Restoration of Hope – latest newsletter

NAHIMANA’S NEWS

Dear Friends,

Can it really be 6 months since we left England and headed back home to Burundi? They say time flies when you’re having fun!!!! So, here we are again, preparing for another manic Christmas in the Nahimana Household. This year it looks like we will be hitting the 85 mark for Christmas lunch yet again, with 60 boys, 8 staff, 14 relatives, as well as the usual assortment of folks from church who have no family and nowhere to go… A small family Christmas just wouldn’t be the same!

O.K., so family news first. Josiah has fitted into African life like a dream. He is the happiest, most smiley baby I have ever known and is perfectly content to be passed around all the children and adults who we meet without a problem. He has now perfected the art of crawling and although is pretty quick on his knees, his commando crawl reaches tremendous speeds across the concrete floor. Josiah now has 2 teeth and with the amount he is dribbling, I am sure more will be following soon.

Bethany, on the other hand, was over the moon to lose her first tooth last month. She had been convinced that she was destined to keep her baby teeth until she was a lady and was concerned how she would look with a big face and tiny teeth! She continues to do well at school and is a wonderful big sister to Josiah and Abi. Abigail is a delight – she still has a will as strong as cast iron, but is learning that when Mum says, ‘No’, she means it! Abi is a fantastic mover and has us all in fits of laughter as she shakes her ‘booty’ to whatever music is playing.

Honda and I are kept busy as usual with all the children and teenagers we are caring for. Our time in England showed us the value of spending time together, so we now try to do this whenever possible.

The last few months have been financially ‘interesting’ for us here in Burundi. Since we returned at the start of June, the pound has lost nearly 25% of its value when exchanged with the Burundi Franc. That, combined with a price increase for even the most basic food items of between 15 – 50%, has had us on our knees, but God has proved faithful through it all, and each month we have miraculously had enough to cover our needs. I don’t understand what the ‘credit crunch’ is, I am just grateful that we serve a God who is not bound by earthly financial constraints! Thank you so much to all of you who have responded to God’s prompting and have sent gifts over the last few months. They have really been vital in keeping feeding all the people in our care.

So, Restoration of Hope developments…. As usual these have been many! Since we returned, 4 new boys have joined the R.O.H family. Arnaud, 12 years, was born and spent the first 5 years of his life in prison with his mum. His mum, who is also HIV positive, was released because of psychiatric problems and is unable to care for Arnaud any more. Since the death of his parents 5 years ago, Emile, also 12, has been cared for by a neighbour. Recently the neighbour lost his job and so is unable to continue to provide for Emile as well as his own 6 children.

Jean-Claude, 15 years, does not know the whereabouts of his parents or even if they are still alive. He has spent his entire life moving between short term care centres and the streets. Now back in school, hopefully ROH will provide him with the stability he needs to be able to make something of his life and work towards a more productive future. Lastly, Honda brought home Eric, aged 12, 2 weeks ago. He says his parents are dead and he has been living on the streets or with anyone who would help him for the past 3 years. Please pray that for all 4 of these boys, 2009 will be a year of dramatic change.

Through the generosity of someone in the UK, ROH has also helped Mussa aged 4, a little boy begging on the streets with his alcoholic father, to have a hernia operation. Honda remains in contact with Mussa and is looking at ways of helping him get an education once he is 5 years old.

We are also helping Jan, a 17 year old girl that Honda discovered, begging on the streets with her premature twins. Honda was horrified to find her sitting in the gutter, amongst the rubbish and exhaust fumes, with her twins who were less that a week old. Although married, Jan’s husband does not have a job and so the only way to get money for food was by begging. ROH now provides Jan with a small income so she can eat and thus is able to breastfeed the twins. The boys are now 3 months old and growing well.

Having decided not to take any more boys in for the moment, Honda, not being one to rest on his laurels has now taken on an entire village! Let me explain…. Last month Honda was taken to visit a village, approximately 10 km away from our house. The village started 14 years ago, with a couple of houses for Internally Displaced People, on a plot of land set aside by the government. The village is hidden away behind the industrial area of the city and most people are not aware of its existence. Today there are 400 small mud houses, which are home to over 2000 people, who are living in desperate poverty. The village has no running water, no sanitation and no electricity. There are no schools for the over 1200 children, the nearest one being a 4 km walk. According to the village chief, only 7 out of 1200 children are in school!

