I wrote a cheque a few days ago for school fees/uniforms for a group who were praying/fasting for just that, and in walked their boss with the money! There was much joy and celebration for God’s faithfulness. I love it that we get to be a part of this! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! The response to my raw missive has been huge, and we have been able to help over a thousand children with what they needed to get back to school. What a privilege! God bless you all, thanks for standing with us. Above is the second […]
A Widow’s Debt…
Celeste’s husband was murdered – shot in the head – for being tall. This was back in 1999. At the time, there were lots of ambushes on the roads. In fact, that was the way I expected to die in those crazy early years of my time out here. During the ambush, he and six others from his tribe (crassly identified as the ‘talls’), were taken by the rebels to the side of the road and killed. He’d been part of our team of volunteers. It was a tragedy. But he knew, loved and was ready to meet his Maker. […]
Dropping out of school in Burundi…
Aaarrgh! I write this incensed and sad and seething. 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. September is the hardest month of the year for folks here, because it’s back to school for the kids – or not, as the case may be. Through tears she pleaded with me on behalf of her staff: “Simon, we can’t […]
She Started Her Life Down A Toilet…
The above short film is a beautiful update on an extraordinary life journey, well worth 5mins of your time. It’s part of a series we’re doing telling stunning stories of triumphant faith under fire from Burundi. You hear so much bad news, but there’s great news in the mix as well! We want to pump out all the good news we can amidst all the heaviness which is also our current reality. Do subscribe on Youtube if you want to see the others as and when we release them over the coming weeks… * For context, on […]
From Blood-Sucking Jiggers to Jesus in Burundi!
I hope you’ve had a good summer. We’re back in Burundi now, and we didn’t give the kids the time to get despondent about returning to school – we left the UK at 345am yesterday, arrived at our home in Bujumbura at 9pm, and nearly overslept but made it to the school start at 730am today. I wanted to give some quick feedback on my favorite activity of the year, our annual summer outreach for two weeks in August. In the end, we sent out 525 young people. A few were arrested for short periods because of the local authorities’ […]
Potentially the Most Fruitful Outreach on the Planet These Two Weeks!
Greetings! From tomorrow, Sunday 6th August until the 20th August, we will be conducting our annual massive apostolic outreach campaign for the 12th year in a row. 565 people are being sent out in 21 different areas, partnering with 192 churches. Trusting as with all those previous campaigns, many thousands of people will come to know Jesus at this time. There have been so many stunning stories of God’s miraculous power over those years, including demons being cast out, cripples walking, blind seeing, deaf hearing, mute speaking, witchdoctors burning their charms and submitting to the Highest Power, and last year’s resurrection: […]
Prayerful and Alert…
Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for… Here’s a sermon you can listen to here from a few Sundays ago in St Mary’s Maidenhead’s series on Spiritual Warfare. My text was Ephesians 6:18-20. Some meaty quotes from the talk include: “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 […]
Action Stations Please!
5mins of your time could help this take-off and be a HUGE blessing to Burundi. Most of you know about our amazing cow project with BBAC (Burundi Bio-Agricultural Communities), lifting c400 families out of poverty with lots of other benefits in the mix. Well, it could be about to go up a gear or two… Friends of mine, Brad and Emily, have launched their product TODAY. They explain the plan as follows: Does Your Cup Count? Partnering with folks at Great Lakes Outreach in Burundi, who fund an amazing cow-purchasing partnership, paired with the power of 58 million coffee cups […]
A New Hospital, an MBE, Leadership Handover, and More…!
The last three days have been truly memorable: on Friday we had the official ceremony for the launching of the building of a hospital. On Saturday it was a huge televised first graduation of GIA students, and Lizzie and I were awarded MBEs. On Sunday, we celebrated the extraordinary 17 years of YFC’s growth, a book launch, and handover of leadership. More below… Wow! Giving a succinct summary is a challenge. I have such a sense of joy, satisfaction, elation and anticipation for the future, amidst the ongoing extraordinary challenges we face in this beautiful but broken nation. Friday’s ceremony […]
Forcing God into a Good Bargain…
Yesterday two men tried to force their way into our home, pretending to be from the water company. In an unconnected incident an hour later, a man was shot dead 50m away. That is my context… “God, you can do anything to me, just take care of my kids, then you’ve got yourself a deal.” That’s how I try to bargain with God. Others try to bargain with God over money, sex, free time, possessions. But does God bargain with us?
