Who Knows... The Kairos Moment

Father Emmanuel Katongole of the Duke Center for Reconcilliation talking to Maggie, founder of Maison-Shalom.


“Who knows, but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this.”

This was the challenge put before a gathering of Christian leaders who met in Bujumbura this past week. They came from all over the great lakes region (Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo) as well as Sudan, Nigeria, Ivory Coast as well as other places in Africa. The person who put the challenge before them was Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest from Uganda who is a Professor at Duke University and heads the Duke Center for Reconcilliation.

He was quoting Mordecai in his charge to Queen Ester (Ester 4:14) The jews are exiled in Babylon, and basically through a beauty contest, she, a jewish woman, becomes wife of the King of Persia. She does not have much power, but some influence over the King in her position. She is afraid to use it even to try to dissuade the King from remanding an edict to have all the jews in Persia slaughtered.

Mordecai, a jewish man who works as a gatekeeper at the palace challenges her by reminding her: “Do you think that because you are at the kings house you alone of all the jews will escape? If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the jews will arise from another place, but you and your family will perish.”

Father Emmanuel Katongole’s theme for this conference was Kairos. The Greek word for the fullness of time. He was talking about a Kairos moment in Queen Ester’s life, that required of her a decision to act, or to let it pass. “Who knows, but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this.” Ester did take the challenge, and despite her very weak position before the King, sought an audience with him at the risk of her own life. Her response to Mordecai was: “I will go to the King, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

I was very impressed with the conference and the challenge it was putting before African church leaders and NGO leaders who do have some influence in their countries. There were bishops from many of these countries from the Anglican, Catholic, and United Methodist churches, as well as representatives from most other denominations. There were leaders from NGOs like World Vision, World Relief, ALARM, MCC, as well as others. Emmanuel invited us all to consider the time in which we live and the influence we have, to act to bring on behalf of peace and justice in the region. He challenged us to consider the Kairos moment that may be upon us and asked if we were willing to act in faithfulness and obedience, even if we perish! This is a bold call, especially as at least 4 of the African countries involved face elections this year.

Throughout the 3 days we considered several aspects of the story and roles we might play in our own stories:
Ester- A woman, who came from humble beginnings, chosen for her beauty to become king at a time when woman were particularly oppressed by men. ( see the edict against women in Ester 1:19) She appears to be fairly compliant and not a very likely heroine.

Mordecai- An assistant gate keeper at the palace. A position that is not very near, nor very far from the seat of power. He knows what is going on in the country (including the edict to kill all jews) and is powerless to stop it, but in a position to advise Queen Ester.

Time- We were invited to consider the times we are living in now in our own current situation. Is there a Kairos moment ahead coming for us?

I have to say, I was very impressed with Father Katongole and the Duke Center’s capacity to bring together a gathering of so many influential church leaders, especially across the Catholic/Protestant spectrum. (In many countries around here Catholics and Protestants are quite deeply divided and there is little common work between them.)

The conference met from Tuesday-Friday, although Rebecca was part of the pregathering planning committee that met for the weekend prior. We participated in the event as best we could as we had some logistical responsibilities, often bringing David along, or leaving Oren with our SALTer Robyn who offered to do babysitting duty.

It was good during the days to struggle with the invitees over these questions and what is required of us. I was personally very challenged by the call to live out my faith even to the point of giving my life. In my own country I had not encountered any life and death struggles with my being a Christian. I might face ridicule, but here, there are real possibilities of making enemies, or taking a stand for which one might actually be killed. I did not take this call to these leaders lightly, and I do not think they took it lightly either, especially since most of them have already passed through some horrific experience in the past losing friend, family, and colleagues during crises here from war to HIV.

We were offered opportunities to see some who have taken the call to Esther to heart. On Thursday we went on a field trip and saw Maison-Shalom, run by a catholic woman named Maggie. She is also a tutsi that has worked tirelessly for her Hutu neighbors, despite the fact that during the crisis, hutus killed 72 members of her family before her eyes, including all of her children. She does not mourn, but has responded with a spirit of God’s love that is frightening in its power to heal.

She started by taking in children, (hutu and tutsi) and began an orphanage, then a school, then a hospital. She has many enemies: Her tutsi family consider her to be a traitor, and her hutu community think she is a spy. But she has been fearless despite many attempts on her life.

It is so amazing to me to say how much the world really is threatened by Agape (the love of God.) I believe now that if you are really boldly doing God’s work, you will have enemies who will want to kill you, because true Agape challenges worldy spirits of injustice, hatred, and fear. These are powerful forces that will put up a fight to protect their territory. It was a harsh reminder to see just how offensive this woman of profound compassion and love has been in her deeply divided community. AND YET, the amazing, miraculous favor of God that has been on her in her work, protecting her life, and blessing the efforts she has made. Profoundly inspired, the 60 of us that made the bus tour to her fairly remote community in Eastern Burundi, returned to Bujumbura on time for dinner.

The conference ended Friday, which was a relief for us despite how inspiring it was. Since our out of town team (Jodi, and Ruth and Krystan) came down for the conference, we took the opportunity to have a team retreat over the weekend at our house. It was a chance to have Ruth and Krystan meet the new family (Ressler-Horsts). We had brunch together on Saturday morning, then had some worship time together. The theme for the weekend was a compliment to the conference in that it focused on what our lives should look like in ‘ordinary time’, that is the time between the Kairos moments. I used Psalm 131 as our theme psalm:

My heart is not proud O Lord,
My eyes are not haughty,
I do not concern myself with great matters,
With things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul,
Like a weaned child with its mother
Like a weaned child, is my soul within me.

We talked about developing spiritual disciplines to live in ordinary time, but prepared for the Kairos moment. I used the illustration of the rescue workers on 9/11 who ran into the building to rescue those inside. Their response was not just a spontaneous act of bravery, but something that they had been trained and prepared for. I talked about us, in order to respond in the Kairos time takes spiritual preparation in ordinary time, and much of our lives are spent in ordinary time. (I also gave the example of the 40 years in the wilderness spent by those who were waiting to enter the promised land.)

We challenged everyone to find a spiritual discipline that might help them be renewed spiritually and a way to prepare them to hear the call that God might put on them at any time. We agreed to be accountable to each other. Rebecca and I have been committed to fasting weekly, and have done so, from Friday dinner to Sunday dinner the past 3 weeks. This feels like an appropriate discipline in a place where we are so aware of hunger, of those who cannot make that choice. Everyone committed to do something in the coming year some more orthodox than others.

