'Anything, anywhere'

Simon Guillebaud is a young man with a mission in one of the most dangerous parts of Africa.

EN: Could you tell us something about your background, (so the readers find out who you are and where you are coming from), your family and how you came to Christ?

SG: My Mum brought me up as a Christian, and forced me off on a Scripture Union camp when I was 15, where I made some sort of ‘commitment’; but I was a mixed bag at boarding school, excelling at sport and so having a big ego and being quite nasty with some people as I thought I was so wonderful. I definitely did believe and have a real faith, but there was a disconnect between what I said and what I did — I was the main student helping to run the Christian meeting while at the same time leading in a different way with a little drugs ring! My year out was a defining time for me as I look back. It was such a miserable experience of loneliness; I was teaching in the bush in South Africa, living by myself, with no transport. Yet, in that loneliness God made himself real, and theory became practice through being forced to truly depend on him. Then came Loughborough University, lots of fun and sports, some whacky short-term stints overseas, in which my faith was stretched, and finally a respectable job as a Business Development Executive in Woking.

Amazing call

EN: God called you in a quite startling fashion to work in Burundi. What happened?

SG: I left the job in Woking to do a one-year Bible course in London. During that time I was crying out to God: ‘God, I trust you. I’ll do anything, I’ll go anywhere. Just make it clear.’

Slowly as the course came to an end, the others were all getting their jobs — their ‘security’ — lined up for the coming year. But security to me was a mixed blessing. If I had that kind of ‘security’, then I wouldn’t need to trust in God. I wanted to trust him alone for everything. On the second last day, I was still waiting. ‘Lord, please! I’m 24, single, available, no strings, willing to go anywhere and do anything. I beg you, reveal your purposes for my life!’ Someone gave me a piece of paper with a name and telephone number scribbled on it. A man had been trying to track me down. So I rang him, and we arranged to see each other the next day. It was now the end of my course.

We met in central London and, after introducing himself, he said, ‘Simon, as I’ve been praying, the Lord has laid your name on my heart. How would you feel about working in Burundi?’ As he said that, my heart started pumping faster. I’d never seen or heard of this guy. He carried on talking, explaining how there were great needs among the youth in Burundi, and how the church was asking for trained personnel. Inwardly my mind was working overtime. I told him at the end of our meeting that I’d ‘be spiritual and pray about it’(!), and then get back to him in due course.

The following Monday, I was back in the Marketing Department of my firm (they’d kept the door open for me to return). I’d prayed that audacious prayer of surrender and trust, and had asked for a sign about Burundi. I was fasting and expecting an answer. But how could the Lord possibly answer? Maybe the demand for a sign about an obscure country in the heart of Africa was a little unreasonable, all the more so as the marketing job had nothing to do with it... ‘God, come on, if you want me to go to Burundi, then give me a sign right now in front of the computer…’ I waited, but not for long. I took a phone call, and the man on the other end of the line asked me a question out of the blue which took my breath away: ‘Do you know anyone who wants to work in Burundi?’
I was off…

EN: Tell us about how your work in Africa developed and some of the situations you have faced.

SG: Well, I went out there with a few hundred quid and big dreams, and it was a rollercoaster ride. I ended up working with Scripture Union. Burundi was right at the bottom of the pile in 1998, in the midst of a 13-year civil war. It was dangerous, the economy was trashed, people were filled with fear, despair, ethnic hatred and unforgiveness. The first weekend I arrived in Burundi, I was invited upcountry with the Scripture Union team. It was a disastrous trip with four breakdowns, so we missed most of the meetings. I returned angry and discouraged that many people had missed out on hearing the gospel simply because we didn’t have a vehicle which worked properly. SU was in debt, but had so much potential to be used for God’s glory. So I sent out an email asking for prayer for two things: i) to get SU out of debt, and ii) to buy a truck for evangelism around the country. In response to that email, I envisaged $25,000 coming in over the following month. What happened? A cheque for $8,000 arrived, given specifically for a vehicle, and over the coming month $25,000 came in. As C.S. Lewis says: ‘God gives where He finds empty hands.’ We were empty-handed, and we knew it — the perfect situation in which to see God intervene.

Since then, there’ve been many amazing times. It hasn’t been easy, with death-threats, slander, division, corruption, people I care about getting killed, and a whole lot more. But God has honoured us in our willingness to lay our lives down for him. The fruit has been massive. The testimonies are endless. You’ll have to read the book to hear more of them!

Christian risk-takers

EN: In your book you encourage Christians not to be ruled by fear and to take risks for God. What have been the keys to being able to do that in your own life?

SG: ClichŽd as it sounds, even though we don’t know what the future holds, we do know God holds the future. He’s the safest gamble, because he’s not a reckless gambler. He’s supremely in control. As Jesus removed our eternal risk, he calls us to daily continual risk. I can take risks because he’s ultimately secure. Following him may not be a safe journey, but he’s the Sovereign God, and can be trusted. During one particularly tense period, my colleague looked across at me as I drove around a hairpin bend ripe for an ambush and exclaimed, ‘Simon, isn’t it liberating? We are immortal until God calls us home!’ We laughed in exhilaration. His words were so real. No rebel could touch us, unless the Sovereign Lord allowed it to happen; and if he allowed it to happen, then it meant he’d decided our time was up, and he wanted us back home with him. I wonder if your readers will agree with that... If he’s got the whole wide world in his hands, then that includes me — and his are the safest pair of hands in the world.

Challenge to the churches

EN: What challenge would you give to the evangelical churches in Britain and the West?

SG: I ask myself how I would live if I were still in the UK. It’s actually a lot easier to live out your faith radically and passionately in a war zone. So how can you lot do it back here? The early church is instructive on this issue in a number of ways. Acts 4.32 tells us: ‘All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.’ What followed? Verses 33-34 show us, ‘With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them...’

The believers were so liberal with their possessions because they knew that their citizenship was in heaven, that Jesus was coming again in judgement, and that it was more important to store up lasting treasures in heaven than selfishly hoard on earth what would in any case ultimately rot and decay. Notice the correlation between giving and grace: was it because the believers were so liberal with their possessions that God was so liberal with his grace? I long to see people living as communities, pooling resources, getting messy, taking risks, redefining failure as stepping stones to God’s greater purposes. As my book asks: how far is too far when Jesus went so far? Do we really believe it? Well, if we do, let’s get to it!

EN: How can we be praying for you for the future?

SG: I don’t want to settle for anything less than the best. We have been so ‘blessed’ on so many levels, and our work is constantly expanding. The temptation could be to sit back and coast along, but there’s too much at stake. Plenty of time to rest later! I want to remain humble and passionate and discerning of what direction we should be going in, so prayers along those lines would be good. The needs are everywhere and are totally overwhelming, so we just need to know what God wants us to do. As a family, I covet people’s prayers for our protection, our health, marital harmony, and for Lizzie to find her own niche in Burundi beyond being Zac’s Mum and Simoni’s Madame. I’d love the book to take off because I believe if people truly buy into the message, it could have an extraordinary impact. Let’s do it!

Simon’s book, For what it’s worth: a call to no holds barred discipleship, is published by Monarch (see review, also in this issue).

Interview with Simon Guillebaud