Ana Maria Herrara with three of her four children: Paulina, Maria and Nicolas. Chile’s earthquake toppled the fifteen-story apartment building where they were living in the city of Concepción. Their apartment was on the twelfth floor. They escaped unharmed.

The better part of our Saturday consisted of driving further south in Chile, a nation with a ribbon-like shape that is 2,700 miles long and averages about 100 miles in width. Our destination was the city of Valdivia, where James and Pablo know some pastors. We arrived in the afternoon to gratefully learn that our hotel had warm water, something we did without during our two-day stay at Concepción. (Incidentally, I learned that the earthquake moved the entire city of Concepción ten feet to the west.)

We enjoyed a lovely dinner that evening with the pastors of our host church, Grace and Peace Fellowship. Enrique Rofas and Maritza Balas have planted sixteen churches in Chile over the last nine years and they are big fans of The Disciple-Making Minister (my kind of people). We joined their congregation of 1,300 on Sunday morning. James Jones preached the primary sermon, and I must say that his anointing increased exponentially with a suit and tie—judging from the applause, amens and standing ovations garnered during his message. It was probably the best sermon I never heard (as it was in Spanish).

Preacher James Jones

Earlier in the service, a single mother shared an amazing testimony relative to the earthquake and tsunami. I’m saving her story for our May magazine, so I can’t share the details here. But her children were swept out to sea by the tsunami, and then swept back inland, to be found eight days later, alive. Heaven’s Family is now helping to rebuild their damaged house.

After church, I had the blessing of meeting the Herrara family, pictured above, whose fifteen-story apartment building toppled and snapped in half during the early morning hours of the February 27 earthquake. (I had taken photos of their building just a few day earlier, of which one is below.) The Herraras lived on the twelfth floor. They were awakened by the violent shaking and started praying and crying out to God. Although most of their furniture slid across the floor and crashed into the walls as the building fell over, none of the Herraras were touched or hurt. As the building lay on its side, they crawled out a window and started helping others.

The fifteen-story apartment building where the Herrara family was living. As the building was newly completed, only nineteen of the apartments were occupied. About twenty tenants died.

Sunday evening we attended an earthquake benefit concert organized by Grace and Peace Church. The highlight for me was some traditional flamenco dancers who were one of several groups who volunteered their talents to raise funds for earthquake survivors. Below is a photo I snapped that reflects the intensity of the dancers.

Tomorrow we start our long journey back north to Santiago, a ten-hour drive. Then on Tuesday I start my longer journey back to the U.S., a twenty-four hour trip. I’m ready for home.

All together we’ve assisted about thirty Christian families or individuals who lost just about everything because of Chile’s earthquake, sharing close to $10,000, so it has been a fruitful week of service. Thanks for joining me via our blog. — David

Dear Friends,

We awoke this morning to learn that one of our team members, Pablo Juliberto, had been tapped by Chile’s new president to serve as a governor of one of Chile’s forty provinces. Pablo had previously served as the Minister of Finance for that same province. He’s a bright young man who also sits on the board of Chile’s third-largest university. So we’ve had a fun time today joking about how people from whom Pablo asks driving directions don’t know they’re talking to a distinguished governor!

Pastor Pedro, whom we met last evening, and his wife, took us around Concepcion and a nearby town named Dichato all day today visiting believers who have suffered great losses because of the tsunami that followed the earthquake. We were told that the tsunami was not a giant wave, but that the ocean simply lifted 30 to 50 feet and surged inland, then rushed back, pulling everything with it back into the ocean. That happened three times within the space of about fifteen minutes. Huge boats were planted far inland, and homes were washed out to sea. The wake of destruction left behind is hard to describe, and the photos below can only provide a tiny glimpse.

In any case, about twenty-five Christian families who lost everything are sending up thanks because Heaven’s Family came to their aid today. Although we are not able to restore all they lost, we were able to help each family with some immediate needs by means of gifts of $200 to $300 each, which is a larger sum in the minds of most Chileans than it is to most North Americans. Below are photos of a few who benefitted. Some of the recipients cried, and they expressed their amazement that we came all the way from the U.S. to help them.

