Mission Burundi - 2010

    

When my SOGM African team members convinced me to plan a ministry trip to Burundi I had no idea where this nation was and had hardly ever heard of it. It turns out Burundi is in East to Central Africa and is one of the smallest and poorest of all the African nations. Over half the children five years or under suffer from malnutrition. The people of Burundi have been rated to have the lowest satisfaction with life in the world. Christianity is actually said to be the majority religion here, but most are Catholics with a formal religion and little personal experience with Christ.

  One of the positive things about these meetings was that there had been a good deal of cooperation with a great many pastors. This time of ministry was not sponsored by a single church or pastor; we had many pastors and churches involved, and this was a great blessing to me, to the churches involved, and to the community. One of the interesting surprises on my schedule the second day I was there was that one of the nation's former presidents and a current senator, Domitien Ndayizeye, heard about the meetings and asked if I could come to his office to pray for him and the nation. I gladly agreed and challenged him to follow the advice of Psalm 1 and to meditate in God's word daily to experience the fullness of God's blessings in his life and career. He is planning to run once again for president in their elections later this year.

 One of the tasks I had on this trip was to bring materials to establish another school of ministry, this one to be located in Mombassa, Kenya. I gave the materials for the school to my Kenya team and they will traveling to Mombassa shortly to set up the school. We provided them with a laptop computer, a library of Christian books, an IPOD, several smaller mp3 players, and two powerful speakers that will enable them to broadcast these teachings to a roomful of students, after which they will discuss what they have been taught. I can't emphasize enough what a blessing it is for these African believers to have access to the books and audio teachings. Many African pastors have read few of the Christian classics and have had little experience with solid Biblical teaching. Through our school they are getting the opportunity to read some of the great Christian classics and biographies of the great men and women of God, and to hear teachings by some of America's best Bible teachers.

Busy Schedule

 My schedule in Burundi was a busy one. During the days I spoke at luncheon meetings and taught at our pastor's conference. I also preached at our coordinating pastor's church one evening and also on Sunday morning. In the crusade meetings we saw a rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I was amazed to watch the works of the Holy Spirit both in the people coming forward to receive Jesus and the healings occurring at the latter part of the services. One interesting thing about these meetings is that we seemed to see a high percentage of young men being touched and coming forward to give their lives to Christ. Some of the local pastors indicated that many of these young men have been thieves and were living very immoral lives. It seems the location of these meetings was very much a crime ridden area. Vice and theft were rampant here, and some of those giving their lives to Jesus were well known for their ungodliness. I didn't realize this at first, but as I usually do I declared how our sins and wickedness offend God. I didn't stop there, however. I would go on to declare how that God's love was stretched out to them, in spite of their sins, and that He was very much wanting to forgive them and make them His children.

 One of the most beautiful sights in the world is the sight of sinners coming forward at the end of a gospel meeting to indicate their willingness to receive Jesus as their Savior. We saw this each night, and it seemed to increase from night to night. The last night, when I preached on the day of Christ, saw the greatest response of all. I am fully aware that not everyone who comes forward at an evangelistic invitation is born again. For this reason I would never say we had so many people saved on a certain night or in a certain campaign. In some cases they are already Christians wanting to confirm a previous decision; in others this may be a first step in a longer process of fully surrendering to the Lord Jesus. But I do know that it is a very healthy thing for people to publicly profess the Lord Jesus. And in the case of Muslims, which we do see, it is an incredibly courageous act of faith and commitment.

Signs & Wonders

 One of the most amazing things about these evening meetings was the healing anointing that was present. While we usually hear reports about healings, we heard testimonies of some of the most dramatic healings I have heard since doing African ministry. Before the first meeting I and my Kenya team members all noticed a lady who had the same affliction recorded in the gospels. In Luke we read these words: "And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up." This was the exact situation of this woman we all noticed at the beginning of the meeting. I remember thinking, "That lady looks like the lady from the Bible." After the evangelistic invitation I prayed a prayer of healing for the sick and then asked the pastors to begin to counsel with those who were sick and to bring any people up to the platform who had a testimony of having been healed. The next thing I knew they were bringing up this very lady, now standing upright. The same Jesus who healed the bent over lady in the Bible had healed this bent over lady in Africa!

