Here are different ways to contact us in Burundi
Email:
Val Carr = vcarr@HopeCentreBurundi.com
Charles Carr = ccarr@HopeCentreBurundi.com
New Mobile Phone Numbers:
Val Carr: (00257) 79239810
Charles Carr (00257) 79239809
Our New House Phone Number:
Use this number sequence and you will only pay 4p per minute.
Dial: 08444 287287 & wait for a voice and then..
Dial: 00257 22259608
Please email us and let us know if you don't manage to contact us on these numbers.
Non-GiftAid Donations: 
GiftAid Donations: 
1. The whole site now has a temporary fence around its perimeter.
2. All six main foundation walls for each house are now in place.
3. The four main Septic tanks have been built and mostly finished.
4. The nine man holes servicing the houses have been built.
5. The foundation walls for both external toilet blocks also containing showers and sinks have been built.
6. The four large soak-a-ways have been built.
7. One very large shed for block production and workers shelter has been built.
8. One 20' container for storing tools and materials has been bought.
9. The foundations for the 40' container have been built.
10. Two workman's huts have been built.
11. One workers pit latrine has been built.
12. 4 block presses have been purchased and thousands of blocks have now been manufactured.
13. One large truck has been purchased and is being used daily.
14. We have provided much work for the families of a very poor community.
Pastor Leonard
Pastor Leonard's StoryPastor Leonard was born in 1971, the youngest of five children. His parents were killed in a mass killing of their ethnic group in 1972. The children struggled to survive and look after each other for many years.
As a teenager Leonard was full of hatred and wanted to avenge the killing of his parents, but he became a Christian when he was 18 and was able to meet and forgive those who had killed his parents. He felt God told him clearly that he was to look after others who were orphaned as he had been.
At the time his circumstances did not allow him to do this, but he was ordained as a Pastor in 1996, and was able to take in his first orphan in 1997, just before he was married.
His wife partners him in this ministry and they now care for over 40 orphans in addition to their own three children.
Around about April this year Pastor Leonard's land-lord for the house that he was staying in asked Pastor Leonard and all the family and children to move out of the property which they were renting. Obviously this was an impossible situation for them. Latterly Pastor Leonard managed to negotiate a compromise with the land lord whereby his immediate family and a few of the orphans could stay in the property until his house was built. This meant that the remaining orphans had to be farmed out to friends that would be willing to take them. Pastor Leonard continues to provide food and clothing for these children which is now even more difficult for him. Thankfully though you have helped him greatly with your regular child support donations.
Here is an indicator for where we are with the funding for Hope Centre Burundi. Every little helps.
Each week we introduce you to the children of Hope Centre Burundi. We upload a picture of one child and give you their story.
Kevin Nkunzimana
Kevin's StoryKevin is 4 years old.
Kevin is another cousin of Jimmy, Solange and Yvan. His parents and other relatives were killed in 2004 in a massacre in his village when he was only 1 years old.
Pastor Leonard’s wife helped to take care of Kevin as he was still very young. He is currently being cared for by friends of Pastor Leonard until the Hope Centre is completed.
He will start nursery in September 2009.
The saga of the elusive container:The container is not on site at Gatumba yet and it didn't arrive on the Saturday as promised, however, it did arrive at the port here in Bujumbura on Tuesday. Just that alone is a miracle.
It is still in the port. This was to be expected though as all the port's finance departments have to put their little stamp on the documents and see what money they can extract. Our biggest concern was that they would want to open the container at the port and have it emptied to check the contents. Because we, and particularly Pastor Leonard, had been prepared with full lists of what items were in the container and the relevant exoneration certificates the port have allowed the container to be removed from the port and taken to Gatumba where we are building without even opening the container. As expected the port authorities still required a payment of of taxes relating to the materials. This amounted to almost 1,000,000 Burundian Francs or $1,000 or £500 roughly.
There are costs associated with bringing the container to the site and moving it into place. This however is much less than we had expected. Today (Saturday) we could have been moving the container to the site but decided to leave this till Monday now as there will be a lot of work in unloading the container and sorting out where to put everything. The container isn't on site yet and unforeseen problems can arise. We haven't actually seen the container yet so we assume that it hasn't been opened on it's route across Africa so don't stop praying until you see the container in next week's report.