On Sunday, many of us went to the Anglican church together, then had brunch at Nathan and Lara’s house, followed by a day at the beach down south at one of the newly constructed resorts. It was a really fun day in an idyllic setting, as you can see by the photos. It is amazing to see our team so large. All said, we are about 17 counting spouses and children. We felt that the team retreat was a fitting end to an inspiring week, and helped to draw us nearer.


I want to close by sharing a prayer/poem that was a theme of both the conference and the team retreat. It was written for Archbishop Arthur Romero, who was a champion of justice for the poor in El Salvador. He was assassinated for his efforts and his willingness to use his position on behalf of them. It was a reminder of Esther’warning about a Kairos moment: “if I perish, I perish.” In order for us to be Christian leaders, we have to be willing to follow Jesus all the way to the cross. In order to do that, we have to believe, as Oscar Romero did that we are ‘Prophets of a Future not our Own.”

Prophets of a future not our own It helps now and then to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expreses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. That is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not Master Builders, ministers, not Messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.
- Bishop Ken Untener

A Normal Week Sans Mommy

I think after last week, I can safely say I do not have a lot more to add this week. Going back to our routine may not be as exciting to describe, but it is nice to get back into our patterns again, at least for the first half of the week.

Oren was back in school Monday morning, much to his delight I might add. He was glad to get together with his buddies and his teacher M. Christophe. Jal, (Nathan and Lara’s son) also started school this week, although he is 6, so not in Oren’s class, he is going to the same school. Although I only saw him briefly several times, he seemed to be doing OK with it.

We have also decided to add some extra remedial French tutoring sessions for Oren on Monday Wednesday and Friday afternoons from 3-5. These are offered at the school. This is primarily due to the fact that he really has not made any progress at learning French in the past year. He is atypical in this as other classmates who started out like him are all to the point where they speak it quite well. Oren has pretty much refused to speak. When Rebecca asked him why he did not speak French he told her he was scared that if he spoke French he would forget English.

Anyway his teacher is Mdm. Florid, one of the assistants in his class last year whom he really liked, so he actually does not object to going at all as he does seem to like to do things at his school.

Work has been heating up a bit as we have several deadlines for requesting new personnel for next year. (Primarily SALT volunteers.) We are trying to make some wise choices about this but have not been able to really crank out any job descriptions without meeting with some of our partners.

We also have a major conference next week that we are participating in. This is the Duke gathering, a conference that we participated in last year as well at this time of year. (It seems like a decade ago though.) Although we are not running the conference, we are being depended upon for many logistical matters, like booking hotels, getting people at the airport, etc. It is a lot of extra work for us this week and next.

As part of this event, there is a 3 day pre-gathering upcountry. It is at a place called Maison-Shalom, run by a most extraordinary woman. I have no doubt Rebecca will fill you in on this next week. Normally I am the one to go on these upcountry visits, as Rebecca needs to stay with the kids, particularly David because he is still breast feeding. This was to be the week of weaning though as Rebecca requested being the one to go on this trip. I did not object and was excited by the challenge of having sole responsibility for the boys from Saturday – Tuesday. All would have been well if David would not have started rasping and coughing on Thursday night and all day Friday. We took him to the doctor on Saturday morning before Rebecca left. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for respiratory infection. This of course meant that I was left now with one sick and one healthy child alone for the better part of 4 days and 3 nights.

It is now Monday morning and David is still under the weather. He had 2 wrestless nights, but at no time was he inconsolable. Ibuprofen kept the fever down and he was content to receive a bottle of milk from me when he was hungry. Oren has actually been on his best behavior as far as I am concerned, and seems to want to help me as much as possible. We were not able to go to church on Sunday as I did not think I could supervise Oren while tending to David in his current condition. Instead, we had Sunday School at home with a lesson about Joseph and his many colored coat. We sung quite a few Sunday School songs, prayed, and colored a picture as well.

Sunday afternoon Jodi stopped by to get some money. She was in town bringing a group of her batwa students to the ‘big city’ of Bujumbura to be fitted for eye glasses. She has discovered that most of the students have bad eye sight but no means of improving it. She has been raising money from friends to make a visit to the eye doctor with a large group of them twice per year. For many it is the first time they have ever been to a city like Bujumbura, or even in a vehicle for that matter. Jodi described the experience on the bus of at least 25 of them throwing up from car sickness on the way down. (Luckily she had the foresight from past experience to put plastic bags in the car for each of them.) It is a rough windy road if you are not used to riding in a vehicle.

An eye doctor appointment, and glasses costs about $8 altogether, so the trip with bus fare and fitting 25 of them with glasses is only a few hundred dollars. As part of the whole experience the bus driver took them down to Lake Tanganyika before they headed back upcountry. Most had never seen the Lake before and were overcome by awe at the sight of so much water. For them, despite the motion sickness, it was one of the most exciting days of their lives. (Here is a photo of some of them sporting their new glasses.)

Sunday evening Zachee and Bridget invited the SALTers, Jodi, me and the kids to their house for dinner. It was a very nice evening at their house with a great meal. We left late for a school night but before the start of the Africa Cup games which many around here seem to be getting excited about.

I am posting this a bit late on Monday morning because of internet connection problems. As a rejoinder to an earlier post about trying to get ASDSL, I was finally able to get a confidential explanation from a technician (who was a friend of Zachee’s) about why the wait has been interminably long even though we have paid for it. He told Zachee that our neighborhood’s lines are not capable of providing DSL at all and would probably not be changed anytime soon. As sad as it was, it was good to find out the truth instead of hearing, for 6 solid months, a customer service rep. (who knew the real reason) tell me “You should have it tomorrow or early next week.”

When I told this person that as a westerner I preferred an unpleasant truth to a lie that I wanted hear. She was genuinely surprised and her response to me was, “Well, I tell you maybe tomorrow or next week, so you can always have hope.” Her reasoning was quite surprising in that she said it with out a bit of guile.

...I wanted to say to her that as a Christian I did Hope and would not stop Hoping. I Hoped for God’s justice for orphans, widows and the prisoners in Burundi. I Hoped for a non-violent electoral process and an end to corruption. BUT I was not Hoping for DSL. I was not counting on God to provide me with DSL miraculously. I had chosen to make a contract with the phone company whom I had paid to provide the service.

But now, I am thinking that a reliable internet connection certainly will not happen for us without divine intervention. …I guess we can always hope.

A Village Live-In and Prison Visit to Round Off the Year

David and Oren sharing some hot water in a tub on a chilly morning during our village live-in.




One thing that we have always regretted missing during our first weeks of orientation to Burundi was a ‘village live-in”. This is an experience of rural life in the country where one is working, usually done at the beginning of an assignment, to give the MCC service worker a sense of what life for the local population is really like.