Chile is in a much better position than Haiti to help its citizens, and recovery efforts are well underway on public projects. It remains to be seen what might be done for individuals whose homes are heaps of rubble or have been literally washed away down to the foundations, leaving nothing. — David

Governor Pablo jumped out of our pickup truck to take some boxed milk and water to this woman who was living in a tent with her two small children, as her apartment is unsafe now after the earthquake

Single mother Veronica del Carmen Lara amidst the mud and debris of her children’s bedroom. The water surged into her home to a depth of about three feet.

Veronica del Carmen Lara and her married daughter Karen Andrea Perieda Lara

A boat that was deposited by the tsunami in Concepcion

Susana Oviedo Aedo in front of what remains of her home

We could hardly believe how far inland this boat was deposited by the tsunami

A typical view of what it looks like in Dichato

Another typical view in Dichato

James Jones speaks with pastor Juan Wall in Dichato who has twenty-three families in his church who lost everything. He told us how his church was warned shortly before the earthquake and tsunami that something terrible was going to happen and that they should pray. Not one life was lost among his congregation.

One of the few houses still somewhat intact near the shoreline in Dichato, probably due to a very hefty foundation and fortified walls

What is left of the beach-front road in Dichato

Although it is not so easy to tell from this photo, on top of the orange building is a house that was lifted up and deposited by the tsunami

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Chile, where I arrived on Wednesday after twenty hours of travel. Although there is very little jet lag here (just two hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time), I am experiencing a little Seasonal Lag, as the southern hemisphere is coming to the end of the summer. The tomatoes are ripe and the leaves are beginning to change in some places.

James Jones and I flew into Chile’s capital, Santiago, because the airport that is closer to the earthquake’s epicenter (at Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city) is shut down due to earthquake damage. Santiago is largely intact, but there are pockets of earthquake damage. We spent Thursday evening with a old pastor friend of James’ and learned that five families/people in his church could not return to their rented apartments because of structural damage. James personally met with each family/person prior to my arrival into Santiago, and we were blessed to partner with their church to help them get started in new apartments. Rents have naturally increased in Santiago due to supply and demand.

We spent much of the day on Friday driving to Concepcion (on a highway that was damaged in many places).

Our team includes two other members, Chilean Pablo Jiliberto, who took it upon himself to print 1,500 copies of the Spanish translation of The Disciple-Making Minister and personally distribute them to Christian leaders all over Chile, and Miqueas Vientos, a Spanish-speaking pastor from New Jersey. As we drove towards Concepcion, we stopped at a big grocery store in order to fill the back of our pickup truck with necessities such as bottled water and Clorox for the saints in the earthquake areas. It was in that grocery store that I experienced my first and second aftershocks, one of which we later learned was 7.2 on the Richter scale. It was an erie sensation to which I’ve since grown quite accustom (having now experienced many). Bottles were falling off of shelves and store lights were swinging. People hurried for the exits (including us).

Upon our arrival in Concepcion, we drove to a city park to meet with a church congregation whose building was made unusable by the tsunami that followed the earthquake. They were having church outside, and were praising God in a big circle when we arrived. As stray dogs weaved in and out of the group, James shared a thirty-minute sermon that I could not understand, but that was obviously a great encouragement to everyone. Tomorrow we’ll be visiting some of those among them who lost just about everything, and who are now living with other church members or relatives.

James Jones, park preacher

So far I love Chile. When you greet someone, you shake hands, then you hug and put your cheeks together and make a kissing sound, then shake hands again. Lots of love flowing at the Grace and Peace Church here in Concepcion!

Below are a couple of photos of our team members and some of the earthquake damage in Concepcion. Thanks for your prayers. — David

This apartment building just fell over on its side

Pastor Pedro Martinez Hernandez

Pastor Pedro’s wife, Anna Maria Fagundez Cluzet

Pablo Zuniga Jiliberto

Miqueas Vientos

James Jones (what a boring name!)

Simeon Muhunga with a French copy of The Disciple-Making Minister

I first met Simeon Muhunga at a pastors’ conference at which I was teaching in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2004. At that time he was pastoring a church of 2,500 people in Goma, but at the conference, Simeon realized that he was pastoring a mixture of sheep and goats. He knew he needed to make some adjustments in his ministry.

As one of the few pastors who attended the conference who could speak and read English, Simeon received several copies of The Great Gospel Deception which I had brought with me. The simple biblical truths he read only affirmed what he learned at the conference. He returned to his church with determination to make disciples, and he and I began a long-distance relationship via email. He started sharing with other pastors what he had been learning, as well as distributing Swahili and French copies of The Disciple-Making Minister.

