Goodbye in Bujumbura

We are just back from a week-end in Bujumbura. It’s an almost perfect location for swimming – our hotel was on the sandy beach, the water in Lake Tanganyika is warm, the mountains of Burundi and the Congo create a stunning setting and the weather was great. You have to swim in the morning, as the wind gets up in the afternoon and creates some quite large waves. The other drawbacks are the presence of teenage boys who are of course fascinated by us and there are also hippos, although they are usually about 3km away from where we were. It’s just a step too far to claim that we were “swimming with hippos”!!
It was also a week-end for saying good-bye to our Scottish friends who have been working in Uganda. There was a lot of reflecting on our time in Africa, on lessons learned, on experiences both good and bad, on problems unresolved and on the future. It was a very significant time as we prayed together – the support and encouragement of our regular but infrequent meetings has been a huge source of strength for us. Much of our reflection was on struggles with African culture, set in context by 2 short passages from The Message version of the New Testament. Perhaps more important for us than the work we have done in Africa is the work God has done in us :

Then Jesus told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat—I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? " (Luke 9)

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule." (Matthew 5).