Not as planned, but we trust God will work good

(This post was intended to be on the blog on Tuesday June 14th... somehow it didn't post!)

Today was supposed to be our first full day as a team in the Shyogwe Diocese.  Ford and I (Lindsay) came early to visit friends in Kenya and meet our sponsored child at Sonrise School in Rwanda. We were supposed to meet the team last night at the airport and journey together to Gitarama (the largest city in the Diocese) near our sister parish, Gikomero.  After waiting an hour and a half at the airport, we were approached by a young man, Venant, and he explained that the rest of the team would not arrive that evening but tonight instead.  We have wondered all night and day what happened to them, but we just read that their Monday flight from Brussels to Kigali was cancelled!  So instead they arrive tonight.  We are eager and excited to be united with them!

We have had a very good day with Bishop Jered Kalimba.  He is a man called by God to care for the people of Rwanda.  The Lord has literally preserved his life from multiple attacks (the genocide, and also in 1997 a grenade without it's pin landed at his feet but did not detonate, and a month later he was spared from a grenade that did detonate).  At the great cost of living on a separate continent of his family, he has answered the calling.  He is a very wise, educated, but also practical man.  He is seeking to build the church on 4 Pillars:
1.  Study Bible
2.  Promote unity and reconciliation
3.  Fight poverty
4.  Encourage the use of each person's skills and gifts.

This morning he led us on a tour of the Diocese property.  The official offices are still in Shyogwe town, but they are moving to Gitarama because it is centrally located and easily accessbile.  The property includes the Mothers Union, Pineapple factory, Sewing School with at-risk youth, large Multi-purpose building, housing for a youth team (4 months out of the year about 10 European students come to serve the community during their GAP year), Vocational Workshop (woodworking, welding, leather binding, and computer lab), offices, a three-story Guesthouse that is in process, and a beautiful church high on the hill.  They call the hill Mt. Zion. and the verse chosen by the Bishop in the church is "May the Kingdom come".    A special note is that the church hill property was desired by President Kagame for a hotel, but the Bishop prayed about it and replied that the site has already been declared for God's purposes so he would need to find another place.

We also saw an amazing water project was funded by the Irish and YMCA to bring water to the church buildings and vocational school and also taps for 3 surrounding neighborhoods.  The pineapple project is also worthy of special note, as twice a month they go into the country and buy pineapples from the growers.  They bring them back to two rooms on the Diocese property where they wash, peel, and juice them.  After it is boiled for one hour, the juice is then bottled and sold.  This project is greatly improving the quality of life for the growers and workers.

In the afternoon, we visited another parish in Gitarama.  It was started in 2007 with 75 members and has grown to 300.  They shared with us an ambitious 10 year development plan :)  They are providing English and computer classes for the community.  They have two services (one in English and one in Kinyarwanda). 

At this parish, we met Ivon, a young woman who is the Diocese coordinator for a Savings and Loan Bank.  It was decided that the Diocese should have it's own bank to receive the interest to be re-invested in the people.  It was started 5 months ago, and already has 3,000 members and 62 Million Rwanda Francs (exchange rate is 600 RFR per $), so over $100,000.  The headquarters will be in Gitarama and there will be branches at the 7 archdeaconaries.  Every cell group (like our Community Groups) is a member, as well as all the parishes and 25 schools.

Please continue to pray for the team, especially that God would encourage Patrick, Susan, Sue, Frank, and Lee, and accomplish all He desires in our time here.  We are praying that the Lord would give us all a clear vision for our partnership.

"Vision without action is merely a dream.  Action without vision just passes the time.  Vision with action can change the world."  -Joel Barker

Water Project

June 16 

Yesterday the entire team witnessed and participated in a joyous event as the entire Gikomero community gathered to show us the project.  They have dug a trench from the water source which is a nearby natural spring that has certified pure water.  This trench leads to a storage tank which will store 100 cubic meters of water and is currently under construction.  From there the water line will extend 1.8 miles and rise over 900 feet to the village were a second storage tank will store the pumped water for distribution in the village and provide water for the coming health center, which has already been constructed. 

