Celebrate Recovery Rwanda Trip Report

A team of Celebrate Recovery (CR) leaders from Saddleback Church traveled to Rwanda to teach the CR program to a group of church leaders in Gitarama in Muhanga District. The Pioneer PEACE trip team members were Dave and Jana Lopez, Joe and Deanna Bommarito and led by Jana O’Guin. Trip was January 14 – 28, 2009.

Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered recovery program based on the Beatitudes that helps people work through hurts, hang ups and habits in their lives. It is in over 10,000 churches across the United States and approximately 30 countries around the world.

CR supports the PEACE Plan by Promoting Reconciliation. It is a permanent ministry within the church that helps people resolve painful problems in their lives. By working through the 8 principles of this program, the participants can find freedom by truly forgiving old hurts and releasing bitterness, resentments, guilt and shame from past sins. The PEACE Steering Committee in Rwanda recommended that the first CR training be held in Muhanga District, supporting the PEACE Plan's focus of Promote Reconciliation in that district.

Purpose
The purpose of the trip was to work with a small group of churches to equip them to start CR that would serve as models for other churches in the region and eventually the country.

CR Seminar
Prior to the training, the team met with the ICC (Inter Church Counsel) for Muhanga District and presented an overview of Celebrate Recovery and laid out the long term plan of conducting future trainings. A meeting was also held with the senior pastors of the churches attending the seminar to better help them understand the program, how it impacts their church and how they can best demonstrate their support.

The team conducted a 5-day seminar held at Restoration Church Gitarama with approximately 70 pastors and church leaders from Muhanga District in attendance. The participants were from 10-12 churches within the region with men and women from each church. The course included both lecture and group meetings so the participants were able to experience the benefits of the program for themselves so they could better understand how the program works.

The participants saw the benefits of CR and how it can help the people of Rwanda deal with their hurts, hang-ups and habits. Not only is it is a tool to help them work through the pain of the genocide and find forgiveness, it also can help them with many other struggles in their lives such as abuse, anger, alcoholism, and sexual addiction.

Materials
The CR materials (including the Leader’s Guide, Participant Guide, the Road to Recovery sermon series and the missions training manual) were recently translated into Kinyarwanda and field test copies were used in the training. Final publication of materials will follow after edits are incorporated. Each participant received a copy of the materials.

Next Steps
The translation will be completed and the materials published. The Steering Committee with meet with those that attended the seminar to get feedback on the training. The evaluations that were completed at the end of the seminar will be translated and reviewed. The churches will need time to review the materials and begin training leadership teams within their churches prior to beginning the CR program.

A follow up trip by a Saddleback Celebrate Recovery team to support the churches that participated in the seminar and answer questions about this ministry will be scheduled based on the feedback received.

Conclusion
The people of Rwanda will benefit greatly from CR and they appear to be ready for it. They have an extraordinary drive to heal their emotional and spiritual scars. The material translation is almost complete making it possible to go forward.