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[caption id="attachment_1374" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Photo Credit: Tina Francis[/caption] The Batwa people live on the edges of Burundian society, marginalized in their own country. Local humanitarian workers tell tales of these people who thwart good gifts and show little gratitude, making them notoriously difficult to work with. One organization generously gave corrugated metal roofs for the thatch-constructed homes. But soon after the installation, the aid workers discovered the metal was sold. Another religious-based agency gave these families window insets and doors…

He sits with women. When trouble comes, the mamas and widows gather at the edges of peril and my husband finds them. He joins them. Last week flood waters rushed in overnight killing some of the most vulnerable children and displacing over fifteen thousand families from their homes. Almost as fast the Red Cross erected at makeshift camp on a nearby soccer field. At the invitation of the director, my husband drove out on the first day to survey the…

Growing up hope was a whispy dandelion. Hold its tender stem, blow, and watch all the florets move with the breeze, small against the bright sun and blue sky. One gentle puff and I’d send my wish off into the wind. Most of my wishes felt fragile against the wild landscape. I assumed they’d melt in the noonday heat. But they were all I had – handfuls of hope to throw to the wind. Then I read Isaiah and discovered…

  [caption id="attachment_1317" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Women of Matara by TIna Francis[/caption] A five minute free write, unedited, done in conjunction with Lisa-Jo Baker. The prompt: SEE. (And yes, I'm a day late. Some Fridays are like that, right?) When I see transformation of soil and souls it makes me hunger for more. The sight of calloused hands and glowing smiles reminds me this is possible and not only here in Matara but in so many theres. Because seeing it happen…

We’ve seen life on the margins in Burundi. It looks like this: A cluster of grass huts, low to the ground, on the side of the road on dead land and no one ever stopping. Countrymen ride their bikes by without looking over their shoulder, westerners in shiny NGO vehicles drive by with the windows rolled up. Getting stopped by the local police because you dared to walk to town for some cassava and beans. Your accent and short stature…

The news has been good. In the last four years of working alongside our Batwa friends each mother has safely delivered her child; each baby announced her arrival with a hearty cry into the Burundian sky, squinted his eyes at the glorious glow of the African sun. Not a single baby has been lost in childbirth. Until now… The call came early in the morning that the baby entered the world with uncharacteristic silence. Stillborn. The community of men carried…

  Today I'm sharing about a September tradition in Matara over at Communities of Hope. Here's the thing, Claude and I work hard to break the NGO dependency cycle in our community development endeavors. We don't want to be known as the hand-out people. We work hard to move people toward sustainability, toward viable and vibrant communities that thrive without us. We want our friends to not need us for the daily necessities of life. But friends are friends -…

We were hosting a garden party at our home in Burundi this summer – the kind with drummers, dancers, a d.j. and a chef. Most all the guests mingled outside, holding fanta bottles and balancing plates loaded with rice pilaf and skewered meats. But inside, seated around the high-top table, Claude and his merry men leaned in and laughed hard. The moment knocked the wind out of me… and I breathed in the Spirit. // I first visited Burundi in…

We’d turned off the black paved road and onto red dirt. The four of us bumped along in the car, an impromptu family outing to see our friends in Bubanza. This was a workday for Claude. But the kids wanted to join, wanted to see what we’d been talking and praying about all year, wanted to see their Papa’s handiwork. So we jostled side to side as my son pelted us with questions from the back seat. At some point…

This was the inaugural month for the #TransitLounge book club. Together, friends from Luxembourg, UK, Canada and all across the US read Inspiration & Incarnation by Peter Enns. We read, tweeted and then posted our reflections. I loved seeing tweets throughout the weeks, reminding me of our collaborative read and sparking my own thinking about the OT issues raised by Enns. Fellow readers provoked me, made me laugh and added their expertise to my reading. I also discovered some new…