It wasn’t so easy for Simeon, especially at first. One-thousand people left his church, not wanting to hear the scriptures that he had been avoiding for years. But over time, Simeon’s decision paid off. He is now making disciples through planting and nurturing house churches. And his disciples are bearing fruit. Simeon’s sheep are sharing the gospel with others, and even though they are poor, they are opening their homes to orphans, taking care of widows and refugees, and reaching out to prisoners and drug users.

Today, Becky and I visited a few of the places where Simeon and his disciples are serving, starting at some tiny "homes" where seven Christian women live—all of whom have been displaced since rebels attacked their villages within the last two years. Some are sure that their husbands are dead, while others think their husbands are being held as slaves of the rebel army which the Congolese army is too weak to defeat. All are desperately poor, but they are among twenty-nine families who are being sustained because of the sincere love of Simeon’s sheep, who even pay the women’s children’s school fees. That love has won their hearts, and all of them are active in one of Simeon’s house churches. Here is their photo:

Banyere Bushashire, Wabo Chantal, Machozi Pendeza, Bahati Aline, Magdalene Netsuba, Milcha Shamamba, and Ndatoola Nabahoko, standing in front of one of their one-room houses.

We sat and talked with them for a while about how Heaven’s Family could best serve them through our Christian Refugees Fund. Several had marketable skills that they were willing to teach to others, and so we arranged for all of them to receive one-year micro-loans once their business plans are approved by Simeon. Later, we discussed in more detail with Simeon how we will facilitate two micro-banks with him—one for widows and the other for refugees. The goal is to create economic empowerment, self-sufficiency, and ultimately godly stewardship.

Below are a few photos from today’s visits.

Tomorrow we start our long journey home, starting with a three-hour drive back through Rwanda, then flights to Nairobi, London, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh. I’ve been out of the country thirty-four of the last forty-three days, so I’m ready for some time at home.

There will likely be little of significance to report on our route there, so I’ll sign off from this African blog for now. Thanks for joining Becky and me on our journey, and I hope you’ve been even more inspired to lay up your treasures in heaven.

 — David

IDP and soon-to-be micro-loan recipient Machozi Pendeza with her baby girl. Her other children were in school when we visited, as their school fees are being paid by Simeon’s saints.

IDP and soon-to-be micro-loan recipient Magdalene Netsuba

Three adults and eleven children live in this tiny house, of which most of the interior can be seen in this photo. Most of the children were at school when we visited, so I imported some neighborhood kids for illustrative purposes. All of them are IDPs who are being sustained by Simeon’s house church sheep.

This is the exterior view of their house, surrounded by piles of volcanic rock which their landlord stocks and sells.

Simeon and his wife, Josephine, have eight children. Esperance (above) is their oldest daughter, and she is teaching tailoring to a number of IDPs and sexually-abused young women as a ministry outreach.

Not everyone today enjoyed having his photo taken!

Our day started with an email from a Canadian friend who had read in this blog about our Burundian friend Bienvenu, who sold his refrigerator in order to pay for the surgery of one of his regional leaders. She wanted to provide him with a new fridge! Bienvenu was overjoyed when he received her email with the news.

After breakfast we visited a tiny medical clinic, Centre Medical vis la Gloire, the vision of Dr. John Musabao and his wife, Dr. Neema Kavugho (wives don’t take their husbands’ surnames in Congo), and a pastor friend, Isaac Mwanaume. The clinic buildings sit right behind pastor Isaac’s church. Operating on a budget of about $600 per month (given by the poor saints at pastor Isaac’s church), doctors John and Neema provide medical services to the poorest of the poor, such as war widows and orphans (of which there are thousands in Goma) and those living in the local refugee camps.

Dr. John Musabao, his wife, Dr. Neema Kavugho, and their nurse staff, standing in front of the clinic

Dr. John gave us the quick tour of the six rooms of his clinic. I couldn’t imagine undergoing surgery in Dr. John’s operating room until he showed me what was the original O.R. The old one was so dark that they sometimes performed surgeries by the light of cell-phones (electricity is not consistent in Goma). The new O.R., which is a concrete-block room, has a corrugated tin roof with one panel that is clear plastic directly over the operating table, allowing plenty of light into the room.

