Against All Odds

Emile’s Extraordinary Journey

Get ready for what I think will be a healthy challenge to how easy it is to feel we have it hard in life… Speaking personally, It’s so easy to grumble about minor inconveniences like slow Wi-Fi, traffic jams, or the wrong coffee order – while others around the world battle to survive, let alone thrive. Then someone like Emile comes along and reminds us what determination, faith, and perseverance really look like.

Emile Ndayikengurukiye was born into deep poverty in rural Burundi, the youngest of seventeen children in a struggling family. His father had no job and took very little responsibility, and his mother, who had to work in the fields to survive, could only dream of giving her children more than the bare minimum. No one in his family had ever gone to school, but his mother wanted to make a way – especially after losing so many of their family in the troubles of 1994. For Emile, even owning a single notebook felt like a luxury. His mother could afford just one 48-page exercise book each year, in which he wrote down every subject.

By all worldly measures, his future seemed predetermined: poverty, illiteracy, and despair.

Yet, in 2008, something changed. Pastor Augustin from Scripture Union visited his village and preached from 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation”. Emile saw himself differently for the first time. A spark ignited. Hope, long-buried beneath hardship, began to rise.

He started making bricks and labouring in fields to pay his own way through secondary school, earning 500 francs a day, just a few pence. With the conviction that he was chosen by God, Emile pressed on. He completed high school against all odds, then took a risk few would dare: moving to Bujumbura, with no money, no family, and no plan except faith.

A friend offered him a temporary place to stay, and a security company hired him for $25/month – barely enough to live on. Yet from that first meagre salary, he registered for university. In his own words, “I held tightly to the truth that I am part of God’s chosen people.”

After years of sacrifice and prayer, Emile managed to graduate with a degree in Clinical and Social Psychology – the first and only in his family to complete an education! Another key moment came when he heard Pastor Ruben Safari preach in his church about Paul’s life of hardship, and ask the congregation, “Why not serve God? Are you suffering persecution like Paul?” This was the moment he knew he should become a Scripture Union unpaid volunteer – a journey that now has him preaching across Burundi, sharing hope with others who had none before.

Today, Emile coordinates SU’s work in the South. He supports 17 relatives with school fees and uniforms, helps his wife (herself an orphan) pursue her education, and continues to mentor young people who face the same mountains he once climbed.

From being hopeless to being a beacon of hope… and spreading it wherever he goes! Wow!

When asked about his future, Emile doesn’t talk about comfort or career. He dreams of helping rural church leaders’ families who live in hardship. He longs to pursue a master’s degree to serve better. His vision is simple but profound: to rekindle hope in those who feel forgotten.

In a world where so much comes easily, Emile’s story should stop us in our tracks. He reminds us that faith, perseverance, and a refusal to give up can transform even the bleakest beginning.

May his example challenge us all – not to settle for ease, but to live with purpose, gratitude, and hope.

Emile with local Church Leaders