When we arrived, the turn-over time was so short that we did not really get to experience this ourselves. I had talked to Cassien (director of Help Channel) several weeks ago, and he proposed that we come to his village over the Christmas break, and stay at his family home. We decided to take him up on the offer. (As an aside, Cassien had made a trip to the US in October and had actually stayed briefly with Rebecca’s parents.) I think he was pleased to be able to return the favor.

On Monday morning we all piled into Cassien’ Landcruiser—with his wife Beatrice and 3 nieces, the 4 of us, and a huge pile of luggage and food—and headed up the mountains by the southern route. Cassien’s village is located just past the province of Bururi sort of near a town called Makamba. (It is also very close to the Burundi Source du Nil—a small spring, claimed to be the southern-most source of the Nile river.)

The village was not unlike others in Burundi, although being in the less populated south meant that it did not seem nearly as crowded with people. Cassien’s house, though, was a bit of a surprise. Somehow I was expecting a mud hut or grass hut with a dirt floor, filled with relatives of his extended family. What I found was a well-staffed uninhabited modern house, complete with solar power, a lawn, and an enclosed cloture with plenty of parking. It was a bit of an anomaly in the village in that it was the only modern house I saw there.

The house was attached to a stable where Cassien had cows, sheep, goats, and chickens. He also had a fairly large staff of workers who care for the farm and livestock while he is away. Cassien showed us around the area, pointing out a stand of tall old trees which his father had planted many years ago as an agricultural investment. Just down the road, Cassien had personally bought property and planted trees himself; he was eager to see how they were doing. We began to understand how Cassien came up with the concept of a food-for-work reforestation project, which MCC supports.

-- Paul just fell asleep, so I’m taking over at this point… (Rebecca)
Our children were entranced by the livestock. David learned how to moo like a cow as a signal that he wanted another visit to the barn. Oren was fascinated to see a cow being milked for the first time in his life – by hand! I was pretty impressed myself.by the high pressure of the extracted milk. And Oren just loved drinking the fresh, recently boiled cow’s milk (very different from powdered milk or long-life that we usually drink). That was about all he ate while we were there. Oren really wanted to talk to the cows and tell them thank you, but Cassien advised him that “If you want to talk with a cow, you should bring a stick.” (This is actually a kirundi proverb that I think is meant to refer to dealing with stubborn people.

In the evening, it got quite chilly, so we enjoyed sitting in Cassien’s living room around the fireplace, drinking huge cups of tea and having a typical Burundian supper of rice, green peas, and potatoes. Beatrice and Cassien love to sing and it was lovely to sing old favorite hymns like “My Jesus I love thee” and “Angels we have heard on high.” with the Kirundi words.

On Tuesday morning it stopped raining so we investigated Cassien’s vegetable farm, teaming with eggplants, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, beans, sweet potatoes and a few things I couldn’t identify. Oren love climbing up the mountain and looking around at the incredible view. We could see all the way over to a large rocky mountain that stretched southward, and we found out that a group of 200 chimpanzees lived in the valleys on the top of that government land. (We were shocked to hear that Burundi has any wildlife left at all.) Apparently, these chimps have been raiding people’s farms and destroying crops. The farmers know it’s illegal to kill a chimpanzee, but they don’t know what to do. A community-based wildlife conservation or tourism plan is desperately needed here to resolve this human-chimpanzee land conflict, protect the monkeys, and give some benefit to the local people. (If anyone reading this has connections to organizations who do this, we would be interested in hearing about it.)

Later in the morning, we drove about 90 minutes to a more and more remote section of central Burundi to see the Karera Waterfalls. They were truly spectacular and worth the drive. We were able to hike down alongside all three sets of waterfalls, in the company of several armed soldiers and a park guide of sorts. There is actually a protected forest surrounding the falls; the lush vegetation and variety of trees and shrubs was in stark contrast to the eucalyptus forests we usually see. I was fascinated to imagine what much of Burundi would have looked like, 100 years ago. The rainy day subsided to a drizzle for the whole of our walking visit to the falls, and then it started pouring again. On the way back to Cassien’s home, we stopped for lunch at a local hotel. What succulent, tender beef and mutton they have up-country. It was the most touristic day we had in Burundi, not so much of a village live-in, but Cassien and Beatrice confessed that they hardly ever just take the time to rest and enjoy their country and forget about their responsibilities. It was good to imagine that we gave them an excuse for a little break.

On Wednesday, before we hit the road for home, we stopped at a natural hot springs 10 minutes from Cassien’s village. We were just going to peek at it, but before we could stop him, Oren had stripped down completely and was ready to get in the pool. Fortunately, it wasn’t very deep, so we let him swim around for a few minutes. We pray the temperatures killed off any bilharzias (That is a disease for those of you who don't know about parasitic snails in African lakes). It was much harder to get him out.of the pool; one of young Burundians bathing there had to help us out and carry him to shore.

We returned home on a different road, taking us down through the most impressively steep pass I have seen in Burundi. People there truly live a vertical life. It was dizzying just to imagine how women farm some of the steep plots we drove past. We ended up back along the coast of Lac Tanganyika and stopped for lunch at a beach restaurant that will soon open as a resort to rival the hotels in Mombasa, Kenya. It was a truly wonderful trip, spent with wonderful generous friends, and a great way to see rural southern Burundi. Oren also told me that it was his favorite part of the whole Christmas vacation. (Vacation in Burundi anyone? We would love to be your tour guides!)

Paul continuing again…
We returned on Wednesday evening Jan 30th. On Thursday morning I got a call from Zenon, the pastor I have done some prison ministry with. He told me that several of them had obtained permission to go into the prison and asked if I wanted to go and give a message that afternoon. I said I would.

Because of my past experience in prison ministry in New York, this is something I have wanted to continue here. I have had one previous opportunity to go in several months ago. Since then, we have tried several times and been turned away because of problems in the prison. (We have received regular reports in the newspaper about riots in this prison that have had to be put down by the army.) Recently, the rioting got so bad, that some prisoners actually set fire to the main entrance and burned the director’s office as well as the offices that housed all of the prison records on the prisoners themselves regarding their sentences. This is really quite terrible in a place that is completely non-computerized. The hard copies in that place to some extent may be the only record of the sentences and amount of time served in that place.