 Another testimony we heard was the healing of a man who had been a Muslim. He had given his life to Jesus and been healed of an affliction of the stomach and of a leg condition. His leg had been swollen and crooked, and he could only walk with great difficulty. Jesus had miraculously healed him, the swelling had gone down and the leg popped into place and was no longer crooked. Another man had had a paralyzed arm, which could now move freely.

 But one of the most amazing healings to me happened before I prayed for healing or even mentioned it. One of our pastors saw a man coming forward to receive Jesus who was sweating profusely. Now I know this was Africa but it wasn't all that hot and this man was sweating far more than would be normal. The pastor asked him if he was sick, thinking he might be gravely ill. The man told him, no, he had just been healed. He said that while I was preaching on how Jesus died on the cross for our sins, God's presence had come over him (apparently with a burning feeling), and healed him of a stomach condition. The sweat must have been a reaction to this manifestation of the Holy Spirit's work of burning this condition out of him, and now he was coming forward to give his life to Jesus. It amazed me that this healing was granted to him as he heard of how Jesus died on the cross for our sins!

The Next Level

 In some ways these meetings in Burundi were the most satisfying meetings I have done in Africa. They were not our largest meetings. I have preached to bigger crowds. But they seemed to be the purest manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. And on top of that, God seemed to be speaking to me constantly as He showed me how He wants future African ministry to be conducted. In many of our early meetings, much of the ministry and organization was done in the trial and error mode. We were trying various approaches, attempting to discover just how we were to do this ministry. Here in Burundi it seemed that a lot of the fog cleared up, and the Lord revealed to me a number of things about how He wants us to carry on. And His blessings were so very evident.

 I won't take the time to share everything He spoke to my spirit, but I will share a few of the most important. Firstly the Lord confirmed that Africa is to be our primary field of ministry, when it comes to overseas missions. I get invitations to do foreign missions frequently, from places all over the world. But the Lord is telling me, Africa must be first. Just as Peter was called to preach to the Jews and Paul was called to preach to the Gentiles, you are called to preach to the Africans. This is one reason I have cancelled my Philippines ministry this year. If we have the money I would like to take one trip to do a conference in India, but the other mission trips will be in Africa.

 Secondly the Lord is telling us to quit using various men as my helpers and to bring the same men with me on every trip if at all possible. The three members of my Kenyan SOGM team that were with me on this trip are the ones I want to use primarily. Their names are Gideon Mudenyo, his brother Dawson Mudenyo, and Pastor Chris Simiyu. These men are skilled, committed, and are not only wonderful servants of the Lord, but are great friends to me as well. It is always such a joy to me when I come to a new place in Africa and see their familiar faces.

 The Lord dealt with me about the need to employ greater organization in setting up the meetings. In my early days I paid little attention to organization and left it to the local pastors, but God has shown me that we must take the lead in seeing to it that everything runs as smoothly as possible. In the future we are going to give far more attention to the training of counselors, musicians, and various other aspects of the meetings, including making sure we have adequate sound and lighting wherever possible. Pray for us that the Lord would help us in these areas. When Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes, He also instructed the people to sit in groups of fifties. So here you had two aspects of effective ministry – the power of God and good organization. The power of God is certainly the most important, but without good organization you may end up with power and chaos at the same time – which is what we have often experienced.

Thanks a Million!

 When we first began this ministry I had no idea how we could possibly raise enough funds to do these expensive overseas trips, pay for salaries, and carry on day to day business. To be honest I really didn't have great faith in the matter; I just did it because God seemed to be moving me this direction and it seemed easier to go with what He was saying than it would have been to resist. Today in some ways not much has changed. I still don't know how it is that we can carry on; I am still mystified by how the Lord brings in the money we need when we need it. But my faith has grown a bit; I have seen the Lord do this so often I am not all that surprised when He comes through once again. I don't ever want to take this for granted but I am very much aware that the Lord has an interest in this type of ministry. He cares for His African children.

 And by your gifts, your prayers, and your concern and interest, you have demonstrated that you care as well. May our Lord make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, have an abundance for every good work!