November 15, 2009 – Sunday from Rwanda

Note: I might suggest for those new to this blog that you might want to start reading about my Rwanda II trip from the very first post below. I often refer to previous posts when writing later posts. You will also note I am a few days behind, but hope to be caught up in the next day or two.
-----------------------------
Today we had our first chance to meet with the people of the Giharo parish, first visited by Bishop John in 2002 and again in 2006 (I was also on that team). As I noted in a previous post, they had significantly expanded the facilities since we last visited, a good measure due to the donations of the good people of Prince of Peace in Viera. Gihora is one of two sister parishes we have in Rwanda, the other being Gikongoro which we visited last week. As usually, we started the day with tea and coffee at the Pastor’s home before moving over for the Sunday service (OK, we all stopped at the ”duplex outhouse” before moving on). A few side notes of interest:

• As good hosts, they always had us serve ourselves first as the food and drinks were always served buffet style. However, our portions were minor compared to what they usually piled onto their plates. I mean really piled, as they would come back to the chairs or table (we usually ate with the plates on our lap) with virtual mountains of food on their plate. We assumed they simply did not have the chance to eat like this, since they served us nice meals each time including a good bit of vegetables, potatoes and usually some kind of meat and/or fish. When I asked, someone told me they ate three meals a day, but I doubt they were full meals and seriously doubt if they were the same quality and quantity.

• They always made sure we had bottles of water, yet I very rarely saw our hosts drink much and don’t think I witnessed another person in the congregation (or most other areas) drinking anything. It is quite clear they drink materially less than we (i.e. Americans) do. The kids always wanted our water bottles, with or without water. I assume this gave them the opportunity to fill up the bottle and drink later. They got their water either from the town water pump (primarily) or streams. You did have to be careful about handing out the bottle in a crowd of kids since several would grab for it and there would be a good bit of pushing.

• Likely as a result of the bullet above, I rarely saw the Rwandan’s go off to the bathroom. Certianly nothing like us Americans and nothing like a couple on our team (whose names I will keep confidential, but they know who they are!).

The last time John Miller was here he was a pastor, but now a Bishop and it was a big deal to the folks at Gihora. Not only was there a Bishop visiting from the US visiting, but it was John Miller, a crowd favorite.

As always for a larger service, a big crowd met us as we drove in. The roads from the Diocese guest house/hotel to Gihora are primarily paved with only the last bit a dirt road through the fields. A large crowd met us as we turned in from the road. The shot below is of them following us, the kids running, as we drove to the church:

The road you see in the picture above is comparatively nice in relation to some of the other roads we have traveled. As is often the case, even before we could get into the Pastor’s home, we found ourselves surrounded by children and believe me, there are a LOTTA children!

Not to be repetitive, but the people are generally excited to see us, even those not wearing purple robes (i.e. the Bishop). Below is a picture of some of the women looking out from the church as I was talking with some kids outside the church:

In the schools of Rwanda they teach Kinyarwandan as well as either English and French (the school’s choice). This dates back to the colonial times with many former refugees learning English (in places like Uganda) while the Belgiums pushed French in Rwanda. Starting this year, however, all the schools will teach both Kinyarwandan and English (only). Some also learn Swahili as that is the language spoken in several countries right around Rwanda.

Wherever we went, I’d (and others) strike up a conversation in English with one of the kids. Sometimes it was difficult to communicate (their English was not that good) and sometimes they turned it quickly into asking for something (money, sponsorship, etc.), but often it would simply be a nice conversation as they practiced their English. And you cannot fault them for asking for help. Remember, secondary school here costs money which there is not a lot of and many of the kids know how important education is.

When we walked into the church, we were greeted with singing and dancing, along with “music”. I don’t think I have mentioned this yet, but the Rwandans seem to love the keyboard and electric guitar. You might wonder how they power these, as most of the churches we went to had no power. Well, the answer is in the picture below:

If you look at the left of the picture, you will see – yes – a car battery, the preferred power source of 4 out of 5 church musicians in Rwanda! In at least one case, however, they used a gas powered generator, the quiet hum flowing thru the service. But to be honest, and I think the whole team agrees, the instruments clearly took away from the singing and drums. The sound systems were just horrible, there was continuous loud feedback and in some cases indiscernible types of strange noises coming out of the speakers. But it never seemed to bother anyone, eventually I just assumed they thought it was supposed to sound like that. No doubt they were proud of their little bands and I am quite sure they rolled out the red carpet of music for us. I doubt whether they had this for every service.

Eventually the service started as Bishop John entered the church:

You can see below that the church was crowded and we started the service with singing and dancing (with the “band”). Below as well you will see a picture of one person dressed up and dancing. As I noted, they often try to tell a story and preach the Bible through song and dance. The picture is a little blurry, but he as moving rather quick and I’m still learning how to use this camera. Frankly, I never take pictures, got this camera from Amazon.com the day before the trip and have learned by simply pushing buttons to see what they did (I did bring the manual, but who reads those things!).

The story they are telling in song and dance is of Gideon defeating the Midianites in Judges 7 (I have to admit, Bishop John told me that). I am not sure how long the service lasted, but my guess is about three hours, maybe a little longer (one day I will buy a watch). During that time:

• There was a baptism of a young man (I think he is wearing a pink shirt, but I am colorblind) who had come to Jesus by way of the soccer team

• An exchange of gifts, first by PoP to Gihora:

• The introduction of the team by Bishop John (here are Sherry and Hank):

• The presentation of gifts to the team (picture of Carl below):

• And finally, but most importantly, the sermon by his “Lordship” Bishop John Miller. I mentioned the “Lordship” term in an earlier post. We all got a bit of a kick when Pastor Agnes (who joined us at the service, although the parish priest is Pastor Jean Marie) continually referred to John as his Lordship Bishop John Miller. Apparently this is a common way to refer to Bishops in Rwanda (that is what John tells us!), but we had fun with it for the rest of the trip. Below are some pictures of John giving the sermon (that is Pastor Agnes providing the translation):

This last picture is of John doing his own little dance and since all I can think to say as I type this is a bunch of wise cracks, I will pass on comment! But as was often done by both John and Don, they included people from the congregation in their sermons which surely provided some excitement. The focus, of course, was accepting Christ as our savior. No matter how much we may try, how successful we might be here earth, no matter how much faith we think we have, it is only with and through Jesus that we can be saved and achieve everlasting life with our Father in heaven.

