Social Events and a Social Gospel

Oren enjoying a Highlights Magazine that we get in the mail monthly from the US.  

I am going to blame Benadryl for this late posting.  I had intended to put it up last night but had an allergy attack about 4 pm and took a Benadryl to stop sneezing.  Needless to say, I was very groggy by about 8 and fell asleep while I was putting David to bed.

So here it is Tuesday and I have much to recount from the past week.  As you might have guessed from the title, it was a fairly social week.  This is the second straight week we have been in town and we did a lot of catching up with friends.  Especially as the school year winds down this is a time of transition and many families are not planning to be here next year. 

The first part of the week started slowly enough with a fairly regular routine, but between Thursday and today (Tuesday) we have been guests or hosted a meal every single day.

On Thursday we invited the Millers, a new family who has just arrived to Burundi in the last month.  They had come to our folk dance evening and we really enjoyed getting to know them and have a sense that they will be here for quite a while.  Joel and Janette are both physicians teaching at Hope Africa University and their kids, Hannah, Sarah, Samuel, and Josiah will be at the Ecole Belge this fall.  Samuel in Oren’s class. 

It was good to get to know them a bit better and to talk about the logisitics of finding a house, staff, etc. with them and find out a bit more about their work and life.  They hail from Indiana and Michigan.  I think Oren will enjoy having Samuel as a friend and a fellow Anglophone in his class.

On Friday we were invited by our Danish friends Naja and Thomas, to come have dinner on their porch.  That is a real treat because they have a very nice house that has a good view of the lake and mountains from the porch.  The evening offered us an equisite sunset that was framed between 2 enormous cloud banks over the Congolese mountains.

Oren and David love to go over there as well and play well with Elias and Aviajah, even when all are using their second language (French) to play together.  They also enjoyed watching several episodes of a Tintin cartoon together while the parents chatted on the porch.  (I joined for a bit of Tintin at the end of the evening.)

On Saturday, we went to the home of our friend Ann Glick, another American Mennonite, who is married to one of the officials at the Dutch embassy.  She has children the ages of our own, and they are one of the families that will be leaving town after the school year.  It will be sad to see them go as they are delightful people.   It was another movie night as we all watched “Here Come the ABC’s” by They Might Be Giants.  (I know that will mean something to some readers.)

Sunday was a bit of a change of pace as I was preaching.  It was Pentecost and also part of a sermon series the church is doing on mission.  I chose a passage from Acts 14 rather than the text about the coming of the Holy Spirit and Pentecost because the passage focused on St. Paul’s first missionary journey with Barnabus.

In the sermon, one of the main points I made was that one reason Paul met so much opposition in his preaching was because  he was preaching a ‘full Gospel’.  For me that meant that he was not separating the Gospel of personal salvation (reconciliation with God) from the social consequences of entering into family relationship with other Christian brothers and sisters (reconciliation with fellow believers).  Because he was preaching to different ethnic groups, (Jews and Gentiles) this message was not readily accepted as Jews and Gentiles did not want to be reconciled to each other and certainly not members of one family.

For me the point was that to some extent, Evangelical missionaries in the past century may have tried to cleave the Gospel of Salvation from its social consequences in sharing the Gospel in this region.  Consequently there was the tragic consequence of seeing Christians massacre each other because they were in different ethnic groups.  (As one priest put it:  “The blood of tribalism ran thicker than the waters of Baptism”.)

The second point was about cultural misunderstanding.  But I will attach the sermon to this blog for those interested in reading it.  Although it is written down, I did not really read from the text, but it follows my preaching pretty well.

I felt the sermon was well received and we had a good discussion about it afterward in our small group.  Our small group has also been in concentrated prayer about a Evangelical and Reconciliation Crusade being organized by our South African missionary friends.  They have had some challenges along the way the least of which was the main speaker pulling out at the 11^th hours.  Things seem to be coming together well though as they prepare to go upcountry this Sunday.

Rebecca's Sunday School Class

Monday was a Holiday!  I was not really ready for it, but apparently, like many Catholic countries, Pentecost Monday is a day off.  (I think it was Memorial day this weekend in the US).  So we planned another social event.  We had dinner with a group of our longterm missionary friends which did include the Hoffman’s (Tanja and Stephan) from Germany, Naja and Thomas, and we were joined by Joel and Janette as well.  There were a huge group of kids who played very well together.  We made a big meal the afternoon and sat and talked until about 4pm.

That was about the time I got hay fever and took a Benadryl.

This evening (Tuesday) we had another visitor, Brandon Thiessen who used to work with us at MCC when we first moved here.  He is now a coffee buyer and works in Switzerland.  He was here to sample some Burundian coffee.  It was good to catch up with him as well.

