After two yeArs in Muyinga, Burundi, setting up and running the Bethesda proj-ect, which brings disabled and non-disabled people together to do outdoor activities, CMS Salt partners Lucy and Steve McIl-henny will return to the UK in March. Now that Lucy and Steve have laid down solid foundations for the project, we asked them what’s next for Bethesda.

How is the next phase going?We’re training two staff,

Divine and Lambert, to begin Bethesda’s work in the villages. They are learning how to use ba-sic sports to bring people together and build their self esteem. They are also looking at how to lead Bible studies and teach families about caring for disabled people.

Why is this part of the work so important?

Sister Goreth, head of the Catholic Jean Bosco Centre, told us that when disabled children are sent home after being treated for their disability, they often die

through lack of care. Last year five out of 10 children sent home fol-lowing treatment at the Jean Bosco centre, died within a few months.As your term is about to end, do you think you have achieved the goals you set out to achieve?

We can’t believe how much God has achieved through us in these last two years. We are excited about the direction of the project through the village work and about the commitment of the church members and the new local committee in Muyinga. The government of Burundi has donated an eight hectare site to the project. What do you want to do with this land?

The plan is to build an outdoor activity centre, which can be used in the course of Bethesda’s work with people with disabilities in Muyinga but will also serve as an income generating part of the proj-ect – selling activity holidays in or-der to fund the work of Bethesda.Have you got the right people lined up to take over from you?

The Bishop of Muyinga

Eraste Bigirimana and the project director of Kepplewray, Peter Sanders have been having meetings regarding our replacement. They have not found anyone yet but are advertising for the post and looking both inside and outside of Burundi for the appropriate person for the job. Meanwhile the basic outreach of the project will be continued by our colleagues under the supervision of Bishop Eraste.Can you tell us about someone whose life has been transformed through undertaking your activities – demonstrating the power of sport and faith?

18 August 2011 was a happy day for Innocent and his family – the day of his wedding. When we first met Innocent (pictured above), almost a year ago, we could see that his physical dis-abilities were shutting him away from the world. He was quiet, shy and always seemed unhappy. In-nocent said recently: “Bethesda has taught me to smile”. Though his physical disabilities remain, Innocent now has the confidence and the emotional strength to in-teract positively with others and to get married and to start a fam-ily of his own!

Steve and Lucy

“Bethesda taught me to smile”

From left to right: Evariste, Mariete, Innocent and Nahimana

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An enduring love of Burundi

on the eve of their eighth short-term visit to Bu-rundi, we catch up with Pam and Pat Brooks, who worked as mis-sion partners in the country in the 1960s and 1970s.

Do you have a different agenda for each visit?

I (Pat) have visited almost an-nually since 1996, first to see mis-sion partners in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and then to teach at Matana Theological College in Burundi. We are flexible on the agenda, guided by the African church. Plans for this visit are to teach in the Bible colleges in the local language, helping to inspire men and women working in re-mote and discouraging situations.

In 1972, Pat was interrogated after the genocide in Burundi. Can you tell us the story?

Only to say, God gave me the grace and the courage to speak the truth, give my testimony and to challenge the interrogator’s as-sumptions.

When there were more mass killings in 1993 you were in the UK. How did you feel when you heard the news?

It saddened us greatly but, having experienced the first genocide, it helped us know how to pray.Pam, you have worked with women’s groups and with Mothers Union in Burundi. What’s life like for a female in Burundi?

The women do all the usual chores and fetch water, find the wood or charcoal for the fire for cooking, hoe the land, plant, weed and harvest the crop and sell any surplus. The Mothers Union gives the women dignity in offering them the opportu-nity to meet together in worship, Bible teaching, discussing issues they all face and supporting one another. MU leaders with lit-eracy and development facilita-tors give women the opportunity to become literate and numer-ate. The Five Talents Trust also helps by teaching women how

to start small income generating projects. On my visits I take non-prescription reading glasses to help people see the print in their Bibles.

What was the best thing about working as a mission partner in Burundi?

