MISSIONARY WORK REPORT FROM BURUNDI -III-

(...) After this prayer, our hearts rejoiced, but then carne the war with the mosquitoes; as the rest of the building was dark and silent, mosquitoes found that we were the only prey for the day. After three hours there, the chiefof pólice carne. He fist spoke to us in French and Kirundi. We could not answer anything; then he spoke broken English and we could answer him. After a few questions, he told us to open our briefcases, which we did, and after a cióse ckecking, he took out of my briefcase:

The Reformation Handbook Principies of faith, documents, film, camera, business cards and some photographs

He then left, so we continued fighting with the mosquitos until it was already morning.

FRIDAY,AUGUST16,1991

This was our fourth day to be under pólice custody; during the whole morning we saw no one who dared solve our problem. So we tried to go and ask from the pólice officers who were working in the buiding; but whoever we consulted simply answered, ,,I do't know your problem, wait for the chief of pólice." So we kept on waiting. At around 11.30 a.m., one man from Zaire who works as a health inspector for the city council just nearby carne and spoke to us. ,,Are you from Zaire?". ,,No, we are from Tanzania." Then he continued ,,I have seen you for the past three days here. What is your problem?" Then we we explained to him the whole story, which led to our detention. ,,Do you have someone here whom you like that he could be informed?" ,,Yes, we have our brethren but they live about 7 kms from here." This man from Zaire, said, ,,OK, write them a letter and I will send it to them", which he did. At about 4.30 p. m. we were very much surprised to see brother Nyabenda Tharase coming in. He said he had received the letter from the man from Zaire a few minutes before and therefore he rushed to see us; we thanked the Lord and indeed we were comforted with the visit of this brother who is the treasurer ofournewlyorganizedchurchat

Bujumbura. Later, just before the opening of the Sabbath, a police officer came an called us to his office. He said, „I want you to express yourselves in writing with regard to the following questions", which he wrote on a sheet of paper since he could not express himself well in English. The information they required was the following:

• Address, identification
• Our relationship with the
  Adventist church in Burundi
• Whether that congregation
  knew that we were in the
  country
• Some relation to some person
  who lives in Burundi, either
  Burundi nationals or other
  nationality
• Our mission in Burundi, our
  target
• The reasons which made us
  come to this country

So we entered another room, we prayed and started to write in response to the above questions. When we finished, we sent him the answers and he translated them into French and then he said „Go and wait outside." We kept on waiting but there was no more word until the next morning.

SATURDAY (SABBAT)

AUGUST 17,1991

This is the day we remember the most. It was our fifth day in detention and as usual after morning prayer, we took the breakfast our brother brought us. We had an opportunity to have our Sabbath school morning programme, so we took our Bibles and Sabbath school lessons to study. At about 10 a.m., when we had finished the day's lesson, we saw

the police car coming in, then we heard a police on guard calling us, and we were ordered to get into the car, so we took our books and everything else and got into the car.

ATANARMYCAMP

After about 15 minutes drive, we found ourselves entering a silent and isolated place where later we learnt was an army concentration camp. There we were ordered to get off the car, and we were taken to one of the offices where we saw one young man in plain clothes. This man took all the information about us, including our mother's name. Then he said, „Take off your ties" and we did so. Then he ordered, „Open your briefcase", so we opened them; after carefully checking them, he said, „Take out everything from your pocket" which we also did. Thereafter, he ordered us to follow another tall man who was standingby the door with a bunch of keys in his hand. We followed the man to another building where we were separated into two different cells with thick iron doors and only a very small air hole on the high wall, which made the rooms always dark.

When I looked at my watch, it was exactly 12.00 noon, and I found myself in this terribly dark room! I thought that now we were to be killed, so immediately I knelt down for my last prayer. However, I planned that if I lived for another hour, I would continue praying so that the will of God would be done.

