Transformed Youth Get Stuck In

I love it when the Gospel takes hold of people in a way that means life cannot stay the same.

Charles Nkazamyampi walked 20km to and from school daily as a child, but was soon to write his name in the history books of Burundi. In 1992 he won gold in the 800m at the African Championships in Athletics, clocking 1:46.95. The next year he competed at the 1993 World Indoor Championships in Toronto, where, having just learned his parents had been killed in the conflict, he declared he would run in their honour and took the silver medal! He went on to compete at the 1996 Olympics too.

Recognised across the nation, Charles’ ministry team reaches out to local communities through sporting events. Previous generations have stirred idealistic youth to hostility and violence, but Charles invites them to make a commitment to peace and nonviolence as he shares a message of faith. Thousands, in villages all across of Burundi, have come to know Jesus through him.

When the team revisited a community up in Kirundo back in April, they found a group of young people who had given their lives to Jesus through their previous outreach event, making a beautiful contribution to their village. Spotting elderly people in their community living in crumbling mud huts with roofs that leaked, they grabbed machetes, climbed up on the roof and re-thatched them (with permission!) so these precious old folk would have the shelter they so desperately needed. Nobody asked them, they just did it – faith in action!

This is what we’re all about at GLO – transformed lives transforming lives across Burundi. Beautiful! What does faith in action look like for you today?