Our life felt very rich this week as far as friendships.  We are also aware as we near the end of the year how much things will change when we begin the school year next September.  Generally though it has been remarkable to see how many people are arriving here.  The ex-pat. Community seems to be growing very rapidly.  We were at Club du Lak briefly Sunday afternoon and it was packed with Muzungus.  I don’t even know where they are from or what they are doing here, but I think the confidence that Burundi is more or less stable is becoming more and more accepted.  I hope this will be a positive change.  It did seem a bit overwhelming on Sunday afternoon though.

The reports we here across the Lake in Eastern Congo have taken a turn for the worse.  Generally there had been improvement to the point that people were taking tourist trips to see gorillas around Bukavu and the top of the volcano in Goma.  Now all of those areas have been recaptured by rebels and new rebel groups made up of disgruntled deserters from the Congolese army are becoming very powerful and disruptive in the region.  The casualties are almost always civilians as rebels seem to prefer to massacre them rather than engage other armed groups in combat.

It is very sad for us to hear about this deterioration of the situation in Eastern Congo.

That is all I have to report this evening, so for anyone interested I am attaching the sermon. Enjoy:

Dinosaur Bone Archeological Dig by Oren and friends
at Club du Lac T. this Sunday.

Acts 14 sermon   (Read Acts 14:1-23)

It is a great pleasure to be able to share God’s word with you on this Pentecost Sunday.  It is also a relief to me to be on the preaching side rather than the interpreters side.  Having done that 2 weeks ago I must say that (s)he has the more difficult task up here.

As I said, this is Pentecost Sunday, the day we remember the decent of the Holy Spirit upon the heads of the 120 followers of Jesus praying together in Jerusalem. 

Historically, for the jewish people Pentecost was the festival to mark the first harvest after the growing season, when the Hebrews would bring their first fruits to the temple for a large festival.  We as Christians can see the poetic timing of the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, equipping the harvesters with Spirtual gifts to bring in the first harvest of those called by Christ into his body--the church.

We are also continuing today in our sermon series on mission and will look today how the Holy Spirit does equip us for mission even today.  For the sake of this topic, I will not actually be reading the Pentecost passage in Acts 2, but will be going further into the book Acts to look at the work of the spirit through one of the most powerfully transformed and transforming men in the Bible.  I am of course talking about the Apostle Paul. 

Remember, that Paul was certainly among the firstfrutis of those brought into the body of Christ---the miracle of his conversion is a powerful testimony to the way we are prepared as Christians for ministry.  He himself went overnight from being one of the Gospel’s worst enemies to one of its most adamant defenders.

During his lifetime he made 3 important missionary journeys to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles according to the book of Acts, and we are going to look today at his first journey as recounted in Acts Chapter 14.  Actually his anointing for this journey by the Holy Spirit when he and Barnabus were set apart and prayed for by his community is recounted in Acts 13.   In Acts 14 we pick him up enroute in what is now the country of Turkey.

I am very happy to offer a missionary’s perspective on this particular passage. and I feel like it has some important things to teach those of us who feel called to mission in Burundi, both ex pats and Burundians and the way the Spirit empowers us to do so. 

Read Passage Act 14.

I am going to divide the passage today into 3 parts and discuss them separately.  I have a topic heading for each section so if you are taking notes you can begin by writing down these 3 headings.  :  They are, if you want to write them down:

1) The Full Gospel

2) Cross Cultural Challenges

3) Perseverence

By way of background this the first of 3 missionary journeys that Paul embarks upon in the book of Acts beginning in Chapter 13.  He leaves from Antioch with Barnabus and travels west on the Mediterranian than turns north and goes overland to a town called Pisidian Antioch.  a region that is now in the country of Turkey.  I will have more to say about the geography at the end of the sermon.

In Acts 14 we are picking up on Paul and Barnabus’ journey in the town of Iconium.  They have just been run out of the town of Pisidian Antioch in Chapter 13 and are heading southeast.

We find that in Iconium as well the Apostles are not well received either.  According to the text unbelieving jews begin to stir up the Gentiles against them.  Despite their bold speaking and signs, they here of a conspiracy to stone them and they leave the town and continue South to Lystra.

Lets look a bit more closely at this conflict.  This is not the first time we find Paul in trouble with Jews and Gentiles in his ministry.  In fact he has a similar problem in the previous chapter in the town of Pisidian Antioch.

I think understanding this ‘jealousy of the jews’ and to conflict Paul frequently creates between Jews and Gentiles is worth investigating.  Just what about the Gospel of Salvation is so offensive or controversial? 

Certainly his call to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles at all was a point of contention, even among the Apostles.  But why?

My sense in reading these accounts along with his letters, is that Paul felt that the Gospel of Salvation had important social consequences that were very difficult to accept for both Jews and Gentiles.