After my prayer I felt very much comforted, all fears had vanished so I started to sing and praise the Lord; at one moment I remembered my wife and children and my co-workers, then I lifted my eyes up to the cross of Calvary, where the life of the

innocent son of God was taken. Then, I said, „I am a sinner, it is right for me to die here."

DELIVERANCE FROM DEATH

TheexperienceofSuleiman,as expressed in Psalms 124:1-8 was once again repeated for us. At about 5.45 p.m. we could behold the mighty hand of our heavenly Father opening those thick iron doors to make us free. I heard a voice saying, „Go out"; at first I did not believe my ears, but it was really true. I got out and saw brother Mwanjabeki standing by the door, together with another man whom we had not seen before. This man led us to the first office where we had left our briefcases and there we saw another man also new to our eyes who was reading our statement taken at the prison. Upon finishing our statements I could see him smiling a bit and he told us to follow him. He took us to a large furnished room which I think was used for meetings and there he asked us to take a seat.

This man spoke our language- Swahili; he looked friendly and understanding and he asked us a few questions regarding our mission in Burundi, and later he said, „I am very sorry for all the trouble you had; after examining your statements, I see that you are from an internationally organized church which is not registered in Burundi; the reason why you were arrested is that you visited a part of the country in which there is political upheaval. So now I set you free, and we will take you to the hotel Welcome and on Monday you may come back to my office so that I can explain you what steps you can take in order for your church to be registered in Burundi.

His name is mayor Mark, chief of security of the army, whose heart was stirred by the Spirit of God for our deliverance from that sure death. I cannot express how moved we were at that moment; what I know is that our help came from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

Finally, at 7.30 p. m., he took us by car to the hotel Welcome which we were familar with. Having paid for the room, we left Solorezo for by taxi to inform ourbrothers and sisters the miracle God had done unto us, and inform them that we were at the hotel.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 1991

Early in the morning, brother Naybenda Tharciese came to meet us at the hotel, and planned to have a two days seminar with selected representatives from Cibitoke church. So we sent this brother to Cibitoke first to inform them of our release; secondly to collect our suitcases which were left there and thirdly to inform them of our idea to conduct a seminar with a few of them. At around noon, we also went to the house of those girls to inform them that we were now free and to express our hearty thanks for all they did. There we were able exchange addresses so that in the future we could correspond with them. We had an opportunity to speak to them about healthy living, whereyby we told them why we are vegetarians and how diseases can be cured with simple methods.

MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1991

After morning prayer, we dressed nicely and left for the Tanzanian Embassy in Burundi. Upon arrival, we spoke to the

embassy administrator and the embassy security man. They told us that they had received our letter and they were trying to contact the authorities in Burundi for our problem. Then we explained to them the whole story until we were released. Later we asked them how they could assist us to register our church in Burundi; and they told us that we had to prepare everything from home throught the ministry of foreign affairs.

Later, they send the embassy car to take us to mayor Mark's office at the army camp. When we arrived there, mayor Mark was not in his office, so we were taken to a certain Alfonsi, who right away contacted the minister of Foreing Afairs in Burundi to ask him about the procedure we had to follow in order to register the church. The Minister said they had a special department dealing with church registration so he directed us where the offices of this department were situated. As mayor Mark could not come in time, we left a message for him in writing, whereby we asked him his help to reléase brother Cyrille who was still under custody at Cibitoke, then we left for the church registration department offices in a prívate car.

Unfortunately, upon arrival there, both the registration officer and his assistant were not at the office, so we were advised to come back the next morning. We then proceeded to Solorezo where we held a nice seminar with three brothers from Cibitoke church and the church eider at Solorezo, Bujumbura.

THE SHORT SEMINAR

During this seminar we introduced them to the principies of our faith and explained the reason for our church ñame. We spoke

much about how to keep the Sabbath and why it was so important for the people of God to be organized. The health reform subject and reform in dress was emphasized according to our standard.

Actually, through the grace of God, the church is solidly established en Burundi, despite themanydifficulties and problems, the membership keeps growing, and the diverse missionary activities are done with increasing success.

-IMS publishing association