After the service, we all gathered together at the Pastor’s home with his staff for lunch and fellowship (I mean, after we all went to the bathroom again!). Now remember, they cook these meals on fires in just outside the house having just likely killed whatever we were eating (usually some kind of meat or chicken). The first time I visited Gihora three years ago, the hide of the goat we had just eaten was draped over a bush to dry out. Frankly, that was the first time I had ever seen my meal after I had eaten it! For this trip, I did see them cooking the chickens that morning – with the feet still on. I also happened to notice that the chickens running around earlier in the day were gone.

After the meal, we had a short meeting with the Gihora team to go over their needs as part of their five year plan. While they named a number of things, including funds for churches, Bishop John did commit to provide a computer (for church administration – they will have electricity by early next year) and a motorcycle (for the Pastor to visit the daughter churches more often).

For our last activity of the day, we visited one of those daughter churches, which was actually a very small plot that they had recently bought. They were very proud of this plot of land, not for what it was, but for what it could be. It is clear they don’t think in today’s terms, but tomorrow’s opportunities. The plot was very small and irregular. I don’t think it was bigger than a few thousand square feet, but it was next to a home they planned on purchasing soon (hopefully with our help) and some land next to that. Below is a picture of the house:

Of course, we may all look at that picture and be shocked at the poverty. But as John and Don have said many times during this trip, and I believe I have mentioned before, the “church” is not the building, but the people. I imagine we are all quite comfortable in our own situations. We like our church, we like our little spot where we always sit, we like the service (it is what we are used to) – in other words, we are all very comfortable. That’s a problem………..

I am a little tired right now and so I will not leave you with some esoteric words of Moody wisdom. But I can tell you that I am often embarrassed by how fortunate I have been in life. After a trip like this, I am even more so……….

In Christ’s name,

Scott

November 14, 2009 – Trip to Ruheneka Church and Sonrise School (former Orphanage)

Today, Saturday, was probably the most amazing day of our trip.  I have mentioned before that we tend to be somewhat of an attraction, white folks from the United States.  Wherever we stop, kids come running from all over and after a while the adults will come to see what is going on as well.  Just driving down the streets people wave when they see a bunch of Umuzungu (as the kids sometimes yell which is Kinyarwandan for white people) riding in a van.  Of course, we practically act as if we are on parade with everyone by the windows stretching out their and waving.

Before talking about our trip to the Ruheneka daughter church, let me mention two things that remind me of my last trip to Rwanda.  First, although we are in a nicer hotel (rooms are simple by US standards, but nice) there was no hot water this morning.  Now, that is not so bad, I got used to cold showers last time, but that was three years ago so it came as a bit of the shock to the system this morning.  I am not sure how clean I got, but I do think I set some kind of world record for least time spent actually under the water.  The second thing that reminds me of my last trip is our van.  Once again we found ourselves in a van that usually had trouble starting and somehow fit up to 19 people (not including babies and backpacks) in a van that was built for 11.  But both these are truly just part of the adventure.  In the US, we’d be complaining like crazy.  Here, you make do and appreciate what we do have.

Our plan for the day was to visit Prince of Peace’s other sister church, Giharo Parish, just outside of Ruhengeri.  Upon coming down to the lobby, I found Pastor Gaspard, the former pastor of Giharo Parish waiting to say hello.  As Pastor Gaspard does not speak any english (and I still don’t know kinyarwandan) it was fortunate that one of our two interpreters for the week, Fidel, was also in the lobby.  After talking for a while in the lobby, we had breakfast together and it was good to catch up (although I am sure he was disappointed that Bishop John Miller was not with our team at that point).  Gaspard started a football/soccer team when he was at Giharo.   As the games brought in many people, he would use the games to draw a crowd and then preach the gospel after the game.  We gave him one of the soccer balls we had brought for Giharo and promised to send over more soon.

After breakfast, we were off to the Giharo Parish where we met for a short time in Pastor Jean Marie Vianney’s (he replaced Pastor Gaspard) home.  They’ve come a long way since I last visited and even further since the first team from Prince of Peace (PoP) visited in 2002, thanks primarily to the donations of the PoP parishioners.  It is good to see the donations being put to real and tangible results, not only in terms of the physical building, but the ministry as well.   When the first team visited in 2002 the church was basically a tin roof with a half mud wall.  That is to say, the outer walls of the church only came up to about chest level and were made up of large mud “bricks”.  The pastor’s home was actually a tent.  By 2006 when I first came with another PoP team, the church was fully built out using stones (the area is covered in volcanic stone) and the pastor had a real home (primarily of high quality mud).

This year, they added two new structures one being a potato barn and the other being a four classroom pre-school (shown below, I’ll leave it for you to pick out which is which!). 

The other big improvement I saw was a nicer outhouse.  Last time it was simply a thatch hut with a hole in the ground.  Now, it was a duplex bathroom made out of a high quality mud with two holes in the ground.  With no electricity, it must be tricky to go in the middle of the night!

After a visit with the Pastor for tea and coffee, he and several others joined us in the van as we headed out to one of his daughter churches.   Each Parish has a main church and a number of daughter churches that, I assume, will one day rise to the level of a full church.  What I find interesting about the Giharo parish is that the daughter churches are always located deep in the countryside.  While visiting these churches three years ago and this new one today, we passed several other churches including Catholic, Evangelical and Seventh Day Adventist  It was clear that Giharo was working hard to reach out the people where they lived.  Pastor Jean Marie visits his daughter churches at least once every two months, the furthest away taking about 2 ½ hours to reach – walking. 

This was by far, at least for me, the most exciting and fulfilling part of the trip so far.  I have posted some pictures of this day already, but the service was held on a plot of ground where they planned to build a church in the future.  But as Bishop John and Father Don said so many times during this trip, the “church” is not the building, but the people.  And the people came.  Below are two pictures, the first being when we were first getting out of the van and starting to head up the path (about 200 yards) to the church lot.  The second is of some members of the team with some of the clergy from Giharo and elders as we first reached the property.

