Monday, June 18, 2007

Burundi Stories Part 3 - You Mean Peace

Buying Fantas and Cokes




Whenever we would meet new people, we would try to ask them for their prayer requests. Without fail, on that list always included, peace for Burundi. After 13 years of civil war, that makes total sense.



It really hit home one day for the team. Down the street from where we stayed we started visiting a little shop to buy Fantas. It became almost a daily routine. One day while we were in there, the shop owner, in his broken English said these simple words that meant so much, "You mean peace."



In his own way, he was saying thank you for coming to his country because it showed him that there was peace. He knew that without peace 12 muzungus would not be so freely walking around and buying stuff from his shop and he was truly grateful.



Without peace, they know that their children will never have any opportunities and that their country will remain one of the poorest in the world. This doesn't have to be the case. It is definitely one prayer that is permanently on my list!

4 comments:

All Blog Spots said...

nice blog

Cajun Tiger said...

Thanks =)

Dionne said...

Powerful post Shane!! We so much take for your granted the peace we have here. A friend of mine grew up in the Philippines because her parents were missionaries there. To this day she can't watch war movies because she was actually in the middle of several coups that happened while she lived there. You can imagine how disturbing that would be for a child. I can't imagine how many children probably grow up that way with no relief in sight.

The scary part is if Democrats rise to power and continue to appease terrorists we could become a much less safe society and be praying for peace ourselves. Something to think about.

Thats one of the neat things about going out of the country, getting a whole different perspective on life. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Anonymous said...

If the democrats do seize power in the congress and WH, it will most certainly be a less safe world. Terrorists will be free incite violence within nations with impunity..who will stop them?

Certainly not the US.

The legacy of democrat appeasement will most affect vulnerable nations, such as, Burundi.