Block WorkThis week the block work progresses further, possibly still a little slow due to their inexperience with this new type of building material but they are taking care to do a good job:
Here Vincent, our site supervisor is reading our drawings and marking out the window positions for the brickies:
Here you see the start of the scaffolding being built. This is the deluxe version. Normally the timbers are so weak that there would be many accidents. Also normal there is only one row of vertical supports with the horizontal wooden bars being supported on the posts at one end and embedded into the wall at the other. This would obviously make a mess of our attractive facing brick look. We have adopted two rows of vertical timbers here:
My other supervisor (Val) inspects the work:
One of our brickies "Me, Me, Me. Take a picture of Me". Well I think he may have said something like that:
Concrete FloorsAt the same time, work continues on the concrete floors for the remaining houses. This is house number four almost finished with two other finished house floors in the background.
Block Work Begins on House Number twoWe have also started laying the blocks on house number two:
Doors & WindowsNo B&Q here. If you want doors and windows it is normal to make them yourself. In our container we have two welding plants, welding safety equipment and grinders/cutters for the steel. We also have a generator. All of this will help right now. In the mean time we have made up a very long extension cable which is connected in at Vincents house. I have fitted it with RCCB breakers and a meter. This allows us to get on with the welding for the windows and doors.
We have employed a local welder from the community and he has brought his own tools and helper:
These guys work with almost no protection. The main man lower down has a broken pair of sun glasses which he is holding while he is welding. The helper is wearing a pair of safety glasses that I gave him to use. My friend Corrie had given them to me before I left the UK. These will possibly give him a little UV protection for his eyes and from the sparks:
Even the welding plant that he is using appears to be home made with thick wires protected with some kind of cloth insulation and wound around a piece of wood. It works very effectively but extremely dangerous. We will replace this as soon as the container arrives on site.:
Whilst in Vincents house making the necessary connections and fuses for our extension lead I made a few checks on his wiring and discovered that the mains to the consumer unit were round the wrong way effectively rendering the consumer unit useless. When the fuses were switched of all the cables in his house were still live.
Here is one of these rare pictures of me on site. I'm normally behind the camera but Val took this one with me talking to Vincent. She took it because of the wellington boots in the background:
Getting in and out of the site has been very difficult with the recent rains turning the ground at the entrance into mush. Here we are placing stones in preparation for the container lorry which will be very heavy:
Here are some of the local children who play at the entrance to the site. I would guess that at least a few of these kids parents are working on the site:
As we approach and leave the site many of the local children get very excited and often run along side the car to say "bye bye". We get so much pleasure from seeing these children.
You will see that if the families can afford some kind of footwear then it would normally be the fake all rubber sandals. Young and old wear them. I treated my self to a new pair of the orange sandals like the ones that these children are wearing in this picture. It cost me £1.50 at the market and I think that was probably too much:
How Many Grapes for £2?In the UK our family would probably consume about three bags of grapes a week. Most of us love grapes. Grapes are not grown commercially here at all and we never normally see them. Even our cook asked us what grapes were.
Sometimes you just crave the things you can't get. The boys were longing for grapes the other day so we were excited when we saw some in the international supermarket. They cost 17,600 Burundian francs for 1kg. That is more than most people earn in a week. We decided we could buy enough for 3 each which came to about £2. They were very tasty!
This picture was taken last weekend:
Because the price of fuel is falling the companies who sell the fuel to the garages are refusing to sell. The reason is that by the time the fuel arrives at the garage the price may have dropped and the seller will lose out so they just don't sell until they know for sure what the price will be. This has caused problems at the petrol stations here. For us to be able to continue using our vehicle and visit the site daily Val ended up sitting in one of these long lines for a full eight and a half hours on Tuesday. What an angel she is.
Mission International
Christmas 2008 e-Newsletter:
In this issue:
Uganda
Rwanda
Burundi
India
Welcome to the Mission International Christmas 2008 e-Newsletter!