You see,  Paul felt the gospel first and foremost was a message of  reconciliation which began with our relationship with God, but then had direct consequences on our relationship with other brothers and sisters in Christ—in this case, in the relationship between jewish and gentile believers.   

He even describes this mission several times in his letters as the great mystery of the gospel hidden from view for the ages:  This is from Ephesians 3

2Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

In Galatians 3 he used the language of being one people, not greek, jew, male, female, slave nor free but all one people in Christ.

This is not Separate but equal folks, we are talking about sharing barbeque, sitting at the dining room table together, full family members! 

This Gospel of Unity, I believe is at the base of much of this conflict created by Paul’s ministry and particularly on this missionary journey.   If we look back one chapter (Acts 13) this is especially poignant, because we see that the jews  receive the Gospel message in Pisidian Antioch with interest one week, then go into a jealous rage and throw Paul and Barnabus out of the city as soon as the Evangelists begin sharing it with the Gentiles as well the following Sabbath. 

But Paul seemed adamant that the Gospel of reconciliation with God could not be cleaved away from its social consequences, that is the Gospel of reconciliation with one’s brothers and sisters in Christ.  He felt that one followed directly from the other.  I honestly think he would have had an easier time and less persecution if he would have stuck to the message of salvation and left reconciliation between those who accepts Jesus for another time.  But he never saw the Evangelical message and the social message as separate.  He was beaten, stoned, austracized by his own people for it, but he never ceased to preach it.

And to some extent I think that has been one of the great failure of the evangelical church in Africa in the last century.  In cleaving the salvation message away from the social message we end up with an incomplete transformation, reconciliation to God without any reconciliation to neighbor.

Evangelicals of the last century have not been the only ones who have tried to construct a theology which cleaves these two halves of the gospel apart.  Peter, as we see in Galatians, after his dream, tried to distance himself from Gentile Christians he had saved, even refusing to eat with them.

Other examples include the one I read recently about Catholic priests in DRC in the 18^th century who during the height of the slave trade, sold off their entire congregations to slavers, the only moral reservation they had was not to sell to protestant slavers because they did not want their converts to fall into the hands of heretics.

Apartheid in South Africa was entirely based on a theology of salvation without reconciliation and unity between brothers.  And of course the genocide and civil war that were witnessed here in Rwanda and Burundi involved Christians killing Christians, even singing praise songs as the swung the machete.

Certainly it has been the experience of many of us in Burundi and elsewhere that while the idea of salvation may be appealing, the cost of discipleship, that is--seeing your enemies as your brothers (and by enemies I mean people who murdered your parents and stole their land and still live on it.)  may be a price too high to pay. 

There is another partial Gospel that has appealed to some when the social gospel, reconciliation to one’s brothers is highlighted without seeing it as a consequence of reconciliation to God (Gospel of Salvation).  This social gospel can be appealing to some because it sounds tolerant.  But reconciliation to one’s brothers, not rooted in a saving faith will be superficial at best.  As soon as the road gets tough one is willing to abandon one’s love for one’s friends. Christ says ‘Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends.’  But that is a hard call.

In Buta here in Burundi, I do not believe a social gospel of brotherly love would have led those students--when they were attacked by a rebel group and asked to separate by ethnicity so that one group could be slaughtered and the other spared--to refuse to so and were martyred together. 

With his dying breath, one of the young martyrs with a beautific face told the rector,  “Today we have won.  They told us to separate and we all refused and stayed together.”

Paul is bringing a full gospel message in his missionary journeys, complete with signs and wonders but it is not easily received, and he faces death many times for it, but he is uncompromising.  To many it is an offensive message and if it does not offend you here and now, even slightly, perhaps you are not considering the full consequences of this radical gospel of vertical and horizontal reconciliation.

Are you ready to embrace a gospel that takes puts your cultural identity behind your identity in Christ.  Am I ready to have my son marry a Burundian Christian as opposed to an American.  Are tutsis and Hutus ready to give their daughters in marriage to followers of Jesus among the Batwa?  Because those are just some of the implications of being one new family.  I think we should all squirm a little about what the Full transformative gospel message means for us who call ourselves followers of Jesus.

But that is not the only problem Paul faces as a missionary on this trip.  When they do flee from Iconium they go to Lystra,  where they begin their outreach with a powerful sign, a healing. (man could not walk from birth is healed)  But something does not go as planned.  The miracle is badly misunderstood, and Paul and Barnabus are perceived to be the Messiahs and not Jesus Christ. And it sounds like it is all Paul can do to convince the citizens there that they are ordinary men. 

