Most of the work that we do these days is cultivating communities, development work that moves people toward sustainable and viable communities for generations to come. We love knowing that we are contributing to longevity – food security, education, health and economic enterprises that will fund families for years to come.

But this day was different. We heard about the drought and resulting famine in the Horn of Africa. We heard about children dying each day for lack of food. And we grieved for these parents, these children. This day we knew that what was called for was an emergency relief effort to get food into the hands (and bellies) of those in need. We needed to help provide daily bread this time… and fast.

So with a bevy of friends… we set out to do just that. Community of Faith in Texas along with congregations in Los Angeles, Cancun and friends from Vancouver and Kentucky joined with churches in Burundi and Kampala to raise funds for food. They gave sacrificially to make daily bread happen for those in need this very day. Together we gathered enough resources to purchase 120 tons of food.

Above you see a few of our friends… the day the volunteers from Kenya, Uganda and Burundi met to load the trucks. It was the beginning of a long journey to northern Kenya to a region where, quite literally, the streets have no name.

Over the next set of days they would arrive to desolate and dry towns… with daily bread. They delivered food to over 45,000 Turkan families. One woman told us that now she has food for her five children for a month, and she believes God will send rain for the next month. Another man said that the band of friends looked like angels from heaven coming to bring food to people they did not even know. But we reminded them that God knows the Turkan people, He has not forgotten them.

We saw with our own eyes that God still sets a table in the wilderness, as He did in the stories of the Old Testament. Our God is still in the bread business, providing daily bread to those who hunger. And on some days, very good days, we are invited to be part of the distribution of His bread for His people.

Claude was deeply impressed by the dignity, elegance and beauty of the Turkan people. How stunning are these two women, young and old, both possessing some inner radiance, despite the dire situation in their region. And the children… always easily given to laughter when friends come to visit and cameras are turned on! These faces linger with us…

Thank you for your prayers, your gifts, your participation in this emergency relief effort. 120 tons of food to 45,000 families – God is good! We are humbled that we were part of His distribution operation, and honored to be part of this with all of you!

It is September and the men are still hard at work building the permanent houses for each family. As a matter of fact, now three of the men are qualified as building project leaders since they have mastered the lessons of construction required for this project. So these men (seen above) now manage the build site!

Little Claude (our project manager and agricultural engineer) also wanted to share a few other notes from the field. Carrots, cabbage and bananas are all growing! It is a good season so far and we are looking at strong prospects come harvest.

Another note for this month is that the children will be returning to school on Monday morning. You can imagine the excitement the kids feel as they look forward to more learning and more time with friends! Mamas are busy mending and cleaning school uniforms and making sure all the necessary school supplies are in order. We all anticipate another great school year ahead for the students of Matara!

Day in and day out, Matara continues to be a community busy about goodness. Fields are green and growth is evident. Livestock are all doing well – cows, goats and rabbits. Homes are being built. Children grow strong with daily cups of milk. Amid all this activity, Little Claude reports there can always be heard laughter from some corner of the land, singing as people walk about and countenances bright with satisfaction. September is a time of hard work, but it is good to be working their own land for the sake of their own families and contributing to the good of the entire neighborhood!

For our friends who traveled to Burundi this summer, you might recall that Donald wrote a song about the time spent in Matara. That song, with video from our time there, was debuted at Community of Faith this week. But in case you missed it on Thursday – we don’t want you to miss it any longer! Here is the link to the song that shares our story, the Batwa story and witnesses to God’s good work in Matara. I hope it does your heart good to see these friendly faces again and recall the connections God forged up on that mountain!

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Little Claude wanted to send his greetings from Burundi this September. Claude sends his greetings from northern Kenya (as they are distributing food right now!) I send my greetings, too! May we all celebrate God’s goodness this month as we embrace a change of season but the constancy of God’s lavish love for us all!

The horn of Africa is hemorrhaging – spilling life onto the arid desert land for lack of food and water. Reports by the United Nations, international non-profits and global news organizations all agree – this is the worst famine to hit the African continent in years. Somalia, Ethiopia and Northern Kenya seem to be in the crosshairs of hardship and heartache once again.

