Report from David Rawson

75 Years of Gospel Mission

As cars and buses drove into the parking lot of Kamenge Friends Church in Bujumbura on Friday, July 3, drummers beat out a thunderous welcome. Dressed in togas of Burundi’s national colors, the drummers jumped and danced without missing a beat in complex rhythms that go back hundreds of years. Inside the church, the welcome was no less enthusiastic. Some 600 people were gathered on a Friday night to welcome visitors from the United States, Congo, Rwanda and Kenya in a kick-off celebration of the 75^th anniversary of Friends’ presence in Burundi. Massed choirs, including the locally popular “Encouragers,” belted out choruses in Kirundi. Backed by guitars taking their riffs, a frenetic percussion battery, and an agile keyboard, the singers added joyful body language to their harmonious vocal praise. As a conclusion, a vigorous “Lord, I lift Your Name on High,” in Kirundi and English, ended with a hand-swaying, finger lifting “Yes! Yes! Lord.” Only a heart of stone could have escaped responding with a deep-felt,” Amen. ”

Pastor David Niyonzima picked up the theme as he introduced video presentations on Christians “who said yes,” establishing evangelistic, educational and medical work for Friends, beginning at Kibimba station in 1934. Old film footage showed the arrival of Arthur and Edna Chilson with daughter Rachel on the barren Kibimba hilltop, site of pre- WWI German Lutheran mission. As sundried brick and thatch gave way to solid burnt brick and tile buildings, the missionaries healed the sick, opened schools and shared the gospel. Classes of catechumens and pastors grew apace as did the number of new missionaries from Friends meetings across the United States: Clayton and Louella Brown with son Randall Brown from California; Ralph and Esther (Chilson) Choate from Idaho, and after WWII, George and Dorothy Thomas from Oregon as well as Eli and Alice Wheeler from Kansas.

A second DVD showed pictures from the post-war medical work initiated by the arrival in 1947 and 1948 of Dr. Perry and Marjorie Rawson of Michigan and Dr. Floyd and Leora Muck from Kansas. A small clinic grew into a major hospital at Kibimba, a clinic at Kwisumo in the eastern backcountry and a leprosarium at Nyankanda. Viewers all knew that, from 1972 on, the beautiful vistas and dedicated care captured in those pictures had been replaced by the horrors of genocide, civil war and destruction. The medical work was almost closed. But the audience also knew that determined Friends in Burundi, including Dr. Elysee Nahimana, assisted by Friends in the United States, revived the Kibimba hospital and expanded its ministry, making it one of the top medical centers in the country.

Those same memories were revisited revived on Saturday evening, in the parent church of Kibimba, where another night of singing, drumming and video shows welcomed American guests (over 35 stateside visitors) and church leaders. This massive brick church, with foundations laid by Arthur Chilson and high vaulted beams completed by Clayton Brown, had been witness to revivals, church festivals and, in recent years, a takeover by displaced persons who used the confines for their stable. The church had recovered its premises and the high school which surrounds it with peaceful determination, long negotiations, and hard work. The witness carries on.

On Sunday morning, the celebration moved to the soccer field behind Kibimba hospital. Honored guests arrived in SUV’s with dirt motorbike escorts. Innumerable greetings from these invitees and lively songs from three church choirs kept the program going for two hours before David Niyonzima rose to deliver a powerful sermon on remembrance. After the Yearly Meeting Clerk presented her report on church growth (55 monthly meetings, 12 provisional meetings and 48 worship centers, not to mention the birthing of sister yearly meetings in Congo and Rwanda), guests finally adjourned for a lovely buffet at the church.

Remarks at the celebration echoed thanks for 75 years of God’s guiding care and expressed determination to keep the ministry and witness of Friends vigorous and Spirit-led. Well-established in Burundi’s most populated areas, the Burundi Friends Yearly Meeting is ideally situated to carry forward the good news that the Chilsons brought to that land 75 years ago.

-David Rawson

son of Dr. Perry Rawson, Founder of Kibimba Hospital