However, this next series of pictures are far more important.  It shows how the crowd grew over time.  Most of the members of the Ruheneka congregation (maybe around 10 that were there) and members of the Giharo church that came to support them (i.e. choirs) sat toward the front on the what you see is the lower level.  Further back in the crowd (usually woman and children) and up on the hill (usually boys and men) were all the onlookers, those that had come simply to see what was going on.  Again, I will just show below a series of pictures as the crowd grew:

There were others too.  On the road just below us and in the fields around us folks would stop and listen.  Below are just two examples of the additional onlookers:

Frankly, and this service was the epitome of the PoP Mission Statement: “seeking the lost, discipling the believer, and shepherding the flock.”   Clearly we were shepherding the flock, but I thought more importantly, we were reaching out to the lost.  Now, I am not sure how many people we reached that day, how many might come back because of what they saw or heard, but I am very confident it was at least one.  I’ve said this before, but if you go back in Rwanda’s history fifteen years ago, they experienced what had to be a hell on earth as close to hell as man can create himself.  And if we can reach just one of those people, to help bring them to Christ, then we have done our job (although I surely hope it is a lot more than one – and I believe it was).  That service was not about us.  To a large extent, it wasn’t about the parishioners that were there.  It was about the people on those hills, in those fields and on that road.  And as Christians, let’s not forget, whether it is on a dirt field in Rwanda, or our pews back in the States, it’s not just about us.  Sure we need to hear and learn from the Gospel.  But what we like, what makes us feel comfortable, how we think a service should be run is simply not very important.  If we could have stood on our heads that day and attracted one more person, then the embarrassment and headache would have been worth it.

 Sure, maybe we were simply the entertainment. 

But I can tell you this.  Those guys on the hill, they stayed.  They listened.  And they even participated in a few songs, if only by clapping along.  And when I yelled Alleluia, they yelled back Amen – or at least they did by the third time I yelled it (in succession) and was pointing at them!  And so I am quite confident that some will be back and when they come back, maybe some of their friends will come as well.

As always, the service had plenty of singing, but their songs also tell as story.  Remember, most of the people are illiterate, so song is a way to tell a story – although they do it in such a beautiful way.  They also dance quite a bit and until now, I thought it was just dancing.  But the dancing also tells a story, even when they are simply jumping up and down which I found out often means stamping down the devil!  And those guys on the hill, they listened and watched.

With Bishop John still out of town, Father Don gave the sermon and he did a wonderful job.   What he does well is to involve the crowd, in fact, he has done this in each sermon he has given.  I wouldn’t repeat his sermon, but his point was that it is by the way of Jesus, with his help, that we can reach out to God and heaven.  He did this by showing no matter how far or high someone can jump, they are limited in what they can achieve on their own.  Below is a picture as Don jumped with a little girl before standing back some twenty feet and asking her to jump to him.

This post frankly does not do this service credit, it was great – dare I say God filled.  It was one of the most exciting services, most exciting days, I have had in my life.  It was simply – cool.  To watch those crowds grow, to watch them listen. Wow.

I am not sure how long we were there, but my guess is 3 or 4 hours.  Or course, the rest of the day – while nice – pared in comparison.  We went back to the Pastor’s house for a meal and then off to the Sonrise School.

Sonrise was originally founded by Bishop John Rucyahana who while in exile in Uganda had started the Mustard Seed project for orphans there.  Upon returning to Rwanda, he started a similar Mustard Seed project by way of the Sonrise Orphanage.  Originally a primary school for orphans, it now includes a secondary school and is open to all students.  Below is a link to the school if interested in learning more. 

http://www.mustardseedproject.org/section.asp?secID=7

Unfortunately, all the kids were gone for a vacation and the school was empty.  A number of PoP parishioners sponsor children at the school, so we were able to check up on some of the students by asking the headmaster that toured us around.   Below are two pictures from the school.  The first is actually from the last time I was here.  It was laundry day and the kids were out washing their clothes in tubs by hand and hanging them out to dry.  The second picture is the new classrooms they built for the secondary school (6^th thru 12^th).  It is not quite finished yet, but you can see is quite nice and will certainly help raise the standard of living here in Rwanda through education (which is really the only way, along with jobs).

Well, that is about it for now.  As I read back on this, there is a ton of information I am missing, but frankly I am too tired to keep on writing.  I hope that in the next few weeks after reading through all my posts again that I will be able to fill in a number of areas I missed or that other team members think of.  I do hope you are enjoying the posts and pictures in the meantime. 

Before closing, I plan to post some more pictures tomorrow morning.  Again they are from later in the week and I will write about them soon.  But I just thought you’d like to see some of what we are seeing on a daily basis.

Yours in Christ,

Scott

Rwanda Updated Picture Post

As promised in last night’s blog post, I updated the Rwanda II picture set this morning. I added 27 new pictures which should be at the end of the Rwanda II set. Again, you can reach it by clicking on “View My Galleries” to the right.

As long as I am up early this morning (we are seven hours ahead of EST), I thought I’d mention a few other things while I am at it. Some of you know, I am a NASCAR fan and am looking forward to driving down to Homestead this weekend for the last race of the year with my daughter Kourtney and my niece Sarah. We usually go to all three races down there, but due to this trip, we can only make Sunday. However, it appears that NASCAR is big here too as I found a Dale Jr. fan. Given how he has been racing, even under a team like Hendrick, this might be his last fan:

Of course, she is not a Jr. fan but simply is wearing a jacket with his old No. 8 on it that she likely either received or bought used. When you go to the markets here, many of the clothes being sold are used and many have US brands. That does not mean they came from the US directly, since it is amazing how popular US brands are around the world. I often travel around the world and am continually bombarded with US brands on shirts, jackets and basically anything else you can advertise on. College logo’s seem to be the most popular.