The joy of teaching young people who really wanted to learn.And the worst?

Misunderstandings with Af-rican brethren, largely because of our different cultures.How has Burundi been affected by the years of civil war?

Almost everybody has been bereaved. Many acted against their conscience. There is an on-going need for patient listening, a refusal to judge, willingness to forgive and be forgiven, which can only be done at the foot of the cross. The new challenge is to live together, recognise each other’s gifts and work for peace. Other challenges are to fight corruption and use power on behalf of oth-ers. The country needs education and medical care, especially in rural areas.How is the church helping chart the country’s future course?

We have confidence because we know of many in Burundi who love the Lord Jesus. We think that the country’s future will be stormy and difficult, but we believe that the church has a prophetic role alongside the country’s leaders and we trust that it will take its place worthily in the family of nations.

Pat and Pam

when forMer sALt part-ners steve and Anne stordy ac-companied a group from their parish of Wadhurst to Mwumba in northern Burundi recently, it enabled them “to see Burundi with new eyes again”.

Four members of the seven-strong team had never been to Africa before – including Sandra Elkins, a carer and writer by pro-fession from Hawkhurst.

“I don’t think anyone could’ve prepared my eyes for the visual onslaught,” she writes. “I can only liken it to the feeling I had when we switched from a black and white television to colour. It was as if my eyes were seeing in colour for the very first time.” She particularly enjoyed the vibrant cathedral worship.

The visit was hosted by Food for the Hungry (FH), for whom Steve and Anne worked between 2007 and 2010 – supported by CMS as Salt partners. Steve, an agriculturalist, and Anne, a nurse, helped with the start of the FH community transformation pro-gramme in Mwumba – one of the most economically deprived places in Burundi.

The Wadhurst-Mwumba link began in 2007 when the primary schools in each location made con-tact with each other, facilitated by Steve and Anne prior to their as-signment in Burundi. Since then, Wadhurst primary school chil-dren write regularly (in French) to their Mwumba counterparts and receive letters back. The re-spective head teachers also ex-change ideas for developing links

further. And in July 2008, Bishop Sixbert and his wife Clotilde, who is a primary school teacher, visited Wadhurst primary school.

Wadhurst primary school and the parish church have sent more than £4,000 to help the children of Mwumba primary school with books and equipment. During this recent 10-day trip, the team visit-ed existing FH projects, designed to improve child development and agricultural production in the nearby province of Kayanza. In Mwumba, they saw firsthand a rainwater tank that was built at the primary school with funds raised in Wadhurst.

Efforts are now underway to strengthen the link between Uplands Community College in Wadhurst and Buye Lycee. The link helped with the purchase of the first computer for students at the Lycee and ways to communi-cate via email are being explored.

Burundi ties strengthened through eye-opening visit

Sandra Elkins (centre, foreground)

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Burundi link organisations in the UK

Diocese of Winchesterwww.winchester.anglican.org

Food for the Hungry Burundi

www.fh.org/work/africa/burundi

Friends of Burundiwww.friendsofburundi.org.uk

REMA UK www.remauk.org

Wadhurst Burundi linkwww.wadhurst-burundi-link.net

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ALison giLL ceLeBrates her third anniversary of living in Burundi in January. Working with Harvest for Christ Burundi (HFC), an indigenous, interdenominational movement of radical disciples set up by One-sphore Manirakiza in 2001, she leads their trauma healing work.

Her new Burundian col-league, Abel Nduwayo assists her in equipping church leaders to bring God’s healing, forgive-ness and reconciliation to their wider church communities. As well as doing their own training in different Provinces, they occa-sionally work with some external organisations, such as Flame In-ternational and Christian Prayer Ministries.

Flame was recently in Gitega and Makamba doing trauma heal-ing conferences for pastors in con-junction with Harvest for Christ.

“One man shared how during the teaching he had forgiven the killers of his brother and grand-father,” says Alison.

“He wept for a long time during his ministry – it seemed to be the first time he’d really been able to grieve their loss. He asked for prayer that he would be able to seek reconciliation with those who killed his family and testified publicly at the end of the conference of his plans.”

