October 2009

Posted by Freddy Tuyizere on 5 October 2009 | 0 Comments

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July 2009, Update

Posted by Keziah on 28 July 2009 | 0 Comments

Greetings to you all!

It has been a busy month for us here and we are grateful to God for His grace and renewal of strength.

We received a team of seventeen from Charleston, SC who helped us facilitate a kid’s camp in Bujumbura which was success- see the photo attached to this message; at Gitega orphanage they helped us to build walls for the sixth orphanage home. We also had a mini camp with the children of the orphanage and Future Hope School. It was fun and refreshing for us all.

The Cibitoke project is coming up well. The guest house there is almost done and workers are on site to continue work on the other houses.

The farming project is also going on well. One of our cows delivered a healthy calf last evening! We also acquired two parcels of land on which we shall be growing rice to support the Gitega orphanage.

The Gitega orphanage is doing well. The 2^nd attached picture shows the kids in nice tee-shirts and sun- glasses brought by the Charleston team.

The children and staff there are well and we thank God for his protection over them. We are happy to inform you that Laurette, from the Gitega orphanage, will be going to Kenya next month for a surgery to correct her cleft pallet. The surgery is being conducted by Operation Smile, an organization that conducts missions in different parts of the world to help children. The surgery will be done for free. We thank all who have supported us in prayer and financially to cater for travel and accommodation expenses towards this.

The fifth house is very near completion now! Doors and windows are being fixed. Painting and furnishing remains.

Great news on the medical clinic! The ministry of health has given us a go ahead to run the clinic. We give glory to God for this.

The school construction is also going on smoothly and we believe we shall be using it in September. We need more teachers in the school for nursery 1 & 2 and for grade 3. We are advertising the positions and shall be conducting interviews beginning of August.

We bid farewell to Gareth Jones, a volunteer from England who had to go back home earlier and be with his family as his brother was sick. His brother is doing better now but we continue and invite you to join with us in praying for complete and quick recovery.

John White, a volunteer from Canada, left yesterday after a one and a half month stay with us. He has been very helpful and has been working hard to update our website. It looks great! www.burundiyfc.org . We are very grateful for his tireless efforts and pray for God’s blessing and covering over his life. He shall continue to assist us even while in Canada to finish up on the website.

Melissa Swink a volunteer from South Carolina leaves coming Friday. The 3^rd attached picture is her on the top of the pyramid built at the most southern source of the river Nil which is in the South of Burundi. She is very warm hearted and it was a pleasure having with her for one and half months.

We pray that as she goes back home God will bless her teaching career and continue to use her to not just teach but reach out to the children in her school and beyond. We are grateful that she came and hope to see her again soon.

Thank you for joining us in accomplishing the great work God is doing in this beautiful country through YFC. Your financial support, your prayers and visits to us are an encouragement and great blessing to us all. May God bless you!

We hope to hear from you soon and hope you can also visit us. Please check our updated web to learn more about us.

Prayer requests:

1. Water pump: the one we’re using now takes lots of petrol as it needs many hours to push enough water we need; we could buy like the one which was stolen last month if we had US$1500
2. Medical clinic: We desperately need it functional so that we may start saving lives – the problem is no enough equipment to help us open it.
3. Politics: People are afraid of what will happen next year as we have elections- please pray with us.  

In His love and service,

Freddy Tuyizere

B.P. 459 Bujumbura-Burundi

Phone: + 257 78 853029

Email: freddy.yfc@onatel.bi

www. burundiyfc.org

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June 2009, Update

Posted by JWhite on 4 July 2009 | 0 Comments

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April 2009, Update

Posted by Freddy on 23 April 2009 | 1 Comments

Tags: Gitega, Family, Visitors, Medical Clinic, Politics

Dear family and friends;

Greetings from Burundi youth for Christ. Here I am again brining you appreciations for your ongoing support and of course with April updates.

My family: I took my family at Gitega and we very much enjoyed our Easter weekend together with the orphans. School resumed on Monday 20th but Elvis (my oldest) couldn’t go because of malaria once again; he is taking medicine from home this whole week- he isn’t very bad; but please pray with us for full recovery.

