Day 19 story 18- What a View

When I lived in Burundi we were continually on the look out for good pieces of land to buy. The idea was to have them available so that we could start new churches on the site with a Bible school student.  A team would then come in from the US to build a tabernacle.  We would preach and  voila,  as they say in French, we would have a new church of about 50-80 people.  

One of our challenges was to find strategic pieces of land situated close to neighborhoods/villages so that people could easily walk.  In the early days we worked with a Burundian pastor  who liked the idea of purchasing new pieces of land a little too much.  One day he calls on the phone.  

The conversation went something like this: 

"We have a piece of land that is a must see!" 

"Some more details please?"  

"A friend of mine knows where it is located and we all can go together to see it." 

"Umm...Where is it?"  

"Oh...just a few kilometers outside of Bujumbura." 

"When would we go?" 

"Tomorrow AM." 

So we piled into a Speed The Light vehicle and headed to check out the spot.  The so-called friend was really a part-time employee of the pastor we worked with which should have been my first clue that something was amiss.   

On a side note, the part-time employee pretended to know English, but all it really amounted to was one predominant expression: "Not at all. Not at all."   "Are going far," I would ask.  "Not at all. Not at all," came the response.  "What part of Burundi do you come from?"  "Not at at all. Not at all."  What other jobs do you have?"  "Not at all. Not at all."  

(You get the idea. While I am exaggerating the frequency of his use of the expression it isn't by much. ) 

After leaving town, I began to get fidgety. 

"How much farther do you we have to go?"" 

"Just ahed," responded the pastor.  "Not at all. Not at all." The friend. 

A few kilometers later we repeated the question.  Same answer.  Another few kilometers down the road, same response.  After driving a solid twenty five minutes we approached a dirt road.  "Turn here," came the order.  

Off we went down the narrow dirt road into the Burundian countryside.  "How much further?"   Same answer as before. 

A Good hour in the middle of nowhere we finally arrived.  There wasn't a village for miles.  The closest homestead would have been a nice 15 minute walk. 

Our Burundian friends jumped out of the car: "What a view! Isn't it amazing!" 

"Not at all. Not at all," The friend pointing around at the trees.  

"Ummm.... there are no people anywhere around here," my missionary colleague responds. 

"Yes, but look at the view! We absolutely must buy it," came the pastor's reply. 

"Not at all. Not at all."  The friend trying to engage in conversation.  

"To have a church you kind of need  to have people," my colleague reiterated. 

"People will walk for hours  to see the view," came the response.  

"Not at all. Not at all."  

By view, he meant the scenic and idyllic Burundian countryside complete with a few cows and pine trees.   

The conversation was going nowhere fast.  The friend then marked out the dimensions of the land.  It was massive.  Probably the size of several football fields.  He wanted to sell us half the countryside in the middle of nowhere.  And the price? Well let's just say that my colleague  started having anxiety attacks by this point in the conversation.  "We'll give you a great price! And for the view it's a real steal."  

We finally jumped back into the car and headed back into town.  "So what did you think?  Amazing right?  With a great view?" 

We never did figure out what percentage of the deal our pastor friend would have scored if we had purchased the land with a view from the part-time employee.  It didn't take long to learn that there were certain people we didn't need involved in the decision making process of how to plant churches in Burundi. 

As I think back on this experience, I'm reminded that life anywhere really isn't much different than in Burundi.  Certain people have certain agendas for our finances, time, and lives.  One of my friends used to joke with me, "I'm not God, but I do  have a plan for your life."  The danger  with this mentality is that we end up putting people in boxes that they were never meant to be placed in.  They become frustrated, we look manipulative, and the Kingdom suffers because only God's agenda will be able to  prosper in someone's life.  As a leader, I continually ask myself, "How can I help this person become more like Christ?" "How can I help them find God's will for their lives?" and "What can I do to assist them in that process?"