Summer Schedule

We are excited to be coming back to Canada for a few weeks this summer!!  It is officially less than 2 weeks now and we will be on Canadian soil. The following is our summer schedule while we are in Canada. Please feel free to join us at one of our events.

JULY 3                      ARRIVE IN CANADA

JULY 6    10am          The Miz City Church Lethbridge      1303-13 street north, Lethbridge

JULY 8    7 pm           Youngstown, AB   Tom & Bev Edler

JULY 13  9 & 11 am   Calvary Community Church        8704 Mill Woods Road, Edmonton

JULY 13    3pm          Fresh Manna Fellowship church    12803 159 Aveune, Edmonton

JULY 17  5 pm           Hobbema church

JULY 20   am             Jerusalem City Church     14323 107A Ave NW, Edmonton    (Congolese)

JULY 20 5-7pm          ERBC    10603 Ellerslie Road SW

JULY 27    am            Valleyview Evangel Pentecostal Church   Valleyview, AB

AUG 3                        TBA

AUG 6  pm                 Saskatoon with Barb/Allen Barr

AUG 9-11                   TBA

AUG 12-15?               Swift Current

AUG 17   6 or 7pm     Lloydminster First Baptist Church         3915 47 Avenue, Lloydminster

AUG 24  9:30 & 11    South Edmonton Alliance Church   6508-31 AVE, Edmonton

AUG 24 3:00pm         Burundian Church  Edmonton

AUG 26 ??                  LEAVE FOR BURUNDI

God bless,

    Charles & Darla Balenga ( and kids)

There But For The Grace of God, Go I....

During our time in Burundi, one cannot escape the extreme poverty that is rampant here. If a person stays in the capital city, Bujumbura, it is easy to avoid seeing the extreme poverty daily. In Gitega, the second largest city in Burundi, it is impossible to avoid seeing this poverty every single day. There are times when my heart breaks for some of these people and I cannot look them in the eyes….when I look past the torn dirty clothes and the mud caked skin, in their eyes I see utter hopelessness. It is most difficult to have young children begging and asking for money. Micah often asks me “why are we rich mommy?” My answer is “There but for the grace of God, go I….”

Sometimes when Charles has business to attend to, I sit in our van and watch. I watch some of the street people and how life is for them. It is through my watching that I found something that intrigued me…..the differing attitudes of some street people. I watched as two older ladies, one using a stick to lean on for a crutch, approached a shop keeper. The shop keeper appeared a bit agitated with the ladies; he bid them approach, gave them each 100 FBU (approx. $0.06 CDN) and then he quickly shooed them away. The ladies had no smile but they scrambled away, looking to approach another shop keeper.

On another day, I am sitting and watching while Charles goes to buy rice. I see a midget man. He has on a dirty red, soiled shirt with 2 big tears in the back, and it is so big, it almost touches the ground. He also has on old pants that are oversized; the pant legs are rolled up and he has a rope to hold them up. This man is unable to walk very fast because of how his body is formed. I watched as he approached a shop keeper, he had a special way to approach them. His sense of humor brought a different perspective. I watched as he approached, he did a little bow and then a salute to the shop keeper. I saw smiling faces. This young man talked and laughed with the shop keeper. The shop owner gave the man his money and they stayed chatting and laughing for awhile. As he turned to leave the store, he gave another salute to the owner and they both laughed as he hobbled away.

I felt a inner nudge to give this man a small bit of money....we approached this young man and gave to him. He was so joyful and appreciative. He gave us his signature salute and a big wave. A week later, we see the same man. He is alone outside the market. He does not ask us for money but gives us his signature salute and bids us hello in Swahili. He tells us that he prayed for us! He prayed for us! A young man, that literally has nothing, that lives in a society where he is an outcast because of how he looks, he still had something to give. He had his time and energy to give to uplift us to our God.

This young man has taught me a few things.

1

         1.   A  person’s outlook on a situation will influence the outcome.

     2.    I have been challenged on my attitude on things….if I were in this young man’s place, would I have such a positive attitude in such dismal circumstances? I have to humbly say that I would have difficulty being satisfied.

    3.    It really is true, that materials and things, do NOT make a person happy. In Canada, we are surrounded by so much that we get caught up in having to “keep up with the Jones’”. This really is a heart issue….we need to learn to be satisfied with what we have and stop spending money on things that we “think” we need....a bigger house, another car, more clothes.  In reality, we do not need very much and God is slowly teaching me this lesson….or rather I think I am just being a slow learner on this one.