Sadly, our house is close enough to the prison that I have been able to hear the volleys of gunshots from the army at the gates of the prison many times in the last month. Having been in there before, I cannot imagine the hell of that place getting worse. There are about 6000 men, women and children crammed into a place that is really only big enough for about 2000. It is truly an appalling place. (I should add also that unlike prisons in the US, there is little or no food service provided. Prisoners depend on families and friends to supply them with rice, or maniac and beans AND even charcoal so they can cook on it.—many inside are starving.)

I met the team around lunch that day that we were going in with. I had taken a sermon from Phillipians I had offered at Coxsackie prison in the past, since I had not had time to prepare something new. Our team prayed together for an hour before entering--for permission to enter to not be remanded, among other things. While we prayed I talked to Zenon about the many children and young people I had seen in there before. He told me that some boys have been in there for 8 to 9 years for stealing a cell phone when they were as young as 8. The problem, he said, is that many do not understand the system, so have not presented themselves before the prison magistrate to be considered for release. They have served well beyond their sentence, but do not know the process to get out. (Apparently once you are in, you are forgotten by the bureaucracy, no one is looking out for your well being if you are not.)

We did get in after a long wait at the main gate. To my surprise, we were not taken to the chapel, but led to a wing deep in the bowels of the prison. By the noise I heard coming from the inside, I could tell it was full of women. Sure enough, it was the women’s dorm area. We were taken to a smallish room in the back where about 100 women were led in. Most all of them had children with them, so that when we were all in it felt more like some kind of training at a health clinic than a prison. I can’t tell you how emotionally appalling it is to see these women locked up with their young children. I don’t know what crimes the women are guilty of, but I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a child locked up for years with my mother.

From talking to Bridget and Zachee about orphanages around here though, these children are actually far better off in the care of their mothers than being put into an orphanage where there may be 60 or more babies to 3 year olds in a tiny room, 3 to a bed, under the care of one or maybe two people, often badly malnourished, and worse, starving for affection and a human touch from an adult.

Despite the pain that the scene in the room caused me, I did take the time to go around and greet every woman and child in the room, and look them in the eyes and try to see Christ in them. It was good to begin this way for me so I could see more clearly their humanity. One practical problem I realized I had. I had not been told we would be talking to women, and my sermon was quite frankly, oriented toward men. During the opening prayer given by Zenon I considered whether to go ahead and give the sermon I had prepared or to change and improvise a sermon that would speak more to women.

I am eternally indebted to the experience and training provided by the KAIROS prison ministry in New York for helping me in these situations. I can’t even count the number of times that things had to be radically readjusted midstream in a visit there. I have really learned to trust the Holy Spirit then.

When it was my turn, I am happy to say that my Kirundi is getting good enough that I can introduce myself and even talk a bit. I told them that I was a father with a wife and two young children. (names and ages.) Then I opened the Bible to John 4 and preached a sermon on the Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. (I did not read or preach in Kirundi.) It was completely improvised but I felt very led by the spirit.

At the end of the sermon many women came up for prayer and healing and several to make a confession of faith. We laid hands on them and prayed, before leaving.

I felt like our time in the place was short, and we did not have any control over the time of the visit. I was grateful though, that we had been able to get in, and I am hoping that there will be other opportunities in the near future. One thing this is doing is opening my eyes to the need for justice in this system. The judiciary here is corrupt, and the process to get a hearing is extremely slow. Many people are locked up who are not guilty of anything but being accused by a false witness, from what I understand. Even those who are guilty, though, are in an nearly inhuman situation. Thinking back to my experiences in the US, I never thought I would say that the Coxsackie Correctional Facility in New York, looks like a 4 star hotel compared to this place.

Thursday evening was New Year’s Eve. We had some friends over for dinner, (Tim and Jeanette, a missionary couple from South Africa) We prayed for the new year after we ate, but then turned in early, after we got the kids to bed. From the noise outside, I would say that the rest of Bujumbura was partying all night.

When I talked to others about what they had done, I found that most Christians go to an all night church vigil where they sing, pray and listen to sermons from about 8pm to 6am. Many non religious people go to bar all night for about the same amount of time. So apparently at 6 am on New Years Day, the streets are packed with large groups of very drunk, and very sober people making their way home in the morning.

We had a relaxing weekend, trying to spend quality time with the kids. We did some fun crafts with Oren from a book that we got for Christmas of things to do. Among our activities was to make puppets. There were many varieties including a ‘chin puppet’. You put eyes and a nose on your chin then hang off a bed to make a very funny little talking face. David found this very strange to see the tiny face on mommy talking to him. But both kids were amused.

I think we are now prepared this morning for the tidal wave of work that awaits us today. Oren goes back to school as well. Happy New Year Everyone!

Christmas in Bujumbura

The traditional Christmas morning family photo taken of us by Jodi.




I feel like we passed an important landmark in our time here in Burundi. This was our first Christmas here! We have been here a year and a half now, but last year we spent Christmas in the US after the birth of David, and returned here just after New Years Day. So what is it like? --you may wonder.

That is a bit of a challenge to answer as there are some similarities, but I cannot say whether that adds to or subtracts from the strangeness of it all. Burundi is a Christian (mainly Catholic) country, so there is a recognition of the season--Advent preparations, etc. Burundi has also borrowed many European traditions including the arrival of St. Nicolas and Christmas trees in many homes in Bujumbura. In shops one can find a Christmas tree on display, and on the street corners men hawk decorated plastic Chinese Christmas trees that they carry around over their heads. (Real pine trees are illegal to cut in Burundi because of problems of over-harvesting them in past years.)

There is about all of these preparations though, the evidence of poverty. The scrawny artificial trees on the street are mainly decorated with pieces of colored foil, and the offerings in stores do not differ from any other time of year. Then there is the heat. I am realizing how so many of our Christmas carols (like The Holly and the Ivy, Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, even Silent Night) imply a coldness about this time of year, and though I played carols frequently throughout the last week, it just felt anachronistic, like I was having Christmas in the middle of summer.

This is not to say we did not have a really nice Christmas, but it was certainly different in the way it felt. I have often lamented the extreme commercialism and ever lengthening shopping season that precedes it, but a completely non-consumerist Christmas left much to be desired as well.

One thing I will say, is that things did not slow down work-wise quite as much as I had anticipated. It seems that people were working most everyday right up until Christmas eve, and even Christmas Day from what I could see.

On Monday, we had planned to take a much needed day off and it began well enough when we took Oren to his swimming lesson and had a swim ourselves. I had to do some business in town with Nathan, then had language lessons in the afternoon. Tuesday was another work day as well primarily taken up by bill paying.

