Monday July 23rd - The Rooster and Three Mighty Men

The Rooster and Three Mighty Men

Hillary mentioned in her entry the Rwandan rooster who welcomed us to his country at 4am the first night. I’ll get back to him in a bit.

Monday began at 7:15am around a table at the Halleluia House with a breakfast of thin scrambled egg omelet, sliced bread and pineapple jam, fresh papaya, oranges, sweet-tart bananas grown on every hillside you see and steaming Rwandan coffee and tea. 

We then began the day as it does each day for the staff of the Shygwe Diocese, singing praises to the Lord and opening the Scriptures. The staff translated our conversation about David’s three “mighty men” from 2 Samuel 23 who obtained water at David’s request in the midst of a battle, risking their lives as they did. These three men were willing to trust God and serve under David’s authority even when it meant hardship for them. As someone mentioned, “it was a good example to follow.”

At 9:30am, the six women from our team kicked off their first session of the ESL training. Their enthusiasm and joy as teachers along with the eagerness of the Rwandan staff members to learn the teaching methods was remarkable. The Lord was clearly at work as we watched beautiful relational connections happening through laughter and hard work to understand how to teach English to their fellow countrymen.

We broke for lunch back at the Halleluia House, which included delicious baked chicken, which made us wonder if we might be getting even with that rooster! And interestingly, he didn’t wake us again that night. Lunch just might have been rooster retribution!

In the afternoon, we heard from a short but gutsy woman named Claudine (I told her she and my wife would get along well!). She told us about the Mother’s Union, which is a ministry of the diocese that trains women to care for their families in areas such as nutrition, budgeting and hygiene. The women see God’s care and provision as the church cares for them practically.

We then climbed a steep hill to the church that meets above the diocese buildings and heard from Reverend John, who pastors the church and oversees several churches that are visible from the hilltop. He talked about being called to this work, with little time for rest but with much enthusiasm for people to come to know and walk with Jesus.

At the end of the day, we were still missing our luggage, and it was day three in the same clothes. Our team was getting more fragrant by the hour. So I traveled with Venant and Emmanuel to the airport hoping to retrieve our suitcases. Venant joked that if we returned from the airport with everyone’s bags, we would be like David’s three “mighty men!” We did get most of our bags, and the team met us with an ovation on the porch as we returned.

As I went to bed, though, I was hit with the truth that the real mighty men and mighty women are these saints with whom we spent time that day. Our team had certainly sought to equip them for teaching English, but the mighty men and women in this place are folks like Claudine and Reverend John. They have immense vision and courage to build buildings and train people for disciple-making and holistic ministry so that people will know Jesus and be cared for by him. As God empowers them, they are the mighty ones, and I pray that our church in Raleigh can learn from their example, inviting people to know him and seeking ways to care for them so they see his glory.

Please continue to pray for us!

In Christ,

Eric