“Simon, we can’t send our children back to school this Monday because we have no money to buy the uniform and school book and pencil. We go without food, sanitary towels, everything, but still can’t make it. It’s often the children of parents in ministry who are the first to drop out. Please, please help my team, I beg you!” Charlotte cried as she pleaded with me – she wasn’t just desperate for herself but for her staff at the life-changing ministry she runs and which GLO supports. And as my three children prepare to start at a beautiful school […]
Category: GLO
Bleeding Beautiful…
I never thought I would be writing a blog about sanitary towels and now it has happened twice (the first is here). Thousands of girls in Burundi give up school every year because they don’t have any sanitary towels. They are simply too ashamed and embarrassed to go to school anymore, so they give up. But without education they are stuck in abject poverty. Then along comes Eva, a local Burundian girl. If Eva were on Dragon’s Den she could be one of the most successful entrepreneurs ever. Her brilliant solution is to manufacture re-usable sanitary towels from cloth and […]
Easter Bunnies in Burundi!
HAPPY EASTER! Sorry if you’ve already seen this, we’ve had some horrible technical glitches over the last few days. I’d like to invite you to join with us today in answering the prayer request of a little boy in Burundi called Theogene. Theogene is an orphan who lives with his brother in a makeshift shack in Ciya province, cobbled together with banana leaves from the bush. His parents were killed when he was tiny and he and his brother have struggled to survive ever since. Hunger is a constant reality. School fees are prohibitively expensive and Theogene simply cannot afford […]
Kicked out of home…
…but still joyfully willing to pay the price. In the West, in nations not obviously faced with severe constraints on freedom of religion, people can easily trot out the glib pronouncements that all religions are the same, that your truth is whatever works for you, that Islam is a religion of peace, etc. But our experience on the ground would suggest otherwise. Moza’s story is a common one in Burundi. And it is as offensive to Muslims as it is to Christians to say their religions are the same, that whatever works for you is fine. They are fundamentally different. We are called to […]
Calling All Cyclists for Your Best Ride Ever!
Do you want to take part in the ride of a lifetime? Join the 7th GLO African Cycling Fundraiser Tour in Rwanda. Fly in on the 23rd May, ride 25th to 31st May, and fly home 1st June. We aim to give you the best ten days of your last five years, and many agree at the end of it – it really is an amazing experience. Are you in? Or do you know anyone who might be? Do pass this on to any cycling friends. For more information, contact us at info@greatlakesoutreach.org “The time was a period of true […]
Christmas Cheer (or not) in Burundi…
Scripture Union Treasurer Tharcisse writes to me: ‘Dear brother Simon, I’m writing to you, as I do every year, however embarrassing it is for me. Because without your help this Christmas will be a day like any other. I’m a father and husband, and I long to be able to buy my wife something – maybe a new dress to show my appreciation – and get my children some chocolates and meat for Christmas, the one day of the year that they have that expectation. But I and so many others, find making ends meet tough because of the socio-economic […]
The New Kirundi Bible!
At last! Rosemary Guillebaud will be dancing in heaven! I blogged on this back in April, and it’s taken until this week because of various frustrating delays, but now I’m so happy to be able to say that the new updated version of the Kirundi Bible has been launched in Burundi!!! I’ll paste the previous blog below for context. Many thanks for all those who sowed money into this, so that we were able to help the Burundian Bible Society to get the project over the finishing line. Now may the new version be quickly accepted (there are always some […]
Living Stones…
My blog has crashed for a while so this should have been out ten days ago. Apologies if you’ve already seen it. It’s alive! Please watch this beautiful film, which tells some of the King’s Conference Centre story – it’s under two minutes. And then, I’d love you to read on… Indeed, King’s Conference Centre is alive! Jobs are being created, profits are being made and sown back into the work in Burundi, training is being given to empower people. So much more than a building project, these are living stones with an impact throughout the nation. Our teams around […]
Meet Antioch Africa…
This is everything I love about what we are trying to do as GLO. It is utterly strategic in the nation; it models beautiful partnership across nationalities; it involves empowering and equipping leaders. Meet one of our key partners, Antioch Africa, in this stunning short film, just 3mins+. In years to come, I don’t doubt this will have a critically positive role in shaping a healthy Church in Burundi, and even beyond. Bring it on!
Crazy Miracles and Beautiful Stories from Burundi…
Greetings! It’s with great pleasure I can feed back to you about another explosively fruitful summer outreach with Harvest Initiatives in Burundi from the 4th – 18thAugust, just last month. Here are a few of the many stories: · At Mukike, a witchdoctor called Domitile repented as she heard our evangelists. She handed over her paraphernalia and gave her life to Christ – whereupon twenty others in her village did too, including her husband! · In Gihanga, little Simplice was blind. Our team prayed for him but nothing seemed to happen. His parents returned the next day ecstatic that he […]
Barred from School in Burundi?