    4.   To God, I am no different than a street person…..it is only FOR THE GRACE OF GOD that I was born into a Canadian family and that I had the privileged life that I had. I always had food on the table and a roof over my head. No matter if we are a person with privileges or not, God loves us all the same! When I appear before God in the end days, He will not ask me, how much money I had, or how many cars I owned. I will stand before him, next to a street person, and He will ask us both the same questions….did we love God? did we love people? Did we show God’s love to the people? Paul writes in Titus “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy.” (Titus 3:4-5 NASB) Another Bible version (The Voice) says this: ⁴ But then something happened: God our Savior and His overpowering love and kindness for humankind entered our world; ⁵ He came to save us. It’s not that we earned it by doing good works or righteous deeds; He came because He is merciful.

     Please take time to reflect on the Mercy of God today. Thank Him for all He has done and focus on Him being enough to satisfy you because "But for the grace of God,  there go I..."

        May God bless you and encourage your heart today,
                     
                          Darla Balenga

If you would like to donate to our mission, you can donate through the Youth for Christ Edmonton website or Bridges of Hope website earmarked "burundi mission".

http://www.yfced.com/index.php/donate/how-to-donate
http://www.thebridgesofhope.com/index.php?p=Donate

Thank God For Protection: Accident in Africa, a Difficult Challenge

Yesterday, Monday, June 9, 2014 was just another normal day. As GIA closed last Friday, Monday was the first day of our Summer break.Darla decided to make a better use of her day by going to volunteer at the Shammah Medical Clinic, a newly opened Burundi Youth for Christ clinic whose directors are fellow Canadians Josh and Nadine. Josh and Nadine were not available as they had just been sending off Josh’s parents back to Canada. So, Darla’s help was much needed and timely.

Note from Darla:
     It was so amazing to finally be able to work at Shammah for a day! It was great to see how things have come so far in such a short time. I had the pleasure to meet Mathias who came in to the clinic with foot ulcers that he has had for 2 months. My heart broke and I had to leave the room as I got tears in my eyes. Before any treatment could occur, the discussion of money and ability to pay had to be decided.  Mathias really needs surgery, his one toe has already fallen off independently and he has 5 ulcers in his foot that are all interconnected under the top layers of skin! We don't realize how privileged we are in Canada to be able to receive health care, irregardless of what our financial status is, and we are never asked "can you pay". Unfortunately, third world countries don't have the privilege of having any government support.  I witnessed people who were very sick with worms and malaria, have to go into debt for as low as 1200 FBU (approx 85 cents CDN) in order to get the help they needed. Many that come to Shammah have to come back a week later, or a few weeks later to be able to pay off their debt. Back to Matthias, as we removed the old dressing, we could smell the strong odor of dead tissue. Hannah, one of the volunteer nurses that is at Shammah for only a few months, started the task of debriding all the dead and infected tissue from this gentleman's foot.....all done with no anesthetic! It is amazing how strong people can be.

As Darla went to volunteer at Shammah Medical Centre, I stayed home with Joshua, our last born. We had a great day together. We played Soccer, went for a walk, and did different things together. When Darla came back late afternoon, we went as a family to take more passport pictures. It seems in Burundi, you constantly need passport pictures. To open a Bank account, a joint account, we (Darla and I) need to give each 2 photo passport. To get an exit visa, or any visa, you need to give a passport picture. Often your application gets lost, so you need to give another passport picture. To get the 2 years visas, you need to give a passport picture. To get a mail box key, you need to give a photo passport. And the list goes on. So we had to get some more passport photos as we will be applying for our exit visas next week. Please pray for us on that because if there is any place you don’t want to be in is the immigration office. Last time we were there to apply for the 2 years visas, we cannot even explain how extremely challenging the process was.

After taking our passport pictures, as we were turning to go back home, we were hit by a motorbike. Now I was at fault because I didn’t see him as I was turning. Second after the accident, we were surrounded by a sea of people. Everyone was talking in Kirundi and no coordination whatsoever on what needed to be done. The injured biker wanted to go to the hospital (he had a pretty good gash over his eye) and I wanted to take him to the hospital. But some people from the crowd were more worried about the bike than the injured biker. It taught us about perspective on things here.

Having a Muzungu wife and wazungu children (again our kids are also considered Wazungu even though half Black half White) didn’t help as that could only attract an unbelievably huge crowd. The kids were terrified…..Joshua saw the biker with a cut on his head and now calls him “the blood guy”. Mama Savana (as Darla is known here) went to sit with the kids at the back and the biker got in the front. Thank God for Swahili as quite a number of people spoke Swahili and I was able to talk/discuss with them in Swahili. Finally there was another great gentleman who came to help. His name is Deo. He is a former biker himself and had worked with the injured biker also called Dio. Deo, spoke English and that really helped Mama Savana to be able at least to communicate as well. Deo willingly volunteered to accompany us to the hospital. So, I had to push my way out to take injured Diomede to the hospital.

