God's most highly favored prophet to ever walk this earth has had to ask Aaron Dean if he could piggyback on UCG's application to have a church in Burundi. Burundi apparently requires that foreign religious groups have a minimum of 500 followers in order to seek to be legitimized by the government. The Great Bwana has been unable to convince 500 Sabbatarians in Burundi to join his group, so he needs UCG's help. Priceless!
Burundi passed some laws on churches a year or two ago, which the government is starting to try to enforce. The law basically states that a church needs 300 people, but it suggests that one with a foreign connection must have at least 500 persons, land, and a building (and maybe multiple ones), in order to register so it can legally operate. This is something I spoke to Aaron Dean of UCG about this some time ago, and we talked again for over an hour when he telephoned me late last Thursday (we also discussed prophetic matters).
The United Church of God (UCG) has applied for official registration in Burundi, but still has not been approved. If they get approved, then they are looking at how to meet whatever other requirements there may be. Aaron Dean told me that he would inform me when, and if, UCG gets its request for registration approved. He believes that UCG may then be able to cooperate with us in the Continuing Church of God in Burundi. So, at this instant, we are hoping that UCG’s registration will be approved and that, once approved, we may be essentially accepted under their approval or instead, perhaps, with a separate application ourselves.
Because we in Continuing Church of God currently have 300, but less than 500 congregants with national identification cards, in Burundi, we are not sure if we can (or should) apply for registration yet–though that is being considered by our leader there. Not having registration (or not applying for it) could cause legal and other issues for those who declared that they want to be part of Continuing Church of God.
So, at this stage, we either 1) need more people fairly quickly in Burundi, 2) see if we can apply for registration anyway and/or 3) see if our cooperation with UCG will, at least for now, keep our people in Burundi out of legal jeopardy.
