Helping Burundi to Help Itself (Guest Post By Kevin Cherry)

Hello

To start with I should point out I’m not Jeremy, I’m somewhat shorter but much better looking and do far better Sean Connery impressions.

Jeremy asked me to come to Burundi to help develop the capability of the leadership team in the school as that is what I do for a living (though usually with very different clientele). 

It’s been a tremendous experience meeting these very faithful and committed people and the opportunity to help build up their confidence and capability has been an immense privilege. 

Although resources are very scarce, the buildings are basic (in UK terms) and even the most straightforward functions are so much more difficult here, the school sites are an oasis of Christian love and service (yes, even the Secondary School though it might be easy to forget that when your are caught up in the maelstrom of need, expectation and hormones). 

I got to sit in on a primary school assembly where the singing and praise was led by the headmistress unaccompanied.   The worship was energetic and heartfelt and whole thing very Christ centered.  A real joy and I think many UK schools could learn much from their example. 

Sharing the Gospel verbally is not difficult here, much easier than in the UK.  I think it’s assumed most people are Christian, churches are packed on a Sunday and there is even a chain of shops called Rehoboth. However, peoples’ Christian values and behaviours all too often don’t survive first contact with prevailing culture, a culture that is very corrupt. 

What really seems to speak to people is faith in action.  Radical Christian behaviours and practices that run counter to the culture really cause people to take notice.

Jeremy has spoken previously of how the radically fair and caring treatment of staff has impacted relationships and this is really setting the school apart as something special in the community. A place where God is working in a very special way.

The work Jeremy and Allie have done over the last year has begun to open the Leadership Team and the teachers’ minds to new possibilities.   It’s been my job this week to build on that and expand their capability and confidence and help them, individually and collectively, to broaden their vision and “step up to the Leadership Challenge”.  That was the title of an event Jeremy managed to organize at the last minute for young Christian Business People.  More of a joy than a job really.

“Where there is no vision the people die”   Proverbs 29: 18

After a week I’m no expert but it seems to me that Burundi is a beautiful country that has had its confidence shattered by years of conflict and hardship.  There is a real leadership vacuum and The King’s School is uniquely positioned to create leaders for the future that are grounded in strong Christian faith.

Talking to the “young business leaders” I also got a glimpse of how Allie and Jeremy’s informal networking and support of the local Christian community means their impact is MUCH wider than just the school.

As a supporter of Allie, Jeremy and The King’s School, I can assure you your prayer and financial support are very tangibly glorifying God here in Bujumbura.  Please join me in praying that:

• ·      The leaders at the school and in the wider Christian community would grow in confidence and be able to share the load and increase their impact
• ·      Increased availability of resources for both the school and the wider work

Christmas, Cars and not Kigali

Again, I've left this too late and so much has happened. In fact, so much has happened since I started this post, I'm having to rewrite this (I started this blog in mid-Dec).

Prayer Points:

- Please pray that we will continue to learn how to handle the constant stresses of life here

- Praise God for our Christmas Day...it was awesome!

- Please pray that the boys in my discipleship group will grow in their faith

- Please pray for continued opportunities for the school to witness to the nation through social action

- Thank God for the progress the school has made and pray for all during Term 2

A Hectic Life

I've been reading up on 'missionary stress' recently. I think that we assumed that this year couldn't be harder than last and, being our second year, it would be easy. It is easier...but still a real challenge. There's a clinical measure for test that's been adjusted for missionaries and produces some quite scary results!

Normal life here is still crazy. Take the other day for instance....we had a last minute rush (without a car....the wheel fell off up country...read on for more details) to find euros, to pay a visiting vet (who doesn't speak English) to neuter our three female guards dogs, on our jigsaw table, in the porch. He's doing an awesome job...it's just weird.

Recovering patient

And peaceful nights are hard to come by. We live near a nightclub and all the local stray dogs do that 'call of the wild' thing that gets the neighbourhood guard dogs going...including ours.

We are happy being here, God's with us and there' say job that needs doing...but active stress management is now a bigger feature of family life.

Christmas

Christmas was awesome! God has blessed us with a big house, so we open it up as much as possible. So we borrowed 16 desks, a load of chairs and had 21 round the table.

Christmas table under construction

Some brought food, we had three ovens on the go in the kitchen and we had what felt like a family Christmas in Bujumbura...followed by post lunch screenings of 'Charlie Brown's Christmas' for the Americans and 'The Snowman' for the Brits. Maybe next year we'll find something for the Canadians and Kenyans too.

Kigali...or not

Between Christmas and the New Year we left for Kigali. Four days of clean streets, supermarkets and rest.

Four and a half hours into our journey, in the middle of nowhere, our front wheel snapped off at 80kmph. Lots of smoke and sparks. But it was on a straight stretch of road and not (Praise God!) on one of the mountain roads; so no one was hurt.

One very broken wheel (tea towels and waterproofs against the window to protect the kids from the sun)

Clearly we were a novelty and we were surrounded like this for 4+ hours...all very friendly, if a little intense.

After finding a phone signal, we were able to call a friend who arranged for a pickup lorry and left to collect us. We then sheltered from the sun for 4+ hours with an up-close crowd of locals watching us.