Below you will find a short account of each country/project in which Mission International is involved and a link to the related blog where more detailed information can be found. Â Please also visit our website www.mission-international.org there you will find a link to our prayer blog, we would really value your prayers as we seek to share the Good News with many and serve God amongst the world's poor, including many Christians who are in desperate need. Â If you feel you would like to get involved by going on a team or perhaps you can pray for Mission International and our partners then we would love to hear from you. Â If you can help support our projects/partners financially in even a small way please print the appropriate Bank Mandate (regular giving) form and GiftAid form or One-off donation Form (Includes a giftaid section), Â and send in your donation to:
Mission International
25 Tait's Lane,
Dundee, DD2 1DZ,
Scotland, UK.
mail@mission-international.org
+44(0)7982250514
Uganda:
This year has been busy in Uganda. Â Our partners there are all making progress and much has happened during the course of 2008. Â
Mighty Meals (Bweyogerere): Mighty Meals Blog Page click here
  * Bweyogerere Multi Purpose Primary School has now been running the Mighty Meals programme for over one year.  Many children are receiving food every day whilst they are at school.  Orphan children and those from very poor families may be able to have a place in school but the hunger pangs which they feel daily interrupt their education. Â
Africa Renewal Ministries (ARM-Gabba): Â ARM website click here
  * Menzieshill High School Team:
  o During October 2008 a team of 8 pupils and 3 staff from Menzieshill High School in Dundee accompanied Hugh Henderson to Uganda.  The team was based in Gabba with ARM and travelled to Bethany Village and Namutamba to be involved with the communities there.  The team were able to resource schools and medical centres as well as fund a sports field for the Bethany Village school and community.   As a result of their visit to Namutamba the team has agreed to support that work with child sponsorship and the future development of the school on a new site.  The team also visited some of the tourist attractions like the source of the Nile, the equator and the Murchison Falls and game Park.
  * Sponsorship partnerships:
  o Mission International has began a partnership agreement for child sponsorship with ARM.  We currently have the names of 20 children who we have agreed to sponsor, please consider how you might help in this crucial programme.
  * Mwangaza Children's Choir UK tour:
  o The ARM team have asked Mission International and others to host a UK tour for the Mwangaza children's choir in 2010, we will keep you posted about this as and when all of the agreements are in place. Â
Parental Care Ministries: (Mbarara): Henderson School Blog
  * Mbarara Pentecostal Life Church
  o Currently the church has a piece of land for which they have made part payment.  The church currently meets under polythene in the Henderson School grounds but it is hoped that funds can be found to finally purchase the church land and construct a permanent building for worship.
  * Henderson School
  o This school has developed quickly over the last few years.  New government regulations have made development of the school a lot more difficult but the team there are willing to do their best to comply. Â
  o After a recent UK tour by Pastor Emmanuel Nnyanzi and his daughter Grace there is now in place a draft plan for the future which UK and USA partners will adopt and work toward making the future of this vital ministry more secure in the long term
  * Parental Care orphanage
  o Henderson School currently educated 191 pupils all of who require some sort of care.  There are those who are orphaned by one or both parents, there are those who are abandoned by one or both parents and there are those who come from extremely poor families and backgrounds.  All of the 191 children fall into one of these three categories.  The orphanage is designed to house and care for these children whilst they are at school.
  * Child sponsorship programme
  o The child sponsorship programme, run in partnership with Mission International, wants to bring financial support to the children of the Henderson School/Parental Care orphanage in order that their basic needs can be met.  The financial support raised will make sure that the children are well fed, clothed, housed and educated, as well as provide basic medical care.
