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Burundi
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History One Mission Society entered Burundi in 2000 to partner with local churches in the Village Church Planting Program (VCP). VCP teams train bivocational Christian leaders to start new churches in villages where no church exists. These church planters study Bible, theology and practical church planting as they evangelize and make disciples. All church leaders are taught that healthy churches grow and multiply. Each bivocational pastoral worker must establish a church and begin planting a daughter church before graduating from the three-year training program. Ministries Peter Barakamphitiye is from Burundi and coordinates the VCP ministry around Gitega, the second-largest city in Burundi after the national capital of Bujumbura. He and his wife Fidelity have four children. Fidelity works with a sister ministry of Peter’s, reaching out to individuals with special circumstances. Together, Peter and Fidelity have seven training centers, one of which is volunteer. Peter is very hardworking. He goes where none has been. As of mid-2008, Peter reported 53 first-generation, 35 second- and five third- generation churches. Their membership numbers 3,510. Western Burundi, Imbo NordJohn Gahungu and his wife Marie Claire have two children. They have been with the Into Africa Project since 2001 and relocated to Burundi in November 2003 after completing their training in South Africa. John coordinates six VCP training centers in the western province of Imbo Nord. Three of these are volunteer centers. The local denominational partner with the Into Africa project is Eglise Méthodiste Libre au Burundi, or Free Methodist Church in Burundi. The major language groups in Imbo Nord are Swahili and Kirundi. John Gahungu is enthusiastic about his ministry, and he shares with everyone, at any time, and anywhere, his faith in Christ. He was the first in the Great Lakes region of Africa to implement the VCP principles, and all who have followed have been inspired by his success. At their 2007 annual conference, the Free Methodists requested that John implement VCP principles in all districts, not just in the western conference. As a result, he initiated two additional VCP training centers during 2008, one for the rural areas surrounding Bujumbura and the other in Makamba Province, in Nyanza Lac. As of June 2008, John reported 115 churches, 65 of which are recognized by the Free Methodist Church as established local churches that meet on Sundays as a place of worship. More than 160 men and women were involved in leadership training as village church planters, and the VCP churches had a total membership of 6,867. TestimonyTherese Ntakirutimana is one of the recent converts through village church planter Ernest Bizoryabandi, who is the trainer at the Ndava training center and pastor of the Ruhogwe Free Methodist church in Gasenyi. Therese was a fortuneteller who practiced witchcraft as an income-generating business for many years. Ernest presented the Gospel to her during the initiation of this church plant, and by God’s grace, she gave her life to Jesus. She renounced these practices and brought all her witchcraft devices and burned them in public. Those who were in the same business laughed at her and considered her stupid for giving up her business, while others were rejoicing for what the Lord Jesus had done in her life. Since then, she has been a happy and fulfilled person and is active in the women’s ministry. Today, whenever people who don’t know that she is serving Jesus come for consultation, she instead shares with them about her new found faith and tells them that Jesus is the great healer. Praise God! Statistics We praise God for what He did in Burundi in 2010:
To find out more about Burundi, click here. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/by.html |
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