I will remind you all that paying a bill in Bujumbura involves going to each company and paying a cashier. There is no online banking, or even mailing a check with a statement. So withdrawing cash, then paying the electric bill, phone bill, garbage collection, post box bill will take most of the day. We also were making fairly regular trips to the Immigration office this week to get new visas for the SALTers before they left for a week’s vacation in Tanzania. This is always a stressful process and the complete disorder of the immigration office does not inspire confidence that passports will be processed on time, or even found at all, once they are surrendered to the immigration officials, who always seem extremely put-out by even the most normal requests and inquiries.

Wednesday was a bit better. There was less to do as far as work and I had the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping. This was really the first occasion, and since we were having an MCC staff Christmas party that evening where we had selected Secret Santas, I was not shopping a moment too soon.

The party was a really nice gathering that evening and was probably the most Christmas-y feeling event of the week. We had decorated the house with the meager supply of Christmas paraphernalia we had on hand. One item worthy of note was a gingerbread house made from a kit. This was brought out by my parents when they were here several weeks ago. It has become a tradition for Oren to build one and we had assembled it Tuesday night.

One thing I will say is that gingerbread houses are meant for a dry winter climate. After building it Tuesday night, we found, on Wednesday morning, that the carefully decorated candy-covered roof, had melted and poured down the sides of the house because of the humidity. After that we stored the house in the freezer until the dinner party on Wednesday. It made a very nice centerpiece for our dinning room table that night.

Oren is someone who loves to build a gingerbread house as well as eat it. It took a lot of convincing, to get him to save it for at least 24 hours. (He was ready to eat it after it was built Tuesday night, and then begged to have it for breakfast on Wednesday morning.) Normally I would have wanted it saved longer, but because of the melting problem we did take it apart and eat it for dessert on Wednesday during the party.

I think it was great for the SALTers, the Ressler-Horsts, and Jodi to have a team Christmas gathering. (Jodi had come down that day as well to spend Christmas break in Bujumbura.) It was the first opportunity for Nathan and Lara to meet her. We had a fun evening singing Christmas carols, eating, chatting, then opening our Secret Santa presents. The kids had a lot of fun playing together around the Christmas tree as well.

Thursday, Christmas eve day, began with a bit of work. I had to go over and meet a landlord to sign a contract for a house that the Nathan and Lara found to live in! We are all breathing a sigh of relief that they have a place to live now, although they will move in after the New Year.

Oren and Rebecca also worked on making some batches of cinnamon rolls to give away as gifts (another Sack family tradition.) Oren loves to cook, especially baked goods so really enjoyed helping mommy do this. Later that evening we our family went with Bridget, Zachee, Tim and Jodi to a ‘Lessons and Carols’ service at the Anglican Cathedral in town. We then had dinner together at Khana Kazana afterwards. Maybe this will become a family tradition here—Indian food on Christmas eve.

Friday morning, most everyone slept in because of the late night out on Thursday. Oren was excited when he did get up though and it was hard to convince him not to open all his gifts before Mommy and Jodi woke up. He was thrilled to find a stocking full of candy canes and chocolate on the wall. We had also set up his little wooden train set around the Christmas tree to his delight. (He does not consider any Christmas tree complete without a train going around it.)

He and David got some very nice gifts, coloring books, a push toy, and a large snake shaped pillow that he had admired when he saw one that was owned by Jal (Nathan and Lara’s son.) (This was a locally made handicraft that Rebecca was able to find on one of her shopping trips.) David did not really understand what was going on, but he did like to play with the various and sundry things that were opened, especially things that belonged to Oren.

We spent the rest of Christmas day relaxing around the house until about 4 in the afternoon. We had been invited to an American Christmas party hosted by one of our American friends who had a classmate in Oren’s school. There were about 30 of us gathered, many from the embassy. The family had rented a bouncy castle for the backyard and there were about 15 kids present. The kids enjoyed playing together while the adults chatted on the terrace. We remarked this was probably just about every American in Burundi. Someone observed that while many Europeans went home for Christmas, most American had stayed as it is considerably further to get back to the US from here for what is quite a short break as far as school and work.

The party was enjoyable, Astrid and Travis’ family was among the invited guests as well as the Ressler-Horsts. This was not, however, a gathering a missionaries in general. Among the offerings that evening was turkey and cranberry sauce provided through a service to the American embassy which had them shipped from South Africa.

We had another relaxing day on Saturday, although much of it was spent by me preparing calendars for our extended family featuring pictures of all of us over the year. This has become a tradition in our family for me to make this. Fortunately our parents had DHLed a dvd of photos of everyone else to us, because I did not have pictures of everyone here as we have seen each other much less this year. Rebecca was working on a sermon as she was invited to preach on Sunday at our church. We did go to the park in the afternoon for a bit of a break during the day, though.

It was really good to hear Rebecca preach on Sunday. This is the first invitation she has had to do so at our church. She gave a powerful speech about peace-making based on the text in Luke about the Angel coming to the Shepherds and announcing the birth. The passage was a reminder of God’s restraint in his choice to bring us ‘peace on earth’ through the birth of a baby, rather than enforcing it with his army of angels. She pointed out that it would seem that for God, the ‘means’ to peace are as important as the ‘ends’ itself, and that ‘peace through strength’ will never succeed in accomplishing its end. True peace-making requires us to follow the example of Christ, even to the cross. “Many people have willingly sacrificed themselves in a ‘just war’ but until we are willing to lay down our lives for a ‘just peace’ we will not experience God’s shalom.” (to paraphrase one of her points.) I will see if she can post a transcript of the sermon next week.

The sermon was very well received here, as there is really not much preaching that introduces Anabaptist peace theology here. In fact, most every sermon I hear ends at the gospel message, the evangelical call to accept Christ as our savior, but never seems to go beyond that. Consequently, I fear that many Christians here are not very spiritually mature. There is a great challenge here to provide teaching to Christians about what it means to follow Christ as a disciple, AFTER one has accepted the call.

We went to the beach Sunday afternoon then had dinner with the Ressler-Horsts at the house where they are housesitting.

It is now Monday morning and we are getting ready for a ‘village live-in’. That is we are going up to Cassien’s village upcountry as a family to spend 3 days there. I will let you know how that goes next week. Wish us luck!

A Muddy Visite Sur Terraine and Reflections on Peacemaking

David is now a toddler, and also very keen on helping with the housework whenever possible.



I hope this will be the last entry for a week or so which begins by noting what a busy week it was and how difficult it is to begin writing. The truth is, I fell into bed, completely exhausted while putting David down about 8pm. But now it is 2AM and I am wide awake.

I am happy to say that Sunday was a good day of rest for us. We did go to our church in the morning where I was the worship facilitator, followed directly by a trip to the beach. The afternoon we went to the English fellowship and sung many Christmas carols during worship time. It still does not feel anything like Christmas in terms of weather, but I am beginning to get into the Christmas spirit.

