Today we came to Kibimba, where we will stay tonight and I will minister in the church here tomorrow morning. This is a town up in the mountains, about three hours drive from Bujumbura. The scenery is stunning – I didn’t manage to get any photos today, but I hope I will be able to before we leave tomorrow. This is the town where the President of Burundi lives – his personal home, not his official quarters – and as a result the town is crawling with military and police.
On the way up we had to stop for a while at another town because Domitien needed to do some business there. He left me in the car for maybe half an hour with the young man who has come with us. That was enough for the local kids to get the message that there was a Mzungu in town. They crowded around the car. Most could not speak English, though a couple had one or two words, but mostly they just stood there and stared at me. It was extremely disconcerting and uncomfortable.
To make matters worse, then a young fellow came along. I would guess he was in his late teens or early 20s, and with an attitude that was begging for a good clip around the ears. “Mzungu, give me $100” he demanded. I told him, “In your dreams!” Then he started, “Mzungu, I’m hungry.” He looked about as hungry as I am. I decided to just ignore him. Fortunately at that moment Domitien came back and told him off. Through the whole thing the young man in the back seat had said nothing.
When we arrived in Kibimba they brought me first to the place where I will be staying the night, a guest house owned by the church. The room here is amazing. It is literally twice the size of my caravan at home, with an enormous bathroom that actually has a bath. (Most bathrooms in Africa are tiny.) I could move in and live here!
After I had settled in Domitien messaged me and said they would like to show me some things around the town. Much of the infrastructure here was set up by early missionaries, whose graves are still here in the town. There is a large boarding school and a hospital, and of course the church building. It is all old, but appears to have been maintained quite well.
On the way back to the guest house we called at the hospital, where I had the privilege of praying for a couple of wards full of sick kids. All I did was pray a general prayer, then go around and lay hands on each one and speak healing over them in the Name of Jesus. I didn’t feel any particular anointing, but I believe that God really touched at least some of them, and I very much hope that I will hear back testimonies of healing. Tomorrow I want to ask Domitien if I can have another hour there before we leave town, to pray for the adults.
One tiny drama here tonight. Since I have been in Africa I have, when possible, been having two showers a day – in the morning to get clean, and in the evening to get cool. As I said earlier, the room here has a bath, which was very tempting, but it is one of those small, formed ones, and as I looked at it I was none to confident of my being able to get into it, and even less confident of my being able to get out of it safely. So, sadly, I decided that it would have to be a shower. Then as I turned on the water I noticed a rather nasty looking spider running around the shower base. Umm, maybe not. I tried to drown him, and thought I had succeeded, but still decided that maybe I really didn’t need a second shower tonight. (It’s quite cool here, so it was not really a problem.)
When I had changed into my jamas I turned around and, no, I hadn’t succeeded in drowning Mr Spider. I grabbed a rubber flip-flop and quickly dispatched him to spider heaven.