Michel is a pastor in the Bugenyuzi community of Burundi. This community is made up exclusively of Batwa, a people group that otherwise account for only 2% of the total population of this country. They are the marginalized and underprivileged of Burundi; Michel and the other Batwa pastors want to change that. Yet another community development project? Maybe not.
I think of God’s covenant as having to do with people, not with projects. It’s always about people. In Exodus 6, God instructs Moses to speak for him to the Israelites, saying, “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” This is what the Batwa need to hear. It’s not just about developing resources, but about God developing and redeeming a people.
Recently, Michel and other pastors were challenged to imagine and draw a map of their community in the future. What does “development” look like? One attendee drew roads, houses with gardens, animals to provide food and fertilizer, a school, a hospital, fields with crops, several churches. But mostly, he drew people. People in the cars, people on the roads, people in the fields, people going to church.
Michel and the others were profoundly impacted by that drawing. They began to look at their surroundings differently, to see their relationship with God differently. Michel said, “There was a time where I thought, ‘I have nothing. What do I have to offer?’ I had no ideas, no land, no money, no possessions.” He continued, “This drawing shows me that God has given me something. He did not create me with nothing. I am a person that matters to him; it is who I become, not what I have, that matters to him. I want the Batwa to look like Jesus.”
Michel started to dream. With this new perspective, he found that his motives, priorities and actions began to change. He began to care more about his community. He worked hard and eventually bought a plot of land, then another and another. He bought a goat and then five pigs and gifted the pigs to people in the community. Soon, he plans to buy a cow. Michel’s dreams go well beyond individual prosperity; he wants to develop his people.
Pray for more dreams like this to spring up among the Batwa.
