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 national 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