Before heading off for the days activities (visiting churches and attending a soccer/football game) I thought I’d also share another story from Friday the 13th. That night just before dinner, I was down in the business center. They have free wireless here and much better bandwidth which is why I am able to post a few more pictures than the first week. As I was working, I couldn’t help but overhear a girl talking (English) on her cell phone. Her voice sounded distressed and when I took a quick look, it looked as though she had been crying. After the call, she sat at one of the PC terminals and after a while I got up and introduced myself. Her name was Clair, she was 27 and from Atlanta. She had been in Africa since the beginning of October, starting out in the southern Sudan, then Nairobi (Kenya) and was now going to spend some time in Rwanda. Most of her time had been spent with a group called Children in Christ. Her first time in Africa, I found it amazing that she had the courage to travel alone including such places as the Sudan, which continues to be in the midst of a civil war (no less their own genocide). She said she did hear guns at night, but was told that, “it is some drunk men down by the river.” Sure!

Claire was upset that night as she had just drove in from Kigali (the airport) and had seen a woman killed on the side of the road, hit by a car (which did not stop). Remember how I’ve said how dangerous it was on the roads, well, this just goes to confirm it. I am actually surprised I have not seen this personally and more often. They drove by the woman just after she was hit and a crowd had gathered around her. She was dead and they were just turning her over. It was a rather gruesome site according to Clair and it upset her, as it would anyone. I found out she was speaking to her mother earlier as she just needed someone to talk to. I invited her to dinner with our team that night and she had wonderful fellowship with several of our members, particularly Sarah and Dixie. She was very thankful for having the opportunity to share with others that night. She left the next day back for Kigali (she was going to teach English) and planned to return to Ruhengeri in a few weeks to teach English at the Sonrise (founded by Bishop John Rucyahana) school here.

Well, off for another exciting day here in Rwanda.
God Bless……….Scott

November 13, 2009 – Travel from Gikongoro to Ruhengeri

First, I did post some new pictures last night (15^th).  Picasso (Google) does not let you sort the pictures by reverse date, so the newer pictures under Rwanda II are at the end.  Just click on “View My Gallery” to the right and you can see the pictures from my last visit (Rwanda I) and this visit (Rwanda II).  I do apologize for not keeping this blog current (now three days behind), but we are staying very busy.  I have probably a thousand pictures now (plus some taken by the others), so will keep those coming even before I post my own thoughts for that day.  To that end, I will post some new pictures tomorrow morning (17^th).  They will focus the on the homes and living conditions as well as some of the people.  Frankly, the huts and people that you see in the pictures represent most of the folks living here.

Second, you know how they say you can’t believe everything you read on the web?  Well, it’s true, since I got a few things wrong.  It’s actually the night of the 16^th as I finish writing this and I did a little research about some of the towns and history of Rwanda.  My errors aren’t that big (that I know about!), but I thought I’d start out by correcting a geographic error.  I actually thought that during the first week we were staying in Kigeme, but it turns out that Kigeme is the name of the Diocese (led by Bishop Augustine Mvunabandi).  Here is a picture of Bishop John Miller (his “Lordship”, but that’s a later story) and Bishop Augustine earlier in the trip.

Gikongoro is the proper name of the Parish we were staying at (and is one of two sister churches of Prince of Peace in Viera, Florida).  It is also the name of the town in the Southern province (although one web site had it in the Western province).  From what I have heard and read, Gikongoro was one of the provinces most impacted by the Genocide (it was one of 12 provinces back then versus five now).  Mayors and leaders who were resistant to the slaughter at first were either killed themselves or simply faded away.  Although Murambi (see the November 9 post) was probably the largest of the sites where the government had promised protection, this apparently happened in a number of areas in the Gikongoro province in 1994.

Now, turning to last Friday the 13^th…………..

Today we traveled to our second stop of the trip, Ruhengeri (Northern province).   Each province is split into districts and Ruhengeri is part of the Musanze district.  I mention that since some people call it Ruhengeri and some call it Musanze, its pre-colonial name.  Like Gikongoro, the Genocide was rather severe here.  In fact, fighting continued here well after the Genocide ended as many of the former Hutu fighters fled to the Congo just to the west.  The last of the more significant incursions occured in 1997 when the former Hutu militias attacked from the Congo and once again slaughtered people before being repelled.  You often still read about the violence and killings in western Congo, which borders the Northern district and is not far from here.  However, the more recent fighting never finds its way  to the Rwandan side of the border.  The name of the Diocese here is Shrya, led by the Bishop John Rucyahana.  Here is a picture of the Bishop with one of my fellow missionaries, Sherry Nelson.

Bishop John Rucyahana is a relatively well known man not only in Rwanda, but in the United States and the rest of the world.  John became a refugee in Uganda in 1959 when the first fighting broke out between the Hutu and Tutsi, a somewhat artificial ethnic divide that was propagated by their colonial rulers.  The first colonial rulers were the Germans, but after WW II they turned it over to the Belgiums who formalized the ethnic divide.  While there were Bahutus (farming background) and Batutsis (ranching background) before and the King was from a Tutsi clan, there was not much of an ethnic flavor to the country.  Tutsi were generally considered the wealthier “class” and a Hutu that gained wealth would be considered a Tutsi.   Given it is impossible to tell the difference between the two ethnic groups, in 1935 the Belgiums decided that a Tutsi would be anyone that owned 10 or more cows!  It’s hard to summarize the entire Rwandan history in just a paragraph, but I’m not joking about the 10 cow determination.  The Belgiums supported the Tutsi in terms of ruling the country, until the Tutsi king and ruling class started pushing for independence.  The Belgiums then quickly formed the Parmehutu party and lent their support to Hutu’s (i.e. against the Tutsi).  The first fighting (civil war) broke out in 1959 and that is when many Tutsi’s left the country, as well as many more moderate Hutu’s.  The country declared its independence a few years later and essentially became a one party dictatorship (as did many African countries after colonial rule).  I will cut this off here, and add more later, but one tends to meet a lot of people in Rwanda that came back from Uganda, Congo and Tanzania after the Genocide having left (or their parents having left) in 1959.  I just thought I’d quickly explain the significance of that year.

Back to our trip from Gikongoro to Ruhengeri……….

