We have arrived in Burundi on 7th of February 2009 after a 12 hour stopover in Kigali/Rwanda. God has been so good to us, arriving at 02:00 am at Kigali not much is happing besides the 2 sleepy officials who were not sure what todo with us until the afternoon 14:00 when our connection to Burundi arrived. On top of the confusion our bags was not booked directly to Burundi and found 1 bag missing so we end up in a office at the airport completing a lost bag claim form...yes I had the thought, ya right this bag has one chance to arrive and I thought there was no chance at all. But you know although I’m supposed to be super spiritual and have 200% faith etc I really did doubt ever seeing my bag which was unmarked floating around somewhere in Africa. The official who helped us was Eliosis....God sent I'm telling you, he helped us book into a Hotel so we could get a few hours rest before collecting us for the connection to Burundi....he went beyond his duty and call to help us, we thank the Lord for this man. Well you might have been one of the people who prayed for my bag...thank you...and Praise God the bag did make it to Burundi which we collected on 19 Feb! Not even a week later our cargo also arrived which was another life experience in collecting the boxes and following the required process....again Praise God there was always someone who helped us and guided us, specially Ps Charles has become like a Father to us.
Arriving in Bujumbura we were met with a very happy Ps Charles....in fact he was waiting at the entrance where the passengers enter the building, to make sure that he can meet us earlier...we love Charles & Esperance and his family so much, they have taken us into their home and church and hearts with open arms. We have met and started building relationship with the leaders of the local church called Full Gospel Church. We have also visited all the projects which always amazes me of the spiritual growth that is taking place here in Burundi. We share the same vision with Ps Charles to build God’s church in Burundi/DRC/Tanzania and we trust Ps Charles to follow God’s vision. We also share the same vision to uplift the local community through Justice projects to become self sustainable in order to strengthen this Acts 2 Church, yes it feels like we are amongst the first church here in Burundi, people laying down their lives for the sake of the church so no one in family has a need.
The project that touches my heart the most is the Mothers Family (MFA) the government has donated about 10 hectors of ground to Ps Charles to be developed for the community. He immediately in 2008 started building on this land a centre where abused/abandoned women and children my take refuge. On the farm they have planted about 2 hectare of cassava (a plant you can make a kind of porridge), also a school has been build for the children, some cattle. These projects are huge and must be managed well to attract foreign sponsors. The MFA and children do not have running water which is key to improve basic sanitation and living conditions. Pls join us in trusting God to make a way for this to materialise. We joined Ps Charles this week where we met with a NGO to possibly assist in this way.
Diane and I have accepted to play a teaching role in the church with running a 6 day seminar per month for leaders, the first will start on 3 March. Also I will be very involved with helping and assisting each project from the church like the MFA to improve reporting both financially and to help manage the resources on the Farm project. I’ve also started building a google website for the Full Gospel Church in order to help facilitate a better understanding of the structure for the day to day running of the church and projects. Please pray for God’s plan and purpose for our lives to play out here in Gitega and that we will be obedient to Him.
New projects are always very exciting to us and we want to help initiate two such projects. Andrew Dart (in Liberty church) has donated 100 chicks (small chickens) for a project here in Gitega which we trust is going to be a major breakthrough for the MFA as this is a Full Gospel Church initiation and trust that God is going to open all the doors for us to import and run this project for them that is really suffering and to give hope to the children that most need it in this area! Also we want to duplicate the dried Mango project (M4J –Mangos for Jesus) which Etienne and Rani did in Zambia.
We are really praying for finance to purchase a vehicle now. More than ever we will need something that can go to all the projects in the rural areas and villages. We would like to get a Toyota land cruiser (70 type) nothing fancy and 2nd hand but capable. Please join us in praying for this need. I’ m waiting for exact costs for the vehicle....which I expect to be around $20 000.
Prayer points:
1. MFA – God opens the door to initiate a project to provide running water to the mothers and children staying on the farm.
2. M4J – for wisdom to pilot this project and initiative to implement in the local community.
3. Website – for the Church and Justice ministries.
4. Water – running water for Gitega and the guest house where we stay as well.
5. Vehicle – finance for this need and for the correct vehicle.
6. Vision – for Gods vision to materialise through his obedient servants here in Burundi.
7. Visas – for favour to receive them soon.
Love ya!
Arriving in Bujumbura we were met with a very happy Ps Charles....in fact he was waiting at the entrance where the passengers enter the building, to make sure that he can meet us earlier...we love Charles & Esperance and his family so much, they have taken us into their home and church and hearts with open arms. We have met and started building relationship with the leaders of the local church called Full Gospel Church. We have also visited all the projects which always amazes me of the spiritual growth that is taking place here in Burundi. We share the same vision with Ps Charles to build God’s church in Burundi/DRC/Tanzania and we trust Ps Charles to follow God’s vision. We also share the same vision to uplift the local community through Justice projects to become self sustainable in order to strengthen this Acts 2 Church, yes it feels like we are amongst the first church here in Burundi, people laying down their lives for the sake of the church so no one in family has a need.
The project that touches my heart the most is the Mothers Family (MFA) the government has donated about 10 hectors of ground to Ps Charles to be developed for the community. He immediately in 2008 started building on this land a centre where abused/abandoned women and children my take refuge. On the farm they have planted about 2 hectare of cassava (a plant you can make a kind of porridge), also a school has been build for the children, some cattle. These projects are huge and must be managed well to attract foreign sponsors. The MFA and children do not have running water which is key to improve basic sanitation and living conditions. Pls join us in trusting God to make a way for this to materialise. We joined Ps Charles this week where we met with a NGO to possibly assist in this way.
Diane and I have accepted to play a teaching role in the church with running a 6 day seminar per month for leaders, the first will start on 3 March. Also I will be very involved with helping and assisting each project from the church like the MFA to improve reporting both financially and to help manage the resources on the Farm project. I’ve also started building a google website for the Full Gospel Church in order to help facilitate a better understanding of the structure for the day to day running of the church and projects. Please pray for God’s plan and purpose for our lives to play out here in Gitega and that we will be obedient to Him.
New projects are always very exciting to us and we want to help initiate two such projects. Andrew Dart (in Liberty church) has donated 100 chicks (small chickens) for a project here in Gitega which we trust is going to be a major breakthrough for the MFA as this is a Full Gospel Church initiation and trust that God is going to open all the doors for us to import and run this project for them that is really suffering and to give hope to the children that most need it in this area! Also we want to duplicate the dried Mango project (M4J –Mangos for Jesus) which Etienne and Rani did in Zambia.
We are really praying for finance to purchase a vehicle now. More than ever we will need something that can go to all the projects in the rural areas and villages. We would like to get a Toyota land cruiser (70 type) nothing fancy and 2nd hand but capable. Please join us in praying for this need. I’ m waiting for exact costs for the vehicle....which I expect to be around $20 000.
Prayer points:
1. MFA – God opens the door to initiate a project to provide running water to the mothers and children staying on the farm.
2. M4J – for wisdom to pilot this project and initiative to implement in the local community.
3. Website – for the Church and Justice ministries.
4. Water – running water for Gitega and the guest house where we stay as well.
5. Vehicle – finance for this need and for the correct vehicle.
6. Vision – for Gods vision to materialise through his obedient servants here in Burundi.
7. Visas – for favour to receive them soon.
Love ya!
Anton & Diane van Schalkwyk
