(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
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