Dr. John’s microscope was broken and unusable, his pharmacy was sparsely stocked, and his surgical instruments were very limited.

In one of the patient rooms we met a woman who had her appendix removed a few days earlier. Her little son was staying with her. Dr. John told me that everyone who comes through their doors hears the gospel, and many respond.

I pray there is someone reading this who is connected with the medical world who might receive a burden to help doctors John and Neema, who could be enjoying a very comfortable life using their talents elsewhere, but who have chosen to devote themselves to the poor in the name of Christ. I am thankful that we were able to make a $500 contribution from the Critical Medical Needs Fund before leaving Goma, but much more help is needed.

In the early afternoon, we made our way to the home of our host, Simeon Muhunga, where we expected to meet with five Christian widows to talk about helping them start small business with assistance from our Widows Fund. When we arrived, sixty widows were waiting for us, as word had gotten around the some muzungus were coming to help widows! (They were only a small sampling of Goma’s war widows.) Becky and I ducked inside Simeon’s house and discussed what we should do. Learning the most of the widows lived on $10 to $25 per month, we decided to give each one $10 in exchange for a smiling portrait, and Simeon would later select a few to receive micro-loans for starting small businesses. At least we could make a start at serving them and trust God to help more.

Just after I took the photo below of the thirty-five widows who milled around afterwards, they started singing and dancing for joy because of the small gifts they had received. Eastern African women often make shrill, vibrato yelps to express joy in worship, and heaven hears them for sure!

Oh happy day! Our hope is to provide all these Congolese Christian widows with micro-loans to help them start sustainable small businesses.

Below are some portraits that Becky took of a few of the individual Christian widows. Feel good as you enjoy their smiles, and remember their faces, as they’ll be thanking you in heaven.

— David

Malira Butaitirwa. The scar down the middle of her forehead and nose is a tribal means to enhance beauty.

Nyota Byaombe. All her children were killed in the war, and she is caring for her grandchildren.

Ponga Rehema. Her husband died of AIDS, leaving her to raise five children.

Therese Kahindo

Azama Mazambi. She had already received a small business loan from HF, and sells charcoal.

Jeanne Apoba, age 22

Maene Mukanorwa

Mukene Lukowae, a tiny little woman

Whenever we take photos of Heaven’s Family beneficiaries in public places, we instantly draw a crowd of curious people who want to see the "muzungus" up close. That happened this morning once again, so I decided to surprise the surrounding crowd by rapidly shooting many of them with my camera. I got this guy at point-blank range!

This morning we rose before dawn for a quick visit to another beneficiary of Heaven’s Family’s Micro-Loan Fund. Chantal Maluba is a widow whose extended family kicked her out of the family home because she refused to marry a non-Christian man. She trusted God. He has not failed her.

With a $300 loan, Chantal started two small businesses. In the mornings she cooks corn porridge which she sells as breakfast to workers, and the rest of the day she sells beans and flour. (She also leads a house church and is making disciples.) From her business, Chantal is able to support herself and send her only daughter to school.

I’m loving these micro-loans. They are a huge blessing to everyone who has received one. And once they are repaid, others are blessed. Thanks to all who have given to the Micro-Loan Fund.

Chantal Maluba

We landed in Kigali, Rwanda, mid-morning, to be met by two friends, Rwandan pastor Justin Nkundabagenzi, and Congolese church-planter Simeon Muhunga. I gave pastor Justin sixteen Sawyer water filters on behalf of Chuck King (Director of our Safe Water Fund), and Justin drove all of us to the bus station in Kigali.

I had heard that Kigali had experienced an amazing renewal since the end of Rwanda’s genocidal civil war, but I was amazed to see it for myself. It is, by far and away, the nicest African city I’ve ever visited. Most folks here attribute it to good governance, something which is unfortunately in short supply in Africa. I asked pastor Justin if he was Hutu or Tutsi (who were slaughtering each other a few years ago), and he laughed and replied, "I am a Rwandan." He went on to explain that it is now against the law in Rwanda to discuss the tribe from which you originate.

We said goodbye to Justin at the bus station, and Simeon paid our five-dollar tickets for the three-hour ride to the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our journey took us up and over a beautiful mountain range where the famous gorillas live, and past some volcanos as well. I had a possibly providential conversation with a young pastor along the way.

