Friends,
I just returned home from an incredibly fruitful trip to Rwanda and Burundi, Africa. Our impact has been furthered and strengthened because of our collaboration efforts with our friends, ELLS International!
We are so grateful for the opportunity to partner with them and serve the African people through conferences and trainings on pastoral leadership, discipleship and evangelism.
Carly Blue Rawie, the U.S. Office Manager of ELLS sent out incredible newsletters throughout the trip…I wanted to share several compelling highlights from her reports that strongly moved my heart. I’m confident yours will be moved as well:
I just returned home from an incredibly fruitful trip to Rwanda and Burundi, Africa. Our impact has been furthered and strengthened because of our collaboration efforts with our friends, ELLS International!
We are so grateful for the opportunity to partner with them and serve the African people through conferences and trainings on pastoral leadership, discipleship and evangelism.
Carly Blue Rawie, the U.S. Office Manager of ELLS sent out incredible newsletters throughout the trip…I wanted to share several compelling highlights from her reports that strongly moved my heart. I’m confident yours will be moved as well:
-The smell of burning garbage filled my nostrils as we landed in Burundi. I knew it was ranked the number one poorest country in the world, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. 6-year-old girls with babies strapped to their backs rushed our car, asking for money. Women washing their clothes in the brown sludge they call a river. Hundreds of people lined up at a gas station waiting for fuel trucks that have been stuck at the border for months. The city center is beyond third world. It’s a massive slum…
-I got to interview a few attendees, and their stories left me speechless. When asking how many people made up one pastor's church, he said “I have planted seven churches, each with around 200 people in them.” I asked how he made money, and he said, “I wake up, find enough work to put food on the table for that night and start again the next day.” WOW!
-The average salary of a Burundian is $220.00 a year. That is $18.30 a month, $4.58 a week and .60 a day. A regal cinema ticket in the U.S. is $19. Two McDonald’s Big Mac meals is $18.68. My favorite brand of lipstick costs $23. The tension I feel is overwhelming.
-When I asked a woman how many kids, she has she replied, ‘three biological and fifty orphans.’ Yes, FIFTY. 5-0. She pastors a church, but her heart is to see children come to know the Lord. There is story after story after story of pain and hardships mixed with joy and peace.
-I realize how heavy an update this is to read but I think it is important for us, Westerners, to know the reality of so many in the world.
These stories are the reason [our ELLS staff] come back again and again and again. It is tragic and awful and seemingly hopeless and yet, God has allowed us to be an encouragement and help to His beloved children.
These stories are the reason [our ELLS staff] come back again and again and again. It is tragic and awful and seemingly hopeless and yet, God has allowed us to be an encouragement and help to His beloved children.
As you now see and better imagine after reading Carly Blue’s words, it was an equally tragic and tremendous trip. Thank you, friends, for making ministry like this possible. It was an honor to join ELLS International on this life-changing outreach…my heart is both burdened and fulfilled.
Yours to make HIM known,
Mike Silva
Yours to make HIM known,
Mike Silva
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