There are estimates that up to 600,000 children are at risk in the region. Most are already suffering from a degree of malnutrition from the lack of food and water, but with the grip of famine not letting go anytime soon, starvation is on the horizon for many of these children. Another way to try to understand the sheer magnitude of the situation – 300 children a day are dying for lack of food.

This is what keeps us up at night. As parents, Claude and I cannot stomach the thought of all these children losing life for want of food. Every night that I serve my daughter her dinner of fruits and vegetables, with every breakfast omelet Claude makes for our son… we are reminded that this is a luxury others are starving for, quite literally. We ache for our fellow African parents who just want to feed their children. We weep for the children who cry with hunger pangs. We are brought to our knees before God, who sees this all and aches alongside the parents and children of Africa.

But God is in the bread business – providing provision for this world, especially when there is extreme lack. He invites us to join him in collecting bread, blessing it, distributing it to those in need. So we believe that God is asking us to get busy and start collecting food so that we can be part of his distribution line, getting food into the hands of those who need it most.
Claude, as a native of Burundi, has many connections within the east African region. Through this network of friends and churches he is strategizing a food initiative with the goal of reaching a refugee camp in Northern Kenya with a truck load of provisions – 80,000 kilograms (80 tons) of corn, beans and water. This amount of food can feed 40,000 families (or about 280,000 people) in northern Kenya.

We will be working with Community of Faith partners in Burundi and Uganda to collect food, since food is plentiful in Uganda. We will coordinate with our friends in Kenya for the truck to transport the food to the north. Together, Community of Faith friends in east Africa will deliver the food to the refugee camp, all of us together joining God’s food distribution chain from Houston to northern Kenya.

We have churches in Houston, Uganda, Cancun and Burundi taking collections so that, together, we can demonstrate that God is still in the bread business, bringing provision to those in need.

Life continues to move forward in Matara this fall. While the children are in class, so are their parents! Literacy training has begun for those interested in learning to read and write. In the open air classroom with a simple chalk board, they are beginning to work with their own teacher.

This is the season to harvest potatoes. You can see here the sacks of potatoes already gathered and being prepared for distribution. Harvest is hard work, but good work when the potatoes feed your family and neighbors!

Just this week we had an additional blessing – the Batwa students who have graduated from high school and been part of the Student House wanted to volunteer in Matara! These friends have decided that they will use their break from university to help their friends with the huge housing project. So together they have been building, sharing meals and laughing together. While not pictured here, I think it is safe to say there was also some dancing involved!

So this fall, goodness continues to be seen on the hills of Matara. Our friends work hard to improve their community, their housing and themselves!

The Batwa men are working on the next ‘duplex’!

You can see their progress on this third one! (above)

Here is the second duplex, now complete with a roof! These are the homes that our COF team helped construct – looking pretty good, right?

The Batwa families decided to do all the brick making, brick laying and roofing for all the homes first. Once all homes are constructed and with roofs, they will then plaster them all at once! This is the plan they came up, and as you can see they are working the plan with diligence! What is not pictured here is all the bricks they have been making – amazing!

We took a couple of friends with us this weekend to visit, coming from Kenya and Uganda. Francois commented on all their ‘international friends’ that come to visit, encourage and witness God’s goodness to them. You can tell they feel pride at having friends from all over the world come and visit and, more importantly, care about them! Imagine once feeling isolated and invisible in your own society – and now having a host of international friends! And those friends travel from afar to be with you and express solidarity? The story is changing… from isolation to international hosts in their own village! Again, God is so good!

Greetings from Matara!

We returned to Matara this morning – Claude, Little Claude, the kids and I. The first thing we noticed as we pulled up was the progress on the homes. The walls are now done and roofing is beginning! (Below is a view from the front of the homes.)

We went to pay a visit to Yolanda and her new baby girl, born on Thursday, two short days ago. She looks so peaceful and has a full head of curls already!