When we crossed the border from Rwanda into the DR Congo, the contrast was stark. It was like crossing into a war zone. Most Westerners don’t realize that there have been two major wars here in recent years. The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 fueled the First and Second Congo Wars. The second war, which began in 1998, involved seven foreign armies, and it directly or indirectly resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people. That makes it the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. How many people outside of Africa know that? (Yet we know when Brad Pitt sneezes.)

Goma, the border town where we now are, has become the home to thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs), many of whom are traumatized widows and orphans. Beyond that, Goma, which sits on the shores of the beautiful lake Kivu, also sits near the base of the active Nyiragongo Volcano, which erupted in 2002. It sent streams of lava through Goma that flowed at 40 miles per hour, destroying 40% of the city, leaving 120,000 people homeless, and extending the Lake Kivu shoreline 500 feet into the lake, so that shorefront properties were no longer on the shorefront.

The evidence of the war and the 2002 eruption are very evident when you drive through Goma. We hope to bear some fruit here over the next couple of days on your behalf.

After a dinner gathering at Simeon’s house where we met a number of fine men and women of God, we checked into our hotel and rejoiced that it had hot water and a mosquito net over the bed. Becky and I are looking forward to a good night’s rest. — David

P.S.: Four other interesting facts about the Democratic Republic of Congo:

(1) There is another country adjacent to this one called the "Republic of Congo." (I suppose they didn’t want to call it the "Undemocratic Republic of Congo," or the "Other Congo!")

(2) More people speak French here than in France.

(3) A quote from Wikipedia: "Lake Kivu is one of three lakes in Africa identified as having huge quantities of dissolved gas held at pressure in its depths. One of the others, Lake Nyos, experienced a limnic eruption or ‘lake overturn,’ a catastrophic release of suffocating carbon dioxide probably triggered by landslides, which killed nearly two thousand people in the area around the lake. Kivu is 2,000 times bigger and also contains dissolved methane as an additional hazard. Nearly two million people including the population of Goma live in the vicinity of Lake Kivu and could be in danger from a limnic eruption triggered by one of the nearby volcanoes and the earthquakes associated with them."

So if we hear the sound of a huge gas bubble bursting on Lake Kivu (which we aren’t too far away from at our hotel), should we hold our breath and run up the slopes of the Nyiragongo Volcano?

(4) The largest concentration of professing Christians following William Branham—an interesting American prophet from the 1950’s who taught some very strange doctrines—is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is estimated that there are up to 2,000,000 followers. Following today in Branham’s footsteps are many American prosperity preachers who are pumping their spiritual sewage into the DRC via satellite television.

Today was a lovely Sunday morning in Burundi. Becky and I enjoyed a special gathering of a number of Bienvenu’s "first-generation disciples" at the humble home of Jean-Pierre Ndayishimiye, whose photo was on the cover of our February magazine. Those first-generation disciples have made disciples who have made disciples, and so on, and now there are nine generations.

It was nice to see one of Jean-Pierre’s daughters, little Shekina, at the meeting, along with many other children. Shekina almost died five months ago from a serious head injury. Heaven’s Family’s Critical Medical Needs Fund came to her aid, paying for hospital care that Jean-Pierre could not have afforded.

Shekina, with a scar from her head injury

Most everyone at the morning’s gathering sat on the floor as they had a lively discussion about Scripture for at least an hour, and then worshipped for at least another hour (a cappella), and then enjoyed a meal together. Burundians eat without utensils, so before the meal was served, two women circulated with a pitcher of water and a catch basin, and everyone washed their hands, which they then used as forks and spoons. Becky and I refrained from eating anything because we were both suffering some intestinal issues. Having traveled to over fifty nations in the last thirty years (many of them many times), I’ve had a taste of just about every bad variety of bacteria that exists, and so my body overcame very quickly what Becky’s body took time to identify and kill!

After the meal, we gathered again for a Q & A session with the author of The Disciple-Making Minister, who did his best to maintain his guise of wisdom. (Very difficult to do when he opens his mouth.) Let me put in a plug for these precious saints: They are givers, but because they have no vision for church buildings, large congregations and supportive staff, all their giving is used to care for the very poor and directly expanding the Kingdom.