The past week’s busyness was mainly due to the visit from our regional director Mark Sprunger. He arrived this past Sunday, (the same day we were returning from Rwanda) and stayed until Friday evening this week. We had a lot of opportunity to talk to him about our programming and the challenge of keeping continuity in another year of diminished giving at home which necessitates deeper cuts in our budget here. (MCC giving is off about 12% this year.) He did have some good advice and made some helpful suggestions about strategic planning in the year ahead.

The bigger part of his visit though, was spent meeting our partners. On Monday, I took him to meet Onesphore of Moisson Pour Christ, before my language lesson. Then we had a big MCC team gathering for dinner at our house for all of us located in Burundi. This included the SALTers the Ressler Horsts, Zachee and Tim (Bridget was in Sudan), and us. We had a nice evening and even drew names for a secret Santa party later this week.

Tuesday morning was the start of a 3 day roadtrip. Because of Oren’s school, we decided that I would take Mark around and Rebecca would stay home with the children. We began early in the morning by heading south. We went in a convoy of 2 cars led by Cassien and another person from Help Channel. Besides Mark and I, Nathan and his family were going as well. The plan was to see some tree nurseries in Makamba, near the border of Tanzania, then some other nurseries and plantation in Rutana. We would stay the night in Rutana.

Help Channel, many of you may remember, runs a Food for Work program in which beneficiaries plant trees as part of a reforestation project in exchange for maize and beans (about a kilo of each per day.)

The drive south began well enough as we headed toward Nyanza Lac, which is quite a scenic ride along the coast of Lak Tanganyika. We even saw a hippo basking in the Lake as well as many fishermen at work. When we got to Nyanza Lak we headed East off the paved road toward the Tanzanian border. At this point the weather took a turn for the worst. A large storm was brewing (as it is rainy season), and I was hoping it would not be a problem for our Landcruisers on a muddy road.

We got to the first nursery site, which was located near a very large UNHCR refugee camp set up for returning refugees from Tanzania who were awaiting repatriation. This is a huge problem in the south as many fled Burundi as early as the 1970s and their land has since been given away to others. The return has been a cause of much land conflict which can turn murderous without intervention from others to find a non-violent solution.

The nursery looked small but had about 50,000 tree saplings in it. Most were eucalyptus for planting in the govt. granted land for reforestation, but there were also other trees, like grevaria that are given to beneficiaries to plant in their gardens and farmland. It was interesting to hear about the struggles of maintaining a nursery. I was also quite surprised to hear Cassien complain that there were several unscrupulous partners of UNDP who were receiving huge grants for reforestation, who would bring UN monitors to this nursery and represent it as their own. One even offered to buy the nursery outright from Help Channel. I suggested to Cassien that he put a sign up.

This is one thing I do like about MCC programs. Because we are a relatively small mission, we, as country reps. are able to monitor our projects and make sure that the money given is being used in way it was granted, and much has a direct impact on the lives of beneficiaries. Sadly, a lot of relief money granted by large donors ends up in the pockets of just about anyone but the needy, vulnerable people who it was intended for.

When we finished our tour, we continued on our way to Makamba for lunch. By this time the storm hit and driving became quite difficult on the muddy roads. At one point we had to get and change the hub locks to 4 wheel drive on both vehicles. We did get to Makamba and had a nice lunch at a guesthouse run by Cassien’s sister.

From there we continued on to Rutana and stopped at another nursery where we had the chance to talk to many of the beneficiaries in the community about the nursery. Many students also proudly brandished their school books that they had received from Help Channel, thanks to a container sent by MCC, of school kits.

We got to our guest house by evening, which was very cozy. There was even a fireplace which we all huddled around as a rainy night up country can be quite chilly. We had a very good Burundian dinner then turned in for the night.

The next morning, after a cold shower, Mark and I parted ways from Cassien and the Ressler-Horsts. We were headed to Gitega and then on to Burasira to see Jodi and stay the night at the seminary. The drive seemed straightforward enough as we were back on the paved road to Gitega, although I had never been on this particular road myself. We arrived in Gitega mid-morning where we had a very full day of visiting. We started with our partner UCPD who does peace-making and community development in a nearby commune. Jean-Pierre, their representative described their work to this very under served community which is not really on the ‘beaten path’ as far as places where a lot NGOs are working. Mark really appreciated the fact that MCC is at its best when it can be supporting work in places where others really are not present.

After talking with UCPD for about 2 hours, we headed to MiPAREC, our large partner who has set up peace committees all over the country. We had lunch with Levy, the legal rep. who told us about their programs. We left them and went down the road a bit to UCEDD, the organization that runs the Hope School for the Batwa. We talked to Beatrice, who with her husband Innocent (both Batwa) founded and run the school. She talked to us about the successes and challenges of this project.

By about 4 pm, completely mentally saturated from meetings, we headed down the 2 hour dirt road to Burasira to see Jodi and the Hope School. Because of the heavy rain, though, the road was really bad, as slippery as I have ever seen it. We had to 4 wheel it the whole way, and even then had some struggles to keep from going off the road.

It was good to get to Burasira and see Jodi. We had dinner at her home and conversation was much easier than the official tone that we adoped at meetings with partners. Jodi also talked about the Hope School and the challenge of her role as capacity builder.

We went back to the seminary around 10 pm and turned in for the night. We were up early on Thursday, with another cold shower, then 6am prayer at the seminary. We had breakfast there then went with Jodi up the Hope School to meet the principals and see some of the classes. Most of the students were gone for break, but we did find two classes that were still in session. We went in and greeted them and they sung some songs for us as well.

We left Jodi mid-morning so we could drive back down to Bujumbura and get back before my ballet class at 3 pm. The drive was still bad down the dirt road, which I think gave Mark and appreciation of just how remote Jodi is in her work at that school. He really felt that this program was an example of MCC at its best.