Last year at this time I penned the following, which is the same situation today: Aaarrgh! I write this angry and sad and tearful and frustrated. And I want to write now whilst I feel deeply raw. I’ve said before how I love and hate Burundi in equal measure. I love the people – their faith, generosity, perseverance; but I hate the poverty, injustice and suffering. I’ve just had a horrible conversation with a wonderful woman. This is the hardest time of the year for folks here, because it’s back to school for the kids – or not, as the […]
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 […]
Blessed are the Peacemakers…
‘Shortly before racing in the 1993 World Championships in Toronto, his brother rings to tell him his parents have been murdered and their bodies dumped down a latrine. He still runs and gets a medal, the first Burundian ever to do so…’ Below is the link to Nkaza’s testimony that we put on film last year. It’s well worth a listen. He’s a national hero and using his influence for good. We support his organisation ‘Amani Africa Burundi’, and their latest strategy as peace-makers is to mobilise the youth nationwide to sign up to seven core values – integrity, honesty, […]
Graduation!
Six years ago, there was an empty field. Now there is probably the best campus in the country. The day before we flew out, it was Gitega International Academy’s second graduation. Hot on the heels of gaining ACSI (international) accreditation in record time, it was a fantastic opportunity to showcase the school’s progress and celebrate another year group’s achievements. The national TV cameras were there, and it was a superb event. Below are a few pictures. We’ve managed to raise £13,000 in the last two weeks for urgent (final) building requirements and equipping for the coming year. Once these last […]
GLO-ing from Strength to Strength!
PLEASE READ THIS, IT IS VERY SIGNIFICANT NEWS: After just two months shy of twenty years, I’ve stopped living in Burundi, as of last night. My beloved nation has blessed me beyond imagining – and I don’t use that as a cliché. I came as a single young nutter expecting to die before the age of thirty, and I now leave a balding mature-ish husband and father of three children! I came with dreams to see thousands come to Christ, and we were able to raise a movement that saw hundreds of thousands become followers of Jesus. I came to […]
The Marriage of the Year – Move Over Harry and Meghan!
In January, I shared with you ‘a fairy tale come true for the ugliest duckling in Burundi’. Well, on Saturday, he got married to his babe, Floride! Nobody, NOBODY, could ever have believed this was possible, from being the ugliest disfigured reject in Burundi twenty one years ago. God is amazing! In 1997, he had seven operations on his body, some lasting 8-10 hours, and was in a coma for four days. His body couldn’t take any more, and the surgeon said maybe a decade later more work could be done. In 2011 and 2012, we flew him to Kenya, […]
The Beginning of the End…
In two weeks’ time, we’ll be back in the UK, and our time as a whole family living together in Burundi will be over. I find that hard to take in. In fact, none of us actually wants to leave. We love this country, and we love living here. So it’s good to be leaving wanting more, rather than counting down the days wanting to scarper as soon as possible! On Friday night, we had a leaving celebration with our favourite Burundian folks. Over 19 years there are a lot of deep relationships. We invited 70 key people together to […]
Radical Grace
Today was a day feared by many, as Burundians went to the polls in a referendum on changing the constitution. We were told to lie low and stay indoors. As the day draws to a close, it looks like it has all gone peacefully, with the results to follow shortly – although we all know the result already. I had an important meeting upcountry, so went ahead with that, with the wonderful result that Gitega International Academy has qualified for international accreditation with ACSI, which is a massive feat, achieved in record time. Well done Freddy, Opondo, and GIA and […]
The Beautiful Beginning…
We waited four years and went through umpteen challenges to become totally above-board legitimate owners of this land, and now the work has begun with a vengeance! It’s hard for you to understand the joy in this 30second clip. PTI (Partners Trust International) took the inspired decision not to use big time-efficient diggers to excavate the hillside in a day or two, and instead hire about 250 desperately poor and hungry unemployed folk from the local community to earn just under $2/day to prepare the land for construction in due course. $2/day may seem ridiculously little to a Western mind, […]
Praying for Peace in Burundi…
This short blog is simply a call to prayer for Burundi as we approach the referendum on the 17th May. The referendum is to amend (or not) the constitution to change presidential terms from 5 to 7 years, renewable once. The clock on terms would be reset, so that potentially the current President could continue in power until 2034. There is little doubt which way the referendum will go. Burundi seems currently stable. We personally don’t feel in any danger at all, and our lives go on as normally as ever – which is the line that the government is […]