What probably should have been a 2-3 hour trip as the bird flies ended up taking six hours since there are no good roads between the two towns.  We had to head back to the Kigali in central Rwanda where we were to meet with the team from Shrya.   As always seems to be the custom, Pastor Assiel and his wife personally escorted us to Kigali, while Pastor Agnes of Shrya personally came to meet us and escort us back to Ruhengeri.  The only challenge when Pastor Agnes arrived is that they only had two smaller sized SUV type vehicles for 12 of us – and what had to be a ton of luggage.  After considerable discussion and trying to squeeze in all the luggage, Pastor Assiel volunteered one of his vehicles to drive to Ruhengeri.  Luckily it didn’t rain on the way, since much of our baggage was strapped to the roof.

I mentioned earlier the road to Gikongoro is relatively nice, not so for the road to Ruhengeri (although we are told it will be all new in a year).  The roads were often filled with potholes (more like craters).  Moreover, the road was lined with people as there are no sidewalks or shoulders.  As has been our experience, the fact that people were walking in the road never seemed to slow our driver down.  Between the people, potholes and (rare) oncoming traffic (they seem to like to play chicken!), it was actually more like a scary amusement park ride.  Still we made it.

If the place we stayed in Gikongoro was nice, the place in Ruhengeri is like the Taj Mahal.  Wow.   Bishop John R (Rucyahana) told Bishop John M (Miller) that he had built a hotel for the tourists, but little did we know that it was their new Diocese guest house as well.  I don’t happen to have a picture for this post, but the hotel is called the Ishema Hotel and the link is:  http://www.ishemahotel.com.

They built it as a more western style hotel that tourists who come to see the mountain gorillas can stay.  One of the gorilla’s main habitats is only 30-60 minutes from here (depending on where they are that day) in the Volcanoes National Park.  As is the rest of Rwanda, the hills here are absolutely beautiful.  The gorillas can often be found in the mountains shown below, which are really two dormant volcanoes (there are five locally).  This is rainy season here and most of the time the volcanoes are not in full view due to cloud cover, but I was lucky enough to get a few shots.

Both this time and last time I was here it was rainy season.  However, when it rains it usually lasts for about 30 minutes in the afternoon or evening and the temperature drops a good 10 – 20 degrees as the clouds move in.  Although very close to the equator, Rwanda is in the mountains and thus the temperature is very moderate, my guess is in the 70’s.

After unpacking, we had the opportunity to join with Pastor Agnes for a welcome tea and she relayed what I thought was an amazing story and what Jesus, by way of the church here, has done to help with the Genocide Reconciliation.  She told the story of a woman whose entire family was killed by someone who was then her neighbor.  Her husband and children were all massacred with machetes (can you think of a more terrible way to die).   When the Genocide first broke out, the Interahamwe generally spared the women (although often raped) and sometimes the children, although that changed as the weeks went along (reportedly by orders of the central government).

Over the years, they have brought many of these killers to justice (i.e. jail, they do not have capital punishment) by way of local court systems in which many of the villagers participate.  As it turns out, the woman whose family was killed turned in her neighbor (although she was no longer his neighbor), he was found guilty (they usually require other witnesses, but that is not hard to do) and he was sent away to jail.

She lived all these years with a terrible loss and hatred for her former neighbors.  But one day, she felt called by Christ to wipe away the hate and she went over to the other woman’s home (the wife of the murderer).  However, the wife saw her coming and ran away, afraid she would kill her for what her husband did to her family.  The wife’s neighbors came over and asked why the woman was there.  She explained that the hatred she had inside her for the wife was eating away at her, that it was creating a dark hole in her heart and she had come to ask for forgiveness for hating her so much.  As a new Christian, she could no longer live with this hate any longer.  The wife came back to her house and amongst a great many tears, the wife begged for the woman’s forgiveness as well.  Amazingly, not only did they forgive one another, but they both visited the husband (murderer) in prison and he asked for forgiveness as well.

I hear these kinds of stories all the time here in Rwanda.  The Genocide touched everyone here, when you think that some 800,000 out of a population of 7 million were killed over 100 days.  However, the reality is that the death toll was probably much higher than 800,000 and many now agree that it was over a million – in 100 days – most hacked or bludgeoned to death.  Even today, they are finding new mass graves (from a few to a few hundred) as men continue to come forward and confess – and then lead the authorities to new grave sites.

Do you think you could forgive someone like the wife did?   My guess is that most of us would say no.  But let’s take it a step back.  We all have someone that we may hate, or if that is too strong a word, hold a grudge against, some ill will.  Are there family members that you just can’t seem to forgive for some offence, big or small?  Some time ago, Gray Echols, the minister at Prince of Peace (replaced Bishop John M), gave a sermon on forgiveness, on letting go of the hate.  He asked each parishioner to reach out to someone that week and reconnect – not to focus one who was right or wrong, but to simply move past the hate.  Well, I did that.  Frankly, there was only one person that I could think of toward whom I harbored some ill will.  I called him that night, said I was sorry for not having reached out earlier and we talked for about an hour.  As it turns out, he had just gone through some difficult times and I ended up being his sounding board.  To this day, I am quite confident that it was the Lord, speaking through Gray that made me pick up that phone that night and be a shoulder for this person to cry on.  I have no idea if anyone else at the service did the same that day, but I did.  And it worked…….

I am not sure how many folks will read this post today, but it would be neat that afterwards, you too picked up that phone and made the same call that I did.  From Luke 6:

"But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  …   But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be the sons of the Most High”.

November 12th and 14th (partial), 2009

As you can tell, I am a few days behind. They keep us very busy and frankly it is hard to keep up. This post is really focused on the 12th, but this morning (14th) we attended a truly wonderful service and I wanted to share some pictures. If you click “View My Gallery” to the right you will be able to see pictures and video from my last visit to Rwanda (2006), 20 pictures I posted a few days ago, and 25 more from today. I’ll write more about the 13th and 14th later, but did want to get these pictures posted. I believe some of them will be shown at the Price of Peace (Viera, Florida) services tomorrow (15th). I am not sure how much of a story this picture below says, but I just liked it so thought would post. You do not see many old men here either due to the life expectancy (earlier post) or the Genocide.