We did back to Buj. on time to teach the last ballet class of the semester. It was also good to see Oren, David and Rebecca again. Apparently, while we were gone, David decided to walk. Rebecca described how, on Wednesday morning, he was on the porch, and stood up with a small rock in his hand. He threw the rock out in front of him, then walked over to get it. He picked it up and repeated this about 6 or 7 times. (A little walkers training program he devised for himself.) I was sorry I was not there for this event, but have enjoyed watching him perambulate about the house on his new toddler legs. He does not talk yet except a couple words. (The first official word was ‘duck’, Oren’s was ‘up’)

Friday was Mark’s last day in Burundi. We took him to the airport about noon, only to have him call about 3 to say the flight was delayed until 1 in the morning. Zachee went and got him, then I picked him up and took him to a conference I was going to, hosted by one of our partners. It was about the role and responsibility of Christians in the Political process. Invitees were people in government, for a dialogue and debate. Mark and I set next to the former vice-president of the country. I had a talk with him before the meeting and asked what he was doing now. He said nothing, jokingly, and asked if there might be a job for him in our organization. (Actually he is a pediatrician who work with children with AIDS). Also in attendance were leaders of rival political parties who happened to be Christians. It was interesting to hear them discuss the role of the Church in promoting a peaceful electoral process.

We took Mark to Khanna Kazana for Indian food (he had done a stint in Bangladesh so he loves Indian food.). Then went home and watched an episode of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency before driving him back to the airport around midnight. This time he did get off.

Saturday was less work but not a day of rest as we had several social engagements. One was Timmy’s birthday party, held at the Rainbow Center, and the second was a Christmas pageant at our church. We dropped Oren off at the Birthday, where Zachee and Bridget and had rented a big air castle, then we went on to the Christmas pageant. Although it was all in Kirundi, it was great to see the familiar sight of children dressed as wise men, shepherds, angels, sheep, and the Holy Family, acting out the nativity scene.

As a final note I will mention a thought shared by the pastor at the English fellowship this week. He was talking about Christ as our peacemaker with God and quoted the beatitude to us: “Blessed Are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “

He pointed out that it does not say Blessed are the peace lovers, or even blessed are peaceful people or peacekeepers. He reminded us that the word is peaceMAKERS, that is the activity of making peace, which is a far more challenging call then just avoiding conflict ourselves. He called on us to be peaceMAKERS not just peacekeepers, in our countries, our cities and our FAMILIES. May you all take the opportunity this season affords to be peacemakers in your workplaces, and homes. Remember HE is our peace. Merry Christmas.



Bonus Photo: One of the sights on our field trip. I am always trying to get a good photo of these women that balance 3 clay pots on their head. This one also had a baby on her back!

Preparing for Christmas and Business as Usual in Kigali

The fact that I am starting this blog entry at 10:30 pm this Sunday, is indicative of how busy we have been this past week. Today was a travel day, returning to Bujumbura from Kigali. It was a long trip because we made a stop by the genocide memorial at Nyamatta, AND then we met a bus at the border, which slowed our crossing, going through customs and immigration considerably.

There were 8 of us traveling in our jam-packed Land Cruiser. The three SALTers, Brandon, Robyn, and Yolanda, along with our family, and Travis Withrow (of Astrud and Travis) were all in the car. The SALTers were going to have a chance to see Kigali, and Travis tagged along to do some Christmas shopping for his 5 daughters.

Coming back we were loaded down with the roof-rack piled high with Christmas presents. The car probably bore some likeness to Santa’s sleigh in the book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”.

We arrived in Bujumbura at 4 pm, just in time for the beginning of the English fellowship and Oren’s Sunday school. The timing was particularly important because we were meeting our Area Director Mark Sprunger there. He had arrived earlier in the day and Zachee brought him to the fellowship. We are hosting Mark here this week so he can see what our program is doing in Burundi.

That was the culmination of what was a very busy week, and next week promises to be no easier. But it was not all work and no play. We have been getting ready for Christmas here, and unlike Halloween, we have been making a real effort to prepare the house in some ways for the event. There has also been reflected in complementary activities by Oren’s school, our church, and even some places where we shop, where Christmas trees are appearing,

None of this comes close to the feeling of the post-Thanksgiving Christmas season in the US, but it is nice to be able to experience some of the preparation that typifies my experience of this time of year. I think what is most conspicuously missing is cold weather and snow. I thought I would ever say I miss it, but I really do miss the change of the season, and decorating a pine tree feels a bit strange in warm weather.

Oren is getting excited about all of this and really loved decorating the Christmas tree. (I mentioned last week that I had found an artificial tree left by our predecessors that I had cleaned up.) I was glad to find that we had brought enough of a small collection of ornaments to decorate it, and I even got some lights from the Chinese import store here.

Last week St. Nicolas came to Oren’s school. (that should be read with a French accent.) St. Nicolas has a white beard but is considerably thinner than Santa, he wears a cardinals mitre hat, and travels with a companion wielding a large Bible. Oren also told me that he speaks only French. There was a large celebration at Oren’s school for his arrival, then St. Nicolas went and visited the classes of the preschoolers and gave out candy.

Apparently, from the description of one of the parents, the distribution was quite interesting. St. Nicolas had a big list of all the kids (naughty and nice) and called them up 1 by 1. He read the name from the list and the child would come up, then he would read something about the child’s behavior, like “You are very helpful with the teacher.” Or “You color well, but you fight to much with your classmates.” Everyone received candy, but apparently the naughty and nice stuff is taken pretty seriously by St. Nicolas.
Besides preparing for Christmas, we have been trying, without much success to find a good housing situation for the Ressler-Horsts, our new service workers. We spent some time looking on Monday through Wednesday but did not find anything good that would work for a permanent situation. We did find a house-sitting opportunity that looks promising for a month, and I think they will take it for the time being (beginning this Wednesday). The problem, I think, is that in the last 6 months there has been a large influx in the expatriate community that is renting houses and pushing up the cost of rental property considerably beyond our planned budget.

Nathan and Lara’s family were able to enjoy a bit of time to themselves this past week, though, because our family was out of town in Rwanda from Thursday through Sunday, as I mentioned earlier.

We had a car full going up because the SALTers asked to have an opportunity to go up and see Kigali, and Travis hitched a ride as well to do Christmas shopping for his 5 daughters. The trip up was smooth and uncomplicated none-the-less. We left at the end of Oren’s school and got up there by about 5 pm.

The SALTers stayed with Ruth and Krystan, Travis stayed with friends, and our family stayed at our favorite haunt, the Africa New Life guesthouse. The staff there is always happy to welcome and keep an eye on, Oren and David.

Our purpose for going up this time was to have a round table discussion with our partner, Friends Peace House, as well as other donors that support their programs. We are making an effort to coordinate our support more effectively. It was an interesting discussion and I hope, helpful for the way we do our funding next year. For us this is a particularly crucial issue because, with the Global Financial crisis, our funding has continued to drop and we need, once again, to be looking at way in which we can strategically pare down, rather than expand our programming. This prospect is not appealing, but it is a reality. We are hoping that things will change sometime after next year.

