As the sisters of the Bujumbura church in Burundi prayed and prepared for their 2004 Women's Day, few would have guessed just how well it would go. For many months the sisters have had no trained, full-time ministry sister to lead them directly, and the sister who helps with that responsibility, who lives in neighbouring Rwanda, was not able to attend the occasion or to be present during the run-up to it. Evangelism of any manner and for any occasion in Bujumbura is not made any easier by the fact that the city is regularly a theatre of shelling and gunfire as a protracted civil war in the country stretches on.

But in keeping with the Women's Day theme of "Through Heaven's Eyes," the sisters believed that great things would happen, and indeed the 7 of them had an attendance of 151! Chantal, one of the sisters, says, "I was encouraged and amazed, because our goal was 150 and we surpassed it. I just realized that the harvest is plentiful." In the weeks leading up to Women's Day, the sisters would get up early and pray at 5:30 a.m., they would fast and worked ceaselessly to invite their friends. Diddy says excitedly, "God really answered our prayers. He wanted to show us that if we rely on him everything is possible."

Florence Ahenda came in from Kampala, Uganda to deliver the keynote speech, and sisters from Bujumbura too, spoke powerfully. "We've never had this kind of turnout for a Women's Day," says Chantal, "and the sisters were also very encouraged to have a married sister preaching at Women's Day for the first time."

The response from both the disciples and the visitors was emphatic. The sisters declared, "It was God's Day, not Women's Day, because God's hand was clearly at work." In response to a message entitled, "Circle Of Friends," Diddy shares, "Many visitors said that they do not have true friends who know who they are and what they were going through." And in a country the death toll in the population is constantly rising due to the on-going civil war, and where many have lost relatives through ethnic-based killings, people are definitely going through a lot and need friends with whom they feel secure to be vulnerable and honest. One lady said that she has been bitter towards God, feeling that he is not compassionate (not an uncommon view among Burundians in face of what the country has been experiencing for the last few years), but now would change the way she views God.

Several fallen-away disciples who attended Women's Day started studying the Bible again as a result. Says Chantal, "They were encouraged by the message and the sharing and are looking forward to being restored." Yvonne says, "Through Diddy's sharing I realized that I didn't have true friends and that I needed disciples in my life." After a talk with Florence she made up her mind, and started meeting sisters at 6 every morning to study the Bible. Within weeks of the occasion, Yvonne was restored.

While many visitors were disappointed to hear that they have to wait another twelve months for the next Women's Day, at least that gives them ample time to change and to turn their lives over to God as they learn to look "Through Heaven's Eyes." The feeling of the sisters was that many Bujumbura Women's Days have produced noble things, but this one surpassed them all.