Yesterday (Saturday) we spent time with our friend Maurice. He came to drive us into town to take care of a few things and he had his son with him who was sick. We offered to go to the doctor with them first then tend to our business. It was a wonderful time of deepening friendships, meeting his 4 children and learning about the Rwandan healthcare system.
Later Jana and I met with Eugenia who runs a deaf ministry. They sew various things and we got measured for some clothing. We went into town and selected the fabric for our dresses. It was quite the experience to design dresses without a pattern and select the fabric. It will be quite interesting to see the final outcome.
We went to dinner at New Cactus restaurant and had pizza with bananas and bacon (yum!) and Maurice offered to share his story of surviving the genocide of 1994. It is his story to tell so I won’t go into here. It gave us a lot of insight into the Rwandan people who lived through the 100 day massacre of over 1,000,000 people. It was a real honor to hear his story, even though it was hard to hear.
Today (Sunday) we attended Louange (Worship) Church in Kigali with Pastor Samuel Rushombo. We met at Saddleback Church last August when he came to attend the Celebrate Recovery conference. It was good to see him again. He preached a great sermon on the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. After the service we spent time talking about CR and how it applies to Rwandans and learned a lot of helpful things that will make us to be more effective trainers of this ministry here. He is planning to attend the next 5 day conference that we hold here in Rwanda next year.
We met at the PEACE office with Pastor Straton and Jean Pierre to review our “plans” for our remaining time here. We also discussed the completion and publishing of the Kinyarwanda translation of CR materials and the next training conference to be held here.
Please pray for the people that will be attending our 2 day conference in Gitarama who attended the 5 day training last year. Pray that we will be the Muppets and God will give us wisdom and insight as we encourage them and answer their questions as they start this ministry. Pray for safe travels tomorrow (Monday) morning as we drive there. Thanks for your prayers, Jana L is felling great and is fully recovered from her sore throat.
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Sounds like you might just be "havin' way too much fun"!
ReplyDeleteGod is good and thank you for your updates daily - glad to see that the internet is "up and running"!
Happy to hear about God's healing in Jana L. and for her throat (we'll keep praying that it stays strong and that the rest of the team stays healthy as well.)
We will be praying for God's "plans" (timing and location) for the next visit to Rwanda and that those plans will become apparent and also be His will for the country.
We are praying for continued travel protection and mercies for you all as you visit so many people and so many places during this journey. Relationship building is so important and just look at it as... "something you get to do" as part of God's Army of servants.
We will continue to pray that "the Armor" is fitted snuggly in place each day and that your prayer time and connect time at the end of each day becomes a deeper compassion for the people and the country of Rwanda.
We will be praying for those who will attend your 2-day follow-up with prior trainees , that God will provide the exact thing that they need to hear and that their minds would be ready to accept God's healing in the areas that they need it and in the areas that they don't realize that they need it.
In Jeremiah 33:6 the Bible states: " 'Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.”
Keep being "the Muppets for God" and remember that in Acts 1:8 God tells us…
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
God bless you all in all you do to serve our faithful God!
p.s. – What did you do with Dave while you were shopping? – poor guy!
So glad that you were able to worship at "Worship" church on Sunday and be refreshed by the message and singing. We'll be praying the progress and completion of the translation, that the heart of the ideas will be expressed properly in their Kinyarwandan language to bring uderstanding and healing to their people.
ReplyDeleteWe pray for open eyes, ears and hearts as you travel, that God will reveal more to each of you concerning the people of Rwanda, praying right now for the people that are supposed to show up for the 2-Dayer--even those that don't even know it yet.
I was at at Ukraine team meeting yesterday and Pastor Steve was sharing with the team about Hannah's story (Rwandan) asking us to pray that she and 2 of African friends will be able to join us in Ukraine this summer.
It IS difficult and disturbing to hear their stories, but God IS our BIG God and he has great things planned for those who fully put their trust in Him.
The words that come to mind, learned by experience: don't limit God. :-) I do pray that the Holy Spirit will give you generously and abundantly the fullness of life, love and joy as you proclaim what God has done.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come." Luke 4:18-19
I hope that you may be able to encourage these pastors, and that there will be some application that they can take back to their own family unit - a positive change for them personally.
I also pray of each one of you, Jana, Jana & Dave, that God would reveal Himself to you in a fresh, unexpected way on this journey. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!
Love you guys, with you in prayer! - jo
Hello my fellow muppets ... I send encouragement to you all from your homeland.... Yes, I am trying to be funny :) WOW, it sounds like you three are a combination of the Muppets met Gumby (the flexible character). I suppose it is not so good when i have to explain my humor.
ReplyDeletePlease give my greetings to Pastor Straton, Jean Pierre and Maurice. It sounds like you are all off to a godly start with all the changes and heart breaking stories that doing ministry for God involves. Please know that you are being prayed for daily.
I am so proud of all of you, I am glad to call you my friends. May you continue to be flexible, open, sensitive, loving and opportunistic for God's purpose for yourselves and this trip .
Paul (the encourager)