My experience of Scripture is related to the Christian context of my country. In some churches, we are constantly being taught that we are forgiven sinners and that we therefore have a debt towards God. As a result of seeing God in this way, I understood his Word from that point of view. At that time, I felt drawn to the Bible, but it had a crippling effect as my behavior was motivated by the fear of offending the One who died for me. I walked in fear.

All started to change during a retreat for multipliers of Scripture engagement. As I was listening to the various expositions on John’s Gospel, I was struck by the real and tangible relationship that was depicted. That experience helped me realize that in reality, the Jesus of the Bible is truly alive today, as he was when he walked this earth. Since then, my prayer has been the same as Paul’s, when he says that his only goal is to know Christ (Philippians 3: 7-14).

Last April, the UGBB (Union of Biblical Groups of Burundi) held a retreat on Scripture engagement, with approximately 70 participants. The goal was to reconsider the way we study the Bible, but also to invite into a relational perspective on Scripture engagement. From the first day, we noticed that when the students studied the Bible, they were used to answering a list of questions – for many of them, a Bible study was mostly an exercise in finding the right answers. So they didn’t know what to do when they found themselves in front of a text for an hour and a half, without any questions.

However, that challenge was an opportunity to introduce them to a new perspective on Scripture engagement. After showing the participants a short video comparing meditation of the Word to eating, we invited them to meet and discover the person of Jesus Christ through his Word. To help them, we presented a biblical exposition on the same text they had found hard to understand during their personal time of reflection.

At the end of the retreat, the testimonies were moving: some students wrote letters as a response to how Jesus had met them, others repented of not trusting the Lord with their daily life, etc.

We want to continue helping students develop their relationship with the Lord through his Word. We ask the Lord to give us a good strategy to enable students to love, study, live and share his Word.

Roland CUBAHIRO, member of GBU Burundi staff
bukuja(at)gmail.com