HFC currently has eight teams in Bujumbura and one in almost every province in the country (23 in all). By 2015 Alison says the plan is to have a team in every com-

mune in Burundi. “The teams meet weekly for

worship, Bible study, prayer for the nations and Burundi and then monthly they do one on one evangelistic outreach (using Evangelism Explosion’s method) and annually a summer cam-paign in each Province,” accord-ing to Alison.

“This year over 600 evange-lists reached more than 72,000 people with the Gospel and over 32,000 made a commitment to Jesus,” she adds.

HFC has also sent two Bu-rundian missionary couples to live among two marginalised Batwa (pygmy) communities in Ngozi and Muramvya provinces. They have been involved in build-ing houses (three bedrooms from brick and with a tiled roof) to replace the grass ones they have which leak terribly when it rains.

The couples run porridge projects for children, a school, clinic and adult literacy.

Alison says: “The vision is to meet the physi-cal needs of the Batwa as an ex-pression of God’s love for them. Many NGOs have helped the Batwa physically but they never

gained their trust.” Longer term the plan is to

send two HFC missionary cou-ples who will go to work in Is-lamic areas in Burundi, receive further missions training and then go to North Africa. “Many Western missionaries are unable to remain in these countries but it is much easier for Africans to get visas. Please pray into this – it is very exciting but there are lots of challenges,” says Alison.

“Humanly speaking there is much to be very discouraged about in Burundi. The UK Gov-ernment is considering with-drawing their DFID programme in Burundi (see page 7 for latest), corruption is at an all time high, there is increased banditry and possible re-forming of the final rebel group,” says Alison.

But alongside her faith, what keeps Alison going is her Burun-dian colleagues. “They are my main source of encouragement. It is so refreshing to see people who are passionate for Jesus and willing to take whatever risk is needed for him to see their coun-try become what God intended it to be.”

For more information on Alison’s work see http://alison.ijuru.com or email alisonegill@gmail.com

Helping to heal trauma in Burundi

Alison Gill

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As More And More Burun-dians return home after living as refugees abroad for many years, the complex issue of land owner-ship continues to be an obstacle to their reintegration.

“The land problem is not yet solved in Burundi,” says Rema Ministries director Felibien Ndin-tore. “The government is between the devil and the deep blue sea; yes, there have been efforts from the government towards finding a solution to this problem but it is not yet enough.”

Rema Ministries is a Chris-tian NGO and long-time friend/partner of CMS. Rema identifies itself with refugees and other dis-advantaged people from, and in, Burundi and provides reconcili-ation and rehabilitation for thou-sands of Burundian refugees and repatriates.

Felibien continued: “Both re-turnees and those who remained on the land hold on to their re-spective and antagonist positions such that a reconciliatory position fails to address this issue.”

Hugues van Brabandt, as-sociate external affairs officer for United Nations refugee agency UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) agrees: “The issue of access and entitle-ment to arable land on which to undertake subsistence farming and of securing shelter [for the returnees] ... are among the most acute hurdles which continue to

confront returnees.” According to statistics from

the UNHCR, with the gradual return of peace in Burundi after a civil war, more than half a mil-lion Burundian refugees have re-turned home, including more than 430,000 from camps in Tanzania. There are now 36,000 Burundian refugees in one remaining camp in Tanzania, Mtabila – [which was set to close as MA News went to press in December]; as well as another 21,500 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

UNHCR works closely with

Burundi and the governments of asylum countries to actively promote the return of the remain-ing Burundian refugees as part of what it calls a “strategy and roadmap” leading ultimately to the cessation of refugee status of Burundians.

According to Rema, it is clear that the humanitarian and reinte-gration situation for returnees in Burundi is problematic. A new report titled ‘Resisting Repa-triation: Burundian Refugees

Struggling to Stay in Tanzania’ published jointly by REMA and the International Refugee Rights Initiative says problems include “a lack of resources for returnee reintegration; the length of time it is taking to reclaim/gain access to land and the huge practical challenges of reintegration after decades in exile.”

