Holy 'Open-Eyed' Communion

David, the naturalist, showing off his latest lepidopteric treasure at our church community fete.


The more bilingual we have become from living in a Francophone country, the more I become aware of subtle language differences, especially certain expressions in one language that are not easily duplicatable in another.  A good example in English is the word 'to get'.  It is unbelievably handy meaning any number of things from receiving, to catching, to obtaining, to understanding, to grasping, to taking, to arriving.  When I am trying to translate a sentence with 'get' in it into French I have to choose from about 7 different words to get the correct meaning for the context.

But French has similar words that don't quite have an English equivalent and need several different words to catch the meaning.  One that I hear often in Burundi is 'se debrouiller'.  Probably the best single definition would be to 'untangle oneself'.  It's opposite would be 'se brouiller' which might be translated 'to jam oneself up'.  But the former is used far more frequently here.  Often I hear in conversation people talking about the need to 'se debrouiller' or how they 'debrouilled' themselves out of something.    When I was talking to Felix about it he said it was often used to describe how one got out of a difficult situation that someone else got them into.

I don't know why it is such a common expression here, in my culture I don't hear alot of people using the expression 'disentangling myself', very often.  Maybe having others 'jam you up' is a more common experience here in this culture.  Perhaps because it is a far less 'individualistic' culture here and 'jamming other up' socially may be a fairly common practice as part of enforcing social norms and expectations.   Anyway, it is interesting to notice how the vocabulary itself can give one a sense about culture when you start to notice.

This was one of the topics of conversation on our road-trip to Rwanda this week.  We left on Thursday right after the morning school session (noon).  Rebecca and I, the kids and Felix went together to do a ton of meetings and problem solving in 2 short days.  We arrived on Thursday evening and picked up our SALTers Bethany and Annie on the way into town and went out to eat with them.  We also stopped by a bank to check our balance only to find that, as we feared, there was some problem with the transfers coming from the US and we were broke.

Much of the following morning was figuring out how to 'se debrouiller' ourselves out of this crisis as it meant that partners could not receive their grants and we would have a cash flow problem ourselves.  By Friday afternoon we had a better idea of what the problem was and how long it would take before money arrived, and we had several meetings with partners to assure them the delay in funding was temporary.

In the late afternoon we had an advisors meeting with several new members on our advisory council.  We felt good about the discussion, and were blessed to have Bethany come and help with childcare while we met with the advisors together.  The only small drawback was that in typical African fashion, our 4:30 pm meeting began about 6 pm due to the late arrival of some members.  Nonetheless, it was far from a waste of time and we enjoyed a good supper afterwards prepared at our guesthouse with the committee.  By the time dinner was over we were pretty exhausted by the time we went to bed having spent about 12 straight hours at work.

Rebecca filling out exit forms prior to our departure
from Kigali

Saturday morning was the planned time of our departure but did a squeeze in a couple of social calls before we left.  We met some missionaries from the Friends church, Dave and Debbie Thomas, who have been working here for nearly 15 years and had a very interesting exchange with them about their work, and reorientation toward a more a holistic Gospel which touches every part of life, material, spiritual, ecological, economic, relational.  It is very much in line with the transformational development work we are trying to do at MCC.

We left them about 9 and went to the bagel shop on the Friends Church compound to meet a friend of Rebecca's from Seminary (Christine) who she randomly met while shopping on Thursday.  She has been working in Rwanda the past 2 years.  They had a nice visit and made plans to meet again.

We left by 10 am to try to get back in Bujumbura by 3:00 to make a church social that was happening that day as a kind of farewell to some of the ex. pats. that are leaving this year.  On the way back there was time to reflect on our time in Rwanda and the issues we are facing there.

One thing that is weighing heavily on us is the intensification of the conflict and combat in Eastern Congo.  In the past 2 years, we have been feeling some optimism that the region has become more stable, but with the desertion of some of the Congolese army to join other rebels, the situation has exploded again and 10s of thousands of refugees are pouring into Rwanda.

Our partners who work in the North near the border (near Goma) have reported that churches in that area are overwhelmed and are asking for emergency material aid.  They wanted to know if MCC could get involved.  This is a hard question for us as this kind of disaster management is in our mandate, but we are not necessarily well equiped to do it.

It is likely that I will go back up to Rwanda later this week or early next week to visit the refugee camps with partners and the some local churches near Gasenyi (northern Rwanda) to see if there is an appropriate intervention for us.  It will be a lot of extra work and will take some thoughtful planning to see what we can do that is appropriate for our capacity.

