Thursday, January 9, 2014

Rwanda Trip update

A trip was taken by Saddleback Church to Rwanda October 16-25, 2013 to introduce Celebrate Recovery in Kigali and follow up with churches in Muhanga and Karongi that have active CR ministries.

Kigali Senior Pastor Introduction
A total 17 pastors from 15 different churches attended the CR Introduction meeting at the PEACE PLAN office. Most of the pastors were interested in having CR in their churches. We requested that they choose 2 or 3 people that could be CR champions to attend the training scheduled for Saturday.

Kigali Church Leader Training
Thirty five church leaders from 20 different churches attended an all day training held at Christian Life Assembly. We trained them how to begin Large Group meetings in the morning and in the afternoon they led their first Large Group meeting. Afterward we had a time of discussion but in the end they were equipped to begin Large Group meetings in their churches.

Iwawa
On Monday the team traveled to the small island of Iwawa near the Congo border. The Minister of Youth requested our visit. Iwawa is a rehabilitation center that the government started about 3 years ago to help rehabilitate young men ages 18-35 that are drug users among other things. There are almost 2000 men presently there and have had 2700 graduates. They spend 6 months focusing on rehabilitation then 6 months on occupational training.

We introduced Celebrate Recovery and they were very eager to learn more about it. We gave a brief training and suggested they begin Step Study groups with their staff to get more familiar with the materials. When they get approval, they can begin teaching the Large Group lessons for the residents.

Muhanga
The team drove to Muhanga where we met with the CR leader who is a widow with 2 teenage children named Prisca of Liber Methodist Church. They have had an active CR ministry since 2009. There are 2 groups that meet, one on Tuesday mornings at 5:30 with 8 participants and another group of 15 people meet on Thursday afternoons at 2:00. They each begin following the Large Group format then break into groups of 2 people and share about how the lesson applies to their lives and other things that going on in their lives. On the second Sunday of each month they all meet together. The church has grown as 5 non-churched people attended CR then joined the church. The church has about 60 members total.

Karongi
Tuesday afternoon we met with Pastor Silas and CR participants of Friends Church. The church is has 35-40 members that are mostly women. They have an active CR ministry. They first began with 5 home groups which included Large Group teachings but then added some other things like Bible study and prayer groups. People were not really opening up in the home groups.

Recently they restarted with Large Group meetings at the church before the Sunday morning service. After Large Group they have Open Share groups then join the church service. They shared testimonies about how great it was to have someone to trust and really share their life with and how that brings peace in their lives.

We encouraged them to combine some of their groups to form larger groups for Open Share and they were very uncomfortable with that idea. They liked having only 2 or 3 people together. They wanted more to study and after some discussion, they agreed to test something for CR and have Step Study groups during the week with their current Open Share partner. They will continue attending the Large Group meetings on Sunday mornings. That will give us valuable feedback applicable to other churches in Rwanda, especially if Step Studies can be done in groups or if they are more effective with just 2 people going through together.

Wednesday we met with 5 church pastors, 2 that are doing CR and 3 others yet to start. There are 3 active CR ministries in the Karongi region - Friends Church, Goshen Holy Church and ADEPR Gishyita.

Pastor Alloys from Goshen Holy Church attended and reported what they were doing. They printed the 8 Principles of CR and posted them in their church. They read them during the Sunday church service. 100% of the 66 church members attend CR during the week. They have 4 different Large Group meetings – one each for men, young men, women and young women. They break up in groups of 2 and share about how the lesson applies to their own lives and any other challenges they have had that week. Each group works independently and they are on different lessons.

Since having CR at their church, Pastor Alloys has observed the church members working together and his job is so much easier. Members are even doing things for the church now like purchasing chairs, etc.

ADEPR Gishyita has its CR meetings on Tuesday afternoon. We hope to visit them next time.

Resources
We met with a translator about Celebration Station and The Landing and feels confident that he can translate the curriculum to Kinyarwanda as well as make the necessary cultural adjustments.