The socio-economic situation in Burundi also remains difficult, due notably to the scarcity of land and lack of jobs. At least 16 per cent of the population is still con-sidered vulnerable, and in need of humanitarian aid. Another 68 per cent of Burundians live close to the poverty line.

Against this backdrop, Rema

is undertaking a comprehensive survey of the needs of repatriates in relation to their socio-eco-nomic reintegration in Burundi after years of refugee life. “This re-search will reveal ‘people’s needs’ in order to find solutions to their problems – not what we think is the need, but what people actu-ally experience,” adds Felibien.

For more information on the re-ports, visit www.refugee-rights.org or visit www.remauk.org/

Land in demand

Code Foncier The Burundian Parliament adopted a new land code in April 2011, which includes new provisions to the 1986 land code. It was signed by the president in August last year but is still waiting final decree before becoming law. Any person who owns a property will now need a “land certificate” (certificat foncier). The law also foresees the establishment of a new national independent commission whose task will be to solve land conflicts. Finally, all the properties illegally acquired will have to be returned to the State shortly.

(left to right) Rema leadership: Francois, Thodore and Felibien

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sALLy BotteLey, Africa forum member and rema UK chair, has just returned from a visit to rema Ministries in Burundi where she saw firsthand some of the projects that local pastors have created in communities following cMs Africa samaritan strategy training, organised by rema.

I was very encouraged in visiting some of the proj-ects Rema helped set up, especially in areas where there are many returnees – those who have spent many years in exile in Tanzania.

Rema has been involved in training and supporting local pastors and women, giving free loans to start or upgrade small businesses to help generate sustainable income and community support.

In a country largely dependant on subsistence ag-riculture, with little available land, returnees are strug-gling to make ends meet and get money for food, rent, education and health needs.

In the south of Burundi several small micro finance projects have been successfully initiated.These are run and managed by the pastors who report back to Rema.

In Nyembuye in Rutana province, near a Rema clinic set up for returning refugees, one lady we visited is breeding pigs and selling the offspring for breeding and food. She’s also selling the manure produced to fer-tilise crops. Rema helped her buy the first pair of pigs.

Rema also helped her get two sewing machines and she now has groups of ladies meeting twice a week to learn and to make clothes. In a nearby village a pastor has set up a simple restaurant in a strategic position on the main street.

There’s also a carpentry project making furniture out of local hard wood for sale locally and as far as Bu-jumbura. Financial support from Rema and the dona-tion of a lathe by another organisation mean 17 appren-tices have been trained for six months – most of whom have moved on to gain employment.

In Muyange, near Nyanza Lac, I visited a success-ful soap making project set up by a local pastor and his church. Bars of soap of good quality and in high demand are created with local palm oil seeds and caus-tic soda, using basic equipment - a plastic washing up bowl, a wooden frame with wire for cutting (like cut-ting cheese), a pair of scales and rubber gloves. Profit made has already repaid the loan from Rema and is also tithed to the church and supports 193 orphans who are fostered in local families.

Small projects make a big difference “A wonderfUL shAring of mission, life - and dilemmas” is how CMS transcultural mission director Paul Thaxter described the CMS People in Mission conference held recently in Nairobi.

Jointly organised by CMS and CMS Africa, the conference was a first on three levels.

“It was the first time that CMS mission partners, Timothy mission partners, Salt partners and short termers from all over Africa had met together under the same roof and it was the first time CMS people in mission had met all the CMS Africa staff and part-ners,” explained CMS transcultural manager Steve Burgess.

Steve was on the conference organising commit-tee, along with Tim Sanders from CMS UK and Karo-bia Njogu and Lucy Ochieng from CMS Africa.

“It was also the first time CMS Africa had met with all its own partners from across Africa since the creation of the organisation two years ago,” added Steve.

Around 60 CMS delegates and their families at-tended the five-day conference held during the last week of October. People shared with one another in worship, prayer and Bible study, engaged with CMS Africa’s ministry and met CMS Africa partners.

