Heidi and I are about to embark to new territory for Global Support. We’ll be traveling to Rwanda and Burundi, areas that Molly Kenzler and Kelly Bean and friends had traveled about a year ago today. There we’ll be visiting with Steven Turikunkiko, a Rwandan pastor who has taken in up to 20 children and three widows into his own household, then also has responsibility as pastor to a village of over 250 women, children (some men?) who are victims of Genocide, AIDs, and poverty. Global Support is already involved, along with a consortium of people in sending money to Steven to help him to some sustainability with his community of people.
We are expecting to visit memorial museums, church sites, graveyards that tell the story of the horrific genocide that took place under the world’s nose in 1994. No doubt we’ll experience the profundity of this time in their history with a great deal of empathy and pain for them. I’m not looking forward to this aspect, but I think one cannot travel to Rwanda/Burundi without feeling and being willing to walk with them in their pain.
Then we’ll be going to Burundi to visit the Batwa people (Pygmy) who are highly marginalized in that area. Not only are they at the bottom of the food chain, so to speak, they are the people group who are bonded servants. Very simply they are slaves. It’s indicated that as many as 8000 people are bonded servants in Burundi, but the number is likely much higher, for the obvious reason of difficulty verfying the numbers, reluctance of slave holder to identify them, etc. Only very, very recently has there even been a law outlawing this practice, but the enforcement is weak if not non-existent.
So, we will be hosted by a group of people in Burundi that are of the Batwa group. We will meet officials of this tribe, we’ll be hosted by a lady, among others, who is one of three representatives of the Batwa people in the Burundian Parliament. It is mandated that there should be at least three Twa representatives in Parliament. We’ll meet activists involved in advocating for this people group.
The Twa people almost never finish school. Yet one of their tickets out of poverty is thru education. The illiteracy rate is as high as 78%. We will be visiting a home where about 40 students have been supported and placed there, supplied clothing, books, room and board, in order to facilitate their finishing school. They are located in the capital, Bujumburu. Then we’ll be visiting the outlining villages where they are from.
We’ll be doing a bit of eco-tourism with a group of these people desiring to host environmentally friendly treks into the wild. We are really looking forward to this part.
Our objective is to determine if both these groups would be suitable and possible and meet Global Support criteria for bringing teams to the area. There are many details to work out…want to be sure that there’s enough infrastructure in their organizations that our help would be sustainable, reproducible, etc….not just throwing money at something. We want to be very careful in all aspects, sensitive to their needs, listening to them, etc. There’re needs everywhere. Where does Jesus want us to be….who does He have in mind for us to come along side. That is paramount.
So, please be in prayer for Heidi and myself, also for the people we will be visiting, also that Jesus would guide, and direct and lead us…..We have been experiencing a heightened level of spiritual warfare in preparation for the trip. Please pray for our spiritual protection in this process of planning – families tend to get attacked during this time, as well as finances and whatever else the enemy can find where we are vulnerable. Could you maybe covenant with yourself and Jesus to pray for us at least one time per day while gone? That would be awesome. Nov. 2nd – 18th.