The village has really touched Honda’s heart and he now has a burning desire to see the situation change for the people who call it home. God is a God of transformation and it is His transformation that Honda longs to see in the lives of the poor and needy. By improving the quality of life for the children in the village, hopefully this will result in fewer children ending up on the streets in years to come. Long term the village needs running water, good sanitation, a school; a church …the list goes on. In the short term Honda’s desire is to show the people that they are not forgotten and that Gods love extends to all. Last weekend we took many of our boys along with various volunteers to ‘Bless the village’. We were able to distribute soap and children’s clothes to each family – 12 bars of soap costs approximately 60p – more than a day’s wages for many people and so was a huge blessing to all.

On Friday Honda, our boys and some local pastors and church members are going to begin 2 days of evangelistic meetings in the village. This will involve a combination of praise and worship, preaching and games with prizes – people who live in such poverty have little time usually for fun and games! Please pray that this small start will be the beginning of transformation for the village. Also please pray that Honda has wisdom in knowing who to approach, both within the government here and abroad where necessary, to look into getting running water piped into the village. This would make such a difference to the health of the people, most of whom fetch water from a ditch…not the greatest near the industrial area where all manner of chemicals run into the ditches!

And last, but by no means least, our ROH family. On the whole the boys are doing really well. We have 52 in either school or training programs and another 10 to whom ROH has made one off gifts to cover school fees. We have reshuffled some of the boys between the Hope Houses and this has proved beneficial, both homes now being more peaceful and settled. Ami and John are both doing well and are taking on more oversight for the running of the homes which is great for Honda.

Please continue to pray for the ROH boys. There are a couple who are struggling with past addictions to smoking cannabis, who need to see this broken once and for all. Please pray that all the boys make good strides in their education this year – it would be great if all passed the academic year and none had to repeat.

As this year draws to a close, join with us in thanking God for all the ways He has blessed and is blessing the work of ROH in Burundi. Lives are being changed and futures transformed. Thank you to all of you who are playing such a vital role in helping this come to pass. All your prayers and support are an integral part of ROH and we are so grateful to God for each one of you.

May you know His peace and joy this Christmas and in the year to come.

Love

Honda, Libby, Bethany, Abigail, Josiah and all our boys

XXX

The Sower Sows the Word (VII)

Today, we are wrapping up our study on the things that stop us from producing the results promised in the Word happening in our lives. We have looked at the danger of not fighting for the Word, for only listening to the Word on an emotional level, of allowing money and wealth to dictate to us and of the desire for people to like and honour us stopping us being the Christians that we are destined to be.

Now we shall look at the final challenge: the lust for other things.

Mark 4.19 says:

And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

If you have the lust of other things enter into your heart, it will choke the Word of God and the Word of God will not be fruitful in your life. You will most likely blame God and His Word, but it is not God’s fault – it is because of what you have allowed into your heart.

Don’t kick yourself though, make a change. Let’s look at what the lust of other things actually is:

The word used for lust here is the Greek word epithymia. It means a strong desire. It does not always refer to something bad – Jesus uses the word to refer to his desire to share the passover meal with his disciples for example (Luke 22.15) – but generally it is used to refer to a strong desire that your body has.

A good example would be:

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to [fulfil] the lusts [thereof]. – Romans 13.14

If you allow the desires of your flesh to control what you do, what you think and how you behave you will never see the manifestation of the Word of God in your life.

Romans 6.12 says: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Now this is where many Christians get themselves into trouble and tie themselves into knots. They read a Scripture like Romans 6.12 that tells them not to obey the desires of their body. It might be a sin-desire like using a pornographic website or spreading gossip. It might be a sickness-desire like lying in bed all day and not fighting off the cold. Either way it is a desire of your flesh. Now if you simply try and fight off that desire you will fail.

