Amahoro!
After a long journey that included a canceled flight and a two-hour 'night' in a hotel in Nairobi, I have finally made it back to Bujumbura, Burundi.
Can't say much now because I am using someone's computer quickly and we have to move on, but wanted to let you know I was here and to encourage you to check in for updates during my two-week stay.
Unlike previous visits I don't have conferences or seminars planned. The goal is to meet with people to talk about the process of reconciliation in this nation traumatized by ethnic conflict and still staggering under the weight of crushing poverty.
I was encouraged to find an open person next to me on my morning flight from Nairobi today, a flight that wouldn't have taken place had an airport strike Sunday not caused my flight to be canceled.
I had a great and very candid talk with this young woman who seemed to have an excellent grasp of the principles of forgiveness. I asked her if she was a student. She smiled and told me who she was.
She is a senior advisor to the president of Burundi, in charge of protocol. I'm always amazed at the youth of the people in positions of authority and influence in this country. Anyway, who knows what will come of this latest contact.
Just one of those little winks that convinces me i'm not alone.
Since then, I was able to hook up with Claude Nikondeha, whom I have known from a distance for years since being introduced by Brian McClaren. Claude, an advocate for the poor, is behind Amahoro, an organization that seeks to develop church leaders who can break out of convention and effectively live oiut faith in ways that engage today's world.
We really click and think in many of the same ways about faith and life.
Claude introduced me to several friends, including one whose organization Help Channel is exactly the kind of homegrown effort that we are looking to learn from and walk with. I will be meeting up some more with Cassien later this week.
CHANGES
It's nice to be back here again. It is hard not to like the people here and the simple way of life. But one can feel the changes and the development that are happening here as the country slowly emerges and begins to taste the fruit of the peace it has maintained now for several years after 11 years of bloody conflict.
Not all of the changes are positive, though. One can sense the desire for the Western lifestyle that is so attractive and yet so destructive ultimately to the long-term development of countries like this.
When people are not used to hoping in their future, seeking rewards now becomes the sole driving force. Though many fiscal conservatives think that greed motivation is a good thing, it actually leads people to actions that will ultimately ruin true, healthy development in this society.
More on that later, but people like Claude are seeing the results of this short-term motivation and how it threatens the solid development efforts that people here have put in place for themselves.
More soon
Todd
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