Greetings! So lockdown started on a national level on Thursday. There’s no pretending these are easy times to go through… …but I’ve got a proposition for you, which I’d love as many of you as possible to get behind. All the more in our enforced confinement and isolation, this could be a spiritually bonding and strengthening discipline. We’re teaming up with St Andrew’s bookshop to get as many people as possible throughout the nation on the same page (literally) as we journey through the coming year. Many of you have already read Choose Life – in which case, could you […]
Simon Guillebaud
Tears of Joy in Burundi
I’ve watched this three times now, and cried the first two. It’s just so beautiful! Honestly, please watch it, you won’t regret it! It goes down as one of the top ten meetings of my life… So here is a huge thank you to those of you who responded to last week’s email. Actually, the point of the email was to highlight the grace of God as the foundation of our lives during times of crisis, as evidenced so beautifully by many of our precious Burundian brothers and sisters; not to ask for money – that was just a PS at the end, offering […]
Only By Grace in Burundi
Greetings! I’ve spent the last half-hour trying not to cry… …I’m in a meeting with folks I journeyed with for twenty years, who are sharing reminiscences of (mostly) highs and (some) lows that we experienced together. And currently they’re battling through some really tough times. My two biggest prayers for Burundi this year – once the pandemic struck – was that Burundi would be spared the worst of covid, and that the elections would go peacefully. For your encouragement, those prayers have both been massively answered. It genuinely seems like covid is not having an impact here – a few […]
Quick Gorgeous Smiley THANK YOU!
Through the incredible generosity of so many of you, we were able to supply 615 GLO-related families with a chunky gift to help them with buying school uniforms and stationery, and getting their kids back to school. Just wonderful! So on behalf of all the parents and children, THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH! GLO’s Grace went to visit our partner New Generation to film this ‘thank you’ video so that you can catch some of the joy of kids being able to go to school. It’s less than a minute, and might just bring a tear (of joy) to […]
Dropping out of School (or not)…
Leo walked 12 miles each way to and from school every day, so desperate was he to learn. That blows my mind. In the West, we’re not usually as grateful for the gift of education (although lockdown frustrations have maybe changed that a little). Recognising Leo’s commitment, we bought him a bicycle to save both time and energy. He is so deeply thankful. Many of my friends in Burundi during their childhood would walk 2-3 hours a day to and from the nearest school. Education is power, education is the future, education is the hope of a better life. So you […]
Come Down!
‘Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.’ (Habakkuk 3:2) Sunday’s sermon at Holy Trinity Cheltenham can be viewed below. The covid limitations and seating restrictions were a little strange, but it was good to be back in a church, and we had a powerful time. Below is some of what I shared: A few years ago I flew to the Hebrides to speak at a number of meetings. It was great to go to places I’d read about from the 1949-52 revival there, and even talk […]
Rocking Revival Prayer
Have you ever wept in prayer before? I can count on one hand the number of times I have. I guess I/we could fake it, but that’d be worse than not praying at all, I suspect. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO WATCH THIS… For those of us who heard it as he prayed, we were all left stunned. Since lockdown, we have been meeting on Zoom every week with between 100 and 150 people from a dozen nations across time zones to hear what God is doing in Burundi. Various Burundian brothers and sisters leading different ministries have shared inspiring […]
Quintuple-Whammy Good News in Burundi…
Enough of the endless stream of bad news in our Covid-19-affected world, let’s read some heart-warming encouragements! The below is a selection of transformational stories from J-Life in the community of Ciya, an area decimated over the years of war: Remember Arcade from my last newsletter, who looks like a 10-year-old but is in fact 19? He’s had his surgery in the capital, against all odds. He’s now fit and well, and itching to get on with his education. Fantastic! Last Easter, we shared Theogene’s story. His parents had been murdered and he and his brother were destitute. We helped […]
How Long Will This Epidemic Last?
“My belief is that when you’re telling the truth, you’re close to God. If you say to God, “I am exhausted and depressed beyond words, and I don’t like You at all right now, and I recoil from most people who believe in You,” that might be the most honest thing you’ve ever said. If you told me you had said to God, “It is all hopeless, and I don’t have a clue if You exist, but I could use a hand,” it would almost bring tears to my eyes, tears of pride in you, for the courage it takes […]
How old is this child?
