February 13, 2019

A new adventure awaits.

In the late Fall of 2019, an opportunity became available for a unique visit to Burundi, Africa and after checking my schedule, I signed up to go.

Cornerstone Community Church supports Doug and Deanna Hiebert (along with their 3 girls) as they serve in Burundi and eastern DR Congo.  Jeff Martens, the Outreach Pastor at Cornerstone Community Church, has organized a trip to visit the Hieberts in order to show support for the work being done there, to meet the people of Burundi  and to visit the new school that was recently built.

More information about the work that is being done in Burundi and the Congo can be found by visiting the church website: https://www.ccchurch.ca/the-hieberts- .

There are 6 people who will be accompanying Jeff on this epic journey: his wife Michele, Andrew Thiessen, Rachel Fast, Gisela Reimer, Matthias Boss and myself.

Burundi is a very small country having almost 1/3 of the population of Canada in a country that is half the size of Nova Scotia.  The country gained its independence in 1962  and its official languages are Kirundi (the national language ), French and English.   They have a population of 10.5 million people, of which, 85% are Hutu, 14% are Tutsi and 1% are Twa.  “One of the smallest countries in Africa, Burundi is landlocked and has an equatorial climate.  The country lies on a rolling plateau in the centre of Africa and is bordered by Rwanda to the north,  Tanzania to the east and southeast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west.”  Lake Tanganyika, which is located along the southwest border, is the second oldest freshwater lake in the world and the second largest by volume and depth.  Lake Baikal in Siberia is the only freshwater lake that is larger and deeper than Lake Tanganyika.

We are scheduled to leave at 10 pm on Thursday, February 14 from Toronto for a 13 hr flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

From Addis Ababa we will be catching a flight to Bujumbura, the largest city in Burundi, where we will be staying for the first few days.

I will attempt to post my journal entries daily, however, there may be some delays due to internet connectivity or because I’m trying to outrun a lion while doing my best to avoid tripping over my beard.   Either way, I will do my best to keep my journal updated.