Tiring, expensive, disruptive and disappointing. But we try to see God's plan in this.

Haven't spotted it yet...but I'm sure we will.

Provision

And God continues to provide! Sometimes by prompting people, often by just making it work...and I'm never sure how. My 'stewardship' certainly doesn't us make it easy for Him. When we allow ourselves to see it, this is part of our joy of serving Him.

Allie dividing up a gift of cheddar cheese. I gobbled mine up in one sitting and it was yummy!

(P.S. The car is fixed now. It cost more than we had, but guess what?! The right amount came in, at the right time, in an unexpected manner!)

Discipleship

We try to keep a check on our responsibilities; to keep a balance. But this term I've begun a weekly discipleship group with nine 15/16 year old boys from the CRIB Orphanage. We eat dinner together, chat, laugh read and pray...it's been great. So far the emphasis has been getting comfortable with each other; learning that out of school and can be 'Jez' and not the Principal. Next year I hope we can get really stuck into some meaty, teenage issues.

Partnering

Work with our parent NGO, African Revival Ministries (ARM), continues. During our time at New Wine, in the summer, I was able to meet some potential partner organisations and in December we met with directors of Watchmen International who have a programme to supply cheap water filtration kits across East Africa.

You never know if these attempts to partner will work, but ARM's Country Director saw some wonderful opportunities to introduce clean water kits into the communities in which they are already working. It's amazing how God can use the smallest introductions to transform the lives of so many.

Social Action

I have a passion for expanding the education and experiences of our students outside of the classroom and was very privileged to join Rusizi House, from the Secondary School, who went to visit, donate and start building relationships with a Batwa community near Bujumbura.

Photo op with our new friends...don't you just love the guy on the right?!

The Batwa are the most marginalised, minority, ethnic group in Burundi and live in terrible conditions. The staff and students of Rusizi hope to create a lasting relationship with this community; raising not only money, but also awareness in Burundi.

The main national newspaper IWACU came to cover the visit and we were very excited to have a full page in the paper. Great for the school and the Batwa. And an amazing experience for our privileged children; seeing the conditions, enjoying some performances and dancing with our hosts.

Social action is something that we hope to encourage across the whole school. Earlier in the term, all four houses from the Primary School engaged in various projects; including community cleanup programmes and visiting children at other schools.

6 Priorities

In the second half of the last term I began with 6 priorities:

1) Finances - First terms are expensive; especially when you have finance issues. And so this term we faced further financial strain. But I wanted the school to experience God's provision in the way that the family has done recently. So the leadership met regularly to pray faithfully for God's provision and, through God's grace, we managed to scrape through....and the future is beginning to look bright!

There was a little bump along the way. While Allie was recuperating in hospital, the tax ministry froze the assets of our organisation. An interesting first back to work; but a result of a misunderstanding about our outstanding debt to the government. Fortunately there are many great people who work in the ministry who really helped to walk us through the situation and we now have a legal agreement with the government to settle the debt once and for all.

2) Culture - We continue to look for ways to raise student standards and behaviour....particularly in the Secondary School; but this has to come from our example. So at the beginning of this term the school's leadership introduced a set of core values for our staff. Values that, we believe, will encourage the best kind of behaviour. At our staff training day last week, every department made written commitments (mine in brackets) towards...

...integrity (always delivering on my promises and meeting actions)

...excellence (always early for every appointment) 

...responsibility (honour all appointments and site visits)

...affirmation (develop a staff reward and recognition scheme)

...community (have a conversation with every member of staff in a fortnight)

...spirit of Christ (meet and pray for the school with my leadership every Friday @ 7am)

I am so excited about this...but I have to lead the way.

3) Appraisals - We introduced a formal appraisal process, allowing us to review the performance of every member of staff. A very insightful process involving some wonderful and tough conversations...and a steep learning curve for my leadership. We are aiming to have an uncompromising attitude to excellence. To show how, with faith and the right attitude, we can achieve amazing things.

4) Reports - One of our biggest, outstanding, headaches is effective report writing. We spent time reviewing our report writing process, designs etc...and came up with a better way. It didn't really work.

So we're going to have another go this term...we're determined to reduce the agony.

5) Workers - I've mentioned in previous blogs our desire to improve that working conditions of our workers and set an example to Burundi about effective leadership and care of those who serve us. Some progress has been made, but not nearly enough and we're going to continue looking hard at this over the next few weeks.

Today, however, we have begun handing out 2014 bible study notes in Kirundi to the non-English speaking staff at the school; including the police who guard the school.

6) Admin Efficiency - We weren't efficient enough to get round to doing this...but we managed to start looking at this on Monday.

And that's enough for now. I want to share our plans for next term....but I'll do that in a couple of weeks. Next week I'll post a guest blog from my friend, Kevin Cherry, who spent a week doing leadership coaching with the school's staff.

God continues to bless, and challenge us, and we feel privileged to be doing this work...and it's so great to be able to be proactive, not always reacting. In fact, as I write, my accountant has, for the first time, given me a termly budget without asking me to sit down first!

Speak soon,

Jeremy