Last month, our medical mission team had the honor of serving in Burundi. We are so excited to update you on what happened on our trip and how we saw God work through our team members.

We arrived in Burundi on Jul 16, 2023, and we were blessed with a luncheon served for us at the home of Dr. Tistou Hitimana and Dr. Gladys Dushime. There, we met the rest of our team, who we would serve alongside during our time in Burundi. That day, we met translators, local doctors, and fellow missionaries. After a refreshing time of fellowship, our group traveled to Kayanza and spent the night at a hotel so we’d be refreshed and ready to serve the next day.

The following two days would be hectic for all of us! We hiked up a mountain to reach the Batwa people group in Kamasabo. This community is deeply impoverished, often surviving just one meal daily. As a result, children are not currently attending school. As you can imagine, this was a community that also needed the free healthcare access that we offered to them. We were so grateful for the opportunity to serve and share the gospel! On the evening of July 18, after two full days of serving the Batwa community, the Mission Partners For Christ team traveled to Kirundo, where we would spend the night.

On July 19, the military escorted us, by boat, across Lake Rweru, to Ruyoka Island, which lies off the coast of Burundi. Just one boat held 5-6 of us and our supplies, so multiple trips had to be made to get our entire team of 30 people to the island. Once there, we served the island’s inhabitants – approximately 50 families – and many who traveled to the island to see us. We had the chance to share the gospel with those who came to see us, and many accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior.

The following day, July 20, we were so blessed to have the local school in Mukerwa available to our team to use as we met with and treated the local community. This was a powerful day for us.

Keep reading to find out more about how the Holy Spirit showed up to open doors and hearts to Him.

Trip Highlights

Mission Partners For Christ Team in Burundi

1. Healing From Chronic Pain One of our team members has lived with the chronic pain condition, Fibromyalgia, for a long time. Ordinarily, just getting out of bed can be a struggle for her. Yet she signed up to join our team, well aware that it would be physically challenging for her. She trusted that God would hold her and get her through as she faithfully followed His calling. She reported to us that she was able to not just do the work, but hike up literal mountains with no pain. We were overjoyed by this news!

    

2. Individual Needs Provided A couple of our team members experienced some anxiety as they faced challenges that seemed to prevent them from being able to join us in Burundi. Things like family issues and concerns about finances, yet God proved faithful to us all and ensured that all needs were met.

    

3. Medical Needs Met Upon our arrival in Burundi, we were faced with an unexpected challenge. So many of the things that we needed to properly treat patients like medicine, expandable shoes, glasses, blood pressure cuffs, and more were held by the government for further inspection and we were unable to leave the airport with these items. While we got some of our supplies back a few days later, many of the other items were being held onto by Burundian authorities. But God didn’t leave us high and dry. On the contrary: what we witnessed was akin to the miracle of the loaves and the fish in the Bible; no matter the medical need, we found that somehow we had exactly what we needed to treat our patients.

Miracles In The Field

1. Healed From Demonic Possession On our second day serving in Burundi, we met two women come to see us who had suffered from demonic possession for years. Our team witnessed the manifestation of demonic possession, and we also witnessed the power of the Lord as He healed both of these women and released them from the chains of the evil spirits.

    

2. Burundians Asked For Prayer & Counseling When word got out about our prayer & counseling services, offered in conjunction with our free healthcare & education clinics, we had a lot of people ask for that.
   
   To be clear, it is a policy that no one on our team pressures any of our patients to go to the prayer & counseling booth. However, we had many people ask, without prompting, to see a counselor. Many even showed up just to seek out someone to pray with them. It brought such joy to our hearts to know that the Spirit was prompting people we didn’t even know to come see us for their spiritual health!
   
   
3. Enough Fuel For Our Travel Needs Many of you reading this post are aware of worldwide gas shortages, but you may still be surprised at how badly this issue has hit third world nations. In Burundi, gas is an extremely rare commodity. We didn’t know if we would have enough to get us to all the places we needed to go. But once again, God proved faithful and provided a way forward. We had exactly as much gas as we needed to travel to each community He had called us to!