“People in mission really enjoyed being with each other and meeting their counterparts from other parts of Africa – some of whom they had only heard of, or prayed for, before,” said Paul, who outlined CMS strategy in a session alongside CMS executive director Tim Dakin and CMS Africa executive direc-tor Dennis Tongoi, who spoke about CMS Africa’s vi-sion and strategy.

Samaritan Strategy training is a key part of CMS Africa - to understand this, the delegates were split up into different groups and taken to see various seed projects in and around Nairobi - including the New Dawn Education Centre in Huruma. (See report op-posite).

Seed projects are the practical outcome of Sa-maritan Strategy training – rooted in the idea that the result of renewed minds is a transformed community. The Samaritan Strategy helps Christian leaders face challenges in their communities, using resources they already possess. continued on back page

Seeds taking root: Nairobi conference report

“We are family”

continued over4 7

Simon Guillebaud, Alison Gill, TEE

Bishop Barham Theological College,

Theological Education by Extension (TEE),

HIV/AIDS programme

Provincial Theological College,

Health Programme

Bethesda Project (McIlhennys)

Muyinga Bible College,HIV/AIDS Programme

Widows and Orphans Project

Health ProgrammeGitega Bible school

Makamba Bible School, TEE

Summary of CMS work and links in Burundi

Rema working across Burundi

New school helps turn a ‘slum’ into a ‘village’More than 180 young people from in-formal settlements in Kenya – many of whom used to be addicts or crimi-nals – are getting a life-changing edu-cation, and the whole community is transforming.“As the youngsters studied, they met Jesus, their lives were changed – and the crime rate in the slum dropped to almost zero,” explains mission part-ner Trisha Wick, who works in South Sudan, and recently visited the New Dawn Education Centre in Huruma, Kenya during the CMS People in Mission conference in Nairobi this Autumn.Six years ago, this school didn’t exist. After attending a CMS Africa Samari-tan Strategy Vision Conference, Irene Tongoi, married to CMS Africa direc-tor Dennis, decided to ask the people of Huruma what they needed. They asked for secondary education, so a school was started in a church hall and has been growing ever since. The school has officially been recog-nised by the Kenyan government. In 2009, the first form-four class gradu-ated. More of its pupils are qualifying for university. Alongside the school, income-gener-ating projects, a farm and a clinic have also been started at New Dawn. “The headmaster, Ben, took us on a tour of the area – the ‘village’ he now called it – not ‘slum’,” said Trisha. “The vision of CMS Africa is manifest-ing – renewed minds in Christ leading to a transformed community.”

Don’t ditch Burundi aid, say MPsCMS MEMBERS and sup-porters have joined the Angli-can Church of Burundi and the Anglican Alliance in wel-coming a House of Commons select committee’s new report in which MPs recommend the government should reinstate its bilateral aid to Burundi.

Welcoming the MPs’ find-ings, CMS Forum chair the Rev William Challis said: “This looks like a really posi-tive move, and is a tribute to the time and effort made by Archbishop Bernard and the Anglican Alliance to prepare submissions and give evidence to the committee. We believe that our nation should continue to be concerned for the poorest in our world and help to build stability in Burundi.”

Last year the Department for International Develop-ment (DFID) announced that by 2016 the UK will close its bilateral aid programmes in 16 countries – including Burundi.

The Archbishop of Burun-di, the Most Rev Bernard Nta-hotouri, the Anglican Alliance and Rev William Challis, who

is also chair of Friends of Bu-rundi, all gave evidence to the select committee and lobbied MPs to try and reverse the aid cut announced by the coalition government.

After taking into consid-eration a range of views in the form of written and oral evidence, the International De-velopment Select Committee warns that ending the DFID programme at such a critical time - when Burundi is making the transition from conflict to stability - is a strategic mistake.

The chair of the select committee, Malcolm Bruce MP, said: “Ending our bilateral aid programme to the poorest country in the Great Lakes re-gion sends the wrong political signal and makes it look like the UK is turning its back on the people of Burundi.

