People, People, People, People, People everywhere. Chubby, tubby, skinny, thinny, people dark or fair.
People in the rain and snow and people in the sun—A million trillion people, and God knows every one.
These are the lyrics to a kids' song I sang in a program in the fourth grade. It has been echoing in my head ever since we brought Joel home from the airport and he exclaimed over and over about the throngs of people crowding Burundi's streets, walking to and from work, standing and talking with friends, carrying huge loads of produce or even pushing half a cow on the back of their bicycles... Seeing it afresh through his eyes, it certainly does seem like there are a million trillion! Then my mind zooms in on a few of the individuals that have touched our hearts and lives these past few months...
Patrick attends Kigobe Assembly. He graduated from high school a few weeks ago as the valedictorian of his class. He is 23—graduating so late because the turmoil of the war kept him out of school for several years. When he was fourteen, for example, his family fled their home and they became separated. Someone took him in and fed him, but he wasn't reunited with his family for a whole year! Patrick's father died during the war because when they fled their home his heart medication got left behind and he couldn't live without it. His step-father is a witch doctor, and the trickle of family income comes from his charms and spells. Usually, they provide enough money for the family to eat beans once a day, but sometimes things go wrong and the witch doctor loses money, and they go hungry for several days. Even when they do eat, Patrick feels guilty because he is a Christian and the money that purchased his dinner was earned in such an evil way. The family lives in a very small two room mud house. They sleep on thin reed mats spread on the floor. Patrick and his eighteen year old sister are responsible for finding soap, clothes, and anything else they need on their own. They live from hand to mouth, relying on God and the way he works through the generosity of their friends. Just last month he found out that he would be hired to work at the assembly preschool, and he is praising God for showing his power to take care of his children by providing work.
Patrick (next to Joy) and other teachers during training last month
Mama Emile is also part of the Kigobe Assembly. The youngest of her four children has a hole in the roof of his mouth. (Cleft palate, soft and partial hard, for those of you that are interested). After his birth, doctors didn't tell Mama Emile that there was a problem or explain what to do, so when he failed to nurse well she fed him sugar water for two months. We met them after they started receiving a small bit of powdered milk for the baby from the assembly clinic, and we are now buying formula for the baby, but he's six months old and just last week reached his birth weight of seven pounds. We are praying God will provide for the baby to go to Kenya to have surgery.
Baby Emile
People riding buses, trains, and boats and bikes and cars. People eating ice cream cones and chocolate candy bars. People sleeping, people working, people having fun— A million trillion people, and God knows every one.
This year is the second year of operations for the assemblies' Discovery Preschool. We now have 18 employees and 187 students. This year I have noticed many students wearing Catholic crucifixes around their necks, and others I know are from Muslim backgrounds. One student was abandoned on the street as a child, and then taken in by a caring family who is now paying for her education. Others are the children of military generals and government officials. All of them need love, education, and the Lord. Pray for us as we work to share the gospel as well as lay the foundations of reading and writing in both English and French.
Discovery School Kids
On October 1st 35 elders will arrive at Timothy Bible School for their second session of Bible classes. Jesse will be teaching a course on spiritual disciplines as well as helping with all the necessary logistics. One of the students in this year's group was a witch doctor who was saved while watching an evangelistic film Jesse's grandpa showed in the eighties!!
Speaking of films... the film team continues to go out to villages in the hills two weekends a month, showing evangelistic films to crowds that number in the thousands. Praise the Lord with us for the endurance and faithfulness of this team of 9 volunteers, and pray for strength and encouragement for them. Pray also that their equipment won't fail—it is getting old and at this point we can't afford to replace it. Their next trip is planned for Sept. 18-20th. They will be headed to a town called Gisenga on the edge of the lake. The assembly hosting the team is a new one planted within the past ten years. Pray that many will come to know the Lord and that the believers from the Gisenga Assembly will be encouraged.
Showing films
Our summer short termers are headed home. Karleen left last month, and Joel Entz, who has been here since June working with the Deaf School, the youth, and the Discovery School, as well as doing some carpentry projects, will be heading home on October 8th. Both of them were a huge blessing and help and will be sorely missed. We certainly praise the Lord for them!! A young woman named Stephanie will arrive next week. She will help teach English to the Discovery School kindergarteners as well as pitching in with any other ministries that touch her heart. Pray for all of them as they transition, and please continue to pray that God will provide someone to help out at the school from January on. Jesse and I are stretched pretty thin, and our own boys are already struggling with Mommy being gone at all (temper tantrums and wakeful nights are on the rise), so spending more time at the school isn't really feasible for me. At the same time there is a very real need for a native English speaker to be at the school every day.
Joel, Karleen, our family and Christine, a Burundian friend.
He knows the color of our eyes, He numbers all our hairs. He knows our names and where we live, He really, really cares. He knows what we are thinking and He knows what we will do...He laughs with us and cries with us and loves us through and through.
We continue to praise the Lord for the blessing of health for the boys and a bit of stability for our family. Another praise is that the Burundian government has granted our family "Indeterminate Visas." This means that we are welcome to stay in Burundi for as long as we wish. We will still have to buy entry/exit passes when we leave the country, but we will not have to buy another visa for at least ten years. The price (over 1400 USD total) was a bit of a whammy, especially as medical bills for the boys are still coming in, but since our receiving these visas is nothing short of miraculous (foreigners don't usually receive this type of visa until they have been here more than twenty years) we know that it is the Lord's doing and trust that He will continue to provide. One of the immigration officials sends his child to the Discovery School, and when he shared what we were doing with the others in the office they decided they wanted us to stay in Burundi... isn't God amazing ?!?! We are so thankful that he sees and superintends in every detail of our lives... and your lives, too!
A million, trillion people, and God knows every one!
