“Please, please we need Bibles! And not just any Bible, but a new version. The old one I can hardly understand!” I could have been offended, but I’m not. You see, my great-aunt, Rosemary Guillebaud, was the person who brought God’s Word to Burundians in their own language, after twenty years of hard graft working…

There’s no social security out here. When your husband dies, beyond the normal grieving it’s a total and utter disaster for the widow, further compounded if she has children. So here’s a hope-filled story for widowed mother-of-three Virginie, who has just got her house through the ministry of J-Life. Justin, Tanya and my Lizzie helped…

Sometimes fairy tales actually come true. Alain was the ugliest, most disfigured boy in the whole of Burundi. His face, tummy and hand had melted in a fire after he passed out with an epileptic fit, so from them on he had to hide his horrific features underneath a hood. With his father, before the…

I thought I’d just give you a quick update on Eva’s work following on from our encounter last month. The response to that blog was beautiful, meaning that we could provide Eva with seed-funding and help her give out lots of sanitary towels and soap to vulnerable women over the Christmas and New Year period.…

It happens each year at about this time. Tharcisse, faithful long-term Scripture Union accountant, writes me an emotive plea to intervene on his and the rest of the staff’s behalf: “Hello Brother Simon! Christmas is coming. Many of us in Burundi only eat meat, chocolate, and biscuits on this one special day. It’s also the…

I never thought I’d be writing about sanitary towels or tampons. Today I met Eva. She’s a 32-year-old entrepreneur. She blew me away, for two reasons: Firstly, because she got a Masters degree in France; and then, against everyone’s wishes and common sense, she returned to Burundi because of God’s call on her life to…

I’m sat in a dimly-lit venue with about four hundred hard-working and dignified rural folk as they strain to hear the voice of the trainer at the front due to the rain pelting down on the tin roof above. The odour of the man next to me is thick in my nostrils. Some have walked…

Freddy, dear friend and founder of Burundi Youth for Christ, just posted this on Facebook: “Thacien and Olivier, the two young men you see on this photo above (from right to left), are our oldest children at Gitega Orphanage under BYFC. They are currently studying at Gitega International Academy. They have just received a full…