“More worryingly, it could jeopardise our progress in a region that is struggling to de-velop after decades of conflict. The Secretary of State should reinstate bilateral aid to Bu-rundi.”

CMS is a mission community acknowledged by the Church of England. A company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales, charity number 1131655, company number 6985330, registered office: CMS, Watlington Road, Oxford OX4 6BZ Tel: 01865 787 400 8

MA NEWS BRIEFS MA NEWS BRIEFS MA NEWS BRIEFS MA NEWS BRIEFS MA NEWS BRIEFSMatana hospital treats hundreds moreMore doctors, better equipment and hundreds more patients served. That’s the news from Matana hospital in Burundi one year on from the opening of a new administrative block and laboratory, funded by CMS supporters. Thanks to the improved facilities, about 70-80 more patients are being cared for each day and more medical tests can be conducted on site.People in print – Dangerously Alive by Simon GuillebaudcMs salt partner Simon Guillebaud has penned Dangerously Alive – African adventures of faith under fire. This is Simon’s own account of his experiences in Burundi from 1998 to 2009. Simon comments: “The book combines prayer letters, diary entries and reflections. It covers witchcraft, miracles, evangelism, Islam, orphans, street kids, AIDS, business for mission, and stories of triumphant faith in the midst of hideous suffering. It’s real, vulnerable and raw.” If you would like a copy of Simon’s book, the price is £8.99 + post and packaging. Email Zoe at zoe.kuisis@cms-uk.org Mid Africa Conference December 2011The theme of the 2011 Mid Africa conference, Mission and

Suffering, was underpinned by powerful Bible readings by the Rt Rev Michael Baughen (available on the CMS website). About 135 people attended the weekend event held at High Leigh conference centre. As usual, CMS’s Stephen Burgess and the Africa forum organisers, led by Joan Botterill, devised a full and informative programme, including sessions on DR Congo, Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda, Bible readings, worship and prayer groups.

A wide-ranging mix of mission partners, former mission partners and short termers took to the podium. CMS mission partner Ann-Marie Wilson outlined her new ministry and organisation, 28 Too Many, that she started to help eradicate female genital mutilation in the 28 countries within Africa where it is still practised.

Meanwhile, CMS Salt partner Meg Guillebaud updated delegates on her Rugezi eco-lodge project and talked movingly about her benign brain tumour and how sad she was to leave Rwanda for a while so that she can be in the UK for medical treatment. Long-serving mission partner Judy Acheson, who is back in the UK after 30 years in DR Congo, spoke powerfully. CMS mission partner Ann Moore shared her renewed call to training and nursing at

Kisiizi Hospital.Delegates were also given

an update on CMS strategy, and Serah Wambua of CMS Africa outlined their latest aims: social transformation, mindset change and capacity building.

At the final service, more than 20 people were commissioned for service in Africa.

Nick Fane, who does much of the practical organisation of the conference, said: “The whole event had a family feel with people who have a real heart for work in Africa and especially mid Africa.”

More than £5,000 was collected for CMS work in Africa.

On the last day of the confer-ence over 30 CMS Africa partners shared how they were implement-ing the Samaritan Strategy training.

Bishop Kanuka from Macha-kos diocese talked about a highly

successful community biogas project, which enables raw cow dung to be processed into meth-ane gas for cooking and its by-product – the slurry – is used as fertilizer for farming, which, in turn, gives much-needed income for the community.

Francois Nitunga, who set up Rema ministries to provide reconciliation and rehabilita-tion for thousands of Burundian refugees, talked about partnering with CMS Africa to implement Samaritan Strategy training pro-grammes in Burundi.

Conference dates 2012Southern Conference St. James Church, Southampton. 12 May Contact Charlotte Smith: charlotte.plieth@doctors.net.uk Northern meeting Details from Barbara Williams: bjw1939@hotmail.co.uk Wales meeting 15-16 June, Pantasaph, N. Wales Contact Miranda Bowen: bowbelles@btinternet.com Annual Conference Swanwick 23–25 November Contact Nick Fane: ac2012@fanes.co.uk

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Judy Acheson