It is interesting that, as a missionary we find one of the great pitfalls of cross-cultural work in this small episode, especially where one does not know the local language. Let me call your attention to a detail in verse 11.   Luke, the author, notes that the people shouted in their Lycaniom language that Barnabus is Zeus and Paul is Hermes, the prophet of Zeus and since they have a temple for these deities they want to go and make sacrifices there. 

(Look at scene)

I am presuming that probably Paul and Barnabus did not know exactly what all the cheering was about and did not understand until later how badly the miracle had been misunderstood.  So instead of moving forward with their message, they have to start from scratch again, putting out fires of confusion and misunderstanding.  NO we are not Gods, we are men like you.  It was not us who did the miracle it was done through the God we serve, the living God, etc. etc.

The paragraph ends by saying that even all of these efforts barely persuaded the Lycanians from offering sacrifices to them.  A tough, but not atypical day for a missionary in a cross-cultural situation.

 How often do I see this in our context in Burundi?  I need to explain a bit about traditional African family and community structures.  We often called them Patrimonial.  That basically means that people live in patron-client relationships of borrowing and owing.  At the top, the chief lender and richest person in the community is the big-man a position with considerable status and wealth.  It is he who bestows wealth on the community through ‘loans’ which secure loyalty, among other things.  In the post-colonial world, the big-man may get his wealth from the national treasury if he is a political leader, corruption if he is a civil servant, the offering and the international mission if he is a pastor.

Yes, it is very easy, even as a Christian, especially an African Christian to get pulled into this traditional system.  Even me, when I go at a field visit to see one of our projects, am always treated with great honor and respect.  I go into a very poor village, see a goat raising project, than am invited in for a meal of goat meat, rice, beans, and coca-cola.  I am served first, often before the eyes of hundreds of onlooking hungry children who will not even be permitted to eat until I am done, and then will only get whatever leftovers the big men leave behind. 

I know it is important in terms of encouraging our partners to go out and see their work, and while they do not actually acclaim me as Zeus (these are Christian partners) the treatment I receive as a donor is uncomfortably close to deification. And while we may not be seen as God’s we are just as good from the perspective of most Burundians.  We have power, we do amazing things with our medicine, and computers, and money.  So we receive ‘divine’ treatment from our local hosts and receive innumerable petitions for help in healing diseases, providing education, food, jobs, and money.  We are seen as saviors.

And I can tell you, poor rural African Christians are in awe of seeing us and other missionaries roll up, in 4X4s with lots of money to spend (for good causes—provided by faithful givers in North America), driving around the country, jetting in and out of the region. And African pastors say, “Hey, I’d like a piece of that.  I’d like to drive around the country in 4X4 preaching the Gospel, I would like nice church building and a church band with electronic musical instruments and a soundsystem, and I would like a computer to write my sermons and do word searches on the internet.  And as a witness to the Gospel I need it and deserve it.

You see, our good actions, our charity, even as Christians is so easily misunderstood and can take the focus away from the gospel and bring the focus on the donor and the benefits.  Paul and Barnabus struggled to do damage control in this situation, and today we see many historic mission churches having to do the same damage control around the world today to break unhealthy dependency on foreign mission aid to support the local churches..

I have personal examples.  About a month before I came I was asked by an acquaintance from our church for help with tuition.  Because of the relationship I had with him I did give it to him (about $100) but honestly did not feel good about it.  I know that now he will see me as a benefactor and will ask me for many more things in the future including all his future tuition needs.  When I gave it to him he was effusively thankful and told me he had prayed the entire night that I would say yes to his request.  He even called me his father and his God sometimes.  I imagine he will eventually be disappointed when God ceases to answer his prayers that I will support him. I confess that it is hard for me not to become the big-man when it is so easy to do these small miracles in the lives of people we know.  But I don’t think what I did was serving God’s purposes in any way I understand.

My point is that cross-cultural ministry is difficult and even the good we do can become the biggest barrier to our success in making the gospel real and personal to those we are sharing it with.

So there are the first 2 points:  The Full Gospel, Cross Cultural Challenges,

I’ve probably brought you all down to this point, and I’m sorry.  But I want to try to get you to imagine the struggle that Paul and Barnabus were going through on this ‘Holy Spirit Annointed’ mission trip.  It was not all glory, they were struggling to succeed and risking their lives.  But its about to get much better here at the end.

What we are left with in Chapter 14 is cause for hope.  I call it the Victory of Perseverence.

We do see that after these problems in Pysia Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, and this is pretty bad, not just are they misunderstood but they are run out of town, stoned, and even have their lives threatened because of the work they are doing.

But look at what happens once they get to Derbe:  It is amazing if you look at it on a map---

they backtrack, through the exact places where this happened, it says they

strengthen the disciples and encourage them to remain true to the faith.

