Letter 6 from Pat & Pam Brooks, March 2006

Letter No. 6                                                                   25 March.  2006

Dear  Family and Friends,

Many thanks for a wonderful batch of emails.  We do appreciate your support.

“They laid their sins on the scapegoat and sent it out into the wilderness.”  These words of the Archdeacon of Bururi were a fitting conclusion to the five weeks of visits to the Archdeaconries.  He was finishing his talk of the previous day on the Cross.  He had invited us to write on small pieces of paper any burdens we had or any unconfessed sin  and nail them to a rough wooden cross that we had brought from Matana.  It was a moving sight to see the team, pastors and hill church leaders nailing papers to the Cross.

On the last day the cross was taken outside and laid on the ground.  We stood around it in a big circle watching as the Archdeacon removed all the papers and lit them.  As they burned we  knew that it was a picture of what Jesus had done for us on the Cross.  He had taken all our sins and our burdens on himself at Calvary .

The teaching on the Cross by the Archdeacons was a suitable joining together of Pat’s teaching on discipleship and leadership from 1 Timothy and Miranda’s teaching on AIDS – where so often the victim was innocently infected.  The testimonies of Spes and Godilève, both infected by unfaithful husbands, were listened to with rapt attention.                                

Pat and I have been grateful for the way that we have been cared for in all the Archdeaconries – particularly perhaps in Bururi, the 5^th. one where Pat’s right hip and leg have been very painful.  The Archdeacon  arranged for a car to drive him the 300 yards from the church  to an empty house where we ate lunch and he brought a bed for Pat to rest on after each session.   This is Christian love in action.

The funeral service for the Archbishop’s father last Tuesday was a fitting testimony to a faithful man of God.  It was he who swept the church, removing all the high cobwebs, washed and ironed the linen, called people to worship on the drums and tended the footpaths leading to the church.  Since his retirement the same standards have not been maintained, but his presence in the church has been a reminder to people of what he had done – and what he expected!  This is faithfulness to God on the smaller stage, as Archbishop Bernard has occupied the larger one.  May we all fill up the roll  to which we have been assigned!

Today, Saturday is the official end of the mourning period with another service in church.  Many people have come from Bujumbura on both occasions and today the Vice President has come.  There will be many speeches and the drinking of fanta.  As Pat is not well, I have escaped after the service!

By writing this now, I am hoping that someone will take it into an Internet Café on Monday.

We will have another twelve days here with my ‘Specs’ clinics’ at Matana and in two other parishes.  We are hoping that the rest will help Pat to get better.  He has to give the Theological students their exam  on Colossians and mark that.  Otherwise he can rest.

Pélagie is now better and was a great help to us at Bururi.  It’s good to be able to spend time with her and decide how we can best use the money we have been given.

This comes with our love and our prayers for you too.

    Pat and Pam