It was late afternoon by the time we returned to our $35-per-night accommodations (sans hot water in the "shower"), but a two-hour nap was all the convalescence I needed for a 100% recovery. We had dinner in the evening with Bienvenu, his wife Emily, and their daughters Jessica and Milka to discuss with Bienvenu a second printing of 3,000 copies of the Kirundi version of The Disciple-Making Minister, as well as future ministry plans.

Tomorrow morning we have one early appointment with a micro-loan beneficiary before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Rwanda.

I didn’t take a single photo today, amazingly (including the one in today’s blog). My excuse is that it was Sunday, a day of rest!

Blessings to all readers… — David

P.S. I’ve added an excerpt below from an email I just received about repentance in Haiti that I thought would interest you.

Excerpt from the YWAM leader who ministers in St. Marc, Haiti:

"We feel strongly to call the nations to pray and intercede for Haiti during these three days of prayer, repentance, and fasting that started this morning. We feel it will be the deciding factor for Haiti’s future; will they choose repentance and God or go back to their old ways and not heed the call and the warnings. I would not like to think about what would happen if they did choose the latter.”

"Everything is closed today and people are all working their way to the park!! It is so full that you can no longer get in. All the roads around it are filled… They are worshipping and praying; pastors are leading them but…could not hear what they were saying as there are so many people there. They have set up a stage to the right of the pavilion and have a worship band there.”

"… (at) the corner by the arena (is) where the witchdoctor lives. He was dragging all his voodoo stuff out; he had dug it up in his yard and collected it from around his house, and was dragging it with him to the park to get rid of it all! He was telling people who were watching that he was going to give it all up."

Excerpt from an American radio engineer who has visited Haiti many times:

"About 3 days ago the Haitian president announced that there would be 3 days of holiday from work for the purpose of fasting and prayer. This is absolutely historic…could you ever have imagined such a pronouncement? …This morning I saw a young Haitian-American woman…crying because the Americans could not understand the incredible importance of this day…

"This was not ‘a minute of silence for the deceased’… As I sit here this evening, I can hear the preaching coming from a nearby church. Services have been going on all day… As we left the guest house about 7:30 am, we were met by throngs of well-dressed people headed to various churches. The sounds of Christian music and worship filled the air everywhere. The next observation was that there was NO traffic. Port-au-Prince streets are always clogged and overflowing with bumper-to-bumper traffic. This morning there were only a few vehicles on the roads, a few small buses (tap taps), some UN and military vehicles, and a few private cars. We had clear sailing through town. The same was true of foot traffic. Usually the streets are clogged also with people walking. Today there were only a few and many of them dressed for church. The only place that there were traffic blocks was in front of several churches where the congregations had overflowed the buildings, and the yards and had moved out into the streets as well.

"The next observation was that EVERYTHING was closed! We could not find even one business or gas station open. There were no intercity buses running. Whereas the sidewalks are usually overflowing with millions of street venders, we only saw a few here and there. The huge outdoor market near the wharf where thousands work each day and spread out to cover most of the street, was EMPTY.

"Where were all the people? They were in churches and makeshift meeting sites. Every church (except a JW church) had services going on, almost always overflowing into the streets. Beside broken down churches, services were taking place outside. In homeless camps, there were services. Everywhere the nation was gathered to worship and pray… This scene was repeated in every town and hamlet that we passed through."

Dieudonne Kayobera’s potato business, funded through a HF micro-loan, is booming. Although he is very poor by Western standards, he is using some of his profits to build God’s kingdom and help poor believers.

We started our day spending time with legless Kana Claver, whom I met five months ago when he was still a beggar on the streets of Bujumbura. Kana was tortured during Burundi’s tribal wars, and consequently had to have both his legs amputated. Kana came to know the Lord through Bienvenu’s ministry. (You can read Kana’s full story in our January magazine by clicking here.)

Through a $500 grant via our Handicapped Christians Fund, Kana opened a shop in a marketplace where he sells a variety of beans, rice, and a number of other items. He has gone from making about 50 cents a day begging to an average of five dollars a day from his shop profits. Those profits have enabled him to put his young children in school for the first time in their lives, rent another room in their rented house so that they now have two rooms of living space, provide better food for his family, own a cell phone, and take his children to the doctor when they’ve been ill. We’ve also provided Kana with a hand-propelled tricycle. He formerly got around by scooting on his hands, or by using crutches and crude prosthetic legs.

