Un Cafe, Sil Vous Plait

So, Burundian coffee is pretty good. And when you’re sitting in a coffee shop in Bujumbura, sipping the local bean, smiling genially at the baristas who can’t seem to stop staring at you, trying your best to get by on the little French you have, why not write a blog and wax eloquent for a little while?

Two days ago, I had a chance to sit down with Ngaira, the country director of World Relief, to discuss how I could serve the community in my time here. He’s one of those men who you would want to sit and listen to for hours on end. He’s a man of medium height, with broad shoulders and a distinguished face. He wears glasses and a shaved head, and when he laughs, he laughs a broad, tooth-filled laugh that raises his normally baritone voice an octave or two. When he speaks, his voice is very expressive and drenched in a wisdom that commands respect. We shared our passions with one another, something he does with anyone who comes to serve with him.

One place our passions intersect is the role of worship in a community. At World Relief, we have a staff devotional time every Tuesday and Friday. It’s a simple time of singing, teaching, and prayer, done mostly in Kirundi (the primary local language). Ngaira shared his a dream for these gatherings, that they become more accessible across cultures, and that the worship become a transformative discipline that draws our hearts closer to the Father and one another. “I will admit my bias. I’m a worship guy,” he said.

Worship in Burundi is deeply connected to the Christianization of the country in the mid- to late 20th century. Western missionaries from extremely conservative theological standpoints brought the Gospel of Christ, along with their views on the length of ladies’ dresses and men who wear earrings. They also brought their hymnals, and these songs have been translated and sung in churches for decades. As we in the States can testify, as a nation becomes predominantly Christian, there is a correlative hollowing of the faith into a well-rehearsed religiosity.

Burundi is, by some estimates, over 90 percent Christian.

That is not to imply that the great hymns of the church have been stripped of their truth, or that the Holy Spirit has ceased to bring resurrection through the church of Jesus Christ. It simply means that, like in the States, there are many Christians here who know the right moves, pray the right prayers, and sing the right songs without truly opening their hearts to Most High God. Ngaira’s dream, and mine, is that we at World Relief would be a community who worships passionately, with the door wide open for the Spirit to move, rebuke, encourage, inspire, and unite.

So I’ve been praying this Scripture over my time here at World Relief, a text that was shared at the first devotional gathering:

“May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our god rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us –
yes, establish the work of our hands”
Psalm 90:16-17

The temptation for me would be that I jump headlong into the conversation, throwing around my American spirituality and my American culture like they are the only perspectives that matter. But this is a work that can only be accomplished by humbling ourselves to the purposes of God the Father, that He would impart the vision, and that the vision would establish the work of my hands. So I’m moving slowly, watching, praying, learning, and waiting on the Lord to say “Whom shall I send?”

Maybe by then I’ll be able to say “Here I am, send me!” in French.