A Jolt Back to the Other Reality

Burial site of the Reverend Pastor Moise (Moses) Bigirimana (1963-2012)

I usually begin a blog entry 'in the moment', to put my state of mind into perspective as I reflect back over the past week. I fear today I have really let much go by in an albeit short span of time. We are, to begin, back in Bujumbura. It is about 10pm on our 3^rd night back (we arrived Wednesday night). It has been a long day for me, primarily because I found it important to attend a funeral that was held upcountry in the town of Kibimba. The deceased was very sadly the recently elected Legal Representative of the Evangelical Friends Church, The Reverend Moise Bigirimana. He was only 49 and one of the precious few PhDs in Burundi. Besides his work at the church he was also a Sociology Professor at Hope Africa University. It is a great loss for the church as he was a promising leader and the transfer of power to install him was tense.  The church is in a somewhat vulnerable state again with this loss. Since he had his office across the hall from us we saw him frequently. His death was unexpected as he was killed on a motorcycle enroute to an upcountry parish. He leaves behind a wife and 3 children, one was born just last week. The prematurity of his departure was further higlighted for me by the fact that the service and burial were held at the exact place of his inauguration just 4 months ago. (My blog about it here.)

It is a hard thing to come back to. MCC is under the auspices of the Friends Church and changes in leadership are a bit unnerving for us. But even more, it was a real jolt out of the honeymoon vacation in the US and back to the reality here where death comes unexpectedly most often and culls the young as quickly as the old. In the month of our departure this is actually the third tragedy. One of our Rwanda advisors lost his wife (under 50), a Ugandan MCC colleague lost his 2 year old daughter, and then Moise died this week. It is quite possible that all of these deaths could have been prevented if they had access to a health care system as advanced as ours. (All died in a hospital). I used to be outraged about this, but now I feel something like resignation. Death is accepted here as an unexpected visitor, life is seen as a gift, and the assurance of Resurrection into Eternal Life is a hope one clings to daily.

Birthday cake at Dulles

We really did enjoy our month off, and I even did feel some tinge of regret at the end of our vacation as we drove to Dulles airport, but now that I am here, I am ready to be back. Going to the funeral was more of a reminder about reality here rather than a bad omen in my view.

I last posted almost 2 weeks ago on our summer break so I will try to bring you up to date. I will say that the vacation was about as perfectly choreographed as one could make it with a very dense schedule of relational time, renewal, and travel, but it really did go off without a hitch. I left off in the last blog in Poughkeepsie. Although it was too short to see all of our friends (sorry Vassar crew) we did enjoy spending several days at Bob and Frances Thompson-Gee's house and connecting with friends. We were able to see our small group on our arrival, but then went to the Poughkeepsie Farm Project (one of our old haunts) on Saturday with Don and Rosaura. We had lunch with them then dinner with Courtney and Anthony Caremeko and their two boys Asa and Alexander. Oren was thrilled to see his buddy Asa again, and I really think he has remembered him even after all of these years.

We were blessed to be able to share the message on Sunday morning at the Poughkeepsie UMC where Rebecca had been a youth pastor. We used the passage at the end of Acts 14 where Paul and Barnabus come back to their sending community as take off point to talk about our work in Burundi the past 4 years. This is a group that really knows and loves us and we appreciated sharing in both services as well as 2 fellowship. For us, one of the mos exciting things to see was just how missional this church has become. We have characterized it as our Antioch. They run many mission trips at home and abroad each year. They have an ongoing relationship with a church in Mexico as well as a regular community service mission trip right in their county (Bridge Builders). Many of their youth have gone off to the mission field in one way or another during and after college as well. It was a great joy to fellowship with them and share our experiences here.

After church we had lunch with our friend Heidi, husband Mike and her sons Taylor and Ryan. (Older pals of Oren's as well.) Oren loved going back to his old haunts and both kids were thrilled with all the different new toys everyone had.

We left Sunday afternoon to return to Baltimore and got there pretty late at night. We did stop at a favorite McDonalds playland that Oren used to love to visit on our trips. We arrived at my parents house and crashed until the next day.

We were down to our last week so we did have to do some shopping on Monday while parents watched the kids. We also were able to do some exercising. I did get to take my long run around Loch Raven several times in the last week. It is something I love to do (about 13 miles) and I have used it often as a way to connect to God. Especially as a preparation. (I ran it on my wedding day, before we left for Burundi many times, etc.) I am thankful that I am not too old yet to do this.

