Greetings in Jesus' name!
A brief update on the situation in Burundi:
Unfortunately, I had to call off the Burundi crusade for now. I have delayed making this decision wanting to wait to give God a chance to deal with things there. Since peace nor stability has been restored, we will have to postpone the crusade until we see that Burundi is again peaceful enough to plan such an event.
The communication I am receiving from church leaders there, is that many of our people have fled the capital and largest city, Bujumbura, for the villages in an attempt to get away from the violence. As of Sunday, the news indicates that over 50,000 Burundians have fled to Congo, Rwanda or Tanzania for safety as a radical youth wing is terrorizing and attacking the people of Bujumbura in order to intimidate them in this politically fueled violent situation.
Understandably, Our people are quite afraid that their country is being thrown back into the disastrous conditions of chaos and danger like they experienced in the 1990's. They are already dealing with a shortage of food and this situation is only 3 weeks old. Many businesses are closed, streets in Bujumbura are barricaded and shut down, the banks are only open from 10‐11 AM and the city is quickly coming to a halt. If things continue, this will spread throughout the country.
At this point, our people need much prayer for the Lord to supply their needs both spiritual and physical. The church in Burundi started and maintains a small orphanage in Bujumbura. The director wrote me an email to say that they are struggling to feed these children because so many of our people have fled the city and the orphanage is not receiving the financial support from the saints to provided for the consistent need.
So I am asking that you turn the focus of your prayers toward the needs of God's people for food, clothing and shelter as they try to survive this dangerous situation.
Sincerely,
Richard Smoak