The hills of Burundi where Mission Partners For Christ served the Batwa community in Kamasabo

Communities We Served

The Memories We Created

1. Watching the children of Burundi play was beautiful. It helped us to remember to find joy in the simple things; in the midst of so much poverty and need, we witnessed children creating games out of old tire rims and water bottles. We also had the privilege of cleaning the children’s faces when we treated them. For many of these children, it was the first time they felt water wash down their faces because so many of them do not have access to running water. It was a good reminder to praise God for the luxuries that we often take for granted here in the United States.

2. Playing Tourist On our last full day in Burundi, we took advantage of our free time to have a tourism day. We try to build in time for exploration as tourists during each trip so that we can fully appreciate the beautiful country we’ve been serving in as well as to do our part to support the local economy.
   
   * We were able to buy some great souvenirs like dresses, drums, coffee, jewelry, etc…

   * We enjoyed some time relaxing as a group on the beach
   * We visited Rusizi National Park and saw so many amazing animals and incredible nature.
   * We visited the former king of Burundi’s home. 

    

3. Fellowship Like Nothing We’ve Ever Experienced One of the best outcomes of serving with this team was the incredible gift of openness and vulnerability we were able to give one another. We became fast friends with one another and were able to share personal issues, pray together, and we were granted a level of friendship and intimacy during our 10 days together that many people may not encounter in an entire lifetime. Even after our time together ended and we all went home, we’ve been able to keep in touch via our WhatsApp group chat and talk with one another regularly.

   The gift of fellowship is such a powerful and beautiful thing, and we will treasure these friendships for a lifetime.

Lake Rweru

Before we end this update on Burundi, we’d like to share with you a moment that will not be forgotten any time soon.

During our time serving on Ruyoka Island, we had to bring our own water with us due to lack of access to clean drinking water. We had a cooler filled  with clean water for our team to use throughout the day. One of our volunteers, who lived on the island, discovered this cooler full of refreshing and clean drinking water. His face lit up with joy! To look at his face, you would have thought that he had just won the lottery. He took a big bottle and scooped up the water and just drank and drank because access to clean water, in a place where that was not easy to come by, is a true gift.

That image really brings to mind the Biblical passage about Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus meets the lone woman at a well as he stops for a rest and asks her to give him some water:

 

“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritanwoman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”” – John 4:7-13, NIV

Physical water is good. It’s good for every inch of the body. It’s refreshing and cooling and nurturing. But that water has its limitations because, while thirst can be sated, one will always need to drink more to survive.

But in Jesus, we find the Living Water, and once tasted we will never thirst again.

This is the motivation behind all of our work at Mission Partners For Christ. While we show up to these communities to offer healthcare and health education, we also offer something far greater: the Good News of the Great Physician. We introduce them to Jesus, the Savior of their souls.

And there is nothing more beautiful than witnessing that moment when the light goes on in someone’s eyes as they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Praying Together

Do you want to support our work? There are a number of ways you can do this:

1. Become a donor. The donations we receive from generous people, like yourself, allow us to commit to this work. Your money will be used to buy medical equipment, medicine, supplements, and help cover the costs of scholarships for medical and dental students to join us and gain practical real-world experience.

    

2. Join our prayer team. We meet once a month over the phone to pray together about our trips and those we’ve served, and shared the gospel with, so that they might continue to grow in faith. Contact us to learn more!

    

3. Share the word with your friends and family! Sharing our blog posts or social media posts are a great way to show your support for the work that we do. You never know who might be waiting to learn about an opportunity to get involved with a medical missions organization like Mission Partners For Christ. YOU could be that person to introduce them to us!

    

4. Join us on a medical mission trip. We need doctors, in particular, to join us as we open our free healthcare clinics. Other medical professionals, and those without medical experience, are also very welcome to join out teams as we have lots of positions open for all backgrounds.