Ford washed his face in the water and pronounced it “cool and wonderful”.  The entire community was there, as well as a representative of the local mayor, who has promised and  is in progress of delivering a road to the area.  All were in agreement that this project will be a strong addition to the community.

This morning we met with Israel who is the primary engineer for the project and went over the details of the project.  We were impressed with his knowledge and skill and feel confident that he is the proper leader to see this project through to completion. 

Later today we visited the Murambari Genocide Memorial, and were moved by the magnitude of this tragedy.  My words are inadequate to describe this site and the description of the horror that occurred there.

In Christ

Lee Garrett

Onward to Gikomero!

We bounced up the mountain taking one precarious turn after another on a road that would test the axles on the best suburban SUV.  The views were breathtaking—literally, you didn’t want to look too far down the hillside that lacked any litigious-minded country’s guardrails.  Gasps of fear were quickly replaced with shouts of “Muraho” out to the window to women carrying water containers or stacks of firewood on their head with the elegance of runway models.  They would just as quickly break into big, beautiful, toothy smiles and waves back as we sped by.  The children were even more fascinated and stunned to see a vanful of ‘mizungus’ or white folk bouncing up the dirt road with the Bishop riding shotgun.  Ford quickly adopted the two-handed wave and would shout greetings out the back window with a big smile to delighted kids. 

While the day was packed with everything from climbing up a somewhat steep hillside to get to the mouth of the spring that is the source of the parish’s water project, to greeting hundreds of primary and secondary school children at the school next to the church, to dining in the home of Gikomero’s new pastor—my highlight was getting to spend time with women from the Mother’s Union.  I’d been looking forward to this chance to meet this group of women who are the hands and feet of ministry at this female dominated parish.

The women were a mix of young mothers, widows and grandmothers.   Their faces looked far younger than their years and it was hard to determine ages.  We sat down in the small chapel and pulled up benches to be able to just talk intimately with these lovely women.  We shared that we represent an equally diverse group of women from Raleigh who want to know what life is like for our sisters in Gikomero.  Through the effortless translation of the diocese administrator, Eugenie, we were able to share our hearts with one another with amazing ease.  Apart from the language barrier, it was as if we could have been any bible study group of women sharing testimonies of God’s faithfulness through the loss of a spouse, infertility, or struggle with depression.  All that was missing was the coffee.

Before we ended, Susan prayed for the group.  Then, we shared your gift of bags.  Their eyes lit up and smiles all around.  They were delighted that our church thought of them in this kind way.  We now have visible remdinders of the women we pray for in Gikomero—and when we return, we’ll share their photos and their stories with you in person.  For now, know that there are women on the top of a mountain in Rwanda!

Purpose & Prayer Requests

Friends -

On Sunday we leave for Rwanda and a week of relationship building with our sister church. As we go we would love for you all to be in prayer with us and for us. Below is a brief description of our purpose for this trip and the goals we hope to accomplish. As you think of this team over the next two weeks, please lift these things before the Lord. We are grateful for our partnership in the gospel with everyone here at Apostles, overseas in Rwanda and all around the world.

Purpose:

The purpose of this COA trip to Rwanda is to better discern ways in which God wants to deepen our relationship with the Gikomero parish and Shyogwe Diocese.

Goals / Prayer Requests:

1. Spend significant time with the leadership and parishioners in Gikomero discussing each congregation’s vision for spreading the Gospel and furthering the kingdom of God.

2. Meet with Mothers' Union leaders to better understand the needs and gifts of women in our congregations.

3. Review the progress of the Gikomero water project and Health Clinic.

4. Discuss with Diocesan leaders how best to deepen our relationship with them in ways that include and transcend physical projects.

5. Develop practical and logistical knowledge for how to more frequently send members of our Raleigh congregation to Rwanda in a way that honors our Rwanda hosts but minimally strains their time and personnel resources.

