| A letter from Simon Guillebaud, 3 October 2008 | |
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Sent: 3 October 2008 Dear Warriors, Oof, we are back in Burundi, back in our own beds after three months of lots of different beds, back to (today) electricity and water cuts, back to suffocating and exhausting humidity, back to psycho driving, potholes, interesting smells, offensive poverty, gut-wrenching stories of woe from anyone I have the courage and time to sincerely enquire “how a re you?”. Burundi is beautiful and broken. The flight back was OK but hideous. Traveling on airplanes with kids is near the bottom of my list of life’s pastimes. But we are here, and all of our luggage got through, which is amazing. It was great to see Ephraim still alive. He is our SU evangelist in the North, a turbo-charged Pentescostal. A couple of months back someone came to him to tell him Satan was going to try to kill him because of his incredibly fruitful work, so they needed to pray all the more intensely. A few weeks later another person came to him and told him he needed urgent prayer for protection. That very day, he was driving along on his motorbike and on a smooth stretch of road his tyre burst. He swerved for 80 yards before totally losing control, wiping out, cracking his helmet in two, and gashing open several parts of his body. But he did survive! And after some local fixers bashed his motorbike back into shape and he’d been bandaged up enough to at least make it back to the city, he set off again with a fresh back tyre, which promptly exploded at the exact same spot, with no apparent reason – the tyre was fine, the road was flat, so was it a curse, some form of witchcraft? God knows. It’s taken 6 weeks for Ephraim to recover, and he has plenty of scars to show for his experiences. W e praised God to see each other again. I share this story with you to illustrate the reality of the battle and also to ask for your constant prayers, as I get around by motorbike, and it is indeed very dangerous because of so many clueless drivers on the roads. The conference centre is looking good. I was thrilled to see progress yesterday. There is still some way to go. Do pray on for all the materials to get through, for Goretti who is now the overall boss on the project, and for excellence in all the finishing work. The containers with cars and other stuff in them from Canada sadly did not come arrive in time, as I asked you to pray for. Actually it was n igh impossible that they would, but worth a try. They will now arrive, at a guess, by the 10th October, and we’ve had a number of high level government meetings to try to get them released as quickly as possible to encourage future donations from Canada to be forthcoming. May we not get taxed on them, and may all the goods be released ASAP. My time at Harrow before leaving went superbly. The aim was to get formal endorsement from the Headmaster, chaplain and Old Boys Association to network through their contacts to try to raise 2 million quid to build the best school and medical centre in the country. Ouch! Anyway, after a number of meeting, the support is total, and 20I am praying for big fruit to come through this avenue. Amen! On a personal level, precious mates have left the country in the last few months and other dear ones are leaving in two weeks because their little boy is so sick. The attrition rate here is high. So do pray for Lizzie to find a few key Mums with kids to hang out with. And we’d love your prayers that we’d stay healthy in this difficult climate. More will follow but that’ll do for now, have a great weekend, thanks for teaming up with us, Simon Guillebaud
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