Burundi Team Pictures

To see some amazing pictures and video captured by Donnie Hinshaw of the Burundi trip this summer, check out this website:
http://saltshaker2009africa.shutterfly.com/

Burundi Team Photo

Report from Connie Young

Highlights of 75th anniversary trip to Burundi
By Connie Young

Fri pm, June 25, stands out to me as a holy experience. As we worshiped and shared together with the Saltshaker team, Chuck Mylander, David and Debby Thomas, Brad and Chelsea Carpenter, and the Rwanda church leaders, especially Bucura and Rachel, Sizeli, Augustine Simparinka, Jonathan and others, God's presence was so very real and precious. He bound our hearts together in love and adoration for what He has accomplished in Rwanda in the short time the mission has existed. Romans 1: 16a; 17b

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, It is through faith that a righteous person has life. This very day the Lord has acted. May God's Name be praised.

The D for D and BAM talks on Sat and Sunday by David and Debby were evidence that God is using them as salt seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth! May God's Name be praised!

In Burundi there were many special moments as I reconnected with friends that have become so very dear and precious to me over the years. We were able to visit with former workers, Pierre Claver, Kamwemubusa Aloys, and Bipfubusa David. Gode, the mid wife who sat by my side all the way to Bujumbura when our son, Rob, was born, still works faithfully at the hospital. Her husband Fidele was surprised that I recognized him and called him by name. The leaders of the Friends Women were a joy to see: Mariya, Tereza, Jacqueline, Carolina, Rusi, Rachel and others. Pastors Ndemera, Melchior, Josias, Niyonzima, Bahenda, Fidele, Mark; and others we have known: Sibomana, Loy, Jeredie, really, there are just too many to mention all by name. Jesus, I offer my prayers for all those with whom we share the journey!

I especially appreciated having Larry and Dee Choate there with their son and grandson. The 75th celebration would never have taken place without the vision and response to God's call of Larry's grandparents, Arthur and Edna Chilson. The power of God was at work in them and He is still at work in Burundi Yearly Meeting. The 2,000 plus people in attendance attest to His wonder working power! Philippians 1:6 And I am certain that God who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. May God's Name be praised!

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

Saltshaker Aguascalientes Update (7/14/09)

The Saltshaker Aguascalientes team is home as of this morning!

Update from Bobby Kirkpatrick:

"Thanks for praying and we arrived safely with no problems. Please continue in prayer for the Aguascalientes Mission! Roy and Sammy have now made it home to Kansas and Iowa as well."

Burundi Team Update (7/13/09)

HOME!

Burundi Team C Update (7/13/09)

Update from David Robinson, Sun July 12:

It has been rather awkward using the french keyboard at Mi-parec in Gitega, with the a in the place of the q and the w in place of the z. The english keyboard goes much faster. Team C left Gitega this morning to worship in 3 separate churches; Randall Brown, Jeff Morrison and I at Kibimba, the Kellums with Debbie Brown at (I can't remember the church) and the rest of the team at Kabaguzo. It was, for me, exciting to be again at the birthplace of the Burundi Friends Church, exciting for Randall Brown to be there where he had taught and where his father had built the roof on the church; and it was exciting for the great, great grandson of Arthur Chilson to bring greetings to the congregation his ancestor had started.

About an hour into the service, Pastor Josias leaned over to me and asked if I would preach. Of course I would be honored to preach at such a historic place! I usually am always ready, so off I went, using 2 Peter 2:9-10. I had a great time with Josias translating. I hope the congregation approved as much as their faces showed. As usual in Burundi the service ended with many of the congregation gathered kneeling around the altar in prayer for their church and their own witness. One young man stood in desire to receive Christ as his Savior and one came forward to counsel him. Though tired after the long (or short) 2 weeks, I am elated and thrilled to be in the ministry for Christ. We have brought blessing and honor to this church for their faithfulness to the gospel. From four churches there are now about 100, in 10 quarterly meetings, with at least one church in each of the 16 provinces of Burundi. It is such a thrill to consider the fact that from the heart of America has come the Friends Church for the heart of Africa.

We are now in a nice Christian Conference center here in Bujumbura about ready to go to our farewell dinner with the Kellums and our great hosts, Fidele, Pontien and Metod. We leave early from here to Nairobi, then to London, Chicago and home on Tuesday evening. God is good and we thank you all from the depths of our hearts for your prayers. You have been with us on this journey. Marikoze cane! (I think that's the way you spell it). Thank you very much.