Identity and Immediacy
This blog is by a mate of mine, Samuel Johns. On our tough cycle ride recently around Rwanda, we talked about the effect of Facebook and such like, and I asked him to share some thoughts, which I found challenging/disturbing/fascinating and more. I’m interested in what you make of them too. Over to Sam: A soft alarm wakes me – perfectly in sync with my circadian rhythms – and I trundle downstairs, set to face a new week. Alex notifies me of the weather, so the blinds remain closed. Ambient lighting matches my mood. Morose, yet determined. Another Monday morning. […]
What Do You Want To Leave Behind?
You’re not going to take anything with you, so what are you investing in now? Will it last? ‘Anything which isn’t eternal is eternally out-of-date’ (C.S.Lewis). Here are some challenges from the life of Granny Guillebaud…
Survived!
It’s all over. Nobody died (although it was close on one occasion, more on that below), and today we all fly/drive back to different countries across the globe after an unforgettable adventure. The 5th annual GLO African Cycling Tour was a huge success. In stats, 13 riders from 5 nations cycled just shy of 500miles with nearly 50,000ft of elevation, eating 764 bananas, 392 gels and 521 energy bars (give or take), drinking 511 litres of water in 7 days, and a beautiful sum of money was raised for the work in Burundi. This is the second year that we […]
I’m Giving Up, my Race is Over…
How many times have you fallen? For me, well, I’ve lost count. And now with all that’s going on in Burundi, I’m just not sure I can keep on getting back up. So that’s where this poem comes in… (‘The Race’, by D.H.Groberg)
Reversing the Death Sentence in Burundi…
If you get cancer in Burundi, you die (unless you can find and and then pay for one of the few surgeons in the country to surgically remove it in its entirety before it spreads). There is no other treatment. There has never been any other treatment. Chemotherapy and radiation are alien concepts, unless you are rich enough to fly elsewhere to get it. In Burundi, 100% of those who get unresectable cancer die – usually a horrible, protracted, painful death. Until now. Yesterday I was at Kibuye Hope Hospital. They are the first to introduce chemotherapy in Burundi. It’s historic, […]
Yesterday’s Sermon, Fully Committed…
This is a raw message on total surrender from 2 Chronicles 16:9 – “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” How committed are you? Partially? Selectively? God so longs to strengthen you, but the deal is you need to be fully committed to Him…
Connecting Wins…
I love a win/win. I’m always on the lookout for them. This week a young man came to me. He’s obviously a leader because he’s stumbled into heading up this movement of artists intent on using their creativity to reach the unchurched. He doesn’t want to start an organization, seeing it more as a movement, but he’s found himself with a lot of followers. He totally fits into my strategy of empowering key leaders of passion, integrity, gifting and vision to contribute to the transformation of the nation. So having established that he was kosher, he needed an […]
Get Ready, Live Ready!
This article recently appeared here for the Evangelical Alliance. Once I was preaching near the Congolese border. My sermon text was Matthew 25 – the parable of the ten maidservants. Those ten all had a role to play at the wedding, but five of them didn’t have enough oil in their lamps. It’s a straightforward story, and it doesn’t need much explaining. My three points were simply, i) Jesus is coming, ii) nobody knows when, iii) but are you ready? Some responded to my appeal at the end, others didn’t. In any case, two days later I was driving […]
Burundi-Rwanda-Uganda Return…
Excuse the radio silence on this blog. We’ve had to transfer it across to WordPress and iron out a few glitches, which took a couple of months. A number of you have asked for some news, so I’ll do a ‘different’ kind of blog and just share with you a little summary of our family half-term. In a couple of years’ time, the plan is to hand over the leadership of GLO fully in Burundi, and for a year to take the Guillebaud family on the road, traveling anywhere and everywhere – home-schooling, experiencing the world, talking about and networking […]
Bonding with my Ancestors…
Sometimes I amaze myself even at my own idiocy. Over the years, I’ve taken literally hundreds of visitors to Musée Vivant, Bujumbura’s interactive zoo – so often that I’m an honorary member of staff, and never have to pay. Most visitors love it, others hate it. We get to hold pythons that slowly start constricting around us; the more intrepid ones climb into the cage and enjoy the incredible adrenaline rush of stroking or pulling the tail of a 15ft crocodile; and then there are the entertaining (but volatile) chimpanzees. Today was my comeuppance. What heightens my stupidity is that […]