It’s been a rough month, with two of God’s best troops taken out by cancer – but both of these friends have died well and impacted so many in the process. I’m going to Richard Garnett’s* funeral/celebration of life next week. Many of you will have heard of Steve Legg. I interviewed him with Carl Beech early last summer, just after he’d been given a couple of months to live. Well, he battled on for a full extra year, and ran his race beautifully. He continued touring, making people laugh and cry as he shared his comedy acts with the […]
Simon Guillebaud
5-year-old 4-hour Walkers in Burundi…
These 5-year-old boys are about to embark on a two-hour walk home from school to the second hill you can see. They make the journey twice per day – that blows my mind! It’s easy to take school for granted in the West, but for these kids, a decent education is their best hope of escaping the desperate poverty they have grown up in. This coming week, Burundian kids will be due to return to school en masse for the new year, but not all of them will make it! You see, even though education is apparently free, families still have to pay for […]
Keep the milk flowing in Burundi!
This 2-min film shows the beautiful community impact brought about through Milk For Transformation. It was pioneered by my friend Evariste with the idea of bringing in cross-bred sturdy and milk-rich Friesian cows into Burundi. As a result, about 5,000 people’s lives have been lifted out of extreme poverty, as it has created a chain of employment and empowerment all the way from production to distribution around the city. Stunning! That’s the good news… …the bad news is that now Burundi is on its knees because there has been a crippling fuel crisis for the last two years. I’m hoping this email will […]
Living in the Light and Living as Light
This is a sermon from a few months ago given at Spring Harvest in Skegness. My given title was ‘Living in the Light and Living as Light’ Ephesians 5:8-13 ‘For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated […]
Kingdom Commission! Isaiah 61:1-4
There is a Thomas the Tank Engine cartoon that pictures Thomas on his side, having fallen off the train tracks. He is shouting, ‘I’m free! I’m free at last. I’ve fallen off the rails and I’m free!’ Of course, the reality is that Thomas is far more ‘free’ when his wheels are on the rails and he is operating in line with how he has been created to function.’ I preached this sermon at All Saints Weston Sunday evening on the back of a massive sucker punch on my return from Burundi Thursday, and the combination of physical weariness from […]
Tough times and a cry for help…
It’s bad. Really bad… In the area around Thierry’s house, seven people have been killed by hippos. Then there are the crocs, snakes, mosquitoes, parasites, the open sewage leading to cholera… the list goes on. Thierry, my Anglican pastor friend, has lost his house (and his church) to the huge floods in Burundi. Lake Tanganyika has risen by twelve feet to its highest level since 1960, displacing 200,000+ people, many of whom are utterly destitute. Take a look at this clip filmed by my colleague Raissa from a dugout canoe. Lord, have mercy on Burundi! Staple foods like rice and beans have increased in cost by […]
Who is the Holy Spirit to you?
From my uncle Ross Paterson’s book ’The Antioch Factor’, I find this section very challenging: Walter Lewis Wilson was an American doctor born towards the end of the nineteenth century. He was a faithful Christian who hosted visiting missionaries to his church. One visitor from France didn’t mince words, asking him, “Who is the Holy Spirit to you?” Wilson’s answer was doctrinally correct, “One of the Persons of the Godhead… Teacher, Guide, Third Person of the Trinity.” But it was an empty and rehearsed response. His friend pushed him harder, challenging him, “You haven’t answered my question.” Wilson opened up […]
No more crashes this Easter!
I’m a man of faith. I believe in Jesus’ resurrection, which we will celebrate this coming Sunday. But some things are beyond resurrection! “One of the major challenges we encountered was the lack of adequate equipment such as computers.” Taken from an update by a GLO partner in 2023 So many of our amazing leaders, and their teams, struggle on, using tired laptops which are painfully slow, often crash and are barely able to handle the demands of opening a spreadsheet. We need to do something right now. I once lost three weeks of work when my computer crashed – for these key leaders […]
Tears and Bullets in Burundi
As I stood up to preach, I burst into tears in the pulpit. It was July 2003 and I had flown back from Burundi and on to the USA for my first preaching tour there. I was with a wonderful church called St Andrew’s in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina. Memories of this moment came flooding back a few days ago when I visited my old office on the outskirts of Bujumbura. It was a time of reminiscing and rejoicing. Back in 2003, I was distraught because at the very moment I was preaching at the midweek service, in Burundi rebels had attacked […]
Gospel Confidence
As I look around, I think it’s fair to say we lack gospel confidence in this country. For what it’s worth, I want you to know that yesterday, more people came to faith in Jesus than any other day in the history of humanity. The kingdom of God is advancing! So, last month I’m preaching in the bush in Burundi to about 3000 people, and we’re very clear in the appeal, only come forward if it’s your first time to choose to follow Jesus… and that night, 224 people responded. That’s one outreach in the middle of nowhere. I pray […]
All Good Things Come to An End…
Or Do they? Nothing has brought me more joy and pain in 25 years of ministry in Burundi. Maybe that’s a little overstated, but building what is considered the best dedicated conference centre in the country certainly caused many sleepless nights, stressful days, frustrating weeks and more. Phase 1 launched in 2009, Phase 2 in 2021. It’s been a looooong journey, through the upheaval of renewed violence in 2015 when the country imploded, through Covid shutdown… but King’s Conference Centre as a social enterprise has more than survived… it has thrived! And the key person coordinating and leading several dozen […]
“I used my sweater to cover the stain…”
“One day, while sitting in class, my makeshift pad leaked. When I stood up, I realized that I had stained my school uniform. I asked a classmate if she could spare a pad, but she too was in need. I wrapped my jumper around my waist and requested permission to leave.” For Exaveline, what should be a typical day turns into a recurring nightmare when her monthly period arrives. At just 16 years old, she cannot afford sanitary pads, and she has exhausted all possible methods to prevent staining her school uniform. Unfortunately, her attempts often fail, leaving her feeling […]
Battle Stations!
