From: Simon Guillebaud [mailto:simon@greatlakesoutreach.org]
www.greatlakesoutreach.org
25 February 2009
Dear Warriors,
Sad News from Burundi:
I’ve got some sad news. Most of the time I share good news, but we certainly don’t have victories only; and to maintain credibility, you need to be kept up on the down side too, so here goes:
We have decided to stop supporting Dieudonne and his New Generation gang. Without going into details, he is crippled by debt, has made some bad decisions over many years, is losing $2k/month, and we need to help him by closing the whole thing down so he is released from the millstone around his neck. It is not a question of integrity at all, he is honest and hard-working and passionate for the Kingdom, but simply incapable of making it work. It is a tricky time, and we need your prayers to wind things down well, getting the streetkids reinserted into other programs and sorting out a number of other issues. I feel a huge sense of disappointment, sadness, frustration, and yet painful peace that it is the right thing to do.
Other news:
Time ticks on with the conference centre, 10 days, aaargh! PLEASE PRAY FOR THE CONTAINER STUCK IN THE PORT! We got tax-exemption, which was last missive’s massive answer to prayer, but now all the kitchen stuff is in that container and we can’t access it yet, so the kitchen is still a total bombsite, whilst everything else is near completion. Sooo many things to do. The rest of it is looking GREAT! The people we had booked in for our first week have pulled out, maybe that’s the Lord’s hand as we may not be ready, but it’s $2k profit gone. Can’t wait to be open and seeing money coming in to be used for God’s work. Ongoing prayers for Goretti (boss), Meg (sidekick), Christine (training all the staff, she’s an amazing gift to us, and the staff look like a superb bunch too), Emmanuel (building overseer).
I’m just putting this next item out there for you to pray into being or not, as the Lord leads. The owner of the land touching ours for the conference centre has just returned to the country. He wanted to build a nightclub next to us (you must be kidding!), but the surrounding plots are Christian so he’s looking to sell (praise God!). If we got it, we could build on it in the future and leverage our facilities with another 40 rooms which would give us the capacity for the biggest conferences, and take us to a new level. The asking price is $80k, and we simply don’t have this money. Owning that land would be an incredible coup, and would also guarantee good neighbours (ourselves!). That kind of money is a big ask, but it could see us up our profits by 50%, I reckon. Prayers for a yes or no from the Lord please!
Onesphore’s training 20 evangelists in Evangelism Explosion this week – may that be a huge success for long-term growth of that denomination.
Tanzanian filming went well, and we are all back safely, so that’s another one of the 14 films hopefully nailed for my book.
Family news: marriage is strong; Lizzie’s pregnancy seems to be going smoothly, although she obviously gets tired; Grace is mostly gorgeous (as you can see with latest pics if you click http://inthebuj.blogspot.com/ ) but occasionally screams so much we feel traumatized(!); Zac’s nickname is Captain Ernest as he is so funnily sincere – he’s a little rockstar; me, I’ve got a lot on my mind a lot of the time, so it was good to get away, but in general I just LOVE life and feel so incredibly blessed. USA plans seem to be moving ahead, maybe heading that way en famille in October – it’s not a definite but looking more likely, so wisdom needed with many decisions to be made.
Thanks again for being on the team,
Simon Guillebaud
Great Lakes Outreach
www.greatlakesoutreach.org