The Lord keeps amazing us there at Gitega; Please find attached the latest picture of the medical clinic; it’s about to be completed. We have already submitted all papers to the ministry of health asking them to allow us launch it. We have to wait as its quiet a process but they tell us that we are on the right path. From Sunday 26th of April we are going to use that building as we receive volunteer dentists from US do people’s teeth free of charge. When we properly launch the medical clinic we will need volunteer nurses and Doctors- please connect us if you know some!

Orphanage: In February we received visitors from Charleston- SC who helped us lay a foundation for a new dormitory. Honesty speaking, we had no money to continue build that house; we just did it as prophetic act. That team prayed with us for God’s provision; I have joy now to share the second attached picture show you how the house moving; day by day we see God’s miracles; two days ago builders started to join together timbers for the roof; and yesterday we received a team from YWAM from Belfast-North Ireland to help us work on that new home very needed for Orphanage.

Politics :Burundi politics keep reminding us of 1Thessalonians 5:17”pray without ceasing”; two days ago the last rebel group decided to lay down their weapons and joined the police and national army after 29 years of fight against our government. Many Christians were discouraged to pray for/about that rebel group called “FNL” b/c even other rebel groups which started fighting long after them had already stopped the war. We thank God that finally from now on we will be able to move around the country without fear to be attacked; and poverty may be somehow reduced.

Trip to the US and Canada; My wife and I are praying/preparing for a trip to the US and Canada starting on 7th of May. We thank God that visas for the US and tickets for both ways Bujumbura-Washington DC are already granted. We are praying for internal tickets as we plan to visit Oregon, South Carolina and Edmonton in Canada. We do also continue to pray for the Canadian visas as our passports are still in the Embassy there in Nairobi- Kenya.

Please join us to pray for:

1. Safety for our three boys (10 years, 5 and 1.5) as they remain in Burundi while my wife and I are in North America.

2. Pray for a good time with our “already” supporters; and God’s provision for new ones- Burundi is a country with unexplainable needs.

3. Soon, we launch the medical clinic, we need at least two full-time nurses, and one would cost us US$300 per month.

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March, 2009, Update

Posted by Freddy on 3 April 2009 | 0 Comments

Tags: Gitega, Politics, Medical Clinic

You should be asking yourself “What’s happening in Burundi this month”?

Well, we thank God and we thank you all for your love, prayers and support. Burundi is changing and yfc keeps growing- we’re so blessed to be part of God’s work in this beautiful and yet desperate nation of Burundi. 

Politics: These days the last rebel group ”FNL” is finally bringing their fighters together to be included in the national army. All the politics now turn around the next year elections. Things are starting to get hot- we need your prayers.

In my family; we are generally fine- Elvis is recovering from malaria. He is obliged to return to school as they started exams for the second term this Monday 23^rd of March, he did so well last term. I was on bed most of the day today due to bad flu.

At Gitega, we have been so busy with the medical clinic. We thank God that the American volunteer dentists will be able to use part of it to do people’s teeth. We continue to work on it but we are realizing that it needs more money than we thought. “shammah health center” is the name we gave to our medical clinic. We are starting to pray for staff and volunteer nurses to come and help needy people of Gitega and Burundians in general. Pictured left are all our kids in the Orphanage and their moms after receiving new cloths from one of the team members from Charleston visiting us last month.

The Kids at the Orphanage are generally fine except malaria cases. We are happy that people from “Fields of life” are putting the roof to the school bloc now. We are impatiently waiting for the day we will launch the school bloc and move the kids as some of them have been using the living rooms of their dorms as classrooms. At Future Hope school they are busy writing exams this week and they will have two weeks break around Easter.

Volley-ball is becoming a Burundi yfc game: this picture was taken after a game between the Gitega team (Staff and volunteers) in white against the Bujumbura team (in blue): I played for Buj team and we lost gitega team was so proud of themselves to have beaten people from the national office.

Prayer items:

1. Praise God for:

-   The last rebel group joining peace process finally.