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they told the disciples in those places.. 23

Paul and Barnabas appointed eldersa for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

A bit about Geography:  They are heading toward the mission station in Antioch, one would suppose completely exhausted.  Imagine you are leading this trip and this has been your experience to this point.  Where do you want to go next?

Well in my opinion, Paul does a stunning about face. Look at the map…

Traveling down the hypotenuse of triangle back toward Antioch,  Then in Derbe, they turn back around.

WHAT A TESTIMONY to the Gospel. ---men and women that are willing to go back, again and again, to see the work through to the end and leaving those who are commited to stay for the long term and training locals to continue to do the work of reconciliation to God and man. 

I can imagine what an encouragement it must have been to believers in these places to see Paul and Barnabus, after being so badly mistreated in these cities, returning to them again to encourage and inspire them, and assuring them that even the suffering and hardships are part of the road toward the Kingdom of Heaven.   And it says that they did appoint local elders, a good strategy to effectively work in a cross cultural setting—empowering locals to carry out the work.

As far as Burundi, Rebecca and I have mercifully been spared any beatings or being run out of town. But we have seen many of our friends who have suffered these things as well as imprisonment and other types of persecution because of their faith.  As an organization we work through local partnerships with just such individuals, their stories are a testimony to their willingness to suffer even to death, and yet persevere in the face of failure and defeat to bring the Gospel of Peace and Reconcilliation to their people. 

I think of people like Onesphore who stood up with fellow tutsi and hutu christians, in a time of ethnic crisis in his school, and stood between two fighting groups and proclaimed.  “We are a new ethnic group, not Tutsi nor Hutu, but Christian, if you are going to kill anyone, start with us.  The crisis was averted and no one was died that day.

I see the courage of people here like Emmanuel Ndikumana and his wife Asele, Asher, Oscar, Dieudonne, Innocent and countless others committed to a lifetime of bringing God’s message of salvation and reconciliation to people here in Burundi.

And expats, like, Libby, Helga and Christiane, the Johnson family, Aly Blaire, Mary, Rosemary, Simon, and others who have made this place and their home and have suffered greatly for many years to bring the Gospel of Salvation and Peace to this country.

Psalm 16:3 says Blessed are the Saints that are in this Land, they are the Holy Ones in whom is all my delight.

We are blessed to have in our company, people who give witness to the way that the Holy Spirit empowers us for mission.  But don’t be misled by looking only for quick miracles.  Look at those who have given their lives to bring the Full Gospel to fruition in Burundi, despite much suffering and misfortune.  They are the Holy Ones in Whom is all my delight!!

Partners Retreat

 Oren David and Rebecca at Cercle Hippique.




I am happy to report, this Monday evening that we are all alive and well, the kids are in bed and Rebecca is having a 'ladies night out' with some friends.  The reason I feel it is important to begin by telling you this is that we have just completed our Partners Retreat, an annual event that we do with our partners to help build their capacity, network, and generally get to know MCC better.


In the past three years, however, this event has almost seemed cursed with a steadily worsening series of health related crises.  The first year Oren was so sick and lost so much weight the week we were supposed to go that we almost cancelled.  The second year Rebecca got malaria days before it started, and last year one of our service workers had to be medi-vacced out of the country and I was left to watch their her kids while Rebecca ran the retreat alone.

Needless to say, we were more than a bit anxious in the days leading up to the event.  But I can happily say that everything went off without a hitch health-wise, and we felt very good about its success.  I don't know why this particular event has seemed surrounded by so much misfortune.  It is a lot of work but it is no more stressful than other conferences we participate in and generally we like to go and spend time with partners in this forum.

This year we held it in Rwanda close to the town of Butare in a Catholic monastary called Gihindamuyaga.  We have been here before and have found it to be a lovely place for a large group retreat.  The simple rooms do have bathrooms and even hot water and the Rwandese food there is prepared to perfection.  There are also an abundance of fruit trees that produce passion fruit, navel oranges, japanese plum, avocadoes, papaya, and guava.  We enjoyed eating them as well.


Preparation went well up until Wednesday morning, the day before we were leaving, when I realized that our exit permits were not up to date.  This is a process that usually takes 2 days and we had a moment of panic, but sent Felix off to the immigration office to see what he could do.  He did successfully come back with all of them later that afternoon.  (That was probably the most stressful preparation emergency that we had in getting ready.)


