Burundi is a landlocked country in
Central Africa whose history, since gaining independence from Belgium in 1962,
has been wrought with heartache upon heartache.
Each year when the ranking of the
world’s poorest and most poverty stricken countries are released Burundi’s name
never leaves the bottom five.
In 1972, they experienced a period
of Genocide when the Hutu people wantonly killed the Tutsi people; over the
next decade the animosity between the people simmered below the surface until
1994, when the Tutsi took their revenge in yet another Genocide and slaughtered
the Hutu people. The country was plunged
into war, and between the Genocides and wars, over ten percent of the
population was killed.
Today, Burundi’s population of
twelve million people is desperate to climb out of poverty, war, and
destruction. They desire better days and are striving for them, but they do not
realize that anything better in this world is only temporary. What they need beyond anything else is to
know the God who will bring a BETTER day.
Some time ago the Grace Bible
Baptist Church began to be burdened to reach into the REGIONS BEYOND of
Burundi. The church began laying the
groundwork of reproducing itself in Burundi.
This coming Sunday the 27th of July, it will hold its first
official service in its newest church plant, the Bible Baptist Church of
Bujumbura, Burundi.
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| Grace Bible Baptist Church- Nakuru, Kenya |
A group of men from Grace Bible
Baptist Church are on the ground in Burundi; witnessing, teaching, holding Bible
studies, and preparing for the first service.
They have been joined by a second group of men from the Bible Baptist
Church of Uvira, DRC, who are helping in planting this new church.
Over the last several years the
church has sent men into Burundi nearly fifty times, and I have accompanied
them on at least thirty of those occasions.
Last November a group of twenty people from the church, both men and
women, took a missions trip to Burundi.
When they returned to Kenya, they returned with a burning desire and
burden for a Gospel preaching church to be planted in Burundi. During these trips, people have been saved,
training has taken place, and the ground has been prepared for the planting of
a church.
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| Bujumbura- Burundi |
A few weeks ago after speaking
about the upcoming church plant in Burundi, one of our Sunday School children
came up to me after the service and said, “Pastor our church’s heart is beating
for Burundi.” As I thought about that
statement I realized it is true only because God’s heart was first beating for
Burundi.
We do not know of any other church
planting going on in the entire country of Burundi amongst BAPTISTS. Won’t you join us in allowing your heart to
beat for Burundi? Let it beat by praying for Burundi. Let it beat by giving so the Gospel can go
forth in Burundi.