Rwanda:
  * Star School - Star school blog click here
  o Star School, the vision of Rev. Nathan Amooti Rusengo of Rwanda to provide high quality education for the children of Rwanda, is currently in need of resources to fund furniture and equipment for the school.  The school need beds, and desks and books etc.  If you feel you can help resource this exciting project please print off the forms linked to this message. Â
  o How about a team of carpenters and engineers heading for Rwanda for a few weeks to help put some beds and desks together? To download a teams application form click here.
  o Currently Star school requires an administrator, based in Rwanda, if you would like to know more please let us know.  Please contact us on mail@mission-international.org for more information
Burundi:
  * Rema Team - Rema Team Blog and Rema UK website
  o The REMA team is a very strategic resource to the nation of Burundi.  Currently Burundi is the poorest country in the world, politically sensitive and financially desperate.  During their time in exile a team of refugees gathered to pray for their beloved country and seek ways in which they could support those in need including their fellow refugees and those with HIV/AIDS.  Their efforts have been very successful but still there is need for much more support.  Mission International has entered into partnership with the REMA team to find strategic ways of supporting the team in order that they can go about their work unhindered.  To date Mission International has funded income generating projects for the team so that they can commit themselves to the ministry.  Your help in this endeavour would be much valued.
  * Burundi Summer Team - Teams blog click here and Teams application form click here
  o During July/August 2008 a team of five from the UK visited Burundi and were involved in evangelism, discipleship training and income generating project work in centre around Burundi.  The team visited, Gitega, Rutana, Rumonge and Gatumba, their ministry, support and friendship was very much appreciated.  Mission International is planning a Burndi team for 2009, if you would like to be considered for that team please complete an application form and return it to us.
  * Hope Centre - Hope Centre website click here  or Hope Centre Blog click here
  o We are so grateful to God for the involvement of Charles & Val Carr and their family in the development of this project.  The Carrs were seeking a place to serve God where they could use their skills and contacted Mission International to see if there was a project in which they could become involved.  Of course they got in touch at the right time since a new project was about to begin in Burundi called the Hope Centre.  The Carrs agreed to go, supervise and manage this project and as a result there has been wonderful progress to this heart rending situation.  A weekly update is posted on the Hope Centre website so please make sure you have a look.
India:
  * India Village Ministries (IVM): IVM website click here
  o Summer Team 2008.  A team from Woodhill Evangelical Church visited both IVM & GEM over a two week period in August 2008.  The team were involved in evangelism, church ministry and children's ministry, they also visited those who are suffering from leprosy.  Mission International hopes to send a team to IVM in 2009.
  * Gideon Evangelical Ministries - Visakapatnam: Gideon Evangelical Ministries blog click here
  o Pastor Nathaniel Varaprasad and his wife Beulah serve in the villages surrounding the town of Visakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.  Currently Mission International is working with Pastor Nathaniel to develop income generating projects to provide support for
How to send your support:
If you feel you can help in even a small way please print the appropriate Bank Mandate (regular giving) form and GiftAid form or One-off donation Form (Includes a giftaid section), Â and send in your donation to:
Mission International
25 Tait's Lane,
Dundee, DD2 1DZ,
Scotland, UK.
mail@mission-international.org
+44(0)7982250514
www.mission-international.org
--
Hugh Henderson
Mission International is a charity registered in Scotland - Number SC038645
We had a small problem with some ants this week. If you want to read more click here:
Actually, "some ants" was in fact a whole colony of small ants. We had just had a very heavy downpour of rain at our house earlier in the day and I guess that the ants decided to move home. Val went into our bathroom and discovered a these ants coming in through the window and down the wall. The were carrying all their eggs and protecting them with chain link fence type structure by interlinking. An amazing site but unfortunately for them not in our bathroom.
The following short clip is just before their demise. Viewer Discretion Advised:
[media]http://www.eulogia.co.uk/ants.wmv[/media]
Left or Right click for Full Screen Options.
So what is Christmas like in Burundi?
We have heard people speak about Christmas here in Burundi but haven't seen anything in the shops related to Christmas as we would in the UK. No cards, no Christmas trees and no Christmas lights.
We would love to be here in Burundi over Christmas as we are told that it is completely different without the commercialism of Christmas, but we are also looking forward to spending time with family and friends in UK.
Check out this video clip about Christmas:
[media]http://www.eulogia.co.uk/Christmas.wmv[/media]
Non-GiftAid Donations: Â
GiftAid Donations: 
August 01, 2008, 08:38:15 PM
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