climb out of poverty with new skills, with a strong character, and in a solidarity group with courage, hard work and unity.

Etienne is one of our customers in Hauge Family Microfinance. His village is cheering when he is showing the furniture he has made and is selling in his shop. He has become an entrepreneur and a leader for development in his local community. Three years ago, he received our training and a loan to buy logs. Today he has hired five people in the village to chop wood for him. A stable income has also made it possible to pay for his five children’s schooling.

Beautiful!

Check out the episode of my podcast where I interviewed Arne – his vision blew my mind!

Some more links:

Hauge Family Microfinance Burundi: www.hfm.bi
Hauge Microfinance: www.haugemicro.no

GeneralGuest Blog

This blog is by a mate of mine, Samuel Johns. On our tough cycle ride recently around Rwanda, we talked about the effect of Facebook and such like, and I asked him to share some thoughts, which I found challenging/disturbing/fascinating and more. I’m interested in what you make of them too. Over to Sam:

A soft alarm wakes me – perfectly in sync with my circadian rhythms – and I trundle downstairs, set to face a new week. Alex notifies me of the weather, so the blinds remain closed. Ambient lighting matches my mood. Morose, yet determined. Another Monday morning. Breakfast is served to me by Xeva, my ever-present home helper, whilst Jibu helps me plan ahead, and visualise my calendar, by running through my meetings for the day. Ping. The time has come – 8am, time to brave the world. Tap, I order an UberAir. The sky taxi arrives in 3 minutes, just time to brush my teeth. Whisk. Off I go, merging with the air traffic & Amazon drones, doing their routine deliveries, keeping the world going…

The world according to GAFA – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple – sounds like it may be just this by 2025 or so. Indeed, Dave Eggers in his 2013 book ‘The Circle’ portrays in fantastic – and sometimes chilling colours – just what this world may be like. The future is here, and it’s here now.

Last week I was cycling in central Africa with Simon and a group of 15 or so in the stunning beauty of the Rwandan hills. Every evening, with the sun setting on Lake Kivu, we’d be resting and our group would become glued to our devices. As Simon would say – ‘Come on people, get off your chaffing iPhones, enjoy the view, talk to each other!’

Interestingly, Facebook were busy last week too. They acquired two new patents – pretty interesting ones as well. They got one for webcams, to interpret the emotional state of people at their devices through the small camera in your laptop or phone, so as to market more appropriately and provide ’emotionally relevant’ content. And the second patent Facebook got was on typing speed, linking our taps at our keyboards with our moods, so as to market better, once again. Targeted advertising – the lifeblood of the data generation. Though of course data is only one of many interesting issues raised – alongside privacy, security, anonymity, even consent.

The question I want to ask here is one of ‘neuroplasticity’ – how plastic are our brains? How mouldable are we, truly, once we leave school and formal education? Are we being shaped everyday? And how do digital technologies contribute to this?

It may come as no surprise that the answer is ‘very’. Neurons that fire together, wire together. Psychologists use this expression to explain many things from addiction to memory, reminding us that neural pathways are like stray footpaths – the more you use them, the more concretised they become. And once concretised, then familiar, preferential, favoured. The path of least resistance. The question is, are we are aware of this? Likely, yes. Yet do we live like we’re aware? Likely not.

App developers – as we had in our midst on our cycle ride on Rwanda – know a lot about dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that the brain releases to control its pleasure and reward centres. A shot of dopamine and you feel happy. Another like on Instagram, and you feel a rush of attention. A retweet by someone famous, my word, that’s like an adrenaline rush. Critics of this stuff, though, like to draw attention to ‘the never-ending flood of content that threatens constant distraction’ (Brandon, 2016:161). Distraction is no bad thing, so long as it is managed – right? Well the critics continue; ‘[this can] undermine our ability to focus and, implicitly, reduce our capacity to relate to each other – in the most basic terms, to love’ (ibid.).

Shocking.

So whilst we were all sat there in the Rwandan hills, tapping, scrolling, zooming, and posting – Brandon and others were concerned for us. What was all this doing to our brains, to our relationships, to our families and friends? He continues – these technologies could ‘compromise our ability to relate by sensitising the mind to distraction [which] undermines our ability to love’ (p.30).

The argument goes that we inhabit a society of turbo-consumerism. Not only do we consume things, but we’re being trained – perhaps our brains even re-wired – to consume experiences, content, opinions, even people. Brandon describes this as ‘the idea that the world should be shaped around my needs and desires, and that I express myself through the choices I take…Everything is subject to this tendency – including social relationships’ (p.4). He warns that ‘this mindset is diametrically opposed to contentment’ (ibid.).

Let’s flesh this out briefly. Tomlinson describes the situation above as living in the midst of immediacy. If we think of everything as a journey, from A → B – whether in physical terms to work, or mobile terms in communication (letters/texts/emails), or indeed emotional terms, in building trust, acceptance, respect – Tomlinson says we have now ‘abolished the middle term’ (2007:91), or the arrow in the above. So rather than A → B we now simply have AB. ‘A journey without destination, an arrival without departure, and speed without progress’ (ibid.). What is the relational fallout of this? What can we expect?

As a Christian on Simon’s brilliant cycle tour in Rwanda, I was struck by the words of the Croatian theologian, Miroslav Volf; the essence of an ’embrace’, of reconciliation, indeed of trust at the most basic level, is ‘the will to give ourselves to others and ‘welcome’ them, to readjust our identities to make space for them, prior to any judgement about others, except that of identifying them in their humanity’ (Volf, 1996:29). Are we training ourselves well for this? Are we fit for action?

Amidst all the scrolling, clicking, and sharing – even in the incredible surroundings of Lake Kivu – I was struck by the ancient wisdom of Seneca, the Roman Stoic philosopher. Born in Spain in 4 BC when surely 4G was fairly scant, he cautioned; ‘to be everywhere, is to be nowhere’.

 

Sources: Brandon (2016) ‘Digitally Re-Mastered’. Tomlinson (2007) ‘The Culture of Speed’. Volf (1996) ‘Exclusion & Embrace’