'Dangerously Alive!' by Simon Guillebaud 

The idea that when you decide to follow Jesus you have effectively responded to a call-up for war might sound exaggerated. But that was precisely the experience of Simon Guillebaud, a man thoroughly sold-out to God, as this absorbing tome ably reveals.

Missionary life amid civil war

As a 25-year-old, in 1998, he knew for sure that God was calling him to war-torn Burundi in Central Africa.
 
It wasn’t that he knew nothing about the country, for his grandmother had been a missionary there. But he hit the ground running as an evangelist for Scripture Union, risking his life on an almost daily basis, while dodging bullets and bombs, for the nation was embroiled in a brutal civil war amid the aftershocks of the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

Simon records his hair-raising episodes in this fast paced true-life ‘thriller’, chronicling the highs and lows of an incredible adventure in a beautiful but battle-scarred land wracked by poverty, disease, corruption and seemingly endless shelling by rebel forces.
 
He was prepared to duck and dive through many skirmishes while establishing Christian work in extremely challenging conditions. He was fully prepared to go wherever God called him and his very honest and inspiring account is a huge challenge to Western Christians who often know little about spiritual warfare. In his case it was spiritual and physical warfare rolled into one.

“I have a deep peace about being safely at the heart of God’s dangerous will for my life.”

God’s dangerous will

At one point he makes this dramatic statement: “I have a deep peace about being safely at the heart of God’s dangerous will for my life.”
 
Of a spiritually bankrupt West, he writes equally poignantly of people who have “everything to live with and nothing to live for”, adding: “We invest so much of our time, energy and resources in things of no eternal consequence…”
 
As peace slowly returned to the land-locked nation of Burundi, revival broke out in many dramatic ways, and Simon offers accounts of miracles easily matching those of the first century apostles. For example, a rebel soldier left for dead made a miraculous recovery and someone prophesied over him that he would one day become President. It duly came true and he was a full-on Christian when taking on the reins.

Simon also met a woman called Mary who became blind, dumb and paralyzed at the age of 15, but who was completely healed and about to be ordained as a pastor. And there was a prostitute called Victoria, kidnapped by cannibal witchdoctors who took a bite out of her thigh and cursed her, rendering her dumb. But she, too, was healed and is now a reformed ex-prostitute.

Simon also met a woman called Mary who became blind, dumb and paralyzed at the age of 15, but who was completely healed and about to be ordained as a pastor. 

Surrendering all

All the while Islam was on the march as Islamists spread their influence with the help of petrodollars from oil-rich Arab states. For Simon, ISLAM stands for ‘I sincerely love all Muslims’, but he adds, soberly: “I can’t believe how many people are taken in by their talk of it being a religion of peace.”
 
I love Simon’s passion. He talks of how everything about Burundi and its need for Jesus really makes him come alive. I can identify with that as regards my passion for the Jewish people.
 
I commend this book to all who are serious about following Jesus in these troubled times. Though published 15 years ago, it still speaks loudly of the need for disciples willing to risk everything for their Lord.
 
Charles Gardner