Over a year ago, when we purchased our vehicle in Burundi, we had something funny happen that I had no idea would impact me to this day. There are no vehicles made in Burundi, so everything is imported. Our particular SUV came from Japan. This isn’t like American foreign cars, which are built in America to suit Americans, i.e., the dials are all in English for one thing. Ours was made in Japan, for Japanese people. So, the steering wheel was on the right side of the vehicle and everything…yes, everything was in Japanese.

There was actually a DVD/CD player in our front console, and we quickly found out that the DVD that was in the slot was stuck. We had no idea how to eject it, and when we thought we were hitting the eject button, it turned out it was broken. All the buttons were broken. So, the same 10 songs played in that vehicle, in the same order, over and over and over again. Your options were to listen to nothing (we could turn it off, thankfully) or listen to the same 10 songs with words in Kinyarwandan, so we couldn’t understand them anyway.

We chose the latter.

That DVD was full of beautiful songs, actually, and they’re Christian lyrics (not that we really knew that at the time). They became some of my favorite songs. Anyone who has ever been to Burundi will agree that there is nothing like driving through the mountains and the countryside. No matter how many times you do it, it is still breathtaking. Most vehicles don’t have A/C in Burundi so it’s usually wind blowing through the windows with wafts of campfire-like smells from people cooking or staying warm for the night and every once in a while the pungent smell of livestock. You can hear Kirundi spoken, never failing to hear “Muzungu” yelled at you as you drive past. There are people everywhere: walking, biking, pushing bikes, carrying heavy loads. Although it is considered one of the world’s most dangerous roads, it is my favorite road in the world to drive on. It just feels like home.

I would embrace this journey through the dangerous curves, I’d smile as we passed the kids holding on to the semi’s and pray as we passed a turned-over semi or bicyclists speeding down the mountain at fatal speeds. But this past year, most of all, I would sit back, relax, and listen to the words of the never-ending songs stuck in our CD player. If a Burundian were with us, I would rejoice at their singing, always in perfect harmony, it seemed, as they sang and worshipped. My favorite song was Amaraso ya Yesu. It is beautiful, but I loved the way the Burundians would worship when that song came on. This song and these moments were being cemented into my soul in a way I didn’t even know was happening.

About 2 months ago, at our church service here in Oklahoma with Unbound Church, we were having a time of communion. Toward the end of communion, our pastor went up on stage and began strumming his acoustic guitar. Within seconds, I knew the song, then he began singing, and I began crying.

“Amaraso ya Yesu ntazigera ashira imbaraga”

The tears didn’t just flow; they flooded out of me. I was right back in the middle of that lovely country I ached and missed so much. I could hear Seth singing along to the Dorcas and Vestine DVD that was stuck in our Japanese SUV. There was a huge wave of emotions: aching pain as I longed to be in that SUV with those I loved, traveling on those dangerous roads. And yet, there were emotions of peace and gratitude that somehow I was actually in the middle of Oklahoma now and I was still being blessed immensely hearing a Burundian worship to this very song after sharing a time of communion together. God is so good to hold us in the pain and give us peace. That does not happen without God.

There are so many ways this transition is painful, 99% I can’t even begin to describe to most, and I’m learning that’s okay, I just need to keep processing. Keep letting those tears flood out of me when they need to, and still laugh at the funny memories, like a stuck DVD.

Here is a link to the song if you’d like to hear some of it. And here is a loose translation of some of the lyrics.

The blood of Jesus will never fail. Even if the heart is filled with sin, the blood cleanses: shines again. Come and immerse yourself in the blood and shine again. The blood of Jesus will never fail to cleanse.

He shed the blood for sinners. He came to save the lost. He came to comfort the broken, to quench the thirst of those who are parched. There is still hope. Come.

The blood of Jesus will never fail.