Joy Has A Bright Color!

Sunday afternoon, August 31, First Baptist of Sun Lakes, hosted a choir made up of Burundians. These folks, after much turmoil and persecution in their own country, made their way to the Phoenix area and now are a significant part of the fellowship of First Southern Baptist Church of Phoenix. According to Wikipedia encyclopedia, Burundi, (pronounced Bu' rundi), officially the Republic of Burundi, is a small country in the Grreat Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda on the north, Tanzania on the south and east, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west. Burundi is known as one of the ten poorest countries in the world. Due to civil wars, Burundi has a low gross domestic product, an unstable population growth, and sparse resources. Cobalt and copper are among Burundi's natural resources. Some of Burundi's main exports include coffee and sugar. I hope this information will help answer some of the questions asked by our people after hearing these delightful people sing God's praises in their native language.

The Burundian women singers were dressed in bright colors of their native land along with the men in their very neat shirts and ties. While the colors of their clothes were certainly attractive, the most observable brightness was seen in the joy on their faces. Joy has a common language! Regardless of the language of the music, joy is understandable to all.

I commend First Southern Baptist Church of Phoenix for reaching out and embracing the Burundian people with loving acceptance. As many of folks from FSBC said of the Burundians, "They bring more joy and life to our church than we give them."

I think what we see in the Burundians and the folks from First Southern is what Jesus made so clear -- "For God so loved the world ..." They give us a kingdom picture. My prayer for our church is that we will see the kingdom picture and all that it involves. If our focus is on the kingdom of God then it will never be on ourselves.

Grace,
PB