We’re making a short video about Kana in order to promote the Handicapped Christians Fund, and Kana agreed to re-enact his former begging strategies in downtown Bujumbura while I filmed him. During one sequence, I hid in our parked car while he begged along a busy sidewalk, holding out his hand. Hundreds of people with good legs walked right by him during the fifteen minutes that I filmed, and not one person gave legless Kana anything. Later, as Bienvenu and I replayed and watched that video, Bienv said, "This makes me think of what it will be like on the day of judgment, when the Lord will show us all our deeds."

Kana Claver with his wife and four children in their dirt-floor living room. The sheet covering the doorway at the right leads to a room that used to be rented by another person. Now it is rented by Kana for his family.

We spent much of the rest of the day visiting Christian women who were formerly destitute, but whose lives are improving through small-business and home-building grants, as well as some micro-entrepreneurs who have benefitted from our Micro-Loan Fund. A few of their photos are below. Thanks for helping Heaven’s Family make a difference in all of their lives. — David

Beatrice Ndikumana, age 23, inside her "house." The squatters’ community where she and her family currently live is indescribable by Western standards, unfit for any human habitation. However, because of a $550 HF grant, she and her husband have purchased land and are in the process of building a better house in a better community. We’ve also helped Beatrice to be cured of a severe skin infection through our Critical Medical Needs Fund (see photo below), and helped her start a charcoal and flour-selling business. As a result of these acts of kindness, her husband, who was formerly a drunkard and physically abusive, has repented and begun serving Jesus whole-heartedly.

Beatrice’s former skin infection (photo taken last November) is now completely healed.

Beatrice with her three children, in front of their house. Beatrice’s husband was out working when we visited.

(Above) Miriam Nduwimana, age 22, used to live in the same squatters’ community as Beatrice, but her "house" was completely destroyed in a flood. Bienvenu found her living under a tarp along a road. Miriam was at that time pregnant, having been raped by three men when she was working out in field. Bienvenu led her to Jesus. She later lost her baby and also discovered that she was HIV positive.

With a $600 HF grant, Miriam recently bought land and built a three-room mud-brick house. Through another $300 HF grant, she has started a small business that sustains her and her two sisters.

Miriam in the main room of her three-room, $600 house. She sells flour and small fish during the rainy season, and mud bricks in the dry season since they cannot be made when it is raining.

The five-month-old daughter of our dearest friend in Burundi, Bienvenu Bizimana. Milka was born the day before I arrived in Burundi last year. In the background is Bienvenu’s wife and Milka’s mother, Emily.

We arrived in the central African nation of Burundi around 2AM on Thursday morning. Our dear friend, Bienvenu Bizimana, was all smiles in spite of our ill-timed arrival. Bienvenu is an amazing Heaven’s Family-sponsored native missionary and is one of my favorite people on the planet. You can learn his story by clicking here to read an article about him that was in our November magazine.

Using simple discipleship principles that he learned from reading The Disciple-Making Minister, Bienvenu and his disciples have multiplied exponentially, and seven-hundred house churches have been planted through nine generations of disciples making disciples. So far, two-thousand copies of the Kirundi translation of The Disciple-Making Minister have been distributed to Burundian spiritual leaders. After being here for two days, I can understand at least part of the reason for the wonderful expansion of the kingdom here: Burundians will listen to the gospel. Let me share just one example.

Late yesterday afternoon we traveled from Bujumbura to Bubanza Province in order to visit one of Bienvenu’s regional leaders—named Ettiene—who was recovering from a double hernia operation. (On the way there I learned that Bienvenu sold his refrigerator in order to pay for Ettiene’s surgery.) As we came out of the hospital, a small group of women—seeing the "muzungus" (white-skinned people)—walked over to ask for food money (and to touch our skin, to see if it felt like theirs).

Bienvenu began telling them in their native language of Kirundi that what they really needed was spiritual food. He proceeded from there to proclaim the gospel, and the crowd of women just kept growing. After fifteen minutes, several of them said that they wanted to repent of their sins and start following Jesus. Bienvenu promised he’d be back to help them, and soon, another house church will be planted. Becky and I were amazed.