-    Money we were donated to buy more cows.

-    We were granted tax exempt for a container full of cloths +other goods we received from villages of live in Australia

1. Pray for :
   

-      To be able to use the medical clinic we need lights, pray God again to use HIS people to bless us solar panel are best idea and would cost us US$6400

-      We finished the foundation for the new orphanage home-we are praying for funds to continue building it so that we many bring in waiting kids: with US$1 we can buy 40 bricks.

-      We need more volunteers to send in schools: US$100 per month would be enough to pay one.

Freddy Tuyizere

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February, 2009, News Update

Posted by Freddy on 19 March 2009 | 0 Comments

Tags: Staff, Cibitoke, Medical Clinic, Future Hope School, Cow Project

Dear friends and supporters of Burundi yfc, I am so sorry for these late updates. We started the year with lots of work and many visitors. We had a very blessed Christmas time with the orphans from Gitega, as they came down to Bujumbura. Here they are swimming in Lake Tanganyika.

Burundi YFC keeps growing; pray for wisdom for me as a leader; managing twenty-one staff members isn’t an easy task. Please do also pray for us for salaries; the end of the month is always a struggle but we thank God that he never let us down. Young people continue to give their lives to Christ in our different groups.

Our dear friend and partner Ted Bosveld from Australia came with his son Troy to see the Cibitoke project which is moving well. A team of 14 people from Charleston- SC- USA was with us at Gitega orphanage from Feb 12th through 16th and they helped us lay a foundation for a new Dormitory. We are praying for US$25000 to continue and finish building it as there are orphans waiting to come.

We are running with time for the construction of the medical clinic as we hope to launch it in two months time. We are receiving a team of dentists from the US who will be doing people’s teeth in our clinic the last week of April 2009.

Future hope school: We highly thank God for providing the English teachers that we badly needed. Our prayers are now focused on the organization ”Fields of life” which is pledged to build the whole block for us so that they may be able to complete it soon. Things have not been easy for us since September 2008; two houses have been used as classrooms during the day and become dormitories for the orphans after school hours.

We keep praying for enough rain as we have the agriculture and cows project in its humble beginnings. We praise God for the money donated for more cows. We are already in touch with an organization based in Rwanda to help us get good cows. They have already told us that they get cows from Uganda.

My family and I are generally okay. Baby Bryan is so amazing, he always wakes up with a big smile on his beautiful face. We still need prayers for James as he is still so skinny and coughing. Elvis is generally ok and adjusting in a French School system. We are getting used to living in a house with no water no electricity. The boys are only able to watch TV on the weekend when we use a generator.


PRAYERS ITEMS
1.      Marie- Josee(my wife) and I are planning to visit US and Canada in May; we need money for tickets
2.      I need God’s wisdom on how to share my time with family and work
3.      We are praying for US$25000 for another dorm for the orphanage. Would you join us?
4.      As the medical clinic is due to be launched in April, we are praying for equipment, good staff and volunteers.
5.      We thank God for the end of the war in Burundi, and we do pray for elections due never year.

A Million thanks for your love, prayers and financial support. We pray God’s blessings upon you.

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December, 2008, News Update

Posted by Freddy on 6 December 2008 | 1 Comments

Tags: Gitega, Future Hope School, Cow Project, Visitors

Dear friends and supporters

Greetings from Burundi youth for Christ. Here we are once again to thank you and let you know what is happening these days.

As most of you know our main focus is still to raise up a godly generation of leaders for the church and for this blessed and yet most suffering nation of Burundi. We are working with kids and youths. Mothers are gathered in a movement called “Operation Hannah” and the father’s group is called “operation watchman” to help us birth the generation that we desperately need

Gitega orphanage: We currently have 27 children living in the orphanage. Their ages range from about 2 to about 9 years, with representatives from all three ethnic groups, all mixing and playing together in one big family. We also have an old bus permanently stationed in the orphanage so that we can transport the children around, and bring new school pupils from the local community to the school. We have recently completed some extra accommodation rooms for staff and volunteers, and we have gained the voluntary services of a young man called Emery who helps with administration and aids the children with their homework in the evenings.
 