Meeting Jesus in the 'Periphery'

In a recent article from Christianity Today magazine, the Rt. Rev. Dr. David Zac Niringiye (Assistant Bishop of Kampala, Uganda) spent time answering questions about the most helpful gospel-thing that North American Christians can do. Essentially what he suggests is that we stretch ourselves to move away from places of power and being in the 'center' and instead seek to experience life in the margins. Below is an excerpt from his article:

One of the gravest threats to the North American church is the deception of power—the deception of being at the center. Those at the center tend to think, "The future belongs to us. We are the shapers of tomorrow. The process of gospel transmission, the process of mission—all of it is on our terms, because we are powerful, because we are established. We have a track record of success, after all."

Yet recently the Lord led me to an amazing passage, the encounter between Jesus and Nathaniel in John 1. Nathaniel has decided Jesus is a non-entity. Jesus comes from Nazareth, after all.

Nathaniel's skepticism comes from being in power, being at the center. Those at the center decide that anyone not with us is—not against us—[but] just irrelevant. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" It doesn't warrant our time. But the Messiah is from Nazareth.

Surprise, Nathaniel!

What's the problem with being at the center?

God very often is working most powerfully far from the center. Jesus is crucified outside Jerusalem—outside—with the very cynical sign over his head, "The King of the Jews." Surprise—he is the King of the Jews. "We had hoped … " say the disappointed disciples on the road to Emmaus, but he did not fulfill our criteria. In Acts, we read that the cross-cultural missionary thrust did not begin in Jerusalem. It began in Antioch, on the periphery, the margins. But Jerusalem is not ready for Antioch! In fact, even when they go to Antioch, it's just to check on what's happening.

I have come to the conclusion that the powerful, those at the center, must begin to realize that the future shape of things does not belong to them. The future shape of things is on the periphery. The future shape of things is not in Jerusalem, but outside. It is Nazareth. It is Antioch.

If you really want to understand the future of Christianity, go and see what is happening in Asia, Africa, Latin America. It's the periphery—but that's where the action is.

This is part of our reason for going to Rwanda. God has moved and is moving in that country in INCREDIBLE ways. In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, one of the most evil and despicable events in human history, God is doing a work of reconciliation and transformation that is only possible in light of the transforming work of the gospel. Through reconciliation projects led by the church, mass murderers are being forgiven by the families of their victims and are being reconciled back into society. Victims are acknowledging that they have been forgiven of their sins by God and that they ought to forgive those who have sinned against them. For this to happen, God must be at work…

God has also worked in a mighty way through this ‘periphery’ of Rwanda through the establishment of the Anglican Mission – of which we are a part. God has used them to bring the gospel back to the United States through a faithful Anglican witness. They have provided support and encouragement and spiritual oversight and have done all of this at a great personal risk and cost. And so we are go to experience “the periphery”. We are going to see God at work and to learn from our brothers and sisters there.

This small team from Apostles has a unique experience to travel somewhere exotic, like Rwanda, but just because you may not be going to Africa this summer, doesn’t mean this issue doesn’t apply. I think this is a question / challenge that all of us would benefit from considering. I wonder what it looks like to leave the ‘center’ and the ‘places of power’ even here in Raleigh? What does this look like in our day to day lives? What are our ‘Nazareths’? Maybe it’s into the inner city, maybe it’s right next door? It will likely be different for each of us. I encourage you all to take a few minutes to consider what it might look like for you to step out of the center and then I encourage you to do it. You may be surprised to find Jesus in places you NEVER expected him to be.

