Michelle Carpenter, Friday night, July 3:
Greetings from Burundi! The last 2 days have been filled with fun! We held a seminar for the youth at Kibimba yesterday morning and this morning. We arrived there late yesterday (10:30) and got started with the Burundian youth leading songs. Our group sang some songs for them: Awesome God, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, Big House, and the famous "Mountain" song from Mexico. Of course, they loved that one! Our youth also did a skit about giving our burdens to Jesus. It was well done! Then we had a time of sharing from some in our group. Yesterday’s theme was about God and His love for us. Megan shared about loving others. Brianna shared about Romans 8:38-39 and Rom. 6:23, Andreia shared about God's love. I shared about how God Knows Our Names.
Brad preached a sermon he had preached in Rwanda (in Kinyarwanda). And Connie shared about worship. It seemed that the youth really enjoyed the seminar. At the end of the time there was an altar call. Some youth made a decision and came forward. We were amazed at how well the morning went. The Lord was with us and led each who shared. We concluded around 1:00 and headed back to Gitega for lunch. (While most of us were with the youth this morning, Larry Choate and his family toured Kibimba, where he lived for 18 years of his life. He hadn'¦t been back for 55 years!)
After a short nap (which many of us needed!), we headed out with Dave Kellum and Gary Young to see the bridge they built in 1982. (I must say here how special it is to have our missionaries with us! Gary and Connie Young, Dave and Mae Kellum, Brad and Chelsea Carpenter, Larry Choate, and his wife and son.) Before this bridge was built, around 50 people would die each year when they tried to cross the river during rainy season. Many lives have been saved each year because of this bridge! Dave told us that during the war, many people fled to safety using the bridge because the government didn't know about the bridge! They are guessing around 5,000+ lives have been saved! Praise the Lord! After walking across the bridge, Matt led several up the path that people have walked for years to cross the bridge. I must say that I didn't do very well with it! It was so steep for a long time! But many kept walking/jogging the 3 miles and made it in 1 hour. (At the end only Matt, Brad, Chelsea and Wayne were still walking it!) It was a great experience for most. The rest of us rode in the trucks on the bumpy paths, waving to the children who would run to greet us as we passed, eager to see the "buzungu" (white people). We returned to Gitega and ate dinner, then headed back to the guesthouse to sleep. ( I think we all slept well after that long hike!)Today was another great day! We got to Kibimba this morning on time-American time as they say-9:00. But we were shocked to see today--many, many children so excited to see us, swarming around our van as we arrived, following us everywhere, hard to walk. We guessed they had probably heard about us yesterday- and that we had given candy to those who attended the seminar. It was a huge difference from yesterday. Before we started the seminar, we had some time, so our girls sang some songs with the kids outside. They loved them! You should have seen the children climbing the trees to watch! Precious! Then we had another awesome youth session as the Holy Spirit spoke through us and led our time together. We began with some songs again. Then we had many speakers today: Larry Choate, Dee and Larry Jr. spoke to the youth. What a blessing to hear Larry speak in Kirundi- his native language! He spoke about how he had prayed for years when he was a child that God would make his skin black because he was a Burundian. A special time for him this morning was when he saw his old friend, Bahenda, who is the eldest church member/pastor in the Burundi church, one of the first disciples of our early missionaries. Allison talked about giving everything to God. Deb spoke about being connected to the vine. It was a powerful message that touched our hearts. Matt felt led to give an altar call after her message, and some youth came forward. It was a blessing to pray for them. We had to follow that up with a celebration song-the Mountain song again! (We took a short break and Jen wanted to try the Burundian drum since she plays in high school-several youth gathered around as she and others took turns playing. Then Casey shared about being Christ-like, Jen shared about how even though they are young, God has work for them. (We could tell how important it was for the Burundian youth to hear from youth their age!) Wayne shared about an unresponsive generation, Allison shared about listening to God. Chelsea gave her testimony of being obedient to the Lord and Gary spoke about how we need to serve the Lord with what we have in our hand- do the work God has called us to- with God all things are possible. Then a few pastors spoke and we were especially touched when a youth stood and testified about how his heart is full and they (Burundian youth) are going to make a difference and reach out. This gave us much hope. We left around 1:30 and were so thankful for our time with the youth. We pray that the Lord will continue to speak to them as they think about and process all of the words they heard the last 2 days. May the Lord's will be done in their lives and may others come to know Him because of their obedience to Him.This afternoon has been more relaxing. We had time for a nap again! (Although there were many people talking outside and hammering going on!) Then we took a trip to get brochettes and fantas. Delicious meat! We came back and sang together, ate, and met as a team. We found out that the 3rd team got safely to Bujumbura today and the team that went to Congo is with them now. We will all be together for the first time tomorrow as we begin our special time at Kibimba. It's almost time for the 75th celebration on July 5th! Thank you for your prayers!
Update from Dalene Hutson:
The C Team has made it to Burundi as scheduled on July 3rd. Yeah! 7 of us left Wichita at 2:30 on Wednesday, July 1st. We flew to Chicago and met the other two members of our team and then headed on our first night flight to London. We arrived in London early in the morning and decided to venture out and go tour The Tower of London. We took the subway. London is having a heat wave. The Subway was very crowded and especially warm going back to the airport, so we were glad to get back in the air conditioned terminal. We were running a bit late and almost caused the Kenya Air to not let us on, but with lots of extra prayer we all made it for our next night flight. Two nights trying to sleep on an airplane is not fun! We arrived safely to Burundi. We have already been so blessed by the Burundi People. They gave us a wonderful lunch, and a great evening celebration at a large church in Bujumbura. We were greeted with the famous drummers and so many people as we pulled into the church parking lot. The service had the most wonderful youth choir. They sang for their Lord with such joy and enthusiasm. It made me cry. We have very nice rooms to spend the night tonight in Bujumbura - they even have showers! We will leave tomorrow morning to join the rest of the team in Kibimba. I am looking forward to meeting with the Ladies and getting to shop at their craft exhibitiion. Thanks for your prayers and keep them coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment