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Worship in Burundi is a thing of drums and dancing.
As we
celebrate Black History Month, I have been struck by the thought of what it
means to make history. I don’t believe that many of the civil rights leaders
that we celebrate today set out with the intention of having their names in
books or being celebrated every February; they merely saw wrongs that needed to
be rectified. The first missionary from North America, a black man by the name
of George Liele, most likely did not care about being the first of anything,
but simply saw the suffering happening in Jamaica and decided to act. How many
people are currently serving the Lord’s kingdom without realizing that they’re
making history in the lives of those they serve?
Just like Coming Home
Recently, I
led a group of leaders from the Cleveland Baptist Association (CBA) to Burundi
with the hope of rekindling a partnership in mission with the Union of Baptist
Churches in Burundi (UEBB). This partnership originally began in 2001, when
International Ministries helped to facilitate relationship-building between CBA
and UEBB, and in 2002 a covenant was signed between the two organizations.
However, due a change in leadership at CBA and to new priorities brought forth
by the new administration, the relationship between the two bodies did not grow
to its expected potential.
We, however,
serve a God through whom all things are possible. When the Reverend Yvonne
Carter accepted the call to serve as executive minister of CBA early in 2014,
we discussed the possibility of revisiting a partnership with UEBB. The
initiative gained traction, and later that year I traveled to Burundi with a
delegation of three CBA leaders, the Reverends Yvonne Carter, Ronald Maxwell and
Nathaniel Williams with the intent of
staying just over a week to preach at local churches and discuss what a renewed
partnership between CBA and UEBB might mean in the future.
After
preaching on Sunday and meeting with UEBB leadership early on Monday, the four
of us took an afternoon trip to visit some of the local churches that this
reimagined partnership would effect.
Every time I
take a team of African Americans to Africa, I am amazed to see how they are
received by Africans and to hear the testimonies with which they return. This
trip was no different. We were drawn in by the warmth of welcome in every
church we visited. Most interesting was how familiar it seemed. As members of
African American congregations, the CBA delegates and I shared the sense that,
in spite of the geographical distance, these churches felt like home. Thousands
of miles from Cleveland, leaders from CBA worshiping in Burundi could have been
just blocks away from their own front doors. As we fellowshipped with our
spiritual brothers and sisters, we received words of welcome and food for our
bodies, while our hosts expected us to share with them the word of God, food
for souls. Soul food.
On Thursday,
we left Bujumbura, the capital city, and traveled through the country’s
interior on a several-day tour of some of the oldest and most prominent
churches in Burundi. We returned to Bujumbura to ready ourselves for the Sunday
service, marking the close of our week with UEBB. Together we gathered at the
Kinama Baptist Church. The sanctuary was packed, and the Rev. Carter delivered
a powerful message, exhorting Burundian Baptists to be “prayer warriors.” The
next day, the team from Cleveland left Burundi, having re-forged their
partnership with UEBB and made ministry history.
There at the Beginning
Historically,
African Americans were among the first missionaries in Africa, with many
serving from the 1800s to 1930. However, history also tells us that they were
later forbidden to serve in Africa due to the colonization of the continent. The
foundational work of these black missionaries had coincided with the work of
explorers like Stanley Smith and David Livingstone, who revealed that Africa was
rich with natural resources such as timber, gold, diamonds and copper. The
colonizing powers often exploited local human resources as they sought to export
the land’s natural wealth, and they feared that African Americans could
influence the indigenous peoples to revolt. These influential forces made it
impossible for African Americans to serve in Africa.
In the absence
of African American missionaries, God used mission agencies to send Caucasian missionaries
from Europe and the United States. At the same time, the colonial
administration was promoting the concept that Africans were inferior to people of
European descent. As they felt this message imposed upon their society and saw that
all of the missionaries in Africa were white, many Africans came to believe that
God only trusted white people to be missionaries.
A People of Mission
During my
tenure as general secretary of the Union of Baptist Churches in Rwanda, I noted
that for the short time that African-American missionary Judy Smith (later to
become Mrs. Judy Allen) was with us, church growth was exponential. Although
Judy was a high school teacher and did not preach a single sermon, she had an
immeasurable influence on our ministry. Her presence as a missionary on the
same level as her Caucasian counterparts made Rwandan Baptists realize that the
Great Commission doesn’t have to be monopolized by one race, because it is for
blacks as well. God trusts us with his mission. This energized the local
congregations to reach out and play a role in the Great Commission, and the
difference was incredible!
And now the
three representatives from the CBA have reminded Burundian people that they too
are entrusted with God’s holy ministry. When we were in Burundi, Baptists did
not simply see the delegates as people from Cleveland; they saw themselves in these
three visitors. They understood that, just as God was using my three fellow
travelers for his work, so was he waiting to do great things through them. The
Burundian Baptists thanked God for showing such a trust.
African
Americans were there at the beginning of international mission. They have
passed through many years of trials and tribulations, but now as I see renewed
partnerships beginning to arise and a growing recognition that the Great
Commission is for all races, I thank God that they are once again demonstrating
that they are a people of mission.