“Why target leaders? All the times when God wanted to do great things for communities or nations in history, he called a leader.” Isaiah, UCCD’s leader, is warm, gentle and softly spoken, but when he shares his dreams for the country, or when he stands before a crowd preaching, you can see he has the heart of a lion! His dreams are not idle vision, but strategic ambitions for national transformation. “Nothing changes without leadership, nothing is corrected without leadership. All the good things we are enjoying now, and in future are a result of leadership, but all the bad from history or in the future is also down to leadership.”

“Ignorance is the cause of the poverty we live in, an ignorant leader cannot be fruitful. For this reason, I recommend GLS to all the Police officers of Burundi. We need these teachings!”

Colonel Nduwayo Aloys, Police Chief of 4 provinces.

UCCD’s growing profile has brought Isaiah and his team clout, which they are using for good. They have hosted Global Leadership Summit (GLS) events around Burundi for the past few years. Founded in the USA, the Global Leadership Network operates their flagship Summit and facilitates local pop-up events worldwide by partners. In the past year, UCCD ran over fifteen GLS events and seminars, with over 15,000 attending, including special events for the Police force and schools! “We are training government leaders, universities, church leaders, police and army.” Hosting GLS events is a strategic way to attract these key leaders, notably the Speaker of the House of the Senate, Emmanuel Sinzohagera and Aimé Kanyana, the national Ombudsman of Burundi. She said, “I hope all leaders will follow the lessons we have learnt…we trust we will continue to see a great impact in all domains of leadership so we can build the Burundi we desire.”

“Attending GLS, we realise that there are so many things that we don’t know which can help us to be effective leaders.”

François, academic Director, University of Gitega.

Another area of strategic impact is church leadership, organising meetings with various denominational leaders to offer support and training. Relationships between different church traditions can be strained in Burundi, so gathering them for the sake of unity is an important move. At one such event, Sinzohagera commented, “As iron sharpens iron, so the spirits of the pastors who have attended it sharpened each other. The weak and discouraged were encouraged. My conviction is that if such retreats continue, the churches of Burundi will experience true revival!”

Creating an environment for leaders to thrive is a great way for Isaiah to use his growing profile as a force for good. “I’m not ready to be in politics but by God’s grace I can influence them with good leadership and we can change the country.”

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For a long time, I have felt drawn to stand with and pray for the ‘GLO ladies’ – a mixture of women leading Partner organisations and the precious wives of our male leaders. It’s been a joy to gather together with them on my recent visits to Burundi and to facilitate honest conversations about our daily joys and heartaches, often with tears.

Personally, I couldn’t survive my Christian journey without special prayer partners to share with regularly – but I recently learned this was an alien concept in Burundian culture. From the cradle, many have been taught not to trust anyone, nor share their feelings because of the risk of gossip and shame, an instinct surely reinforced by the country’s history of ethnic violence.

This means that these dear courageous women are often desperately isolated as they juggle work, home and ministry life in exceptionally difficult circumstances, compounded by the complexities of being in positions of leadership. It’s been so exciting and liberating to laugh, share and weep together, and deepen trust and friendships. Please pray that these ladies would continue to meet regularly and develop deep friendships in spite of the many pressures they face.

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After years of serving together with Harvest Initiatives, Onesphore thought he had a good relationship with Jean, until he suddenly stopped hearing from him. Jean had connected with a preacher with false, unbiblical views and persuaded him to cut ties. Jean grew zealous for this worldview, so much so that he later tried to persuade Onesphore. 

Surprised to hear from Jean after such a long time, Onesphore wasted no time in asking, ‘How can you live with that guy?!’ Jean tried hard to convince Onesphore, but to no avail. Rather, his counter-arguments forced Jean to reexamine the teachings he had been promoting. As Jean reflected, he realised “I knew I was stuck in my faith and my calling.”

By this time, Onesphore had pioneered Antioch Foundation and its programmes aimed at church leaders and members to equip them with a sound Biblical understanding. Because of limited Biblical resources, false teaching abounds in Burundi, especially for poverty-stricken people, who are susceptible to promises of easy wealth and health. Onesphore invited Jean to participate in the course, which had a huge impact. “I didn’t need to tell him to leave the false teacher; he understood he needed to. The teaching helped him catch the vision of the church.”