Believe me a lot goes through your mind when you witness such poverty. I am sure we all sit back once in a while and realize how lucky we truly are. Yet, if you are anything like me, you probably don’t do it enough. One simply has to ask: why by the true grace of God was I born in the USA? Sure, you may have worked very hard to get where you are in life. Nonetheless, a tremendous part of that success is due to the simple fact that we were born in the US (or some other more advanced country) and had opportunities others simply do not have. Do you really think that you would have been as successful if instead you were born here in Rwanda? Or the Sudan? Or Somalia? Or Bangladesh? Or Afghanistan? Or North Korea? Don’t kid yourself, the answer is no.

So at the end of the day, I often wonder that as individuals, as a nation, given this GIFT from God, do we have a greater calling? It goes beyond thanking the Lord (which we all should do every day), but what have we in fact done with this gift God has given us? I mean, other than for ourselves and those around us……….

But enough of that, on to what we did Thursday.

The sun rises early here, around 5:30 and folks rise with the sun. When you have no electricity, as most do not, using every bit of daylight is important. Below are a couple of pictures I took from my room this morning.

Unfortunately these pictures do not do this country justice when it comes to beauty. It is not called the Land of a Thousand Hills for nothing. The lowest point in the country is actually 4,000 feet above sea level, the soil is just incredibly rich and there is a vibrant green everywhere. The morning haze from the pictures above soon gives way to what have been beautiful clear days (with some rain in the evenings).

Like every day, today was packed with activity. However, what one learns quickly here in Rwanda is that time is rather “elastic.” Very little actually happens exactly on schedule and anything within an hour or two of plan is generally considered on time. Just as an example, the service that was scheduled for 3PM this afternoon was moved, at about 2:59PM, to 4PM and actually started around 4:30PM. Of course, no one seemed to care too much. As if to highlight that time is a relative concept here, I noticed the clock in the church when the service did start (at 4:30) read 6:45PM. I am not sure if the issue was that the clock was off by over 2 hours or that anyone even bothered to put a clock on the wall in the first place!

Like yesterday, the first part of the day was spent in smaller groups including the Fathers Union, the HIV/AIDS group and the Youth Group. Last time here I spent time with the HIV/AIDS group, so this time it was with the Youth Group. I was joined in that by Sarah Schultz, Bob Perez and Lee Cochran. The Youth Group actually goes from ages 13 (I think) to 30, which seemed rather odd till we realized that many in the group who were in the mid to even late 20’s were still in college (or even secondary school). Part of that is due to the Genocide (it took a while to get the school system back on line) and part due to the lack of finances (they have to save up, see prior posts on secondary and university costs). Below is a picture of the folks in our group (the little kids in picture sat thru the youth group session basically were there since there was really nothing else to do):

All of these “kids” were very articulate, most spoke some English and all were quite interested in advancing their education – or finding jobs after graduating. Like in many other sessions, we traded emails and a couple of the university electronics majors spoke to me afterwards. I’d actually be quite interested in starting a business here (another subject for later) and spent a good bit of time over dinner that night with Pastor Francis about that very subject. I met Father Francis three years ago and after speaking with Bishop Augustine the other day about jobs, he had Francis follow up with me. Turns out Francis’ new position in the Diocese is to head up Community Development. The fact is that without jobs societies break down and as is often the case, people blame others for their plight. Combine that with the fact that there are simply so many young children and virtually no more land to farm (their primary income/sustenance) and you have a potentially volatile situation.

I did not meet with the Fathers Group, but one thing that was interesting from the meeting was that a father could not join the group till he was 35. Given life expectancy is only 45, that does not give one much time to be part of this club! Add to that the fact that they start having children at a much younger age and our team suggested they might want to consider lowering the starting age.

Over lunch, other than eating, we were basically tourists and visited the National Museum. We did not have much time, but it was frankly not that big (although it was very well done) and think most spent nearly as much time in the gift shop as in the museum itself. I would note there was virtually nothing on the Genocide, in reality, it was only barely mentioned under the pictures of the Presidents that presided just before and during the event. I didn’t get many pictures from the museum, but here is the one I did get before they told me I was not allowed to take pictures. It was an older style home made of straw and it was actually quite intricate.

For the last activity of the day, we attended a farewell service at Gikongoro Parish, you know, the one that was supposed to start at 3PM. It was attended by some 300 people all of whom walked to get there. As the service did start late, a number of folks had left by 6PM to get home before dark, but the service itself ran till about 7PM or so. As usual, they had a number of choirs sing and even asked us to do so. Frankly I hate to sing, although I do like to listen! The picture below is of our team singing. I’m fourth from the right (as you look at the picture). I guess if you are Anglican, you are just expected to sing, but when I get back I think I am going may start a new church, the Anglican Church for the Mute. This was no one will have any expectations of me to sing! I guess I’ll have to learn how to sign (amazing how just changing the n and g in that word can make a big difference!).

You will note that the Gikongoro church now has power (it did not 3 years ago and if you read through my posts, you’ll note they did not have windows back then either). Note as well the Cross (the bottom part) on the top of the picture. Honestly, this was the first cross that I ever saw made of florescent lights.

As Bishop John was still at the Bishops Meeting, Father Don gave the sermon and did an excellent job. Below is a picture of Father John with Pastor Assiel and a very frightened, but very brave little boy.

Father Don asked this boy to be as part of his relaying the story of the healing of the paralyzed man. Actually, Father Don had four of us carry the little boy up on stage and he was so stiff, I think one of us could have done it with one finger.

I am cutting the service short, but it is once again getting late and we must be up early for a cold shower, breakfast and off to a Sunday service (these usually last about 3-4 hours).

God Bless to everyone. I do hope you are enjoying these posts……………..

Scott

Wednesday, November 12, 2009

There are a tremendous number of orphans here in Rwanda and even more children with just one parent.  Of course, one reason is the Genocide, but as that was 15 years ago, many of those children are now older.  But HIV/AIDS is rampant here and as you can likely guess from the hospital pictures, if you get sick there is a good chance you will die.  In fact, the life expectancy of a man in Rwanda is only 45 years and for a woman, 48.  That is just an amazing statistic.  And yet, you will see many women that continue to give birth late into their relatively short lives. 

