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Burundi Mission Trip

Charlotte Whitacre

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(video on page 3)
Text Box: The attacks of the enemy are serious and true, and most people don't ever even realize this, unless they fully press in to God. The enemy was at work in many obvious ways with me. I didn't allow it to bother me, until the last week of preparation. I broke down and began crying with confusion, I felt as though my passion that was so on fire for the Lord, had slowly burnt out. I realized quickly that I needed to re-enter the "secret place", and that I did, and within hours everything was back to normal, and I was back on fire! Before I left for Africa, I was told I would have 3 divine appointments, and I would know they were divine, because the Lord would tell me when they were happening. This surely came to pass. In fact, the first one happened on the airplane, on my way to Burundi, from Addidas Ababa. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I was able to lead a man named Willy to salvation. Praise God!!!! During all the flights, Manfred and I witnessed to many people. We even had 2 specific Muslim's considering converting. We have their information and will stay in contact with them. Manfred is a wonderful man of God, like a father I never had, who I am so blessed to work with. Our team consisted of ten, and we were greeted by wonderful locals who helped with our bags and brought us to our hotel. I must say that we were blessed with air conditioning, which is something I wasn't expecting. The coffee was absolutely delicious, I actually didn't miss Starbucks at all! On the first day, the leaders had a meeting upstairs with some of the pastors, while the others were settling in. I remained talking to the two Burundian ladies who were waiting for their husbands in the meeting. Within minutes, I had learned my first two Kurundian (language of Burundi) songs. Oh Lord, what a privilege it is to serve you, thank you for choosing me to serve you and glorify your name! I thank you Lord for taking me to the very heart of Africa! We went off to the Mother Church the following day and what an amazing experience that was for me! As we joined hands and sang Hallelujah I began to weep due to the intense PRESENCE OF THE LORD! Praise you JESUS! As the new week approached, I prepared myself to begin sharing my testimony with complete strangers. We used an Evange-Cube to share the story of Jesus after giving our testimony. We were 5 teams of 2 Americans each. Once the team of Americans arrived to their village, we would split up, evangelize for the day, and meet back at the point of contact at 2:00 PM for a celebration for the new church we were planting. I was paired with 1 pastor, my translator Ildephonse, and 2 other nationals. We began our journey into a village by the name of Mugaruro. I was so excited and ready for this moment, I couldn't wait to begin sharing with everyone I came across!!! I was surrounded by precious children as we went from house to house and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord gave me a vision on Saturday night through a dream. I had dreamt that I was walking down a dirt hill, and the Lord had me stop. I wanted to keep walking, and yet the Lord wanted me to stop. I kept trying to go, and He wanted me to stop! I then stopped, and I woke up. The following Tuesday, as we set out on our mission, we began to walk down a dirt hill. As we were on the pathway to the village, my translator asked me to stop. I wanted to keep going, yet I noticed there were four people. I began to share my testimony and the story of Jesus, and within minutes the crowd grew to well over 20. After finishing, many gave their lives to Christ. I was ready to head out for the houses, and then the crowd grew to about 40. I shared again… This became a pattern. I must say we were in that spot for about 2 hours. I then realized it was the dirt hill in the dream. Praise the Lord!!!!

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Text Box: I have now been back from Africa since the 30th of August, however my heart remains in the Village of Mugaruro. There is no possible way that I can describe my experience, but I pray that Jesus will help me come close to it. This has been by far, the most incredible experience I have ever encountered. I must inform you that I have grown up traveling, however, I wasn't saved then and this was my first time on a mission trip. I remember as I prepared for the trip, I was never nervous or scared, I just wanted to get to Africa. My heart hungered and thirsted for what Jesus was going to do!