Okay! I finally sorted through several hundred images and picked some of my favorites from Burundi. The LORD started teaching me a lot while I was there–mainly about prayer. I met hundreds of people at the medical clinic in Ngozi, we had anointed and wonderful translators, our team worked in unity, and we had a lot of fun. Here are some visuals…. 
Category Archives: Battle for Burundi
Click on the title of the blog post to view the entire entry.
Burundi Field Notes
July 30, 2007 – 8:45 am
Back from Burundi and Safe After Blast
July 19, 2007 – 2:01 pm
Yea!! Praise God! I’m back and saw so many wonderful things. God is really moving in that small nation. What was most amazing was how I could see all around how God had already begun to answer many of our prayers. We started praying for Burundi last August. I’m just thrilled and look forward to the coming months and years to see what else He’ll do. I have a good chunk of editing to do so there’ll be more images and more information coming soon
Now about yesterday’s steam pipe explosion…… Some of you have been over to my place and wondered about me when you heard about the steam blast. Well, I thank God, I’m totally OK. I was actually on the M104 bus going across 42nd street when it happened. Normally I get off at 42nd and Lexington and walk down to my street. But yesterday I forgot to hit the button in time to get off at Lex. So I just decided to get off at Third instead. Well the blast happened just before the bus got to Third avenue. When I stepped off the bus in front of The Gap I heard the loud rumbling, saw smoke, and people running toward me. I ran too! I thought something truly terrible had happened. I was glad to learn that it wasn’t anything malicious. But it wasn’t until just before I went to sleep last night that I realized that I would have been at the exact same spot at the exact same time of the explosion if I’d gotten off at Lexington like I normally do. I thank God I wasn’t there! I THANK GOD!!
Ever prayed all night?
June 8, 2007 – 2:56 pm
I did—once. It was awesome! So awesome that I decided to have my own all-night prayer meeting by myself. I only lasted until 2 am; and it was still wonderful 
. Tonight at Times Square Church there will be an all-night prayer meeting from 11pm until 5:30 am on Saturday. The two main concerns are the upcoming outreach to Burundi and pastors’ meetings in Uruguay. There’ll be 5 one-hour blocks each dedicated to some specific need. During each block of time there will be some praise and worship, a brief video highlighting the prayer needs, a brief message from one of our pastors, and then followed by corporate prayer.
If you’d like to join in but can’t physically attend, here’s the basic schedule:
11-12mn–Prayer for Pastors’ Conference in Uruguay with Pastors David and Gary Wilkerson
12-1am–Prayer for the evangelistic rallies in Burundi
1-2am–Prayer for the women’s conference, various outreaches, and medical clinics in Burundi
2-3am–break for refreshments
3-4am–Prayer for youth outreaches in Burundi
4-5am–Prayer for the churches and the Pastors’ conference in Burundi
5-5:30am–Closing worship and prayer
So if The LORD wakes you up in the middle of the night, PRAY! You won’t regret it. And it will bless somebody else!
T Minus 35
May 29, 2007 – 4:44 pm
So in five brief weeks I’ll be heading to Burundi! I’m really excited–no time for nervousness at this point. It’s been such an amazing preparation process. I’m certain that going to Burundi will have a life-changing effect on me. But I honestly can say that I’ve already begun to change. So many “little things”, I realize, should not have a place in me….. Foregiveness is hard. But what about ASKING for forgiveness, hmmm? Try that! How easily we can brush over things when WE’ve been the offender. But when the tables are turned, we see things differently. Oh well, our hearts are deceitful–mine too! Which brings me right back to God’s healing and restoration work gong on in Burundi. I praise God that I get to go there! Many, many people responded with encouragement, prayers, and finances to help me. I thank ALL of you!
Some of our team members had been praying about an opportunity to help deaf, orphan children in Burundi. Well, there is a school for the deaf in Burundi; but the kids get out of school and go home for the summer two days before we arrive. But guess, what? The ones who don’t have a home to go to—the orphans—WILL be there! Hallelujah! So the people on the sign language team will actually be able to go and minister to these precious children. Another cool answered prayer: people in Burundi, The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire), Rwanda, and Tanzania will be able to listen via radiobroadcast to all of the preaching and evangalistic crusades July 12-14th. So for all of you praying, please DON’T STOP!