Sometimes you will succeed but sometimes you will fail. Your Christian life will be a roller-coaster of success and failure. You will lead a generally unfruitful Christian life. I know many Christians that live like this, and I know I have had seasons where I have lived like this too. Struggled to walk in purity, in health, in prosperity, in love – sometimes succeeding and sometimes not, my emotions flowing all over the place. An up and down Christian.

But that is not God’s will – He has redeemed us from this, praise the Lord. To find out how to live free from the strong desires of your body, let’s re-read Romans 6.12, but in context:

6Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

15What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

16Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

17But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

18Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. (Romans 6.6-18)

Romans is one of the most powerful books in the Bible because it deals with the most important topic in the New Testament: righteousness. I sincerely believe that righteousness is the most misunderstood topic in the Bible and that if Christians truly understood it, there would be a revival across the world that has never been seen before in any generation.

It was a revelation of what righteousness really is that started the Protestant Reformation. It was a revelation of what righteousness really is that started the charismatic move. These are the two most influential revivals that have ever happened in history.

Righteousness is the state of right standing with God. A synonym for righteousness is just. To make someone righteous is to justify them. It means you can stand in the presence of God and not be afraid, not feel inferior, not be condemned. It means you are right with God. A righteous person is as bold as a lion. A righteous person has their prayers answered. They have joy, they have peace. Understanding what righteousness is and how to receive it is the key to life.

Romans 1 tells us that the nations are not righteous. Romans 2 tells us that the nation of Israel and people who obey the law are not righteous. Romans 3 tells us no-one is righteous because of their actions., but that you can only receive righteousness by faith. Romans 4 shows how the remarkable individual Abraham did not even have righteousness by his actions, but was made righteous (justified) by faith. Romans 5 tells us the benefits of being righteous by faith.

Romans 6 then deals with a wonderful question: if I am righteous and have the benefits of righteousness because of faith in the complete work of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, then why should I even bother living right?

(If you read Romans 6.1-2 you will find that Paul was accused of teaching you can live however you like if you are a Christian. The technical name for such a belief is libertarianism. It means a Christian can act as selfish as they like and there is no problem.

Now that is clearly not true – but if in your preaching of the Word no-one has managed to accuse you of this, you do need to ask yourself are you preaching righteousness by grace through faith as powerfully as Paul was?)

In Romans 6, Paul gives 2 reasons why we should live a holy and loving life, and not just do what our body feels like. He also gives us 2 ways in which we can live holy.

The two reasons why we should live holy are:

1. Because it is our nature. You are holy, so living holy should be natural to you. Like a bird flying or a tree producing fruit, it shouldn’t be difficult. Verse 7 of Romans 6 says that we are dead to sin. If you are dead to something, it should not tempt you. The more time we spend meditating on Bible verses that tell us our true nature, the easier it is to resist sin.

Once you realize that you are righteous, then it becomes natural to act righteous. Lots of people are trying to act righteous to convince themselves they are righteous – this is the wrong way round! Have a read of 2 Cor. 5.21 and see what you are because of the work of Jesus Christ.

2. We should live holy because living in sin brings death into your life. This concept is addressed in v.17 and in Romans 6.23 which says that the wages of sin is death. If you sin, then you will become trapped by that sin and that sin will bring death into your life. If you lie, you will be tempted to lie more, and the lies will bring sickness, stress, broken relationships and poverty into your life. It will not stop God loving you but it will not allow you to enjoy His love.

Sin won’t keep you from heaven, but it will keep others from heaven. They will fail to see the life of God inside you and will not be attracted to the wonderful news of redemption. Sin makes you miserable – holiness is for your own good.

Why is it so important that we are holy because of these reasons and not to make God love us? Does the motive matter – or just the fact that we are striving to be holy. The answer is that if you are just trying to live right to please God and to become righteous then you will always fail. You will always feel God is against you and you will be defeated.

If you realize you are right, then you can live right. You can enjoy fellowship with the Holy Spirit, you can have confidence when you pray, you can go and lay hands on the sick and know it is not because of you that they are healed but because of Jesus.

The lust for other things can be lorded over if you realize that God has already lifted you above that.