Today we met with the Orphan’s Group as well as many others groups at Gikongoro parish including the Widows Network, Children’s group, Mother’s Union, Orphan’s Group and former Sex Workers association.  Father Don also led a Teaching on Church Development.  With 12 here, we broke up into three groups both this morning and this afternoon.  As if that wasn’t enough, once all those meetings were done, we were back in the van headed to home cell churches.

I met with the children’s group along with Julie Ryan (Bishop John’s assistant/boss) and Eleanor Curran (Father Don’s daughter).  It was pretty cool as I remembered a few of the kids and they remembered me, this time for my fabulous soccer/football skills (not) and not just as the Alleluia guy.  After some prayer, signing and indoor games (led by Julie and Eleanor, see picture below), we headed out to play games.

They don’t have play grounds like we know, but the church did have a rather flat surface area outside the classrooms where we played.  For the most part, the girls jumped rope and played other games, while I took the guys over and played soccer.  The soccer was a little easier on this old man this time as we played in a smaller area and I didn’t have to do as much running.  The dirt road we played on last time was covered in puddles and mud, but the other advantage of playing down on the church grounds is we didn’t have to play around the cows and goats.  That’s right, several times last time, farmers would bring their small herds of animals through, but that never seemed to deter the boys, they just played around them.  I’d love to post some pictures of the soccer match and other games, but since I was playing I couldn’t take pictures. I will see if others have and try to post later.

The skills on these kids are amazing considering most have never played with a real soccer ball, instead using tightly wound garbage or bananas leaves as their balls.  The games are rather fluid as well.  Just getting it organized, versus everyone just running after the ball and kicking it, is rather challenging.  But I know how to do this, having coached little kids when my own girls were younger (and as mentioned earlier, having a rather loud voice).  Soon we were playing a semi-organized game.  However, someone wandering onto the field and joining in is not at all unusual.  Once I figured out we had a new player, I would assign them to a team by simply physically turning them in a direction and pointing to their goal (remember, my Kinyarwandan is not very good).  The bigger challenge is that if someone saw something interesting somewhere else they would just wander off.  This is not always too bad except when it’s your goalie and you turn around and he is off jumping rope! 

In the afternoon, I joined with Bob Perez, Hank Nelson (most pronounce that “Honk” although I think he thinks they are saying “Hunk”) and Lee Cochran to visit with the Orphan’s group.  You might be getting an image here that I am always with the kids.  Fact is that is true since they are generally closer to my maturity level!  Strictly speaking, not all of these children were orphans, but in some cases may have only one parent.  This was somewhat interesting gathering as we were escorted into the classroom and pretty much left there, no program, just a bunch of young children and four old folks from the States.  It worked out pretty well however, after they introduced themselves and we did the same, most of the time was spent in Q&A.  Most of their questions had to do with the US and what it was like to live there. 

A few things about what we learned during out discussions:

·       The government is working very hard to increase education levels.  Many, if not most, of the older people are illiterate and they are working to change that to raise up their society.

·       Many of the children, but not all, go to primary school which for them is through sixth grade.  Although these are public schools, they are charged a small amount to attend.  Of course, their schools are nothing like ours – there are no computers, they don’t have their own books (the concept of reading at home was foreign to them), there are no playgrounds, etc. 

·       Secondary school is from 6^th thru our 12^th, but you have to take a test to get into secondary school (which is apparently not so easy) and you have to pay to attend.  I understand it costs about $200 per year to attend and the kids often have to go to boarding schools since secondary schools are not so prevalent.  That is a lot of money when the average income here is roughly $370 per year.  The sad thing is that often families are forced to decide who goes to secondary school and it is often the boys that are sent (if anyone at all).   These secondary level tests are not so easy either.  There is not a school at the church, but the classrooms at Gikongoro are used for tutoring and training for the exam.  I took a picture of some of the things on the board.  Remember, this is to enter seventh grade and shows their education, while tough to come by, is of high quality.

·       University is a five year program and the closest they have to here is about 40 minutes, most are further.   Tuition is between $1,600 and $3,000 and it does not seem there is much when it comes to financial aid.   Many of the children are sponsored by charitable organizations, in fact, I know there are a few that have been sponsored by individual parishioners at Prince of Peace.

Of course, if that was not all challenging enough, once out of school, it is very difficult to find a job.  That is true this year even in the States, but the reality of the situation is that outside of government there are not that many jobs (i.e. businesses or factories) that call for a college education.  I hope to write more on this later, but it is clearly a very big challenge.  That said, the country is moving in the right direction as the GDP grew just over 11% last year even in this tough world economy.  However, don’t be fooled by those numbers given it is 11% on top of a very small number (the “law of small numbers”).

As noted, I didn’t participate in some of the other meetings, but one thing that I thought was interesting is that several of the groups had set up micro-loan type operations.  Through the church and other means, they have bank accounts that they use to loan money (at very low interest rates) to others in the group to start businesses.  Most of the time this consists of buying chickens or other animals and then selling the food, but others include setting up small shops or sewing clothes (a new foot powered sewing machine costs about $150).

There is no doubt they keep us busy (one of the reasons these posts are short), so once the last meeting was done, we were off to one of their “grassroot” churches.  In a congregation of over 900, there are only five cars (which my guess is that is higher than the average), so most folks have to walk.  However, they have the idea of church development down pat.  They start with these grassroot churches that are held in homes of those that belong to the main church and usually consist of several to about twenty families.  As these grow, they become “chapels” and they will either find a larger place to meet or build a small facility (mud is not that expensive).  Once big enough, they become a church and maybe one day a parish.  We were visiting two grassroot churches so our team split in two, my group taking a van about 20 minutes.

Below are some pictures from the neighborhood that our home church was in, but the house we met in was actually quite nice.  It had cement floors and the front room had chairs.

Father Don, Father Assiel, the home church leader and Lee Cochran are standing next to a vegetable stand in this picture:

This was Mom and her child outside their home next to the home we met in.

