News Flashes

 
Email in UK: pbrooks08@googlemail.com                                        EAB Matana, 
                                                                                                                 DS 30, BUJUMBURA 
                                                                                                                 Burundi Africa.

Subject: Pat and Pam or Anne                                                            March 9th 2008 

Letter No. 9 

Dear Family and Friends, 

Many thanks for all the emails.

Some of you will remember that in 2006 we were collecting hand sewing machines, material and haberdashery. We sent off 33 boxes to Matana via Coventry, where they were put in recycled fridges destined for Burundi, via an English port, to Dar-es-Salaam, across Tanzania to Bujumbura and on to Matana. They finally arrived in the summer of 2007, but they hadn't been opened because the Centre where they will be housed has not been completed. They will be used to teach women who have been traumatised by war, rape, bereavement, AIDS and other difficulties. They had been carefully stored and this week we had the joy of opening 3 boxes so that the MU leaders could see the contents. What an Aladdin's cave! They were overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people in the UK. So "Thank you" to everyone who contributed and helped to pack the boxes. That was a tremendous exercise! 

61 pastors came to the Retreat with their wives (and some with children under 2). It was good to renew acquaintances with so many. Pat gave 4 Bible Readings during the 4 half days with the Bishop and 3 other pastors adding to the teaching. It was a very good time and we felt that the pastors - and their wives - went away refreshed. 

On the middle afternoon Martin, the other European lecturer in the Theological College gave a very good presentation on the growing and cultivating of artemesia plants. He had grown many from seed and then taken cuttings, using the leaves when dry as a powder for curing malaria. He has been growing these plants for 2 years now and has helped many people with malaria. 2 weeks ago, Muhora, who was here when Pat arrived in 1958, took over 100 cuttings from Martin's plants and potted them up in black plastic sleeves. Each pastor took a pot and many of the wives as well. It will probably be the wives who will do the planting! If the pastors and the church teachers and MU members can learn how to cultivate these plants and use them as remedies for malaria it will prove of immense value to the local population. So many people are still dying from malaria. 

Friday morning Anne and I joined the pastor's wives for a session when they were talking about the problems of their role. There was some helpful discussion. Then the bishop's wife gave each wife a length of cloth, a shawl for any child under 2 years and a book on growing vegetables. It was a generous gesture. 

The MU has been given money to buy goats and sheep for widows who are in need of help. 50 had been selected and had chosen which animal they wanted. The main desire for an animal comes from the need for manure. Beans won't grow without manure and it's so hard for the poor to cultivate. They went away rejoicing for the animal that they had received. 

Friday afternoon we were taken to see a pygmy settlement about 1 km from Matana market. I had been there 3 years ago and had seen how families lived together in a round hut of tree branches and grass with no division of rooms. The family eats, sleeps and cooks in the one room. There is no sanitation at all. The children don't go to school because they have no decent clothes. They have no means of income because they cannot get the clay for the pots that they used to make. Nowadays people use jerry cans to carry water and metal saucepans for cooking. It was a pitiful situation. 

Desiré, who is the Diocesan Development Officer, has a burden to help them. A Dutch church agency has been supporting a project to help them to build better houses. Desiré uses workmen to drive poles into the ground and to fix metal roofs onto them. They are placed near a grass hut and the owners are then told to make sun baked bricks so that workmen can teach them how to build using bricks and mud. 

Some of them are doing this, others haven't started. It is hard to motivate some of them. They want a better life and expect help from outside. There were so many children with not a pair of shoes in sight - not even flip flops. They were all in rags - but they had been given clothes on previous occasions. There were huge pits near the houses where they had taken mud for their houses which held rain water and were a rich breeding ground for malarial mosquitoes. Some of the adults are attending the MU literacy classes at a nearby centre, but they're not regular in their attendance. It really needs someone called by God to visit them on a daily basis giving them a basic education in the 3 Rs and hygiene, together with Biblical teaching. We felt that they were the outcasts from society. It was so good to see the positive relationship that Desiré had with them and we can only pray that they will learn to work together for a better life and that the message of Christ's sacrifice on the cross will give them hope for this world as well as for the future. 

Yesterday I walked to William's house where his family is based. I wanted to see how his wife, Beatrice, was responding to the medicine that she was receiving for ?depression/trauma. She is much better than she was and greeted me happily, but she didn't volunteer any conversation. She is now on new medicine which Jeanne can fetch from Bururi - which is only a ride of 1½ hours. William's second daughter needs help. She seems to have had chest and back trouble for over a year and also has trouble with her eyes. She's unable to help Jeanne with any of the housework. So many children have eye trouble and each time we return we see more school children wearing spectacles. 6 out of Pat's 10 students wear them. Is it just the lack of Vitamin A in their diet? We must bring out packets of carrot seeds! 

Today we attended the last of the Lent services at a church only 2 kms. away. For 2 years now the congregation has been building a new church next to the old one, which is far too small for them. They have nearly completed the walls. It is a very large building and they have been told that they will need metal girders and probably pillars to support the weight of the large roof. They are going forward in faith led by a very able pastor called Beatrice. We assured them of our prayers and any help that we could give them. 

And so now we are packing up the house and saying "Goodbye" to the people who are coming to see us. Fidèle has invited us to supper tomorrow evening. We have an MU visit on Tuesday and supper in the Theological College. Wednesday we go down to Bujumbura and will have supper with Onesimus and his family. He has been an Anglican army chaplain for some years now but during his theological training in the UK in the 80s he stayed with us in Cornwall. We fly out on Thursday morning arriving at Heathrow at 05.45 on Friday. 

We've had a wonderful 8 weeks in Burundi and have kept well throughout. We've seen so much and been welcomed in so many places. The love of the brethren has been overwhelming. We return to the UK humbled by all that we've received, conscious that we have a debt to continue praying for all those whom we have met. It won't be easy to 're-enter' life in the UK but we know that the Lord who has helped us here is the same who will be with us in the UK. Thank you for travelling with us. 

With our love and prayers, 

Pat and Pam and Anne