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brooksinburundi@googlemail.com                                                     EAB Matana, 
No attachments or photos                                                                    DS 30, BUJUMBURA 
                                                                                                                 Burundi Africa.

Subject: Pat and Pam or Anne                                                            February 6th 2008 

Letter No. 4

Dear Family and Friends,

Many thanks for emails which we received in Bujumbura before coming up here to Matana. Now we are dependent on our friend Salvator, a former pupil at the Theological College, going down to the capital, to send our emails. There is an Internet Café in the Guest House where we stay. It is owned by one of Pat's former pupils, who has never forgotten that Pat taught him in his last year of Primary School and helped him to pass the prestigious equivalent of the 11+! He then went on to become Chief of Police in the country and then Minister of Transport.

One of the staff in the Café told us that his father was taught by Pat during the years that he was at a Teacher Training College (Kibimba). He was delighted to meet Pat and is happy to print off our emails and give them to Salvator who will bring them back to us. It all depends on whom you know!

We've had a great welcome here from many individuals telling us that they were praying for Pat last year when they heard that he was unable to come because of illness. The cathedral was full on Sunday because it was the Sunday in the month when all the 'daughter churches' come in for Holy Communion. We were officially welcomed and invited to bring our greetings, which we were happy to do. It is good to be back.

Pat is teaching 1 and 2 Timothy (again!) only this time in French. He is doing 2 hours from 9.00 a.m. following straight on from Prayers which we all attend. The 27 students in the Bible School who learn in Kirundi and the 10 men in the Theological College meet together at 8.00 a.m. As today is Ash Wednesday there is a service in the cathedral, scheduled for 9.00 a.m. but as we've had a lot of rain in the night it will probably start nearer 10.00 a.m. If you don't have a watch it's difficult to know the time on a dark morning! Pat has a free day today, but otherwise he expects to teach for 5 days each week.

Anne and I have been given a programme of visiting an archdeaconry centre for each of the weeks that we are here, starting tomorrow at Matana. All the M.U. members and other ladies will come to the centre for those meetings. Some of them will walk for 3 hours or more. Sadly, we were not able to go to an enrolment last Sunday because the new (2nd. hand) vehicle for the M.U. has not yet arrived. The money from London was sent in 2 amounts and the second amount has been delayed so that the vehicle that was going to be bought, has been sold to someone else! We wait in expectancy! We saw Archbishop Bernard briefly yesterday and he has said that buying the vehicle is a priority for the M.U. Everyone is very excited that £16,000 was raised and are longing for it to be bought and used.

Yesterday we joined in the celebrations of the main choir in the cathedral. Most of them are professional people, so they must have taken a day off! They are now 40 strong and sing beautifully in harmony with no instruments or drums. A strong bond has developed between them and they wanted to celebrate the new year. The Archbishop, who is also the bishop of the diocese was there together with some of the cathedral clergy and ourselves. We sat for five and half hours with a mixture of Bible reading, Biblical exposition, prayers, hymns, worship songs from the choir and testimonies. We also had a fellowship meal together which made a lovely conclusion to the day. Life is never dull here!

Please pray for the country. People are very concerned and are praying earnestly about the continuing fighting between the rebels and the army. They hear about it on the local radio each day. They cannot understand why this is still going on and are meeting together asking God to intercede and bring peace to the land.

Thank you for joining with us.

With our love and our prayers for you,

Pat and Pam