Romans 7 goes on to tell of the futility of still trying to live by the law of God. Romans 8 tells of the wonders of living by the Spirit, aware of your righteousness. If you realize that you are righteous and realize that sin always leads to death, you will find that there is a power inside you – the power of the reborn, righteous spirit, the power of the new creation that you became on the day you became a Christian – and that this power is more powerful than the lust for other things.

If you deal with the lust for other things, then the Word of God will start to spring up in your life. Healing, peace, prosperity, wholeness will no longer be in seed form, planted deep in your life with no evidence they are there, but they will spring up in your life and transform not just your life, but the whole world.

Blessings,
Ben

Restoration of Hope

Tree of Life Church believes that the wonderful news of redemption should be broadcast to the ends of the earth. Here is some information about a couple that have laid down their lives in service of the kingdom of God. They are true heroes:

Restoration of Hope began as a dream in the heart of Donatien Nahimana (Honda). After working for 6 years with African Revival Ministries as a driver, administrator and house parent to orphan children, in January 2004 he established Restoration of Hope with a vision to help the streetboys of Bujumbura – the capital of Burundi.

Honda’s vision was to take boys off the street and to completely change their environment giving them a family, a home, an education and introducing them to a God who has a purpose for their lives – a God who longs to restore their hope!

The project started when Libby (Honda’s wife) was followed home by 3 streetboys looking for food. These boys were soon living in the Nahimana’s home and were quickly joined by many others who required help.

7 months later the first Hope House was opened which is now the home to 13 boys who previously lived on the street. The second Hope House opened in October 2005 and is home to a further 17 boys. Restoration of Hope currently cares for another 21 boys providing food, education and essential medicines in times of need.

Restoration of Hope is funded by individual contributions and is supported by friends and family all over the world.

If you are interested in supporting some of the orphan boys, use this link. Think about this: for just £70 you could pay the school fees of an orphan child for one year. James tells us that if our religion does not help widows and orphans it is not pure. In case maths is not your strong suit, £70 a year is merely £6 a month. You could change someone’s life for £6 a month. Think about that!

Obviously there are so many needs in the world, and in this information age we find out about so many more than we could ever reach, and we know you cannot help them all.

But we know the Lord loves a cheerful giver, so if while reading about the Nahimana’s and their wonderful work you feel happy to help one of the orphans then ask the Lord if that is not His way of letting you know it is a great time to make a kingdom investment.

Blessings,
Ben

Honda and Libby and familyRestoration of Hope, BurundiClass in Session!

JEHOVAH YOU ARE THE MOST HIGH

My favourite song from my time in Ghana!

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Faith is Based on Knowledge

Faith Is Based On Knowledge
By Andrew Wommack

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:2-4)

These verses say that all things that pertain unto life and godliness are given unto us through the knowledge of God. Certainly, faith must be one of those things because without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). So faith must come through the knowledge of God. That’s the reason Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing the Word of God. The amount of faith that you operate in is directly proportional to the revelation knowledge that you have of God through His Word.

Many people have found it very difficult to operate in faith. That is because they either don’t have the real knowledge of God’s Word in them, or they have let the Word slip and be choked by the knowledge of the world. Fear comes through carnal knowledge, just as faith and all things that pertain unto life come through godly knowledge. Most Christians today (even Spirit-filled Christians) are full of the knowledge about how to operate in Satan’s system but are really deficient in the knowledge it takes to prosper in God’s system. So, it is not really a faith problem that exists, but it is rather a Word problem.

Galatians 5:22 states that faith is a part of the fruit of the Spirit. Have you ever seen a plant struggle to bring forth fruit? Have you ever heard a vine moan and groan and complain about how hard it is to produce grapes? Of course not! It’s the nature of a vine to produce grapes. If the vine is protected and given nourishment, it will automatically produce fruit, unless it’s starved or attacked by some outside force. So it is with the Christian. Faith will automatically be the product of our abiding in the Word, which is Jesus (John 1:1, 15:1-7).

The problem has been that the knowledge of God’s Word has not been abiding in us, or the carnal knowledge of the world has choked the Word of God that was there. You cannot serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. He cannot receive anything from the Lord (James 1:7-8).