We did get back to Bujumbura about 3pm.  Just on time for the church event, and instead of going home, we went directly to it.  It was actually alot of fun for adults and kids, complete with requisite bouncy castle.  It was also a good opportunity to visit, share a great meal together, and build cohesion in our community.  There were also many games from soccer and kickball to frisbee.  We did say good bye to several friends including 'Melinda' Rebecca's English Sunday School counterpart.  We are counting on God to provide a replacement for her next year.

Before talking about Sunday, I should back up just a bit to the only other event of note this week on Wednesday.  I taught my last children's ballet class for the year in the afternoon and did a showing for the parents.  The little girls were really into it and all had their best tutus on.  They demonstrated some exercises at the barre as well as several dances that showed the vocabulary they are learning.   I think the parents enjoyed it and I am amazed to realize that this is the end of the third year that I have been teaching these kids.  Some of them have taken from me for all  3 years.

I have been and will continue to teach the adults in the evening.  I have been a bit unorthodox by ending the class with a modern combination that we have been building on weekly.  It is actually pretty cool and when it is done I will post a video.  One intersting surprise was a young Burundian hip-hop dancer named 'Elvis' who showed up to take the class and seemed to like it.  We will see if he continues to stick with it in the months ahead.


So back to Sunday.  There was nothing remarkable about the routine except that we did stop by and see our South African friends Tim and Jeanette in the morning before church to pick up their car and wish them well on a 3 week evangelical Crusade they will be leading.  It is a huge undertaking and they hope to be bringing a theme of Reconcilliation to many thousands of people this month.

We proceeded to church where Emmanuel Ndikumana, the leader of the Theological School where our church is located was preaching.  He is a very powerful speaker and his sermon in preparation for communion was one of the best I have heard here.  He was using the text of I Corinthians 1:10-23.  And his discussion was about unity.

He made several very good points beginning by taking Burundian Christians and pastors to task over the kind of teacher or denominational jealousy Paul describes in the passage.  In fact, there is a lot of division in the churches over loyalty to one denomination over another and this is something that has been encouraged by pastors in the past.

From this he said that in fact we are in agreement all about 2 major things: we are saved by Christ alone, by faith alone.  The first part, he said certainly may be hard for many to accept, but the second point, by faith alone, he brought forth as a major challenge to Christians living in this context.

"How many here in the congregation are orphans as a result of the war?" He asked.  Many raised their hand in the congregation including Emanuel himself.  He pointed out that 'by faith alone' means that we are neither saved by our good works, nor condemned further by our bad works.  In effect the mass murderer and the Nobel peace prize winner stand equally condemned before the cross.  AND have equal access to grace.

I think many Christians in the west can accept this in principle but Emmanuel went on to challenge the congregation.  "Are you ready to accept the murderer of your family, into your Christian family when he is saved by faith alone?"  I realize how easy it is for me to accept this idea because I honestly don't live among my mortal enemies.

Emmanuel went on to admit.  "Sometimes when I go to the communion table I want to go with my eyes shut, or just squinting enough so I only see Christ.  Because when I look around and see who else is taking, I see, for example, this man C_______, who is very blessed, and wealthy, and I know who he is when I look at him, and I wonder how he got that wealth.  Then I think of many other things, and I don't want to go the table."  (Emmanuel was making an obvious reference to the fact that C______ was in the other ethnic group which had oppressed his ethnic group for many years and killed his father during the war.---I am deliberately not being more specific.)

But he went on to say:  "But in truth I do really want to be able go up with my eyes open and today I am doing that, can you go up with your eyes open as well?"  He invited those who did not feel they could to stand up so they could pray together.

For me, that day, I had a whole new understanding of communion.  I realize that I have generally seen it as a private moment with me and Jesus, being strengthened, renewed by the reminder that he is inside of me and that I belong to him.  To see communion as an event of unity and brotherhood with everyone else who is taking it is a different perspective and a more challenging one.  Even in churches in the US I know that there can be enmity and hostility between individual Christians in the same congregation.  To see this ritual as a reminder that we are one family and should be in unity and love with each other as one body of Christ is a very humbling experience.  And when one imagines that here where Christians of different ethnic groups killed each other, this becomes an almost impossible, but essential truth.

I was grateful for the challenge Emmanuel put before us and I have had a real sense of closeness with this congregation as we continue to grow in love for each other.

After church we took the kids to the pool for a swim and got home in plenty of time for our small group.  There we continued to reflect on the challenge Emmanuel put before us.  More opportunity for cross cultural reflection on this.

The kids pretty much fell asleep on their own Sunday night, tired from the days of travel before and the afternoon at the pool.  Looking forward to at least one full week in town.