Yesu ni we nzira!
May 2, 2007 – 11:36 pm
“Bite?”
“Ni sawa. Nfise Yesu, nfise umunezero!”
“Nanje nshaka Yesu!”
“Yesu ni we nzira!”
“Ego!”
“Ingo dusenge!”
This is the conversation/scenerio that I learned tonight in my Kirundi language class. After learning a few words and phrases, I’m now learning to have a conversation! Anyway, it’s a beautiful sounding language. Kind of gentle and sing-songy.
Our training session was taken mostly from the book of Acts. We dealt with: handling conflict, pride, personal limitations, being open to the unexpected, and the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is really exciting stuff!
Wendy Battles for Burundi……
April 24, 2007 – 4:37 pm
I’m right now battling for the nation of Burundi through prayer. In July I’ll have the privilege of going there with my church. Below is the letter that I sent out via email to those who know me.
Hi Everyone!
All of you are connected to me somehow — family, friends, clients, colleagues…. you know who you are to me!
Most of you also know that I’ll be going to Burundi this summer, July 3-16th, for a missions trip with my church, Times Square Church. I’m writing asking for prayer and financial support.
Now I’ll give you some background about Burundi and why I want to go there. Burundi is a small country in central Africa that had been a colony of Belgium until 1962. For generations there had been prejudice, tension, resulting in multiple civil wars and even two genocides between the minority Tutsis and the majority Hutus. Because of this simmering rivalry, there sparked another genocide in the 1990’s which spilled over into other neighboring countries like Zaire and Rwanda. After the genocide subsided, a democratically elected president, Pierre Nkurunziza, began forming a government that is made up of both Hutus and Tootsis. Later this autumn the UN will remove it’s last remaining peacekeeping presence from the country; however, there are many people who hope to resume the violence once the UN pulls out. My church has been praying for Burundi since early 2006 and we believe that a supernatural intervention from God is the only thing that will put this violent rivalry away and allow the country to heal and to be restored.
We’ll be there for about ten days doing all sorts of missions work. I’m really excited! I’ll be on the Medical Team. There will be other teams going into the prisons, into hospitals, to visit orphans, and to minister to “street kids” (orphaned and homeless due to the genocide and/or AIDS). Simultaneously there will also be a pastors’ conference, a womens’ conference, and open air meetings telling those in attendance about the love of Christ. In fact, that’s really what this trip is all about — to convey the love of Christ to the people of Burundi through our words and acts of love. We go believing that supernatural forgiveness and healing are the only legitimate weapons against repeated bloodshed in the name of tribal and ethnic distrust.
After I graduated from college instead of going immediately to medical school, I went to Zaire (now called the Democratic Republic of Congo) for six months. I went to see if I really wanted to be a missionary someday and I decided that I did! I’ve been on other short-term trips before but going to Burundi will be the most awesome experience of my life so far. Just to have the opportunity to give some of what God has given me (love, forgiveness, and joy) will be tremendous. Burundi’s recent history of neighbor-against-neighbor violence has made forgiveness and hope elusive for individuals. Hopelessness, depression, despair, and even violence can seem more real than hope. But there is hope! In Jesus Christ there is hope for lasting forgiveness and restoration no matter what you’ve seen or done or how you’ve been victimized. I’m really excited about this! I do believe that this is a critical time for Burundi and for the world.
Please pray for:
1 - Burundi’s restoration,
2 - The unity and effectiveness of our team, and
3 - For me to do all that I am called to do
If you want to make a donation to defray my costs ($2450 due by May 15th, 2007), donations by check should be made out to Times Square Church with “Wendy G. Johnson–Burundi” in the memo, and sent to
Times Square Church
Attn: Missions Department
1657 Broadway, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10019
If you’d rather make a payment using your credit card, just email me for my missions account login and password.
For more information about Burundi go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi
For more information about Times Square Church go to:
www.timessquarechurch.org
For more information about me go to my Blog (link Below). I’ll make posts to my Blog weekly in conjunction with our Kirundi language classes and general training sessions for Burundi.
Thanks for reading all the way to this point!
The LORD Bless You,
Wendy