Dear Friends and Family,
The Johnson Guesthouse
Burundi Travel, Consulting, and Logistics
Having the employees of the fledgling project LifeNurse in our home has made Jesse the hub for helping them with many of their supply, communication, and cultural hurdles. As well as consulting for Jonathan and Vered as they figure things out, Jesse has been taking Stephanie's passport into immigration for all the needed visa renewals and getting our entrance-exit permits so that we can visit Tanzania after Christmas. We are praising the Lord for a new volunteer named Danielle who will come out to help at the Discovery School from January through May, and have been emailing back and forth to help her plan her travel and decide what to bring. Her family will also make a short term trip to Burundi in March, and we are helping coordinate their trip as well. The Burundian government has issued new license plates that match the rest of the East African community, and Jesse has been helping get all the Assemblies' cars properly registered. He has also been taking care of lots of business for Ken while he and Melli are home in the US.
Jesse's Building and Repairs Unlimited
Emmanuel Church Cinemas
The film team went on their final up-in-the-hills film trip of the year last weekend to the Masabo assembly in northern Burundi. This weekend they are showing films to several thousand youth at a conference here at Kigobe, the assembly our family attends. The schedule for next year is already full.
Siyoni Productions
Jesse and his film team are in the final stages of producing their own film. Titled Colonel Rusake, it tells the story of how an army commander comes to Christ. They are working on the last little bit of editing and hope to release it early next year.
Discovery Theatre (and School :))
Bujumbura Bible Training
Timothy Bible School resumes in February, but in the meantime Jesse is teaching a Bible Survey course to an interdenominational group of pastors in town. He feels very privileged to be able to influence their understanding of God's word. Everyone in this group has finished high school, so it has also been nice for him to be able to assume his students can read well and hold some higher-level discussion. He has also been teaching a Bible study series on the "I ams" of Christ on Thursday afternoons to about 180 people at a nearby assembly.
Joy's English Learning and Adult Education Center
There have been lots of opportunities to teach this month—tutoring our afternoon babysitter in fractions, meeting with two couples to talk about caring for a newborn, and teaching English to the Discovery School teachers every Wednesday. One lesson on heath care terms started a discussion about "old wives tales." I explained that cutting a baby's uvula does not cure throat infections, but often causes the baby's death. As they listened solemnly and then asked question after question, I kept thinking how special it is to be trusted and listened to, and to live in a place where a simple conversation could save the life of a child.
Pan-African Communications Central
We've fallen behind in the newsletter and personal email department again, but thank you for the kind responses you sent after reading my article in the CMML magazine. I have also been given the opportunity to write a short article about the Discovery School for the Wheaton College Education Dept. newsletter next month. Jesse has been working on writing and sending our "In ten years, Lord willing..." plan for the Discovery School to some people that have expressed interest in potentially helping us build the classrooms we need to continue to expand the school next year—we need two classrooms to expand the school to first grade. This is a huge expense—about 25,000 USD, so we are praying every step of the way for God's will to be done.
Health, Home and Holidays R Us
We continue to wash the floors and vegetables with bleach, spray around the house every night to kill mosquitoes, etc... we're just so thankful to the Lord that this time it all seems to be working. The boys have had a few colds and some stomach parasites, but it hasn't been constant and there hasn't been anything serious like malaria. Now that we have some stability, I would like to begin to homeschool Zach. (Even if he goes to a French-speaking school next year he will need help at home with reading English). Please pray that God will provide for us to find some good materials and get them to Burundi. Though the holidays always make me long for my family, we are very excited to be spending Christmas in our own home. The boys and I have had fun baking cookies, decorating a fake tree that was left here by some other missionaries, putting lights around the railing on our spiral staircase, and acting out the Christmas story with their plastic nativity set. We will stay here for Christmas and then drive down to spend a week with Jesse's family in Tanzania between Christmas and New Years.
My names for each of these different ministries are tongue-in-cheek, but phrasing them like businesses is also intentional, as each one of these involvements is truly a full time job-- and there are only two of us. One of the problems with changa-changa pants is that they have so many seams that there are a lot of places where they can pull apart. Sometimes we feel like our sewing machines are humming along well; sometimes we feel like we are falling apart at the seams. Each ministry has financial needs as well, so please continue to pray with us for the Lord's provision in His way and in His time. I am thankful for the Christmas reminder of who is really in control!
"For a child has been born—for us! The gift of a son—for us!
He'll take over the running of the world.
His names will be:
Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness.
His ruling authority will grow, and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings."
—Isaiah 9:6-7, The Message
God Bless You! Merry Christmas!
Jesse, Joy, Zach, and Micah Johnson