We left town on Thursday afternoon, which seemed less stressful than leaving in the morning.  We took our Fortuner (which is running fantastically well by the way) and another vehicle as 13 of us were coming from Bujumbura.  We also had a car coming from Gitega and a third from Kigali in Rwanda.  We all arrived about the same time at Gihindamuyaga just before 6pm.  We had tea and then supper and I did a welcoming presentation explaining the theme for the weekend and giving an 'ice-breaker' question to start us off.  The question was what people remember of their parents.  It was an interesting question to hear the answers to because it reminded me of just how different our life experiences have been.  Among the mzungus, most of us are blessed to still have our parents still living.  I would say that among our partners, with the exception of 1 or 2, all of them had passed away.  More disturbing, though is that in most of the cases the cause of death was murder during one of the many outbreaks of civil war here in the past 30 years.


The theme for the retreat was one inspired from the program evaluation we had at the end of last year.  One of the challenges our evaluators gave us was to remember who were serving.  They reminded us that the beneficiaries of our programs are the poor, marginalized, traumatized individuals and communities in Rwanda and Burundi, not our partners.    Yes we do serve them through our partners, but the real measure of success if their effectiveness in reaching these people, not how well our partners relate to us.  It seemed like a good challenge and much of our work during the retreat was focusing on how we can better focus our programming on serving the truly poor and needy, and even more, how we can involve them in the planning, execution and follow-up of our programming aimed at them.


Over the three days together we divided the time into roughly 2 parts.  The first day we heard reports from each partner, the second day, we did some workshopping on how to better invove our beneficiaries in planning.  Yolanda Weima and Jean Pierre Niyonzima of UCPD led a very good discussion on this based an experience they had designing a recent project.

She also drew a nice illustration of the role of the partner in the fine balancing act of connecting the vision of the donor with the felt need of the participants (beneficiaries) on the ground.  We were all challenged to not just pay lip service to our committment to empower the marginalized, but to really go on the ground and get feedback on programming that we are doing.


Along with all of this I should add that we did take time for praise and worship at each plenary session that was led by Rebecca and her guitar.  We also had some time for prayer and reflection in the evenings.

In order to accomplish all of this we did bring along a childcare person to watch Oren and David.  This was the only way that Rebecca and I could be available for all the work we had to do.  This time David and Oren were the only kids.  In the past with Ruth and Krystan and the Horst family there were at least 3 more.

We did have some free time scheduled in the retreat and played some Frisbee, kicked around a soccer ball, and went to the Rwanda National Museum as well which had some very interesting artifacts from the country’s history, particularly the time of the traditional Kings.

Sunday was our final day and we had worship together.  I did a sermon based on John 9, the story of the healing of a man born blind from birth.  What was most striking to me about the story is it is unique in that has a very thorough follow-up of a beneficiary of a healing of Jesus.   What was interesting to me and instructive was to realize that this great transformation was not actually appreciated by anyone but the blind man himself.   The disciples had their errant theology challenged, the neighbors were skeptical, the Pharisees were menaced, the parents were afraid, and the man ends up being excommunicated and cut off from his community. 

I talked about the reality that often transformation of an individual has consequences and may not be welcome.  In this context, educating Batwa, raising them out of ignorance, empowering women, or poor farmers, will disturb the current structures of injustice that keep them down, especially those who are benefiting from the current system of injustice.

Poverty and marginalization are structuralized, not accidents, and real change for individuals at the bottom are not welcome by those at the top.

And yet,  it is clear from the passage that the healing of this man is a great act and something that changes his life irreversibly forever for the better.  My caution to our partners though, is that bringing  a true gospel of transformation is dangerous work, and as we truly involve ourselves with and empower the marginalized, we should expect to ruffle the feathers of those who are in power.

After the service we all packed up our things and got back in our cars and went our separate ways.  We were back in Bujumbura by mid afternoon, in time for our small group.  Unfortunately it had been cancelled, but we did have a nice chat with one of the couples that participates, Phillip and Ester, who are Kenyans serving here with Food for the Hungry.

We went to bed pretty early on Sunday evening as we were quite exhausted and took the kids to school on Monday morning.

For Rebecca and I we took a comp-time day off on Monday as we were really worn out.  We swam in the morning then went to a café and had some fresh fruit juice and reflected back on our time.  One of the interesting things I observed is how much more at ease we are in our role here and working with our partners.  Truly being with that group had more the feeling of being among friends than professional associates.  It is also quite an accomplishment to realize that we conducted the entire retreat in french ourselves without really even thinking about it or writing everything down first.  It did not seem like a really big deal to do that.  Truthfully it is only at the last minute that I am remembering to mention that fact in the blog.

We were grateful that things went as well as they did and we had no catastrophes.  After school we took the kids to Cercle Hippique where Oren was very excited to ride a horse again.  I don’t know if riding lessons are in the future, but he really wants to ride by himself without being led around by the grooms that care for the horses.

We have a fairly routine week this week but I am preaching this Sunday at our church so I will be busy getting a sermon ready.  Prayers that that would go well are always appreciated.

The Perpetually Unraveling Community

Dancing the Virginia Reel.