After they reconciled, Jean was a new man! He planted a house church of a dozen people, which eventually grew into a small congregation. Three years on, it has grown to over 200 people!

We heard this story whilst sitting at the offices of Antioch Foundation on a visit to Burundi, with Onesphore and Jean telling their respective sides of the story. Jean shared his joy at how far he had come, and his current prayer request of a building for their thriving church. Onesphore turned to Jean and said, “He doesn’t know this yet, but Jean, we have found two-thirds of the funding you need for your building.”

At the news of that amazing answered prayer, applause broke out in the room! Jean simply bowed his head, moved to tears. It was a beautiful moment, and a privilege to witness. Bearing good news is a beautiful perk of our work. As another key leader commented when he received much-needed funding he had been praying for, “you have lifted a 10,000kg weight off my shoulders”. 

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When he was 15-years-old, he inherited the powers and charms of sorcery from his mother. With these abilities, he continued their family tradition of practising witchcraft and was highly sought after by people in the Congo and Tanzania. They paid handsomely for his services, promising riches through dark magic and healing from curses or spells. Unfortunately, this came at a great cost to him – he never knew inner peace.

Feared and hated by everyone in his village, Yesaya lived a miserable life. Even his wife, Bujenie, despised him, numbing herself with heavy drinking, whilst Yesaya had multiple mistresses who hoped to benefit from his wealth.

In collaboration with GLO Partner Harvest Initiatives, the local Church held a two-week evangelism outreach, but they knew they faced the challenge of approaching Yesaya’s house. “When Pastor Richard suggested that we visit Yesaya, we were all worried, but we refused to let fear control us,” recounted Pastor Nichodem. Their fear was amplified by a local story in which someone had once tried to share the gospel with Yesaya, but Yesaya had cast a spell which had killed them. “When I joined the church, I was warned about Yesaya, and advised never to approach his house and avoid interacting with him at all costs. If I ever happened to cross paths with him on the street, I should turn around and walk away.” So Pastor Richard and his team fasted for three days to gather the courage to approach Yesaya.

Initially outraged when he saw the preachers, Yesaya allowed them to speak. Despite his past anger towards Jesus and the Church, Yesaya felt increasingly peaceful as the conversation with the preachers progressed.

“I’d heard about the power of Jesus, but I was also confident of my magic powers. Despite having all that I needed materially, I never felt peace in my heart. Every night, I struggled against relentless demonic attacks. I had to perform nightly rituals that required isolation from even my wife. In a flash of light, I felt like a heavy weight lifted out of me, and I immediately hurried into the house to take all the charms and sorcery accessories I had been using, so that we could burn them,” recounted Yesaya. It took three days to destroy everything in a bonfire.

Yesaya has spent the last year committed to evangelising lost souls, particularly trying to seek out those who had been his customers of witchcraft. Yesaya now speaks of the power to bring healing and reconciliation within his village. He is a respected member of the community, and his marriage is transformed. Whereas previously they were at loggerheads constantly, now they are affectionate and playful. “We live peacefully with each other. There are no more fights or quarrels; whenever we face a problem, we discuss it and pray about it together. His transformation has inspired me and strengthened our marriage,” says Bujenie.

Every year, Harvest Iniatitives run a two-week outreach campaign, and we always get amazing stories like this! Sign up for our emails to make sure you don’t miss out! Or check out some other stories from the last outreach:

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The flooding is just one of many crises that Burundi is facing at the moment. We are raising money to support our Partners at this difficult time.

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The flooding is just one of many crises that Burundi is facing at the moment. We are raising money to support our Partners at this difficult time.

The post Aid for People Displaced by Flooding appeared first on Great Lakes Outreach.

Our partners are under such intense pressure, and yet are doing stunning work despite the challenges. But they’re struggling to feed their own families, let alone help others.

We want to increase their support allowances so their staff (and their families) can continue to be provided for, and their ministries can continue to thrive in this, the most difficult of seasons.

Could you help by pledging £20/month (or any smaller or bigger sum)? 

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