Our time in Kigali was generally pretty tightly scheduled. We had the meeting, banking, visiting partners, and spending some time supporting Ruth and Krystan. So it was not exactly a restful week. The one evening we had nothing scheduled in Kigali was Friday. We finished our day about 5:30 pm and were at the guest house deciding what we would like to do. We were considering our different dinner options while Oren and David played in the living room. We had about decided on pizza and getting the kids to bed early so we could have time to talk, when Oren, who was playing on the couch, suddenly fell forward onto the coffee table and let out a scream. I looked and saw he had struck his head on the edge. As I expected, when I picked him up, was that he was bleeding profusely out of a large gash in his forehead, something that would definitely need stitches.

Rebecca and I looked at each other and new immediately that the decision about our family outing that evening had been made. We would be spending it at the King Faisal hospital emergency room. We held a towel on Oren’s head and loaded him in the car. We were fairly calm because we knew the drill very well after the experience 8 months ago with his broken arm in Kigali. We drove to the hospital and took him into the emergency room. I saw that it was quite crowded so I carried him in making his blood covered face and hair obvious so he could be helped first. He did get right into a room.

The whole process from start to finish still took about 3 hours, and we returned home about 10pm. Oren had 3 stitches in his forehead under a dressing. I had had to hold him down for the stitches as the anesthetic was just something that was sprayed on, not injected. He could definitely feel the needle going in and out for each suture. He was very brave through it all though, and did get ice cream after we were done, so it was not all bad for him in his estimation. He also seemed excited about the chance to show off his big bandage to everyone he met, and to his friends at school this week. I was pleased that an ER visit in Kigali still runs about $12.

We are anticipating another busy week with Mark Sprunger here and I will probably be doing a lot of driving in rural Burundi between Tuesday and Thursday. I am looking forward to some time off during Christmas week.

Goodbye Grammy, Hello Ressler-Horsts

David welcomes his new friend Ella to Burundi and introduces her to some of his favorite activities.



I feel like I was just here composing last Sunday---probably because this was such a busy, event-filled week that the days seemed to fly by. This is also the second week where I feel so exhausted this Sunday evening that I am daunted by the prospect of finishing this entry tonight. I am really more of a morning person, although Oren tends to get at 5:30 am with me if I do get up then.

We had a very narrow gap this week, (one evening) between the departure of my mother on Tuesday, and the arrival of our new service workers, the Ressler-Horsts, on Wednesday.

I am happy to say that both of my parents got home safely. We took Grammy to the airport Tuesday morning after dropping Oren off at school. She emailed us to tell us she had a problem-free trip back and even did a bit of sightseeing on her stop-over in Nairobi (where they had lived in the 1980s).

We enjoyed our Tuesday evening as the one supper in the week where did not have any visitors.

On Wednesday work was interesting because I participated in a large conference organized by World Vision and World Relief which brought together leaders of all the major church denominations. I mentioned this last week, as part of an effort to have the Church in Burundi can be a voice of positive change in the country. Since the majority of the population in Burundi professes to be Christian, there is a real opportunity here. On the other hand, for the same reason, if the election process disintegrates into violence, the church would own some of the responsibility for failing to act. I feel that this is a time of testing for the church Burundi, and there are many here and abroad that are praying that it might rise as a strong, prophetic voice at this historic time in Burundi.

Wednesday evening was the real event for us though. I went to the airport to pick up the Ressler-Horsts, Nathan and Lara and their two children Jal (6) and Ella (1). When I arrived at the airport the plane was there already and people were exiting. Eventually I saw Lara and Jal come out to tell me they needed some more money for visas. (The price had gone up recently—fortunately I had it.) Then a security guard asked me to come in to help them.

When I got in I could see why. Between the for of them they had about 30 bags, including, strollers, child seats, etc. It was quite amazing! It did remind me a bit as well of our own family’s arrival a year and a half ago. With the help of 4 porters we loaded up the car, including the roofrack. (I was thankful it was not raining.)

It was not until we got home that it was discovered that three of the carry-ons, that had been stowed in Dulles had not arrived in Bujumbura. But it was after 10pm when we got home and we decided to deal with that the next day.

Fortunately our house is big enough to temporarily accommodate two families and life here the past few days has not been too difficult. Jal and Oren enjoy playing together, as do David and Ella.

Beginning Thursday, we continued our house-hunting, which despite much effort to find something before they arrived, has not been fruitful. I think the biggest problem is that Bujumbura is changing. Many more foreigners are arriving and the housing market is rising. We could not find anything comparable to what Rebecca and I have (or had before our move) for the same price. We did know that we got our house at steal, but now we have a better idea of just how good a price this is. We will be continuing the search this week.

We are also orienting them this week in other ways. We have taken them on sightseeing trips of the city, they met Cassien at Help Channel, where they will be seconded. Help Channel has very generously made a vehicle available to them, so they do have their own car. They have also paid a visit to the Ecole Belge where Jal will very likely go to school. Oren has had several friends over this week whom Jal has met, most notably Timmy.

On Friday evening we had a team gathering for all of our workers, SALTERS, and Zachee for dinner to greet and welcome them. It was a nice evening and everyone seemed excited to have them here.

The SALTERS seem to be doing very well, and were back again on Saturday morning as I have been offering to teach a yoga-stretch class on Saturday morning on our front porch. Nathan joined us as well, despite jetlag. I enjoy doing this and I have heard from several other individuals who want to be part of this. We will see if this activity grows in the future. It has been a good team-building activity in my opinion.

Saturday afternoon, we, in true Burundian style, went out and visited quite a few friends and introduced the Ressler-Horsts around. We had an afternoon gathering of our regular group of Saturday missionary families at the house of Thomas and Naya. It was a very nice time and gave Jal a chance to meet some more kids at the Ecole Belge.

Sunday we went to church in the morning, then took the new family to the beach at Club du Lac Tanganyika. Despite the rain, and the fact that they have introduced a small beach using fee, it was a nice afternoon and we all ate pizza and fish briochettes under a large umbrella by the pool in the rain.

We went to the English fellowship in the afternoon where I led Sunday school that day. We were also able to get some leads there for housing for them. Among our options now is a temporary housesitting situation which would take some pressure off of finding housing in the next 2-3 days.

Hopefully things will continue to go well. We have a very busy week coming up involving a trip to Rwanda, and a visit from our area director Mark Sprunger. He will be coming from Nigeria.

Bonus photo: Oren has been really into drawing. We found at the end of Kung-Fu Panda video a little tutorial on how to draw the characters. Oren was enthralled and spent a lot of time drawing ‘Monkey” step by step. I was quite surprised how well he did as a 4 year old!