How are you doing? How are you feeling? I’m usually an 8.5/10 but would give myself 5.5/10 in lockdown. I feel like a caged, frustrated animal. Yet I’m aware that although we’re all in the same storm, we’re not all in the same boat – my boat’s one of the nicest, which makes me feel all the worse for being grumpy and lacking in positivity! However, I’m determined to combat that darkness, and I want to challenge all of us to consider joining in something like the following: It’s very simple. I’ve just bought this portable Bluetooth speaker. Now multiple times […]
Category: General
The Big Church 365 Choose Life Read
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
Reminiscing About a Previous Lockdown…
I’ve been reflecting on the events of 2015 in Burundi as we’ve re-entered a very different type of lockdown with COVID-19. In 2015, it was election violence which led to our spending time hunkered down at home, rather than today’s threat of an invisible virus. We were not told to stay at home, but common sense dictated when it would be foolish to go outside. Youths put rocks fifty yards up our road to stop any vehicles passing. Another 200 yards away at the main intersection, trees were felled, and a barricade was set on fire. Those seeking regime change […]
Shingles and Taking on the World Silver Medallist!
Sometimes I’m a seriously slow learner. I was speaking a couple of weeks ago in Bujumbura from Hebrews 12 and running the race with/for God. In the front row, I spotted one of Burundi’s heroes, Charles Nkazamyampi. He’s become a good friend over the last few years. I love what he does, using his fame as a vehicle for reconciliation and forgiveness around the country. So I took the opportunity to have a race against him around the church! Who won? Take a look… Incidentally, he tells some of his remarkable story HERE. Running and getting the silver medal in […]
10 Top Lessons from 20 Years in Burundi…
TED/MAP talk in North Carolina at New Wineskins Conference Hello, my name is Simon Guillebaud. I’ve recently completed 20 years working in Burundi, a conflict zone in Central Africa, and one of the most beautiful but broken countries on the planet. That’ll do on introduction, time is short. This TED/MAP talk is just 15 minutes to share my top ten lessons from two decades of cross-cultural work – isn’t that an impossible task? I’ll try. So I’m picturing Paul in his cell in Rome, and he’s about to be led away to have his head chopped off (he probably died […]
Nuts to be Normal
Should this become a book? That is the question I’m wrestling with. Maybe your honest feedback will help me make my decision. During our year of travel, I started with writing a book as my intention, and below is what I’d begun with. But then a few months in, a few key folks said I should drop it and live in the present, rather than sharing our lives too publicly. So I dropped it. But the kids thought it was a good idea. And then a number of folks have written asking me to. So, what to do? I don’t […]
The World Tour in Numbers…
I’ve purposefully hardly shared about our travels this year – choosing to live in the present and not putting it all ‘out there’. So the focus of this blog has been largely on Burundi; but many of you have asked about our travels, so here’s one way of reporting back – and others have been asking about our summer plans, so I’ll paste details of them below as well: 43,000 miles in travel 1,700 new GLO supporters for our database 304 days away, of which… 284 days staying with people (so only 20 days in hotels or AirBnB) $220 for […]
Beautiful New Life, the Seemingly Impossible Happening…
Nobody would have ever believed it possible, but it has indeed happened. There is always hope, even in the most apparently hopeless situations. So I just wanted to share the joy of Freddy (formerly-melted-faced-beggar-now-graduated-with-distinction-from-university-and-married) and Floride having their first baby yesterday. Oli weighed in at 3.5kg and came into this world by C-section. For your prayers, he’s trying to get set up with a new pharmacy business, but it’s hard to do it honestly, which is causing significant delays. May there be a breakthrough somehow. Wishing them all joy and success in their new adventure together! Read the background to […]
Cumulative Little Steps…
On the back of last week’s Phone-Call/Email from God, I got this brilliant response from a friend, which I wanted to share with you: I know friends who read your emails and they are hungry for more of God. However, there is a passiveness in the ‘waiting for the phone call’. They are paralysed by the big end to the stories and they don’t know how to get there. You have a powerful voice and many people read your emails what would be amazing would be to hear you encourage those first baby steps. There are few people who will […]
A Phone Call/Blog from God!
A phone call changed the trajectory of my life. Many of you know the story already.* And this weekend, we hung out with a man (pictured above, Lizzie and I, with Ted and Lorraine) for whom likewise a phone call rocked his world and gave it a remarkable trajectory. I want to share his story because you don’t need a phone call to experience what he and I have, but the potential of being open and ready to say ‘yes!’ is simply extraordinary. Ted Bosveld was visiting Rwanda in 2006 when his phone rang. It was my best Burundian buddy […]
Big Opportunities…For You?
What do you know about Slovenia? I knew virtually nothing until we went there this last week. And yesterday I got to preach at the biggest evangelical church in the country, which you’re probably thinking is a few thousand people strong. But no, it was maybe 130 people, because there are only about 500 evangelicals in the whole country! Out of a population of a little over 2 million people, that makes just 0.025%! I think part of this year’s purpose as we travel and preach around the world is highlighting areas of need. The week before we were in […]
A Call from Macedonia!
Greetings from a small village just outside Shtip in Macedonia! We’ve just had a stunning weekend of outreach alongside Brother Jimmy from Nigeria, who has been here 35 years and done incredible pioneering work during that time. Macedonia has 0.2% evangelical believers – that’s 2 out of every 1,000 people. The gospel needs are huge. Over this last weekend, I got the chance to blast around the country and speak at seven of those churches, each in towns where there was no other Christian witness. We arrived, preached, said goodbye, drove another two hours, preached again etc. Apart from the […]
Top 3 Life-Lessons from 20 years in Burundi
The above picture was taken on Day 1 of our world tour, as we set sail from England with the white cliffs of Dover in the background. Three weeks in, we still love each other(!), are in our 10th country, Romania, and have had some precious times. The only place I’m regularly posting is Instagram if you want to follow our movements: @simon.guillebaud I’ve waited a few months to allow my thoughts to percolate after finishing twenty years of living in Burundi, and all that I learnt in that time. There were, of course, many lessons from living in a […]
The Adventure Begins!
After another frenetic and fruitful summer of preaching and family fun, the big day has arrived. Tomorrow we embark on our 33-country 10-month preaching and world-schooling tour. I feel a mixture of emotions – excited, daunted, and if I’m honest a tinge of fear. Why the tinge of fear? Well, we’ve got a good marriage (I usually describe it as great, whilst Lizzie says it’s good!), but I sense it’ll be tested in new ways this year on the road. And the kids are experiencing the pains of transitioning out of the stability of their home in Burundi. None of […]
More Miracles in Burundi!
A famous witchdoctor called Makari received what he thought were prospective ‘clients’ into his den. His reputation went before him and so our evangelists wanted to challenge his authority. When they revealed their identity, the power of God came on him and he fell to the ground. When he came to, he sat and listened to their preaching. He believed in Jesus and asked them to return two days later when he would burn all his charms publicly. When they duly returned, they found Makari had invited all his relatives and other witchdoctor friends. He declared before all of them […]