The first hospital we went to was a disaster, to say the least. The nurses cared to do nothing. A Nurse Assistant came to tell us that it would be a while before Diomede will be seen. But thank God again, both Deo and Diomede knew of a better hospital, the Bettany Hospital, a Catholic Nuns hospital. They suggested we go there. So we decided to go there. It is about 7 kilometers from Gitega. So we dropped Mama Savana and the kids and off we went. Bettany was really as good as Deo and Diomede had told me. The Nurses didn’t waste any time, cleaned the wound and stiched it. She was very kind and efficient. The hospital was clean and welcoming. I was impressed. Soon after the treatment, we were given a prescription and we went to get medication for Diomede. After that I went to drop Diomede and Deo to their respective homes.

During our drive together we talked with Diodeme and Deo about their lives and work. They also wanted to know what I do and why are we here in Burundi. They were glad to hear that we were volunteering at Gitega International Academy. Deo said, “He is a pastor!” They were both Christians. So I prayed for Diomede’s healing and they then went home.

Now today, we will be busy gettings quotes for the repair of the Bike and also our van. Our van has only one back door. This back door was the only damaged part and now it does not close. While driving

Diomede to the hospital, Deo had to hold the door closed. There was no other way to take Dio to the Hospital. We had to use our damaged van. Thank God for Deo who was a great help. Through this all, we know God was with us. Right after the accident, our van side door closed but the next time we opened it, it would not close. We thank God that the door closed at the scene or it may have been another reason for the crowd to hold us up. Now, the door is tied closed with a skipping rope until we can get it fixed.

Please pray that Diomede will heal completely and that the Bike will be repaired quickly. The Bike was not Diomede’s moto, he was just a hired driver to be a taxi with the moto. Please pray that our van will be fixed in time for us to go to the wedding in Bujumbura  this weekend and to also go apply for our exit visas. Please pray for God’s wisdom for us to know how to go about this whole process as the more time goes on, the more people get involved and the more complicated the process gets. Please pray for our kids who were really shaken by the whole experience.

Experimenting with new styles on Savana's hair

Savana & Joshua playing with rocks from Mt Songa

      

Elijah eating cookies cooked on a traditional stove

"Love in Action" to the street people

Since our arrival, Charles has been leading a group of students in a discipleship group. He has been challenging them on making a difference in their community. One of the girls, Gaga, had a vision to be able to feed the street people and beggars and to share the gospel at the same time. This past Saturday, our group of 24 leadership students from GIA, and staff, carried out this vision of "Love in Action". The following is an recollection of how the day went.

LOVE IN ACTION WAS AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE; THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS

We truly thank God for being with us and enabling us to put love into action today. We were provided with a compound area where we could control the number of people we let in. We needed to be strategic with this event as without proper control, a riot would have ensued. We had expected to feed about 50 people, but we ended up letting in about 150 people, not counting our GIA students, staff and volunteers of over 40 people. Unfortunately we had many more street people that came but we could not let them in as we were already stretching the food as much as we could. Staff and some GIA students gave up their bread from 1 meal to be able to serve bread and 2 ladies from the community volunteered to cook beans and rice for this day.

There were many children, many babies, many old, many handicapped and many young people. Some that came were so hungry that they needed more food than what we could give. Even though they were hungry, they had some of the biggest smiles and brightest laughs. We thank God, those that came in the gate were all able to receive something to eat and drink. Our discipleship team and a few other students who joined us did a great job of serving our guests.

Two students, Gaga from Grade 9 and Eloge from Grade 8 shared the gospel. Also Benigne, who is the Administrative Assistant of GIA and a local pastor, shared the gospel. At the end of her message, she invited people to receive Christ.. Benigne then asked Charles to lead them to Christ. With a brief explanation of what it means to receive Christ as one’s Lord and Saviour, he

led a prayer for salvation. Around 90 people responded to receiving Christ into their lives.

5 bowls of rice and 4 bowls of beans

Sharing the Gospel

Getting water ready to serve

After that, food was served and people ate. We were limited with plates and cups so we fed one section of people, took the dishes back, washed them and sent them out to serve another group of people. We organized the people into groups of 10 and with some groups, we put the beans, rice and bread onto a platter for them all to share. At the end, we thanked everyone who came and 3 people from the crowd thanked us for inviting them and feeding them. The whole event went very well. The students were more than touched. The staff and volunteers as well as students all agreed that we need to do more of these love in action events. This was quite a learning experience for our children who came face to face with the people who literally go hungry for days.