Rachel Carpenter, a volunteer from England talks about the Life in the Orphanage

"The late afternoon sun slowly sinks down in the sky. The regular squeak of the swing moving back and forth carries across the orphanage compound. An older child sits on the seat, one hand curled tightly around the rope, the other cradling the little girl on her lap. Others stand around awaing their turn, playing in the sand and chasing each other across the vivid green grass, their happy voices and laughter mingling together.

Around the back of a building, a house mother prepares the evening meal, the bubbling pot sitting on the little charcol stove. Her hands dusty with flour, she carries a large metal pot from the table, shooing children from her hasty path. Some of the children are helping with the washing up, the large plastic tub sits on the ground and they crouch around it, scrubbing the pans and plates clean. Other children are washing their feet and hands, the water drops sparkling in the evening sunlight, their skin clean and fresh. One of the smallest children toddles into the kitchen area, his hand tightly gripping his latest prized possession, an empty cardboard box that he had been given to play with. A cheeky grin lights up his face as he looks for someone to play with. A typical evening in the YFC orphanage at Gitega..."

Future Hope school is doing well, the new teachers and principal are getting used. The first term ends on 19^th December 08. From 14^th to 16^th November; we were altogether on a retreat to share our vision with the four new staff members and fellowship together with them- it went so well. Fields of life is still building classrooms and a teacher’s house for us. We pray they finish soon b/c kids are using orphanages homes as classrooms while we waiting for the classrooms to be completed.

Farming: we have few cows and we are praying for more; we just started agriculture project. One of our aims is to make the orphanage as self sufficient as possible. This means that as food prices rise higher, we are not reliant on increasing donations in order to provide for the children's meals. We have bought a patch of land where we intend to grow food and raise cattle to get vegetables and milk. Any surplus will be sold, and the money can be used to buy other things for the orphans. By contributing towards the cost of a cow or a workers wages, we can get this project up, working and providing for the children. A volunteer to teach us good farming would be highly appreciated.

Prayer Items:

•  First we thank God for Freddy’s family house (pictured left): they moved in on 20^th November 2008; pray God to keep providing so that money will be enough to continue pay the loan. We thank God as well for donations we recently got from Edmonton yfc.
•  Please pray with us a we organize a Christmas event for the orphans: we bring them down to Bujumbura capital for three days- we need funds to be able to do this.
•  We praying for funds to come in to allow is to build another orphanage home so that we may bring in another 8 children and a mother.
•  We desperately need an English teacher in Future Hope school as the two volunteers we have are leaving us in January 2009. Dorcas from Kenya is going to prepare for her wedding.

Thanks a lot for backing us in this work.

The Burundi YFC Team.

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October, 2008, News Update

Posted by Freddy on 27 October 2008 | 1 Comments

Tags: Gitega, YFC International, Medical Clinic

Dear Friends and supporters, Greetings from Burundi youth for Christ.

Time flies, another month has passed and 2008 is about to finish. God is still so good to us, thank you so much for prayers and financial help.

Gitega
The kids are doing generally fine in the orphanage there at Gitega. School is moving well, the principal (Mr.Jean Ciza) and teachers are working hard to educate our kids from orphanage and from the village around us. We thank God for such a well know man like Jean to be the principal of our school ”future hope school” as we focus on raising up Godly leaders for this nation.                        

Medical clinic (pictured left): It’s desperately needed where we are b/c it will serve our compass and the whole village neighboring our orphanage- there are so many people out there with no clinic around ; malaria is the first killer, and many suffer from malnutrition; bad drinking water, etc. We are praying for US$23000 to resume building the medical clinic. 

YFC International Conference
Last month I was able to attend a Youth for Christ International gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa, with 8 selected young leaders.
The trip has lots changed the lives of these young folks – it was their very first time to sit in an airplane! They enjoyed it very much. They learnt a lot, they keep sharing with others since we got back on 27th of September. Bill Rice and his team from Edmonton YFC there in Canada came to visit us just after the conference in South Africa. We enjoyed lot having them here in Burundi for about a week.

