Faith, Hope and Love....
In this issue of Burundi news you can read about:
•
Veritas…. VCI sub-Sahara conference.
•
Development…Acat partnership series continue to expand
into key capacity building organizations
•
Vision 2014… we are sensing that God is calling us into…
We have been privileged to visit South Africa twice this year.
On our first visit in May our beautiful daughter graduated receiving her
education degree (Bed). Also Bernice accepted Dwayne’s marriage proposal. So
our visit was marked with graduation and surprise engagement celebrations. They
are planning for their wedding in September 2014.
Our second visit in September was marked with a few very
important ministry related meetings and seminars. We enjoyed the Fearless
conference hosted by our sending Church and also shared the occasion to witness
Liberty planting 4 new Church campuses, in 3 countries (UK, Tanzania and SA) on
2 continents in 1 day….hence the vision was coined 4,3,2,1….celebrating 20
years ministry of Liberty church founded by DJ and Karen McPhail. We are very
thankful for Liberty leadership for your love and support.
Veritas…
In addition we attended the Veritas College International (VCI)
sub-Sahara Africa conference held the last week of September, during which we
could meet most of the 15 countries training Veritas in this region. The
time together was refreshing and gave us a larger perspective of what God is
doing in countries around Burundi, and how the church in this region face very
similar challenges of the lack of Biblical based Ministry training which will
develop leaders how to bring hope to their impoverished congregations. During
the conference VCI announced that they are going to develop training material
to help address poverty through building capacity by introducing a
well-researched Livelihood program.
I am so thrilled to be working with Veritas College, which is
one of my core passions to serve the body of Christ by equipping leaders for
the work of the Lord…The Lord is building our Faith.
As facilitators of Veritas work being done in Burundi we
prayerfully together with VCI, are seeing God to establish a legal entity,
Veritas College Burundi (VCB). If we can raise enough donors to fund the long
term training in Burundi, then we will go ahead with, Ruben Safari as our
national coordinator. Ruben Safari a minister in the Anglican Church, who
completed his masters in ministry, had also been training the Veritas
foundational modules over the last 5 years together with Tim van Aarde. Ruben
has accepted to lead the work going forward. Therefore Ruben together with the
VCB board will be responsible in the future growing the Veritas training in
Burundi. The board will consist of both Burundian and foreigners. I have
committed to continue training my 4 groups with Module 3 in the short term
while serving on the VCB board.
This will be an exciting development as we see how the years of
work is now finally receiving a more formal structure. Please pray for unity
and wisdom with this venture.
Development…
We also had an ACAT steering meeting in Howick, in September, to
discuss the impact and planned ACAT partnership series training to different
partners in Burundi and possibly Congo. The partnership series is intended to
build capacity into key community leaders to initiate effective programmes in
their area of responsibility to address poverty.
We therefore choose to focus and mentor a few key partners and
transfer as much knowledge to them in the time Diane and I have left in
Burundi. The partners we currently working with are:
1.
Vivant Church
2.
AMEC (Methodist Church)
3.
CEPBU (NPO) in partnership with Hauge Family Microfinance
4.
Dutarabane (NPO)
ACAT accepted to send Rick and Lynne Phipson, programme leaders
from their South African base, to Burundi to facilitate the next level
Partnership series course, Implementation, Managing, Administering and
Development Programme to Address Poverty. The course was held 24-29
November 2013 in Gitega province, Burundi.
We received 26 participants from Burundi and DRC representing
numerous languages. Some were pastors, whilst others were lay people from
business and development organizations.
During the week training we made time to take the participants
on a field visit to meet some families who have implemented the Basic Life
Skills training of which the outcomes are homestead based – forming small
groups of 5 to 7 and implementing home food security, small business
enterprises, studying the Word of God and most times you find that people start
planning and setting goals for themselves to leave poverty as we see it in
Burundi.
Jesus Christ is our true hope and assurance to continue to reach
out with a helping hand. ACAT has been this tool for us in Burundi to bring
hope to people who ask and are willing to change.
We have also received invitations from two of our key partners,
CEPBU and Dutarabane, both organizations are focused on developing the rural
poor in Burundi. They agreed to organize and host the leadership and
Implementation training independently in January and February 2014. This is
exactly one of the outcomes we prayed for, that Burundian organizations may
take ownership for developing the nation; to pass on the hope we have received
so abundantly.
Spiritual Thought…
1 Cor 13
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the
greatest of these is love.”
Please read the whole chapter 13 and view my comments on the
passage in context to the whole book. The church of Corinth had many problems.
Some of the Corinthians struggles were wrong beliefs, arrogance and immaturity.
The major struggle was with the concept of what it means to be
"spiritual".
They combined their spiritual experiences of the Holy Spirit
with intellectual pride with an emphasis on the manifestation of the gifts of
the Holy Spirit e.g. prophecies, speaking in tongues, healings, etc. Instead of
the gifts maturing believers into unity, it caused division in the church.
