The Crown Class That Almost Was Not

(Sam Bass) My very first reaction to Eric’s phone call inviting me to join this year’s Rwanda team was decidedly mixed. I was honored to be considered, but at the same time fought back a healthy dose of ‘I’m pretty sure I have a conflict.’ After prayer and conversation with Sharon I accepted God’s call to go.

Part of my duties on the trip would be to prepare and conduct, with Taylor Waren, a Crown Financial group study for leaders in the Shyogwe Diocese. From the beginning there was very little, actually, no guidance from Rwanda on specifics like; who exactly would attend, how much time would we have, and how many participants would there be? The length of the course, for instance would change four times from as little as two hours to two days. I was told that it was normal to receive limited information so we would need to be flexible, both in design and delivery. We had no idea of just how flexible we would need to be and how much we would come to rely on the Holy Spirit, as our control slipped away.

On our first Sunday, after a truly wonderful three-hour church service at Shyogwe , we learned that the Bishop had added an extra full day to our teaching schedule and that we would be teaching about 20 ‘accountants’ as they called them. Accountants are the financial people in churches, schools, and program offices.

Bishop Kalimba’s vision is to equip his financial leaders to raise up teachers who will take the Crown study into their churches and community groups (known as cell groups). As the church in Rwanda is THE welfare system, it is the Bishop’s prayerful desire for his financial leaders to become godly stewards of the resources entrusted to them by the Church and the government. He also wants his ‘Christians’ (church members) to understand the importance of tithing, both for their spiritual health and to fund the vital services the church provides in their community. They are so very poor that they believe they cannot afford to give.

The Reverend Canon Immanuel Gasana

This past Tuesday our Crown class was to begin at 9:00 am with 15 to 20 accountants who would have only basic English skills. We had received no information about who our translator would be, but that there would be one. Just before the hour, two young women arrived and sat at the opposite end of a very long table we had prepared for the meeting. Taylor and I exhausted pretty quickly our supply of Kinyarwandan and realized that they weren’t going to help us much. We would spend a very long 15 minutes of intermittent stabs at starting conversation followed by stares at one another.

By 9:45 a steady stream of new arrivals started pouring in. One of them was named Marianne, who did some early translating for us. By 10:10 we had enough participants to begin our study.

It didn’t take us long to realize that our Rwandan brothers and sisters have limited cell phone manners. Phones must have gone off with their unique, and loud rings at least 20 times that morning. Each ring lead to answering styles that included; the hand-muffled conversation in place, scraping chairs on a tile floor to move away from the table, walks over to the window, and leaving the room entirely through a noisy door - all while new arrivals dribbled in. We have since learned that cell phones in the area do not have voice mail. In a culture where relationship is so integral, an unanswered phone call is hurtful.

About an hour into our chaos, Eugene (pronounced U-G-nee), our official translator got up with her cell phone in hand and told us she had to leave, saying that Marianne would take over. Taylor and I looked at each other once again, wondering what challenge would visit next. The timing was especially bad because we were about to enter the important and complicated topic of debt. We knew we were in trouble almost immediately when Marianne said ‘excuse me, what means debt?’ With our loss of clear translation, we quickly began to lose the last modicum of control we thought we had.

Members were quiet and respectful when the scriptures were read in Kinyarwandan, but conversations began immediately afterwards as we attempted question and response. The questions were in English as we had not had sufficient coordination with the Diocese before the trip to get them translated, and there was some suggestion we should leave them in English to promote fluency.

As Taylor and I led the class we each prayed that our group would begin to work together and gel. Our first answer to prayer came when Patrick joined us. He contributed some great stories that we hoped would improve the understanding we hoped for before. Samuel, a man sitting close to me attempted to fill in the gaps of Marianne’s translations as best he could. No sooner had our momentum shifted favorably, a class cut-up, we will call Jean, began asking disruptive questions. The woman beside him, who had been an active participant before his arrival became his conversation and joke partner as control once again evaporated.

Our lunch break came none too soon for everyone in the room, and the meal was delicious. It provided Taylor and me the opportunity to mix with the participants on a less formal basis and to begin to break the ice a bit. After a few warm conversations over lunch it was time to return. I’m pretty sure most did not want to go back in – I didn't.

Soon after resuming, another gift from the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a tall, commanding and gifted translator named Bernard. Patrick had excused himself earlier to arrange for Bernard to leave his wood and metal-working factory to help us. Communication improved between us and our Rwandan participants immediately, but the our principle disruptor continued his efforts to to destroy the experience for everyone in the group.

After the conclusion of the first day as we recounted our trials, our team realized the seriousness of our situation. That night the team circled us with prayers of protection for Taylor and me, as well as prayers for Jean. The next day would be nothing short of miraculous.

After Morning Prayer, Taylor and I headed to our meeting room wondering how many would show up. We expected there would be three for sure – the two of us and our new, but fantastic translator, Faustin. We agreed to abandon our table format to form a circle of chairs. It wasn't long before our prayers of the night before and morning were rewarded as some of the more engaged members of our group trickled in to join our circle.

With six participants, Taylor began to lead our small group on the topic of Work which begins with the memory verse from Collossians 3:23-24.

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men . . . It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

For the next 10-15 minutes our circle of chairs would double. Every person who had been with us the day before, including Jean, returned, including a couple of new faces. During our break a ‘God moment’ occurred when Taylor crossed the room to shake the hand of Jean and then to give him a huge hug and said, “I am so glad you are back!” He beamed at the welcome. From that moment on our class was transformed, it was redeemed. Satan had been defeated and everyone there knew something was remarkably different.

At the conclusion of our study I asked our group of brothers and sisters in Christ if they had experienced a change in their views on money, giving, work, and ownership. As Faustin translated, every head in our circle nodded emphatically, “yes.” I then asked for a show of hands of those who would commit to lead a Crown study in their cell groups.

Jean’s hand was the very first to go up! Most of the other hands then went up. As I could tell that some of our stalwarts were reluctant to commit, I asked Faustin to tell them we would make sure they received translated copies – there was immediate and loud applause, as the remaining hands went up. Praise God!

There are no words to express how grateful I am to God that I said yes to His call through Eric in March and to each of you for your support. Blessings from Rwanda.