Washing hands before eating

Serving beans and rice 

Getting the bread ready to serve

Enjoying the babies

GIA student with a mother's baby

There are many people to thank who made this practical, love in action possible, but the list is long. The one who must never be forgotten is our God. We thank God so much for what He did today. May He receive all the praise and honor. Love in action today was simply amazing! Thank you all for your partnership in God’s ministry with us in Burundi. Your prayers and support not only energize us; they truly lift and encourage us.  We share all the joys with you all. May God richly bless you today and may you see God work in mysterious and wondrous ways!

Serving water to the people

If you would like to donate to our mission, you can donate through the Youth for Christ Edmonton website or Bridges of Hope website earmarked "burundi mission".

http://www.yfced.com/index.php/donate/how-to-donate
http://www.thebridgesofhope.com/index.php?p=Donate

God Bless,

Charles, Darla, Savana, Elijah, Micah, and Joshua Balenga

Love in Action May Newsletter

Discipleship Group

Ministry in Africa gets more joyful when you see faith and love put into action. My ministry at Gitega International Academy has focused much on putting faith and love in action. We started our ‘Love in Action’ by going to serve at the Homes of Hope (Orphanage). It has been so rewarding to see our students who are almost exclusively  from affluent families, enjoying to serve the less fortunate, and do it joyfully.

So far we have done love in action in a bit more safe and familiar place such as Homes of Hope, which is also run by Youth For Christ. But tomorrow will be different as we will be serving beggars on the streets.

Discipleship Group

We have been meeting for about two months now with my discipleship group of 24 students. I have challenged these students to live out their faith and to be sacrificial. Tomorrow, Saturday morning we will go with the 24 students and about 8 staff and volunteers to serve beggars on the street. We will cook beans and rice and we will also provide them with bread.

One thing that is neat about this project is that the students and staff have all embraced the idea and have joined in the sacrificial participation. Students and staff have given up their breakfast bread in order to serve the bread to the beggars. Staff and volunteers have contributed their own money to buy rice, beans, cooking oil, salt, plates, cups, rental pots, and other items.

I have asked one of my discipleship student to preach a sermon as the beggars can only be addressed in Kirundi as most of them are unschooled. I also asked one of our staff to share the gospel. As we have prepared ourselves for this ministry to the less fortunate, we know the devil is not happy. This is why dear friends and partners, we need your prayers. Please pray that the sharing of food with the beggars will minister to all who will come. Pray even more that God’s kingdom will be more populated tomorrow as sinners get saved.

God has been so good to us and has given us favour. More students are giving their lives to Christ and having real tangible transformed lives. One of the house parents told me, pastor, whatever you are doing, keep doing it. Lives are being changed In a very surprising way. He said your discipleship team has made students come together 2 days a week and all the 24 students praying together. Parents are testifying to the change in their children. Glory is not mine but God’s.

Please pray as well for this one big need, a baptism service. After many of our students received Christ, a student came to me and asked to be baptized; we decided to think about the possibility of baptizing students who have clearly placed their faith in Christ. Today and tomorrow, the Burundi Youth for Christ Board is discussing the possibility of allowing baptism at Gitega International Academy. The BYFC National Director told me today that they will be discussing about baptism at GIA. He said, you know you guys from Canada and USA, it is easy to decide to do the baptism and just do it. But here in Burundi, we have so many things we have to consider and to examine the possibility. It is surely different here than it is in Canada. So please pray that we get the go ahead to baptize these students who are so eager to publicly declare their allegiance to Christ. Please pray that Christ culture will be valued above the local culture and yet that we will still be respect to the local culture.

Thank you for your prayers, support and partnership in God’s ministry with us. Just as Paul thanked God for the Philippians, we thank God for you for your partnership with us. We thank you from deep down our hearts.

Winning Poster

Students checking out the posters

Condom Education

Please pray also for Darla for strength as she is more than over-loaded with overwhelming number of sick students and even staff. The last 2 days she has been seeing sick students the moment she put her feet into the school and she had to force her way out as the students kept coming up to her way out of the doors. Please pray that the current outbreak of the virus will go away as soon as possible. We have been teaching some half full classes due to sickness.

No More Teen Pregnancy

HIV/AIDS in Africa

Darla has been working on a poster project with the students almost since we arrived at GIA. April 30 we had the deadline for the GIA school project to be done. It was a challenge as the students started from not even knowing what a poster was! A few of the posters are included below, as well as our winning poster. We will be submitting the poster to the Segal Family Foundation - youth engagement facebook page for another poster contest. If any of you get a chance, you can go to their page and check out our poster! They will be marking according to activity of the poster on their facebook page. 

