A Gideon Maneuver, Amnesty, and the Art of Representation

Here is a photo of David at the partners retreat being carried Burundian style by Francine.

Two things happened in the last two weeks that reminded me of the passage of time. First, the seasons changed. I had noticed several weeks ago that we had not had any rain for a while, but now the land and air is taking on the characteristic of the dry season. The mountains of Congo across Lake Tanganyika have disappeared and the city and countryside are blanketed by a brownish haze. The lush beauty of the rainy season is hidden, and everything is dusty--especially the house. All of our rooms have a layer of thick red dust on every surface that is not mopped weekly.

What is significant about this is that we first arrived in Buj, in the dry season, a year ago this month. I remember thinking that this was quite an unpleasant, dirty place then. I now know better.

The other thing is that David has started to crawl. Both of these events happened suddenly, with almost no transition. David was immobile a week ago, and now he gets around quite ably. One day it stopped raining, and now it is dry and dusty.


But I won’t stall any longer. Last weeks blog was a spiritual cry for ‘all hands on deck’. We were completely overwhelmed and heading into a very difficult week unprepared and concerned about our children’s health. I am happy to report that the prayer requests were taken seriously, as many of you told us you were praying for us, AND God did do exceeding abundantly beyond anything we could hope or imagine! I will paste in a summary of the retreat written by Rebecca that captures the gist of the event:

I took both kids to the doctor on Monday morning, while Paul rushed to the office to print and copy what we could. Doctor confirmed that David had roseola. He wasn’t feverish any longer, so it was OK. Oren was another matter. I don’t think the doctor really could tell what was going on with him and why he was so weak and feverish. But he said there was inflammation in the throat and ears. He prescribed bactrim and some ear drops. He said, don’t worry, go upcountry to your meetings. He gave me an emergency number and told me not to be so afraid of malaria. I elected to give Oren the bactrim and not the ear drops. He was drowsy and his skin was blotchy and pale the whole next day and a half. But we all went up to Burasira. We were honestly quite worried about Oren on Tuesday. He just kept getting feverish and had zero energy. He was not the child we have known. But he made it pretty easy for Francine, the Burundian young woman we took along to watch the kids. He just wanted to color, watch movies and sleep. I opted out of the evening session to be with the kids. That was the first time that I got a few smiles out of Oren. And finally he had enough appetite to eat a cookie. By Wednesday morning, he woke up saying that he was feeling better. He actually had energy and by the end of the day was running around with other kids. So in the end the doctor was right, it was OK to take them along. Meanwhile, I am really glad that we all just went ahead and didn’t cancel the retreat.

It was really a very, very good three days for the partners and even for us. It was absolutely an opportunity for us to trust God, because we were totally out of gas, as Oren likes to say. We had organized a theme: transformational development. Paul began the time with a meditation on Ezekiel 37, the dry bones, giving somewhat the same sermon he gave at North Baltimore (that the causes of poverty are spiritual at root). One of our partners is a pastor who is involved in a long-term community development approach in Rwanda . They don’t give money, just meet with the community for Bible study and discussion over the course of 5 years and help the community identify their own resources and solve their own problems. He described this approach on the two mornings, and led us through a couple of the Bible studies that they do in the communities.

Another partner, Onesphore preached on Romans 12 (be transformed by the renewing of your mind). We had reports from our partners, small group discussions on pertinent regional issues, a practical workshop on writing progress reports and doing good grant planning. And we also had many times of worship (I’ve been collecting songs in French, Kirundi and Kiswahili from our church worship handouts) and prayer. We had a walk and tour of the seminary turbine on one day, to look at the self-sufficiency of the seminary grounds (they produce their own electricity from a river near by, as well as virtually all their food).

Another afternoon we took a walk up the hill to the school for the Batwa where Jodi teaches and then back down through the quartier Batwa (the neighborhood of Batwa). It was wonderful to be out and about and greeting people from the community, who were enchanted by David. We regrouped for an evening celebration of Independence day for Burundi , Rwanda and Canada at Jodi’s house – we sang all three national anthems and shared independence stories. It was truly a bonding and inspiring retreat for all of us.

Paul again—

I am also grateful for the way God had prepared me for this type of experience of leading a retreat in the face of a great deal of spiritual opposition. The crucible was in my work with the KAIROS prison ministry. At one time, I led a three day retreat at Coxsackie correctional facility where I faced tremendous difficulty. This included resistance from the prison authorities, serious health problems among our team, and then the loss of our child through miscarriage during the preparation time. Despite all of this, God worked mightily in the retreat and used all of the missteps, defeats, and tragedies to his glory during the retreat.

At the end of this past week’s retreat, I confessed to our partners that we almost cancelled the event because of all the challenges, but instead, we stopped acting in our power and submitted to His will. I was wont to blame it all on Satan, but if Satan was involved it was only so that God could ‘sift’ us. (As he did to Peter.) I compared the experience to that of Gideon, whose army was cut and cut until he only had 600 men to face an army of over 100,000. God said to him that if he had any more than that, Gideon would believe that it was his own victory and not the Lord’s.

I do not believe the retreat could have possibly been any better with any more preparation, than it was, and it was truly due to the power of the Holy Spirit, we can really take no credit. Thank you to all for your prayers.


I wish we could say that when we got home on Thursday evening that we took a long weekend off, but that would not be the truth. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all very full.