Then we went over to the stalls to see the cows. Well, more than that, Salvator wanted to make good on his promise to teach my son how to milk a cow! So he gave both my kids a lesson and a couple of tries. Patient cow! The kids loved it, and the Batwa friends seem to find us all entertaining.

It was a good morning among friends. Good to see that new life continues to come forth in Matara, good to witness the progress on the homes and to check in on the cows. (The new bull is settling in, so no ‘date night’ for him quite yet.)

NOTE: Carol, your friend was out and about when we arrived. So Little Claude made good on his promise and handed over your hat to her husband. He will give to her when she comes home from the market. By the way, Little Claude was wearing the hat up until he had to give it away, he really liked it, too!

This morning we woke up slowly at the Blue Bay Resort in Rumonge. We enjoyed breakfast with a view. THen we were treated to a boat ride on Lake Tanganyika! The hotel owner was our captain, taking us out for a 45 minute tour of the lake. We encountered a local fisherman out on the water, only having caught one fish. We got a spectacular view of the resort and the shoreline from the boat. Nice way to begin the day!

Once back in Bujumbura we visited Aroma for some ice cream, fruit smoothies and a variety of coffee drinks. Nothing like enjoying dessert before lunch! Tonight we will share out final dinner together in Burundi – a bittersweet moment as our visit comes to a close. One more night, one more day, and your loved ones will say good bye to Bujumbura and be Texas bound.

On the seventh day God rested – and so did we! Today we drove along the coast of Lake Tanganyika to the shoreside village of Rumonge to enjoy some sabbath rest together. This is a great place to relax, reflect and even catch up on some reading! But we also walked on the beach, played volleyball and took long, uninterrupted naps. Our soundtrack – the waves of the lake.

There goes Trevor, the first to dive into the lake!

Donald reclining under the canopy of a tree on the beach.

Lunch al fresco!

Greg took a nice rest on a grass matt.

Friends admiring the Burundian sunset together…

Our day just ended with a dinner served on the sand. Our light – a huge bonfire! There were games, laughter and even some dessert. Now we are all off to bed, no doubt we will be lulled to sleep by the gentle sound of the waves. Sabbath is good for the soul!

Today was our final day in Matara. We savored this last chance to work side by side, exchange final smiles and share in final words of blessing. The Batwa families wanted to show us more of the land they have cultivated with banana trees, passionfruit vines, cassava, beans (recently harvested) and much more. They were so excited to show us the new bull just delivered yesterday from Uganda – this one to replace the one that died last month. This bull was the fulfillment of Pastor Mark’s pledge – if you raise funds for half the cost, COF will contribute the balance! So they did their part, and so did you! The families also showed us the rabbits the women tend and a new community venture – honey bees! There is always something new underway in the village – such a vibrant place.

We did do some work today – more construction on the two homes and planting carrots and more cabbage. But there were also some other items of business before we left – like another picture of Sweet Iribuka, the first child born in Matara about 18 months ago. Here are some pictures from the day…

Above are the two families moving into their new homes next week! Below is the ever-growing Iribuka!

A final gift before we went… eggs and fruit all from Matara!

As we left, there were some tears. It is hard to leave these friends who have become so dear to us. They sent us off so graciously, blessing us and asking us to come back and bring our friends to visit next year! So consider yourself invited!

Sunday morning everyone worshipped at Life Center. Then they were all invited back to our house for a relaxed lunch. We hinted at a surprise of some sort. Was it the apple pie dessert? Or was it….

Burundian drummers! The pounding of those huge drums was the answer to the question, the end of the suspense and beginning of the amazing demonstration of athleticism and rhythm combined!

So then after the drummers drummed their last, they invited us to join them!

And then, as the drummers were preparing to hoist the drums on their heads one last time for their exit, Greg just had to try! He was so curious…

And not to be out-done by his dad, Garrett had to have his try!

Suffice it to say – those drums are HEAVY!

So our Sunday was a little bit country and a little bit rock n’ roll. Or to quote Donald, our Sunday was as American as apple pie and as Burundian as drummers!