Freddy's family

We thank God for the house as it is about to be completed. My wife ”Marie- Josee”  is doing great, and our sons are also fine. Elvis had his 10th birthday on 24th of September. James is fine now after the operation. Bryan is an amazing blessing to us he is a very happy and healthy boy, he will be one year old on 29th of this October.

We thank you all for your love and support- we could do nothing without God’s people like you backing us.

Prayer Items:

• We thank God for His hand upon our ministries. We thank God for our faithful supporters; like a Godly man who recently donated us money for the new staff for six moths.
• Christmas: For the past three years, we have been bringing the orphans from Gitega down to Bujumbura for Xmas. We are praying/planning to do the same this year; and the number of kids has increased. Please pray with us for US$2000 to give a Xmas smile to our children.
• We are praying for God’s favor for Tax exempt for things coming to us that were sent by Edmonton YFC
• To be able to finish build the medical clinic, we are praying for US$23000
• US$100/per month can pay a volunteer  to organize clubs and evangelize in schools

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Freddy Tuyizere;  On Behalf of Burundi Youth for Christ

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September, 2008, News Update

Posted by Freddy on 22 September 2008 | 0 Comments

Tags: Gitega, Cibitoke, Small Groups, Leaders

Dear friends and partners in this work for the Lord; Warm greetings from Burundi Youth for Christ.

It's with lots of joy and thanks that we are coming back to you with updates; and most of all to thank you. Hey-what could we do here in Burundi without you backing us with prayers and financial support? Million thanks to you all indeed!

Praying in the Small Groups

After two months of vacations schools reopened on the 15th of September, meaning that we are back there organizing clubs. It's great opportunity we have that we can minister in any school. Small groups in homes are still going on. It's encouraging to hear the stories of what's happening in those meetings. Prayer has been the focuses these last months. Mothers in Operation Hannah and young people have been having overnight prayers.

Kids also continue to meet in homes every Friday evening. It was encouraging when on our independence day we saw on TV a girl that my wife has been ministering to she was singing at the national stadium. Last month, I was able to sit with the president of the country and let him know what we are doing as YFC; he asked us to continue to pray for him and for the nation.

Gitega

The orphans are doing great; it was not easy to have them at home for two and half moths doing nothing. Our School (future hope school) reopened on 15th September many more kids from the community joined. Unfortunately, the organization which is building the whole bloc for us couldn't finish it on time. For pre-school we are using the orphanage homes as we waiting for the completion of the school.

Great news is that we managed to get very good teachers, and for English lessons we have a girl from Kenya and  another British volunteer will help us teach English for the 5 months she will be with us. Hey God is good: we recruited one of the best principals of primary schools in entire country. His name is Mr. Jean Ciza, he is a well know person in Burundi he has been a headmaster for primary schools for long time; he has been receiving prices because his schools got the best marks in national tests. We praise God for providing such a man for our school, we want to give the best education to our children as we want to raise them as leaders for the church and for the country as whole. As you remember we have kids from the three different tribes in our orphanage.

No much has changing with the medical clinic though. We received one donation - praise God for it - but we keep praying for more to come in so that we may resume building and finish it soon God willing. It will be so nice when the medical clinic will be functioning our orphanage is surrounded by very  needy people.

Cibitoke

With the help of an Australian godly man there is good progress at the new site there at Cibitoke- west of Burundi. The first house is about to be completed- we are now looking for doors and windows to close it. The second home is also under construction. The sad thing is that prices for building material never cease to go up in this small land locked nation of Burundi.

Young leaders: The main focus of Burundi YFC is to raise up a godly generation of leaders for the church and for the country. Freddy has been giving leadership lessons since 2004. From 19th to 26th Sept Freddy is in South Africa attending an international conference with a selected 8 young leaders. Pictured left: Burundi YFC staff during a leadership retreat.

Freddy's house: It has been so challenging to build as prices continued to go up- but praise God and million thanks to his generous people-funds came in recently to allow us to continue building. We are working so hard to see that house completed soon so that we may move in and start paying back the loaned money; Please pray with us that the government  would bring water and power in that new place so that it may be easily livable.