2 Weeks and Counting...

In less than two weeks our team from Apostles will be on the ground in Rwanda, tired from jetlag and trying to make the most of our incredibly short trip to visit our sister church, the Gikomera Parish. We’ve been preparing for this trip for several months now, yet still, true preparation time has seemed elusive. Sure, we’ve spent time working out all of the logistics and all of the things that HAVE to get done in order for us to physically make it to Rwanda, but the more important work – the work of preparing my heart and my mind for what I will see and hear and experience, for preparing myself for the relationships that will be developed (within our team and with our sister church) - that work has been too easy to put off. Books and movies about the Rwandan genocide and the incredible reconciliation efforts that are now taking place remain unread & unwatched. Articles that need to be read about short term mission trips and about church partnerships between western and African churches are still on my to do list. Prayer for this trip – for God’s presence and protection, for our sister church relationship, for eyes to see and hearts to comprehend what the Lord is doing in and through this partnership – remain unspoken on my lips. I feel like I’ve done the ‘necessary’ stuff, but haven’t yet done the truly important work of preparing for this trip. And the danger is that if all I do is prepare logistically, but not emotionally and, most importantly, spiritually for this trip then I will make it to Rwanda and I will have a great experience, but I will be in real danger of missing what the Lord wants to do in and through me on this trip. It’s amazing, but simply acknowledging that this hasn’t happened, as it should have, feels like a good first step. I feel my heart being drawn towards the Lord in acknowledging my weakness and failure in this. It leads me to want more.

To begin heart preparation, I want to share with you some thoughts about our team verse Colossians 3:12-17 (see below).

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

- Colossians 3:12-17

This passage is too long to share all of my thoughts on, but here are a few:

This is a very famous passage of scripture that is often read at weddings. And as appropriate as this passage is for encouraging a new husband and wife for their lives together in marriage, it is equally as fitting for our team as we prepare for this journey to Rwanda. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about our inclination as Americans to have an agenda, a purpose, a task to accomplish in our going. Yet this isn’t the purpose for this trip. We’re not going to ‘do’ anything. We’re going to simply ‘be with’ our brothers and sisters – to learn from them and encourage them and to try and understand what partnership looks like. The vagueness and inefficiency of this has already caused us to struggle – and Paul’s words are such an encouragement in that struggle. We are called to be compassionate and kind and humble and gentle and patient towards one another. These stand in stark contrast to our natural inclinations towards efficiency and productivity and ‘get out of my way so that I can accomplish this task that I’ve come to do’… And Paul reminds us that we are called towards these more godly, loving character traits because we are dearly loved by God. We don’t have to produce anything or prove our worth to make this trip worthwhile – it is worthwhile because God has dearly loved us and He has dearly loved these brothers and sisters in Rwanda and He calls us to love one another. It’s not that efficiency and projects are wrong, it’s just that they can’t be the foundation of our relationship or else we’ll always feel like we are the superior party in this relationship – coming to save the day with our projects (which obviously isn’t true and honestly isn’t helpful). So we are going – not to ‘do’ but simply to ‘be with’ – to grow in unity and in partnership with one another. We go to teach one another and to sing praises to God together. And we do it all in the name of Jesus giving thanks to God our Father through Him.

I want to close this thought with two prayers from the prayer book. The first is for unity within the body of Christ (and particularly in this case for unity between our team and the people of Gikomera), the second is one of self-dedication. As I move closer towards this departure date, I want to give myself more and more into prayer for this time and into God’s hands to use me as he will.

Prayer for Unity

Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed
 for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one: 
Grant that your Church, being bound together in love and 
obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit,
 that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your
 Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in
 the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Prayer of Self-Dedication

Almighty and eternal God, so draw my heart to you, so
 guide my mind, so fill my imagination, so control my will, that I may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated unto
 you; and then use me, I pray, as you will, and always 
to your glory and the welfare of your people; through my Lord
 and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rwanda Trip - 2011

Muraho (that's Hello in Kinyarwanda) -

This is the 1st blog post for the 2nd Church of the Apostles trip to visit our sister church, the Gikomera Parish, in Rwanda. We'll leave in mid June and will provide updates from our trip as we have internet access. Until then, we'll use this blog as a space to share our thoughts and prayers as we prepare for the trip. Below is a picture of the team that will be traveling this summer. They are (from left to right) Ford Jordan, Lindsay Jordan, Frank Koehler, Sue Koehler, Susan Dominguez, Patrick Dominguez and Lee Garrett. Please check back from time to time to experience this journey with us and to know how to pray for this trip.