I was very touched by the number of responses to my request for comments from those who read the blog last week.  Some strangers and then friends, some from kindergarten and University who keep up, along with others I have met at other times in life.  Thank you for the encouragement to write another 200.

It is at the time of milestones that one feels inclined to reflect on the passage of time, or in the case of living here, the passage of community.  I can say now as an International worker who has been in the same place for 4 years, the meaning of the word 'community' has evolved for me.  Rebecca and I are very intentional about creating community around us.  We did so in Poughkeepsie and Baltimore and we have done so here as well.  The difference is that an expat community is somewhat unique.  It sometimes seems like a very intensely-colored fabric---a scarf or stole that is being woven together at one end as rapidly as it is fraying and disappearing at the other.  At any moment it will be the same length as any other moment, but the pattern will be entirely different.  

And so it is with our communities.  I marvel at how fast they have changed over the years and yet seem at every moment to be in some way stable.  There is on the front end of the scarf the continual welcoming and inclusion of newcomers and simultaneous heart-felt Adieux for friends who are leaving for good at the back end.

One is only a newcomer until someone else newer arrives, then the first newcomer begins to take on roles of responsibility in the community and its sustenance.  At nearly 4 years Rebecca and I find ourselves in the company of a very few people who have been here longer than us.  There are a few 'senior statesmen' life-time generational missionary families and a few expats who have married Burundians and now call this home, but by and large we are the oldtimers here.  I realize that as time passes we will near and eventually find ourselves at the unraveling end of the scarf and the threads of our lives here will fray away leaving a continually mutating communal pattern making and unmaking itself here in Burundi as people come and go.

Maybe this image was particularly poignant to me because we had one of our famous folk dances this week.  We decided it was about time again as the last one was back during Valentine's Day.  We put the word out and although we heard from many that they would not be available, we found ourselves hosting an enormous crowd including several newcomers to Burundi.

Although this was at the end of the week, Saturday, I will start there and work back.  Now since this is about the 10^th such dance we have had since we moved into this house with the large living that can be converted in a ballroom, I think they have been gaining in reputation.  It is not uncommon to have someone contact us to let us know they would like to be there even if we do not know them. 

The tradition of doing a folk dance was one we inherited from a missionary family named the Carrs.  They hosted a Scottich Ceilidh from time to time which was a lot of fun.  We inherited the house and the tradition of holding dances here.  Their particular favorite was “Strip the Willow” which for us Americans became the “Virginia Reel”.  We usually end our parties with this one, and it seems to fit aptly the community I described above that makes and unmakes itself--continually progressing forward and unraveling at the end.

The dance also includes a potluck so after a few sets of dances we share food together.  We had--all told--at least 50 people there including kids.  The kids have their own party with movies, trampoline jumping, and join us for an occasional line dance like “Cotton-Eyed Joe.” 

What I like about this kind of party too is that it brings together quite a wide cross-section of the different communities in which we interact from MCC team members, to missionary friends, fellow parents at the Ecole Belge, and a sprinkling of visitors to the country brought by others.

On this particular occasion we were happy to welcome a new family of 6 here, a husband and wife team of physicians, Joel and Janet, and their 4 children, Hannah, Leah, Samuel, and Josiah.  They are around the ages of our kids and a bit older.  They are preparing to spend 6 years here helping to teach clinical medicine to students at Hope Africa University.  It was great to have them and I felt a deep sense of their faith commitment that has brought them out to serve here.  I am sure we will come to know them better in the years ahead.

For such a large group we asked our cook Marcelline to work on Saturday and help us with clean-up and watching David (especially since Rebecca and I have to call and teach the dances.)  I also asked her to take some photos of the dances this time and she took a lot of great photos of the dance and potluck that I am posting on this blog.

The party began about 4 and ended around 8:30.  Preparation takes hours as it involves moving all the furniture out of the living room, as well as food prep. [Rebecca says: a HUGE thank you to Naja who washed a million dishes and kept me company while I prepared our potluck contributions. Your friendship kept me cheerful all day!]  Oren was quite helpful this year with cooking and made a 'secret' chocolate cake with our service worker Jennifer that was quite a hit. (The secret is beets.)  Clean-up is also a two hour process of putting everything back and cleaning up various kid food messes.  But there is something very satisfying in cleaning up and reflecting on the joy of the time together.

There is also something unique and mysterious about a community that dances together, especially this kind of structured social dance based on dancing figures and interacting with almost everyone.  It goes beyond what happens in conversation or sharing food.  I wish I could say what it is that is special, but it seems to be such a ritual expression of what community is--a vibrant changing, evolving pattern of relationships that create and dissolve themselves in the perpetual rhythm of living in the moment---the present experienced, instant by instant.  The steps don't change in the Virginia Reel but new dancers join each time we dance it here, often barely able to keep up with the unexpected shift of unfamiliar patterns, while the more experienced ones encourage them along in the routines that are as comfortable and instinctive to them as a well worn path.