So Paul writes this letter to the Corinthian church to bring a
balance between the gifts and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit work in two ways in all believers.
a) Holy Spirit gives gifts to all believers (1 Cor 12).
b) The Holy Spirit develops the fruit of the spirit in believers
(Gal 5) i.e. process of sanctification. (To transform the character of believers
in to the likeness of Jesus Christ).
In 1 Cor 12:31, Paul says "now I will show you the most
excellent way"…. i.e. Paul wants to encourage believers to seek the fruit
of the spirit, which builds character rather than only to focus on the gifts of
the Holy Spirit.
Paul zooms into one of the fruits: love. Love is an action used
as a verb, and makes the case that without love the gifts has no lasting
effect. People don’t follow your teaching they follow your example. I have seen
it over and over Burundi, Pastors who has a love for money or power, develop
followers with same character.
The man filled with Love v4-7 Paul is describing Jesus Christ –
The goal of the Holy Spirit is to transform believers into the character of
Jesus Christ, a man of love.
a) LOVE does not delight in evil
b) LOVE rejoices with truth - Love and Truth go together (Eph
4:15)
c) LOVE always protects
d) LOVE always trusts
e) LOVE always hopes
f) LOVE always perseveres and can never be destroyed.
Love as Paul explains it has to do with character, the way we
behave. Many of the causes of poverty, we find in the field relates directly to
the lack of Godly character, which is emphasized by the lack of leader’s
ability to interpret the Word of God correctly. Man made laws in churches
attempts to bring behavior changes, but this will only bring more bondage to
believers.
To facilitate true change in believers we have to focus on
building believers’ faith, understanding the deeper love of God expressed
through the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Paul explains the way of love, a relationship with Jesus brings
freedom and will lead to the Holy Spirit developing Godly character in
believers, so that we are led in our decision making every day by the law of
His love for us.
From God's love comes our FAITH (Eph 2:4)
From God's love comes HOPE - We hope for salvation and eternal
life. Once in heaven you will only find love. Faith and hope in heaven will no
longer be needed. Faith will be replaced by having the privilege to live with
God for eternity. Our Hope will be completely satisfied by His saturated
presence.
Now let us connect our Faith, to our Hope through the Love which
rules in our hearts and let’s go out into the world and live life seeking to
govern with love, serve with love and be the best that we can to bring glory to
Jesus by building His Kingdom!
Thank You
We are so thankful for your faithful prayers and financial
support of the work in Burundi. I wish I could list each person’s name here to
express our gratitude!! But God knows you and for us that is good enough to
know that the Lord is your portion and your good reward. God Bless!
Vision 2014…
We starting
to see how the Lord has been preparing us in every season for the next step
i.e. first being involved with corporate business and then on a ministry level
in Burundi which have really been such a training ground for us, in that we
first hand could experience the needs and struggles of the local churches in
Central Africa. We are sensing that God is calling us into a wider spectrum of
meeting this need of the church through joining Veritas College International a
faith-based organization.
After the
first week of conference Veritas hosted in September I was invited to a further
4 day regional meeting which gave me insight into the work VCI is doing through
30 countries world wide. I had the opportunity to meet all the board members
both exec and non-exec's during our time together. Bennie Wolvaardt, the
founder and CEO and Ivan Skinner an exec board member of VCI have invited me to
consider joining VCI operations in Stellenbosch with a focus on the work in
Africa.
This
opportunity is both exciting and very suited to my experience and skills. The
new location will also provide Diane new opportunities for ministry.
Therefore
over the course of some months we have been weighing these opportunities before
the Lord. The challenge as always, is not to become comfortable with our area
are familiarity, we sense the call to accept therefore this new season where
the Lord takes us yet a bit deeper into His plans and purposes. At the moment
we have peace to accept this opportunity.
Prayer
Points…
1. Next
step from Burundi -
for
- Leading of
the Lord to join VCI.
- Timing of
our exit, possibly August 2014.
- Transition
to SA, Stellenbosch.
- Effective
exit strategy.
- Continued
personal financial support, as VCI is a faith-based ministry.
2. Peace
for Burundi – pray for
continued political stability in the country.
3. Pray
for Bernice – for the
wedding preparations in September 2014.
4. Pray
for us – protection
for our health, relationships - that no weapon from the enemy against us will
prevail. Also for the ongoing relationships in the local church we connect
into.
5. Holy
Spirit – ask the
Holy Spirit to guide us into all divine appointments He has created for us and
to discern His words of wisdom.
6.
Veritas Training
- Thank God
for His divine provision, also pray for ongoing provision for the books
required. Pray for the launch of Module 3 groups.
- Veritas
College Burundi finance.
7. ACAT – for implementation. God will
establish leaders that will hear His call to reach the Active poor in Burundi.
God bless
you for your prayers and intercession.