You can see here a few houses down that the kids like to pose and for some reason, karate poses seem to be popular.

I am going to cut it off here, but it is very clear that the government and the churches are working closely to make sure 1994 never happens again.  In fact, genocide “thinking” is against the law and without naming names, I know of a girl in secondary school that has been charged with such thinking based on a simple question asked at her school.  It is also against the law to talk about whether someone is Hutu or Tutsi and ID cards (and other forms of ID) no longer carry this designation.  But they are also working hard to bring up the education level and create jobs as well as to bring Christian thinking to the masses.  None of this is easy, but if you consider what happened here just 15 years ago, they have made tremendous strides.  Of course, with all these kids, all of whom will one day want jobs, they have a long way to go.

Last but not least, I will note that I have posted several pictures that you can get to by clicking the link on the right.  I am not sure of the quality of these pictures as I did compress them so I could send a few more.  If this works, these are just some random shots I thought you might find interesting.  Most are commented.

Wait, before I sign off, Bishop John had to leave us today for a “House of Bishops” meeting in another part of Rwanda.  He was hoping to get back for the farewell services the Gikongoro on Thursday, but that is going to be a push.  We will miss him, he’s like a rock star here in Kigeme.  Of course, a rock star for Christ……………….

As always, God Bless………

Mooodeee………………

 

November 10 – Visits to Gikongoro Parish, Gitantu Chapel and Kabeza Chapels

Anyone ever been awakened to the serene sounds of a pig being slaughtered?    Ugh……

If yesterday, Monday, was marked by sadness, Tuesday was a celebration of life and growth in Christ.  As with yesterday, there is a lot more to tell and pictures/videos to post, but given the limited bandwidth (and, to be honest, the fact I am a little tired from all the activity) I am keeping this pretty short.  I’ll certainly post more pictures and videos later.

Actually, I seemed to have developed a reputation here in Rwanda.  I can’t sing, I can’t dance (they do a lot of both), but I can yell and belting out a number of “Alleluias” the last time I was here seems to have earned me some (limited) renown.  Everywhere we went today, when Pastor Assiel would ask if they remembered me, several would call out “Moooodeeee.”

We started out early this morning with a visit to the church at Gikongoro Parish just down the road in Kigeme.  It has been three years since I last visited this church and they’ve made significant additions including a new classroom building (three classrooms) and real windows in the church.  After touring the church grounds, we met in fellowship with the Parish leaders to get to know one another better and discuss their plans for the future.   If there is one thing they do well in the church here is to plan.  After “tea”, which we do each day about mid- morning, we were off to one of my favorite churches, Gitantu.  Frankly, it is one of my favorite since last time I thought we were going to die – and frankly, one tends to remember near death experiences.

You see, Gitantu is well off the beaten path which in Rwanda is really saying something.  Like last time, we pulled off the main road and drove on a dirt “road” (and I am being very generous with that word) right along a cliff (with nicely washed out areas along the way).  That was scary enough, but last time (3 years ago) it was raining and we were all crammed into a van (we had three cars this time) that had tires with as much tread as a pool inner tube!  I remember looking at Bishop John (Father back then) at one point and having only made eye contact, he simply said, “I’m praying brother, I’m praying”.   Actually, going was the relatively easy part last time, as a small group of us that stayed behind ended up coming back that same road in the dark.  It’s a longer story, but when the van died and we were stuck in the dark (and I mean dark, remember it was raining and there was no electricity out where we were), I can honestly say I got a little worried!  Well John’s prayers worked that last time and this time as well (although it was nice and dry) and we made it up to the top of the mountain.  Once parked, we began to draw a crowd and that continued as we walked about a half mile down what is at best a goat path to the church.  While this team was not the first white people to visit Gitantu (we had that honor last time), folks young and old enjoy coming out to see us.  Several in the group launched into a rendition of the Hocky Pocky which brought laughter from many and I am sure many thoughts that people from the US are quite strange.  Below is a picture of our team as we moved along the path to the church:

You can see by the picture above that we tend to pick up some followers, but as you can see below it is a beautiful walk as are some of our younger groupies!

What greeted us was a brand new church which was only three walls when we were last here.  In fact, we had the blessing of the church around a big muddy puddle in the middle of their future church.  Of course, one still has to put this in perspective.  The new church was built with mud brinks (large blocks made of mud and straw) whereas the old church was made of sticks tied together with mud packed between them.    But still, it was very nice and they were clearly proud of their new digs.  I’ll be sure post before and after shots when I get back.

After lunch, we moved on to a new church, Kabeza which was just founded in 2008.  Actually the church building itself is only now being built.  I will note that it uses an even nicer quality mud brick since, as you might expect if you use mud a lot, there are different qualities of mud and brick!  They are using a small building for worship and it was not only packed with people, but the doors and windows were filled to brim as well.  By the way, by window I only mean an opening in the wall, not to be confused with one that might actually have glass.

Here too we collected quite a following as we walked up to the church as you can see in the picture below:

As with every other church I have ever visited in Rwanda, we were not only greeted by enthusiastic crowds, but each church paraded out their children and adult choirs and we were serenaded with some truly beautiful singing.  I promise to post some of these videos later.

While I do believe that each time I have visited I have come back with a lot more than I could ever give, I can also tell you that both directly and indirectly this team has helped bring people to Jesus.  First, of course, are the sermons given by both Bishop John and Father Don.    But the fact is that some who come, especially those that watch through the windows or doorways, have come to see us.  In reality, white folks and people from the United States are a rarity here, especially some of the places we visit (we are in the southwest part of Rwanda).  They come to see us, but end up hearing the word of God, watch us pray and see the sincerity of the people inside the church.  I don’t know how many come back, but if it is just one (and I am sure it is many more) then we have done our jobs.  Remember the picture from the second posting, the skeleton of the small child?  Well there were 50,000 more like that in that one place and close to 1,000,000 across the country.  It was truly hell on earth.  And if we can save one person from that kind of hell in the afterlife, we have done our job!

And with that, let me leave you with one more picture.   If the picture from the other day was the past, then this young child, looking out the door at Kabeza on the rich fields of Rwanda is the future……

God Bless,

Scott