New Album of Music for Free!

(from Eric)

It's been about a year in the making, but I finally finished a collection of Burundi-era songs.  I have shared a couple of them on the blog before, but there are a total of thirteen, now available for free download.

I hope these songs can give a few different glimpses into life here.  Today, I'll spotlight the first track, "Though the Mountains Give Way".  I wrote this song just weeks after arriving in Burundi, when we heard about the Westgate Mall terrorist attacks in Nairobi, where we had had lunch just six weeks prior.

At the time, we were living on that rural Banga hillside, where we spent three months getting an introduction to Burundian culture and Kirundi language.  I remember sitting on the veranda, looking across at the mountains on the other side of the valley.  I was reading Psalm 46.  "Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea."  The words came alive, and I trembled.  I could picture the distant mountain being uprooted, and felt the terror that accompanied the idea that the mountain where I'm sitting might be next.  "We will not fear?"

It came alive so vividly precisely because of the Westgate Mall attacks.  The revolutionary nature of faith.  The way that the reality of God so drastically changes our outlook on the world.

"I will not fear."  Mostly, I say it in order for it to be true, rather than because it already is.  But I do believe that there is good reason for it to be true, so I guess we will press always closer to the author and perfecter of such faith.

(Track #1.  Download it along with the others for free.)