Last Sunday, I preached at Emmanuel Croydon to finish off their Ephesians series with chapter 6 and the Armour of God. I entitled it ‘Battle Stations!’ Do take a listen here: And below are a few juicy quotes: John Piper: “Probably the number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for… But what have millions of Christians done? We have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no […]
Happy Halloween?
What do you make of Halloween? I’m conflicted. On one level, it’s just an excuse for a good time, and I love the chance to engage with the community and be out and about. But on another level, I’m uncomfortable with the sinister underbelly and know that as a follower of Jesus, I need to be awake to those darker realities. So I thought I’d share with you two of my friends’ stories, who were witches themselves. I think their opinions and experiences are more important and authoritative than mine, and what happened in their lives is frankly mind-blowing. Well […]
Pursuing His Power
WARNING: This blog contains two prayers which could radically alter your life. If you’d rather things stay as they are, then please stop here. This is the fourth talk in the ‘Hot Pursuit’ series, delivered at Lee Abbey in August. Pursuing His Presence Pursuing His Peace Pursuing His Purpose Pursuing His Power You can listen here: Some notes/quotes/illustrations from the talk: Some years ago a young man looking for work approached a foreman of a logging crew and asked him for a job. “It depends,” replied the foreman “lets see you take this one down”. The young man stepped forward, and skillfully felled a […]
Pursuing His Purpose
This is the third talk in the ‘Hot Pursuit’ series, delivered at Lee Abbey in August. Pursuing His Presence Pursuing His Peace Pursuing His Purpose Pursuing His Power This is the story of one of my heroes: Robert Jermaine Thomas (1839-1866) from Kingsley Armstrong’s book: After Robert Thomas found the Lord, he began preaching at age 15. He went to train at New College, London; met Caroline Godfrey, got engaged, married, ordained and sailed to China the same year. In 1863 Robert said goodbye to his homeland. He was twenty-four when he travelled with his new wife on a ship from Gravesend […]
Pursuing His Peace
This is the second talk in the ‘Hot Pursuit’ series, delivered at Lee Abbey in August. Pursuing His PresencePursuing His Peace Pursuing His PurposePursuing His Power You can listen here: Some notes/quotes/illustrations from the talk: Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” What is Shalom? Completeness, soundness, welfare, peace. At ease, favour, health, peaceful, prosperity, safety, secure, security, rest, trust in relationships, wellness, well-being. Acknowledge your fear Become aware of his presence Claim his promises “The beginning of fear is the end of faith; the beginning of true faith is the […]
Stunning Modern-Day Miracles!
You might struggle to believe some of the following stories from last month’s outreach. I hope not though. ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Hebrew 13:8). So here are some feedback highlights, having asked folks to pray last month as we sent out 1,439 young evangelists from 88 churches for two weeks all around Burundi. The top-line summary is that they saw over 23,000 people come to faith! It’s the modern-day Acts of the Apostles! Here goes: An Urge for Healing In the small village of Bwambarangwe in Kirundo province, 41-year-old Diomede had lain paralysed from the waist down and […]
Pursuing His Presence
This series of sermons was delivered at Lee Abbey in August under the title ‘Hot Pursuit’. I’ll release them over the next few weeks in turn. Pursuing His PresencePursuing His PeacePursuing His PurposePursuing His Power What are you pursuing? In greyhound racing, the dogs are trained to chase after a mechanical rabbit, which is controlled by a man in the press box. He keeps the rabbit just in front of the dogs so that they keep chasing it as fast as they can. During one race at a Florida track, as the dogs hurtled after the rabbit, there was an […]
Resurrection Life!
This sermon was from my recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina, delivered at the Cathedral Church downtown. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”(John 11:25-26)I tell the story of my friend Providence, who died in 2012, but is still alive today! Try to get your head around that one – you can read her amazing story here. Here are a couple of quotes from the talk: Shortly before Moody graduated to glory, he said: “Someday you will read […]