I will be leading two mission trips this Summer.  The first will be to Lebanon in May, with exact dates pending.  The second will be to Burundi, June 16th to July 2nd.  We had an informational meeting for the Lebanon trip on February 15th.

Global Care Alliance has been doing projects in Mexico and Burundi for 12 years, even more if you count the years I worked in  Mexico before incorporation.  If you have followed us, you know there have been events along way that were pivotal in terms of advancing our mission of serving the cause of Christ through works of love to disadvantaged and  disenfranchised people in whatever places God leads us.

I am back in Beirut to resume my investigation of the Syrian refugee camps and the feasibility of doing a project here.  Tomorrow, a local pastor will be taking me to visit some camps in Tyre, a city in Lebanon established in 2,750 BC.

I have been in Burundi since Sunday afternoon.  My taxi picked me up at my hotel in Beirut at midnight.  I flew out of Beirut at 2:55 a.m. on a 4-hour flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  I spent four hours on layover in Addis and then flew three more hours to Bujumbura.

If you know me you also know that my journey to faith is one that has been filled with miracle after miracle.  I came to Christ not because I was living a blessed life, but instead because I was in such torment that the last person I could turn to was Jesus.  My salvation came not a moment too soon.  I was in a downward spiral at the time.  I praise God every day that He intervened in my life.

I am currently in Burundi checking on our projects in Gahararo, particularly our water project in the Batwa village of Gahararo.  Things are going well, but before I update you on Burundi, I want to continue my report on Lebanon.  There is still a great deal to say about the situation with the Syrian refugees living there.

Before I write about the people I’ve met inside and outside the refugee camps, I think it’s worthwhile to spend an installment telling you a little about modern day Beirut.  If you have not had the good fortune to visit this city, I’m sure what you are about to read will be surprising and will challenge your preconceived beliefs about what it must be like in this wonderful city.  I want you to know that I feel perfectly safe when I am inside the city. In fact, I feel just as safe in Beirut as I do in any large American city.

Dear Friends,

It’s January 11, 2019, and I am writing this from my room at the Gems Hotel in Beirut, Lebanon.  There is a crazy man on the street below hurling insults at passersby’s and I’m trying not to get distracted.  I see that he is well known in the neighborhood because many of the people on the receiving end of the insults are also good-naturedly bumping fists with him.  Arabs yell and scream at each other a lot, even when they’re friends, so maybe he's not actually insulting them after all.  Who knows!

2018 has been another banner year for Global Care Alliance.  This update will be the last of the year and will serve as a summary of all we have accomplished in 2018.  It is also the final opportunity I will have to thank those of you who have made it possible for us to provide relief to the vulnerable people we serve in Mexico and Burundi.  Finally, it is my opportunity to announce our goals and objectives for 2019.

Friends, Prayer Partners, and Supporters,
I want to take this opportunity to update you on the progress of GCA's clinic in Vicente Guerrero.  The news is all good and I am very proud of all my team has accomplished.  It is an amazing success story that you have all helped me make possible.

Dear Friends,

I visited The Cries of a Child children’s home on Monday and Tuesday. TCOAC was founded by Americans Isai and Samantha Torres 10 years ago in the community of Bukeye. Burundi. Isai is a master builder and has built a wonderful facility complete with group homes for the many orphaned children they have taken in over the years, a medical facility that falls somewhere between a clinic and a hospital, and an administrative enter. The property also boasts a small farm complete with livestock that Isai periodically butchers.

The place I most love in Burundi is our adopted Batwa village of Gahararo. It’s in a remote and faraway corner of a remote and faraway land. I get there by traveling approximately three or so hours “up country” from the capital city of Bujumbura, to Burundi’s third largest city, Ngozi. I then continue by highway approximately another hour past Ngozi, at which point I go off the main road onto an extremely rough dirt road. I then drive two hours on that dirt road until I finally reach Gahararo.

Greetings from Bugarama, Burundi!
Before I start my discussion of Burundi, let me brag a little about our clinic in Mexico. The Mexican governmental agency that approves health facilities like hospitals and clinics is called COFEPRIS. We knew going in that we would face a COFEPRIS inspection and we had been warned that we would likely be ordered to remediate or change any number of random issues.

Let me just start by saying it’s hot here.  The next time we choose a place for a GCA project it’s gotta have a cold climate.  Any chance Iceland needs a fresh water system or porridge program?  If so, we’re on it!

My Batwa friends in Burundi greeting me on my recent visit.