Many blessings to you all. Thank you deeply.

Charles and Darla Balenga

Sharing the Road With a River

Today I truly understood what “rain season” means! It rained all Thursday night and it continued

Part of the road to GIA when it is dry

through the morning on Friday. At 7:15am Friday, I started driving out to GIA….I was struck by how silent the town was! Usually, Gitega is bustling with people and a number of vehicles by 7:15am but today, there was a total of 3 cars and 2 motorbikes on the road.  The roads that are usually lined with people, were completely dead! As I headed onto the dirt roads, going into a valley, I realized I had to share the road with a river of water that was gushing into the valley. At times,  it was narrow passing between  a large hole in the road (with a branch stuck in it to alert drivers) and the gushing water. At times, I had to drive through small rivers as multiple streams crossed the road and met together. As I looked on the hillside, magnificent waterfalls originated overnight, poured down the hills and filled the cement

Beautiful flowers

water passages at the sides of the road. It was an amazing experience….I wish I had my camera to document the beauty and power of this morning.  It was a small reminder of how powerful our God is! GIA ended up closing for a RAIN DAY as many teachers were unable to be picked up due to impassible roads.  The more crazy thing.....4 hours later, the land was 90% dry. It was a crazy experience!

Mr. Micah

Joshua

Elijah

The soccer field covered in water

I just have to put some pictures of a soccer (aka football) game here in Burundi. This game is between GIA and a young national team.  The pitch is covered with water…they were out with 5 gallon buckets trying to get rid of some of the water just before the game. Even though some water was removed, there were still huge waterbeds on the field when the game started. Attached area a couple of pictures of the game!

GIA boys after the game

Savana

Mosquito nets are a necessity here in Africa, but unless they are used properly, they don’t carry out their purpose. The purpose of the net is to keep mosquitos out of the sleeping area so they don’t bite you when you sleep. I usually keep the net up during the day but put it down during the evening. The other night, I woke up with 7-8 mosquito bites all over….there was a mosquito in the net overnight! I did not know that a mosquito was in with me but when I woke up, I sure felt the damage. I could not believe that 1 tiny mosquito could create so much havoc!  Having a mosquito net is like being a Christian. Christ envelops us and  removes the sin in our lives and if we are diligent in staying in Christ, the effects of sin are covered by the blood of Christ. However, if we start to do things on our own and we rely less on Christ, sin gets in and without

Fixing a mosquito net

realizing it, we wake up deeply feeling its effects. Sometimes, it is just one small sin that gets into our lives but we do not recognize the damage it can do to us. As we are just past celebrating Easter, I am reminded of how great our God is and what He did for us. It was nothing short of a miracle that Christ was put to death but then rose to life 3 days later.  “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory  through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Cor 15:55-57)

Update on Visa Situation

Wow...what a process but above all, our God is good and faithful! We spent 2 hours with Jocelyn (Burundian) at the Visa office.....and we were getting Nowhere! There were two people in particular who were delaying and postponing the whole process for us....one was a secretary, and the other a police officer. But God is good. This morning, Charles talked with a close friend whom he grew up with in the Congo. This friend is a good friend of the chief at the visa office. After 2 hours, Jocelyn was trying to convince another officer to make an appointment for us with the chief visa officer but unsuccessful. Charles and I decided to get to the chief ourselves. We headed up the stairs with all the kids but we were met at the top by a closed door that said "no entry". We were going to turn around but just then, a lady came out so we asked her for permission to enter and were allowed to continue. We were then met by a police officer, who also allowed us to continue after a few questions. We headed down a small hallway that had many people waiting to pass through a secretary to get to the chief officer. Charles explained to the secretary that his "brother" is a friend of the chief visa officer. She asked us to wait for a few minutes. After about 5-10 minutes, we were ushered into the chief's office, we explained our situation and HE SIGNED FOR THE KIDS VISA'S!!! When we came out, the police officer who was prohibiting us from seeing the chief, had returned and was questioning how we were allowed in to see the chief visa officer. I thank God that he was at another place when we first approached the secretary! We also give Glory to God for allowing Charles to connect with his friend just a couple of hours before we needed to make the connection. After leaving the chief's office, we took the signed paperwork to the officers that finalize the process. He was very good, he chatted with the kids for a few minutes and then he and I talked a few minutes.
   Please continue to pray for the final process. In Africa anything can happen! We were told to pick up the passports in a couple of days but we will check tomorrow to make sure the process is being finalized. We saw God's hand at work today in many ways, and for that, I am thankful as well as humbled. God is good and even when Satan is trying to prohibit the process, our God still prevails!