It might be early this year, but the 2015 Tour du Burundi is ready to kick off in style tomorrow morning as we will be leaving Bujumbura and heading south to Nyanza Lac, with 10 riders in tow!

I’m so excited to again be writing about the Tour again this year.

It’s amazing how God has been able to use this incredible cycle ride around this beautiful country as a way to challenge and to bless me. Sometimes they end up being one and the same, challenges and blessings! Certainly not how most of us would want it, but it’s the way they can come, nonetheless.

In a conversation with a friend recently, he wondered aloud, “if God had not just shown Joseph that he was going to be a great ruler over his family and so much more, but also shown him the way he would achieve that, would he have gone through with it?”

It makes me think back to the man I was when Nadine and I decided to come out to Burundi. Had God made it clear to me what we were going to go through and experience, the trials and challenges he knew we were going to face, would I still have come!?! I can honestly say that the man I once was would have struggled with that decision, but I know that by God’s grace, the man I am today is grateful for all of those trials and challenges, and the perseverance they have created within.

It’s with great fondness I look back at the first Tour in 2013, and how I was able to celebrate it as the final step of my knee rehabilitation. A new lease on life, really!

In 2014, God used that week to shape and reveal his calling in my life, something that ultimately prepared Nadine and I for this crazy decision to move to Uganda!

This is what God has done, not just for me but for dozens of men, each with their own experiences and stories. What is he going to do this time?

I don’t know. He may have a prison waiting for me, just as he did for Joseph, but I know that even through those trials, God always has blessings waiting for us.

The Tour is also special for me, as it really does signify the end of my time here in Burundi. This country has captivated my heart, and grabbed hold of me. It’s such a challenge to let it go, to say goodbye to friends, our family here, our church, and our special team at Shammah Health Center. What a way to go out though, isn’t it? A few days after the Tour ends, Nadine and I will be hitting the reset button and starting all over again in Kampala, Uganda. A new country, a new way of life, a new job, direction… you name it, and it will be new!

One ending always leads to a new beginning, I suppose.

I can’t wait to get started.

Josh.

As always, the Tour is organized by Great Lakes Outreach, an umbrella organization here in Burundi that helps to fund incredible projects that change lives. One of those projects as always, is Shammah Health Center. If you’re on the fence about contributing, or you want to get a better idea of WHY we ride around this country on bicycles to raise awareness, you’ll want to watch this video! Click HERE and enjoy!