Jacque Daniel is truly a soldier for Christ. Having been a rebel fighter in the civil war in Burundi, he broke from armed conflict and sought a higher calling.

JD moved from the town of Gitega to the capital city, Bujumbura, after a month of fasting and praying for the work of the kingdom to grow and be respected. “My prayer,” JD says, “was to find true Christians. I saw many denominations around me but none seemed to define Christianity.”

In Bujumbura JD was introduced to Benson Kyama, the leader of the Bujumbura church, by a friend who knew Benson. Within five days JD studied the bible, made a decision to make Jesus Lord of his life, and start fighting the good fight.

JD was in the bush for 10 years, a fighter in the civil war. The war principally pitted members of the majority Hutu tribe (who make up 85% of the population), as rebels, against the government, composed principally of members of the minority Tutsi tribe. JD is a Hutu.

JD ended up being a rebel when while he was a freshman at the University of Burundi war broke out. Together with other Hutu students, JD had to flee for his life. “My motivation in going to the bush was to fight for justice, truth, peace and freedom,” he says. Trained in a military and combat college in Congo, and having fought there for many years, he rose to the rank of Commander.

”Life in the bush was unpredictable,” JD recalls. “Sometimes for food we would attack government officials to steal their cows and food, and other times we were forced to hunt animals and eat wild fruits.”

Like his colleagues, JD, who carries a scar on his back from a bullet wound from an incident in Congo when he was left for dead and his colleagues came for him knowing that they were picking up his corpse for burial, felt like he needed to fight for his ethnic group even if it meant killing others. In time, though, he saw soldiers kill civilians, which disillusioned him. After a peace deal was signed between the government and the rebels. JD finally took the decision to leave the rebel group even though high-profile soldiers like himself were promised prominent positions in the new government as reward for their role in the war. (Elections would almost certainly bring the rebels to power by virtue of the numerical majority of Hutus in the country, and indeed that turned out to be the case)

But JD’s mind was made up. He decided to preach repentance in the camps and also after resigning from the rebel group.

Commenting about war, JD, who has led several of his friends to Christ, says, “I think it’s a tool Satan uses to kill many innocent people and leave some with many problems so that they lose hope in God. I pray for people to repent,” he continues. His dream and resolve is to help Burundians to find justice, truth, peace and freedom in God. “I have seen that many people are tired of war, tribalism and selfishness and they need a message of love and unity.” JD, whose heart’s desire is also to help orphans, of whom there are many in Burundi as a result of the war, says, “There is a great need to get people ready even to the point of losing their lives so that we help as many as possible.”