The answer is he is not a child, he is a 19-year-old young adult called Arcade. It’s difficult to believe… but when you hardly ever get any food to eat, physical development is stunted. More of his story is below… …before that, I want to praise the Lord for peaceful elections. Seriously. Last time in 2015, it got really messy. But in a month of dramatic twists, the outgoing President died suddenly, and so the new President was quickly inaugurated for the sake of stability. He’s got a tough job on his hands, but I’m praying (who wouldn’t want this […]
Why I’m no longer a Christian… Part 2
This blog will only make sense if you’ve read the last one, please do so… Done? OK, I’ll carry on. I felt the need to write a follow-up to the last blog because a number of highly intelligent and spiritual people, whom I respect deeply, responded unfavourably to it, expressing disappointment and loving concern for me. Was I going soft? On the edge of burn-out? Losing my faith? The answer is no. My contention was and still is simply that the use of language is nuanced, and I question the received meaning of words such as ‘Christian’, ‘Christianity’, ‘missionary’, etc in […]
My Failed First Relationship and then Finding True Love…
Gini was my first love (or should I say lust?). It didn’t work out well, much to my chagrin… I was given 5 minutes as part of 24-hour speaking event, and this is what I came up with. Feel free to pass on to folks who could do with hearing it. Next steps? Over lockdown I’ve been looking at the Alpha Course. Short videos that are so clear and helpful. Here’s the first one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBMMD5C0k-s
Why I’m no longer a Christian…
It might surprise some of you when I say that I stopped being a Christian about ten years ago. Last week’s picture of the world’s most powerful man holding up a Bible for what was in my view a questionable photo-opportunity polarized many, and prompted much discussion and outrage. It certainly got me thinking, and such events reinforce my reticence to be identified with ‘Christianity’. In his book ‘Blue Like Jazz’, Donald Miller recounts how a secular talk show host urged him to defend Christianity on air. Miller refused to do so, which made the host curious: He asked […]
Nearly Committing Murder at my Wedding Proposal, George Floyd, and Life to the Full
This is an interview I just did with Wes Poirot. Some interviews are a bit of a waste of time, but his questions were brilliant and I do think this is worth a listen. Here goes: And If you’ve got teenage kids (we watch his daily short video as a family over breakfast), why don’t you subscribe and get a daily discipleship shot in the arm together, we’ve loved it. Subscribe here.
The Gospel Call – Urgent, Costly, Precious
William Booth’s last speech to the Salvation Army ended with this: “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight. While little children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll fight. While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight. While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight – I’ll fight to the very end!” Greetings! The above and below are a few of the stories I shared in this talk […]
The Adventure of Calling
My life motto is John 10:10 where Jesus says: “I have come that you might have life, and life to the full.” This talk on the Adventure of Calling was given a few months ago in North Carolina. It definitely applies to all of us, and is worth a listen. Below I’ll paste a few quotes that I included: If you want the adventure of calling, you have to COME: Claim God’s promisesObey God’s instructionsMaintain faith in God’s leadingEmbrace risks for God’s glory “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road […]
Doing a Moses for Burundi and Beyond…
How long do you think you could hold your arms out wide for? That’s what I tried to do yesterday for the first time. Why not give it a go?! I managed so much longer than I thought possible, imagining that every extra cramping second signified more lives saved, which actually was the case with Moses in Exodus 17 (I’ll tell you how long I managed at the end). Whilst the Israelites under Joshua’s leadership defended themselves against an Amalekite attack down in the valley, Moses was up the top of a hill with Aaron and Hur. Verse 11 says: […]
Faith in Word and Deed
A vicar was too busy to help a desperate homeless lady needing help. He fobbed her off with a promise to pray for her. She wrote the following poem and gave it to a local Shelter officer: I was hungry,And you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger.I was imprisoned,And you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.I was naked,And in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.I was sick,And you knelt and thanked God for your health.I was homeless,And you preached a sermon on the spiritual shelter of the love of God.I […]
Lockdown Talk for Schools…
A few years ago, Fenn Chapman, a 16-year-old from Rugby School, flogged some techy gear to raise some money, and then flew to the Bahamas during term-time. Reporters got wind of it and knew it would make a good story. One of them eventually tracked him down on the beach and asked Fenn why he did it. Fenn replied: “I started thinking about the rest of my life: university, a job, buying a car, getting married, a mortgage, and then dying. I thought there had to be something more to life than this. So I had to get away for […]
Top 10 Tips from 20 Years in Burundi…
One US lady was sharing her testimony in Francophone Africa. She wanted to say in French that her past was divided into two parts. Instead of ‘passé’ she said ‘derrière’ (behind, backside). She went on to say that one part of her butt was black, one part was white, and between the two there was a great chasm! Greetings to you all in lockdown (or not) wherever in the world. This is a talk I gave at a missions conference in North Carolina called New Wineskins (https://newwineskins.org) a few months ago. Grace and peace to you, Simon