Prayer Items: Thank God for the funds we got to complete Freddy's family house. Thank for 8 young leaders + Freddy who managed to fly to  Johannesburg to attending a YFC international conference. Thank God for the new good staff for future hope school there at Gitega Praise God for two young men (Bosco and Blaise) now studding in England; and Alice who is now in Charleston- SC- USA for training.

Please pray for:

• For an amount of US$800 per month total for salaries for the new teachers and principal working hard to educate our kids there at Gitega.
• God to use our Christian president and his ministers to fight against corruption which is one of the biggest problems in our country right now; they had a retreat last week discussing about this issue.
• God to provide US$25000 so that we may build another orphanage home so that we can bring in more children as we have kids on waiting list; the foundation alone would cost us around $6000.
• Burundi YFC keeps growing Freddy has to focus on other things; please pray God to send us an English speaker to help us with communications: to do the sponsorship program, writ proposals, do emails, etc. No such person around Burundi right now.

Million thanks and blessings to you all.

Burundi Youth for Christ team.

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August, 2008, News Update

Posted by Freddy on 7 August 2008 | 0 Comments

Tags: Gitega, Cibitoke, Visitors

Dear faithful friends and supporters; Greetings from YFC Burundi,

Thank you so much for your generous support of our ministry here in Burundi.  Things are generally still moving well ministry wise. Schools are closed due to holidays but the small groups in homes keep going on. These last months were so bad to our group of mothers  ”operation Hannah”. Three of the very dynamic mothers, including Frederique their leader lost their husbands, it was funeral after funeral.

Gitega Project
We are continually amazed buy the Gitega project- it’s very clear that God’s hand is on it. The new orphans are adjusting well to their new environment. We recently received an other  Mutwa boy to replace Philip who was taken back due to a misunderstanding of grandma who was taking care of him. We are seeking to find another house so that we may be able to welcome eight of the kids on the waiting list into the orphanage especially the Batwa most vulnerable children.

The medical clinic is covered now, unfortunately we had to stop building due to lack of funds. We hope to open the school in September with a completed 7 classrooms and an office - an organization called fields of life is building the school for us, which will provide an education system for the community outside of the orphanage as well. Youth for Christ believes that in raising up the next generation of leaders, our focus needs to not only be in the development of their character, but also in the development of their knowledge.

Visitors
We are continually blessed by the presence of visitors. Recently we received Catherine from the UK and she was with us for closer to one month. As always, we are delighted to welcome visitors. Our orphans enjoy lots having God’s people around them. It shows them that God is caring though they do not have biological parents- it does give them a sense of Godly worldwide family.

The water pump
Praise to God - At last the water pump is no-longer a prayer request. Thanks a million to God’s servants who heard His voice and blessed our orphanage with a water pump.

Cibitoke
Many of you know that last December we received another piece of land from our government, the land is in the Western Province of Burundi called Cibitoke. With the help of a Godly man called Ted Bosveld from Australia we just started to build the first house there. We’ll do the small work to Gitega, needs lot of funds- please pray with us;  for more details about cibitoke please see: www.villagesoflife.org

Freddy’s house
The last few months have been extremely busy for Freddy as in additional to his regular work with YFC. He had to keep checking on how the family house is being built. He has a deadline “end September 08” to enter the house en start paying back the loan. The big problem is that the loan he got is not going to finish the house. Prices have gone high so quickly; Petrol started and everything else followed especially imported goods such us building materiel because Burundi imports also everything and it is a landlocked nation- please pray for an other US$8000.

Please join as we pray!

• Thank God for what HE is doing through yfc ministries in general , specially thank HIM for the provision of the water pump
• The integration of the last rebel group back into the military and for the continuing negotiations to be held with peace.
• Pray for finding funds (US$25,000) to build another house there at Gitega as there are many orphans on waiting list to join the orphanage.
• Freddy to find an estimated US$8000 to finish to  build the family house in Bujumbura capitol.

With love and God's blessings from the YFC team in Burundi

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