The dance was the highlight for me, but it was not the only event worth noting of the week.  Actually the week did not start out nearly as well as it ended as David went to bed Monday with a fever and could not go to school.  To make matters worse, the car engine was not sounding good so I knew we would have to take it in and be without it for a while. 

Our strategy for Monday was for Rebecca to stay home with David while I took Oren to school and then dropped the car off during work.  This meant that for the rest of the week we had to get around by taxi or public transport.  Generally when we were travelling as a family with the kids we took a cab.  But when I was going to work alone I took the mini buses (matatus) that are used for public transport here.  I have to say it is quite an adjustment to go from the driver's seat of a Toyota Fortuner into the back of a minibus crammed in with 19 other people. 

But I think it may be an even bigger adjustment for Burundians to see a Mzungu riding the bus as I often get some odd looks.  On one occasion when I wanted to get off I said to the conductor in Kirundi “Nsigare ngaha” (let me off here)  To my horror the women sitting next to me who was doing her best not to stare, suddenly burst into shrieks of uncontrolled peals of laughter that did not end even after I got off the bus and it pulled away.  At first I thought I had spoken incorrectly but I realized in talking to my colleague at work that the whole episode was probably so shocking to her that she could not control her reaction.  (It is good to know that I am still basically a freak around here after 4 years.)

But I do like to take the bus for a change and for 25 cents it is a great way to get to work. 

Tuesday was probably the nadir of the week.  It began when I dropped Oren off at school.   David was still sick.  I stopped at the gate to talk to some friends mometarily and got behind him.  When I got to his class with his bag I found him sobbing with the somewhat exasperated teacher trying to console him.   His fit was because I had not arrived with his pencil bag when he walked in the door.  But the bigger problem she said was that he was not communicating very much at all in class and seemed perpetually "on the moon." 

This has been an anxiety of mine: that Oren isolates himself in response to not understanding French well and does not really pay attention or participate, which exascerbates the problem of poor comprehension.  After school I had a talk with his teacher about what to do.  She was adamant, despite my doubts, that he understands almost everything she says.  But he is timid to engage.  I asked what we might try as a strategy to open him up and she suggested having him do a show-and-tell a few times of something he liked.  I said we would try it.

On the way home we talked about what he could do and although he was really opposed to the idea he made a poster of a brachiosaurus and labeled it with many facts about it all written in French. 

On Friday he brought it to class to show the class.  To my dismay the teacher was sick and the directress of the school was subbing.  Rebecca did tell her the situation and she apparently was very supportive of Oren as he made his presentation. 

I don’t know what happened but all I can say is that when we picked Oren up from school he was beaming, and for the first time ever took the initiative to tell me what happened in class, how he did his report and all the other kids cheered for him, and how well it went. 

I was really happy for him and I think we will try it again this week as it seems to be a breakthrough to have him talk to the class in this way.

Actually Oren has had several social victories.  He has a new Burundian friend from school whom he has invited over several times and gone to his house as well.  He has also advanced a partial rank in karate (has a yellow stripe on his belt. )  He is not great at all, but in all of these situations he is immersed in French and seems to be able to adapt and participate.

David was sick until Thursday when his fever began to break fairly regularly.  We did use one malaria test kit on Wednesday despite the fact that we rationally knew it could not be.  Fortunately it was negative.

By Friday he was completely well which was perfect timing as we had an advisory council meeting slated for Friday morning.  Our time with our advisors was good and they challenged us to use them more, perhaps to do some monitoring visits of our partners.  They are a very encouraging trio.

Friday after school the kids both had Mother’s Day gifts when I picked them up.  Since Rebecca was not with me I was able to convince the kids to hide them until Sunday.  Oren only hinted once about a surprise gift  “You didn’t find anything around the house that looked like a painted mixing spoon did you?”  But Rebecca acted surprised on Sunday morning and the kids were very proud of the gifts they made. 

Church and small group were great and we even went out with our Danish friend Naja and her two kids to Ubuntu for pizza after small group. 

In all of our encounters from the square dance, church, small group, and dinner with Naja it reinforced in me the vital sense that I feel about our community here.  You learn to make close attachments quickly here and then to let go of them when the time comes.  But the feeling I have of being with friends here is very rich and I feel a great sense of gratitude for God’s provision in surrounding us with people that care for us and that we can care for.

Prayers this week would be welcome for our Partners retreat which begins on Thursday.  We will be in Rwanda with them until Sunday.  

For more photos of the square dance click here.