Matthew 6:22 gives us the promise that if the eye is single, we will be full of light. That means that if all your attention is focused on God through His Word, then the only thing that you will be full of is God and what His Word produces. This is a Bible law that is repeated in Romans 8:6, which says, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” If we are experiencing anything but life and peace, it is because we are carnally minded. You cannot have life and peace without the knowledge of God. On the other hand, you cannot experience any form of death without the knowledge of the devil and his system.

The carnal knowledge that we dwell upon in our thought lives is Satan’s in-road to us. I am convinced that one of the main reasons that the first men that walked upon this earth lived to be as old as 969 years is because they didn’t know how to die. They didn’t even have a family until they were over 300 years old! They didn’t know that there was supposed to be a flu season every year. It took many years for Satan to pervert the knowledge that was in man so that he would accept defeat. Most of our battles could be avoided if we would just be wise concerning that which is good and simple concerning that which is evil (Rom. 16:19).

Hebrews 11:15 says that if Abraham had been mindful of the country that he came out of, he might have had opportunity, or might have been tempted, to have returned. But, since he refused to think on Satan’s knowledge, he could not be tempted to turn back. Praise God! If Abraham could do it, we can do it too. Second Corinthians 10:4-5 says we can bring every thought into captivity and under the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But, since our minds have already been grounded in the knowledge of this world, it is impossible to just cast that carnal mind out. You have to be thinking on something. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Our minds have to be renewed, and that is done by meditating on the knowledge of God as revealed in His Word.

Your mind is similar to a computer. It simply acts upon the knowledge put into it. If all you have is carnal knowledge, then all you can be is carnal. But praise God, you can reprogram yourself with the Word of God.

You are not incapable of living a life of faith. Quite the contrary, if you have been born again, you have already been given faith as a part of the fruit of the Spirit. But, you can’t function in it if you don’t know that it’s there or if you don’t have knowledge of the laws that govern it. The laws of aerodynamics have been in existence since creation, but man didn’t have knowledge of them until recently. Many people scoffed at the idea of flying, just as many people ridicule the faith message today. They used to say, “If God meant for man to fly, He would have given man wings.” We’ve seen that assumption proven false. It wasn’t God who was keeping us from flying, it was our ignorance of the laws that govern flight. It hasn’t been God who failed to give us faith, we have all been given the measure of faith (Rom. 12:3), but God’s people have been perishing because of a lack of knowledge of how that faith works.

Mankind didn’t learn how to fly overnight. There have been many failures, but now no one doubts that the laws of aerodynamics work. You won’t learn all the laws of faith instantly either, and you may fall flat on your face a few times before you start seeing faith produce as it should. But, the law of faith, which created everything, is a thousand times more sure than the laws of aerodynamics. The knowledge of God and how faith works is hidden for you, not from you, in the Word of God. Pray Ephesians 1:15-23 with me, as a prayer to receive the knowledge of God. Believe that you receive, and watch faith begin to be produced in your life.

“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” (Eph. 1:15-23)

Faith Camp Live 2006 – All The Glory

The lyrics of this song are truly beautiful.

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Zipping Away

I am packing right now for a business trip that will mean that I will not be able to post on the Sower Sows the Word until Saturday. I do apologize.

Keep well while I am away and please start to add your comments and questions to the posts.

I will post a beautiful worship song and a teaching article before I leave to build you up and bless you,

Blessings,
Ben

Ray Comfort Witnessing to Someone

This is a wonderful example of the power of witnessing to people.

Blessings,
Ben

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The Sower Sows the Word (VI)

Yesterday we looked at the deceitfulness of riches. Before moving to discuss “the lusts for other things” tomorrow, I just want to make 3 simple points about the deceitfulness of riches:

1. You listen to those things you spend the most time with. If you listen to money more than you listen to God, you are spending more time with money than God.

2. You listen to those things you hold precious. If you listen to money more than you listen to God, you hold money more precious than God.

3. You listen to those things that you consider more intelligent. If you listen to money more than you listen to God, you think money is more intelligent than God.

Blessings,
Ben