Bienvenu preaching the gospel to a growing crowd of women

Burundi is one of the world’s ten poorest nations, and it has the lowest per capita GDP of any country in the world. We’ve been serving "the least of these" among Jesus’ family here, focusing on widows, the handicapped, the very poor, and drug users who have been set free by the power of Christ. For the last two days, we’ve been visiting them to see how they are doing. It has been a joy.

So far, we’ve helped six handicapped beggars get off the streets of Bujumbura by helping them start prospering businesses via $400 – $500 grants. All six were won to the Lord by Bienvenu, and all are actively involved in house churches. Some are doing so well in their small businesses that we’re discussing helping them expand their businesses with micro-loans. In the last two days, I’ve personally visited four of them.

Ildephonse (born with a deformed right hand), who used to beg for survival on the streets, at his prospering store.

Donatian, who lost a leg in Burundi’s tribal wars, is another man who formerly begged to survive. His corner store is doing well.

Bienvenu has also won a number of homeless drug users to the Lord who now all meet at a "beach church" along the shores of Lake Tanganyika. We met with two of them to talk about small-business micro-loans from our Micro-Loan Fund. One wants to start a small shoe store, and another wants to sell mobile phone credits. They’ll be putting together business plans with Bienvenu’s help to submit to us.

Bienvenu sitting in Bujumbura’s central park with three former drug users that he now disciples.

Isaac (at left) and Innocent (at right) used to smoke marijuana and sniff glue. Now they are serving Jesus and leading other drug users to the Lord. They told us that they want to keep their dreadlocks so that drug users can related to them!

I wish I could tell you every encouraging story your obedience is making possible in Burundi. But these blogs are not supposed to be novels! Below are a few more photos from the past two days. — David

One of the women at the hospital who listened to Bienvenu share the gospel

Africans love America’s president for many reasons…

There is nowhere we can go without hearing cries of children (and adults) saying "Muzungu, muzungu!" We stand out here, especially when we’re outside of Bujumbura. Babies often cry when they see us, utterly terrified.

A young Burundian with a great smile

Two simbas ("lions" in Swahili)

About forty of the orphans from Mission to Homeless Children arrived at 5:15AM yesterday morning at our hotel so we could join them on a bus trip to Mukeni Game Park. We left before sunrise because the best time to see the animals is in the morning. The kids were sleepy, but excited, for the rare treat they were about to enjoy.

We were not disappointed. Even before we arrived at the gate to the park, we had stopped to watch tembos (elephants) and twigas (giraffes) that were no more than a stone’s throw away. The giraffes always appear to be in perpetual slow motion, especially when they run.

Inside the park, we saw thousands of impalas, as well as warthogs, cape buffalo, monkeys, hippos, crocs, strange big birds, and other animals for which I have no name. (We did not see any Tasmanian Devils, as they live in Tasmania, not Tanzania.) The highlight was seeing several lions resting right along a park road.

A family of tembos

In the afternoon, Becky and I hung out with the children at their current facility. They don’t know what a video game is, but they have tons of fun playing soccer, monkey in the middle, and jumping rope.

In the evening we had dinner with Barnabas Mtokambali, the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God for Tanzania. Barnabas is a friend who has helped me in the past with the printing and distribution of thousands of copies of the Swahili translation of The Disciple-Making Minister to AOG pastors all over Tanzania. He is a good man, and the AOG, among many other groups, is doing a good work planting churches and building the kingdom here, one of Africa’s poorest nations.

That was yesterday. Today was our first day of "rest." This morning we visited Mission to Homeless Children’s new building again in order to take advantage of early morning lighting for some filming. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon catching up on email, which brings you up to date. Later this afternoon we’re driving back to Dar es Salaam to catch our evening flight to Nairobi, and then catching another flight to Burundi with a stop in Rwanda. We’re scheduled to arrive in Burundi around 2AM tomorrow morning if everything goes well… David

Not well-suited for economy seating, or even business class, but great for changing lightbulbs in cathedral ceilings…

Wherever we saw impalas, we saw these big birds also. They must have a symbiotic relationship, but I don’t know what it is. I now wish I had asked our guide.

Our guide talking to the children at a water hole full of hippos, who did very little that was worth photographing, as they were mostly submerged and sleeping. Don’t ever hire one if you want productivity.

A monkey of some species. One of the orphans illegally threw a banana peal out our bus window to a group of these, and it was obvious that they were not of the Christian species. At least, not true Christians.

Some of the children listening to our guide talk about poisonous snakes