I should also add an amusing note about Thursday evening. I had received an invitation from the US ambassador to attend a July 4th celebration (held 2 days early). It sounded like fun so after getting home, Rebecca and I packed up the kids to take them. (We were dressed fairly casually, figuring it would be a kind of All American get together barbecue on their lawn.) When we pulled up to the gate though we knew we were in trouble. There were about a hundred cars parked along the road, and many official Burundians and other dignitaries entering. No one was with a family, among the many men in their best suits. As we considered whether to park and go in anyway, the motorcade of Umukuru Rw’Igihugu (Kirundi for big-man-of-the-country or President) pulled up. Rebecca and I looked more carefully at the invite and realized it was supposed to be only for me and that this was not a barbecue but a formal diplomatic dinner where I was to represent our NGO. We stealthily turned the car around and headed back home. Perhaps if we had been less tired we might have tried to get our family in, just for the sake of introducing a little humor and weirdness into the event. But we were just as happy to go home and watch a DVD movie after our long week.

On Friday, we did our best to catch up on work and emails. We are really far behind and have needed to catch up on progress reports and accounting. We were very relieved that our own personal monthly financial reports came out very well. (We had had many months of thefts in the past where we were always coming out several hundred dollars off.)

On Friday afternoon, I was asked to make an appearance as MCC rep. at a conference held by one of our partners (Zenon) for members of government, (legislature and judiciary branches) church leaders, etc. It was on the theme of reconciliation at the national level and the role that Christian leaders can play in national policy. As unenthusiastic as I was about going, I am glad I did. It was quite fascinating, even though I was told it would be two hours but actually went on for four and a half hours. (I am used to that and do the adjusted calculation in my head automatically. The formula is to double whatever someone tells you then add 30minutes.)

One speaker did a fairly extensive discussion of problems with the current policy of ‘amnesty’ for past crimes committed in the course of the past 14 years of war. He explained the limitations of amnesty and how it differs critically from the more radical idea of pardoning, or grace. I must admit that until I heard this, I thought of amnesty as a type of grace, but he explained how legally they are quite different.

The difference is that pardon involves both an admission of guilt by one party with remorse and the active expression of forgiveness by the other. Forgiveness in this circumstance is not seen as a weak act, but an immensely powerful and sacrificial one that restores harmony to a community. It is a meritorious act of reconciliation.

Amnesty is a kind of legal amnesia, where a past crime is not pardoned but simply treated as forgotten. This can have some limited application where a society has changed in such a way that a past crime is no longer seen as wrong. (For instance, after prohibition, those who had been charged with crimes related to producing or consuming alcohol were no longer seen as law breakers.)

But in situations where crimes are serious and not easily forgotten, amnesty is not an appropriate option. What was most striking to me is that the speaker made a strong argument, not based on the fact that those who receive amnesty are escaping justly due punishment, but instead that PEOPLE WHO GET AMENSTY ARE PUT IN A SITUATION OF BEING UNPARDONABLE! That is to say, if one receives amnesty, he is not able to legally be tried, or to be pardoned. Since his crime no longer exists legally, his and his victims are in a strange sort of limbo where true reconciliation becomes impossible, because confession or pardon, in a formal legal sense are taken off the table.

Burundi has been pursuing a course of amnesty for past crimes of war because, honestly, untangling the truth of the past is a daunting task. One speaker pointed out that one of the hardest things to establish in many of the discussions that happened at a peace meeting called the Arusha accords, was who was the victim and who was the perpetrator. Both parties claim to be the victim. In a system where violence has been cyclical for so long, it seems that everyone has blood on their hands to some extent.

I do agree, that though this be the case, the simply solution of amnesty for everyone is not a satisfactory solution that will bring true reconciliation and an end to the cycle of violence. But I do see that getting to the ‘truth’ is next to impossible, especially because everyone is very ready to point a finger at someone else but not acknowledge any personal responsibility at all for any of the violence.

Saturday was occupied primarily with Oren's fourth birthday party. It was a great opportunity to open our house to friends of ours and Oren's. I must say, the trampoline was a big hit, as was Mommy's very excellent racing car cake. (Nathan baked the cake, but she decorated it.)


On Sunday, we were once again called to ‘represent’ (hip-hop terminology). It was the 75th anniversary of the Evangelical Friends Church and we were asked to attend an elaborate ceremony in Kabimba. (Upcountry about 1 hour 30 min away.) Despite our best judgment, we went as a whole family. I say that because these events are notoriously long and usually involve sitting still and keeping the kids quiet. This one was no exception. We left Bujumbura at 8:30 am and got home about 5:00pm. (We even snuck out before the meal.) We spent most of the day sitting and listening to speeches in Kirundi. We did see Jodi and many friends there from Rwanda as well as partners. The kids were well behaved as well as they have been getting schooled in sitting still through these types of events in the past year.


I am really beginning to understand what the title ‘representative’ really means and I am becoming sympathetic to heads of state and diplomats who play this role. I am starting to feel like the Queen of England these days. The hardest thing about it, is that I cannot do anything anonymously. When I go to just about any event, I (and our whole family) are always escorted to the very front of the room and given seats with other VIPS. This provides a perfect forum for our kids to act out in very disruptive and embarrassing ways, AND makes leaving early an impossibility. Although I try to do more of this type of thing alone, we have become quite adept at packing a backpack full of things like coloring books and stories that the kids can play with quietly while we sit together under the watchful gaze of hundreds of people for 4-6 hours at a time.

We are now in a two week countdown to our much needed vacation in Kenya.


By the way, if the pictures look low quality it is because my decent digital camera broke so I am using my old one.