Tuesday we took a trip to Washington DC. The kids loved this because we rode down in the MARC commuter train (which is a double decker train). Then took the Metro to the Smithsonian. They love the museum of Natural History (as I did as a child) and we walked around it most of the day. Oren who really fancies himself to be a paleontologist loved the dinosaur exhibit while David adored the insect zoo and returned to it two times just to have a chance to hold the Madagascar hissing cockroach. (3 inches long.)

We spent time with Rebecca's brother and sister in law on Wednesday, it was great to hang out with them and Oren and David love their cousins Miriam and Gabriel. They played wiffleball and watched movies. The adults talked and we had an excellent grilled salmon for dinner.

Thursday was met with great anticipation because Rebeca and I had scheduled a couple retreat at Charter Hall for 3 days. We arrived on Thursday evening. The kids were divided up, Oren went to his Grandma Jean and Papa Dave's house while David stayed with my parents. Rebecca and I enjoyed perfect days of canoeing, hiking, and relaxing, completely alone. It was a very refreshing break from the kids. They on the other hand had fun going and seeing a reptile exhibit at a library, picking rasberries at a farm, going to playgrounds with cousins and generally having a great time with the Grand parents.

We returned Saturday night, fortunately prepared to preach at my parent's church on Sunday. Valley Baptist is a church my family has been part of for most of 25 years and it is always good to visit. I was invited to preach and was able to share some thoughts on God as a God of the future through the scripture of the Valley of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37. Using testimony of challenge and hope in Burundi I hope I was able to provide an opportunity for reflection on how God calls us even here to share in his vision of optimism for the future, that the best is prepared for the next generation, and not to let ourselves become a bunch of cynical old codgers lamenting the loss of the 'good old days'.

It was good to catch up with these folks as well, and we were happy to have visited and shared at our 3 favorite churches in the last 3 weeks of our stay. We ended the evening by providing a dinner for our parents while Paul and Gwndolyn watched our kids. It was good to be able to thank them again for their prayers and support. (and for living so long and being there for the grandkids!)

Monday was definitely a day of preparation for departure and was spent packing and doing last minute shopping. The kids and Rebecca did go with their cousins, Aunt Gwendolyn and Grandma Jean to the zoo though, which they loved. We had our last dinner at my parents house, salmon once again with asparagus which was just what we wanted (neither are available here in Burundi).

Tuesday morning we let the kids have their last bike rides in the streets of suburbia then loaded a minivan to go to Dulles airport. Dave and Jean drove us and with 8 bags were were really loaded down. Fortunately the check-in at Dulles was fairly painless and we had some time to eat some Birthday cake with Grandma Jean before heading through security to our gate.

We anticipated meeting our new SALT volunteers there and with a little discernment were able to pick out 3 young women hanging-out in a group looking excited. They are Janelle, Alyssa, and Teri-Lynn. I will say more about them during the year, but they seem like an excellent trio.

The flight was fine except for David who decided to throw a tantrum on the first leg about just about everything. We were relieved to get him to sleep but because of a tailwind we got to Brussels in just over 6 hours, so the night's sleep was not nearly enough. We spent several stuporous hours in the Brussels airport before boarding our Burundi flight.

We did see several others we knew returning on this flight, most notably Simon Guillbaud and family. He has been out of the country for 2 years so it is exciting to see him again. His kids will be at the Ecole Belge with ours.

Jennifer and Yolanda with SALTers
Alyssa, Terri-Lynn and Janelle
in our living room.

We arrived Wednesday evening and were picked up by Felix with two cars (for all or our luggage.) We did have a scare that one of our bags had not arrived but after filing a report it did show up just as the last car was leaving. We were really happy we did not have to deal with chasing it down on another day.

Orientation began in earnest on Thursday. We were happy to find the house in good order and all of our staff well. David was thrilled to be back to see his dogs. Oren was somewhat morose. He really loves to be in America and coming back is hardest on him.

This brings me back to today. We had received the news of Moise's death enroute to Burundi. Despite our exhaustion and work ahead we knew it was important to show solidarity at this time.

Next week we head upcountry and to Rwanda to drop off our volunteers. Pray that our refreshment from the vacation can carry us through the exhaustion of setting up our service workers in new homes.

NO proofing tonight, will try to fix typos another day.  There were just too many photos to add them all, for more photos of the past 2 weeks click here. (homeleave etc.)