BURUNDI 2013

Our team of thirteen (five from TBC) arrived in Burundi on Wednesday night after two days of travel. We started off by listening to a few of the stories of the women at Home Center. This was a real eye opener for most of our team. Most of the women are between 14 and 20. All are widows or orphans, and have spent most of their lives simply trying to find a place to sleep and a meal to eat. Some carried bricks on their heads at the constructions sites—carrying 1000 bricks earned them eighty cents. Each described how she heard about Home Care, that is was a place where you will be loves, cared for, taught how to sew, given a meal and that they would even send food home for their kids. They are taught how to read and write and constantly encouraged from the Bible. Some of the graduates of the program also shared their stories and were so pleased to say how they now could now walk down the street and open the door to their own place with their own key. One of the women who used to carry bricks now makes ten dollars for each dress she makes and has more and more customers lining up. The most heart-warming part of every story was how they had found parents in the women who taught them and had met a God who truly cared about them. Please pray for these women as they continue on this new journey.

The photo above is of the women listening to Josephine Mukendi’s testimony, how the God who is (the great I AM) led them on a journey from Congo, to Rwanda, to Uganda, to America.