RockTheDesert

Rwanda Stories - It All Adds Up

Dan (being a true engineer at heart) decided to work up some interesting numbers for me to post.

First and foremost:

• 1 true, living God drawing people unto Himself through the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed boldly in love...

In no particular order:

• 27 North American "missionaries"
• 5 states represented
• 28 Rwandan Ministry Partners
• 850 lbs of ministry materials crammed into:
• 16 additional suitcases (Evangecubes, tracts, clothes, crayons, bubbles, proclaimers)
• 3 lbs pancake mix, 144 slices pre-cooked bacon (breakfast food for two days in Kigali )
• 56 feet of laminated Creation posters
• 10,309 air miles each way
• 51-1/2 hours travel to get to Rwanda
• 35 hours travel to get home
• 288 Kinyarwanda Bibles
• 1800 beaded Gospel bracelets
• 1200 liters of drinking water
• 8 Mother Church Pastors
• 8 Mission Point Leaders
• 1 day ministering to 300 orphans in Celphar Orphanage
• 4 days in Ruhengeri at EER Guest House
• 344 Rwandan villagers whom we trained in evangelism and discipleship for the new churches
• 8 brand new churches planted
• 95 yr old man - oldest person to receive Christ
• 8960 Gospel presentations
• 3872 1st time professions of faith in Jesus
• 872 Follow-up discipleship visits
• 4 youth group/weekly Bible studies strengthened in 4 secondary schools (high school)
• 2000 secondary school students attended discipleship at schools daily with our youth teams teaching, preaching, encouraging, sharing life, discipling fellow students
• 600 dollars given to each mission point for roofs

It all adds up to 1 incredible, life-changing, e3 mission trip...the details are incredulous to look at - the numbers seem almost exaggerated and certainly out-of-proportion - that's because God's numbers are His work, His miracle, for His glory. We would love to have you join us on an upcoming trip!   We're heading to Burundi in August, Rwanda in January, and Burundi in March.Think about it. Pray about it. Then just do it!!

Believing God

Today, a group of 8 women met together for the first time in Dr. Steve Phinney's conference room to begin "Believing God" which is a video-driven Beth Moore Bible Study. I've been through this one once before. I actually had to miss 4 or 5 of the sessions, so it will seem practically brand new to me. We've got quite an eclectic group of women assembled - we've all got a common goal of digging in deep to God's Word to glean spiritual insights and truths in order to live and walk more fully in God's light, plan & purposes for our lives. Today, our chief organizer (Lisa) swung by Pita Jungle and picked up a fantastic feast for us to share on our first day together. Everything at PJ is super-healthy and totally delish. We had cilantro-jalapeno hummus among other tasty treats, including a fruit and cheese platter and cheesy pita crisps! Next week I believe we're brown-bagging it.

We all tied blue bands on our arms as a reminder that we're "believing God" for the next 10 weeks together. This should be quite an adventure...I wonder what God has in store for us????????

Back To Normal

Today is a normal day. Both boys went to school. I made breakfast and packed lunches. I'll be doing laundry the rest of the day. I'm thinking of dusting the living room and sorting through the mail. I'll be planning out worship songs for the coming weekend. Grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Sprouts. Sorting through the mail. Replying to email and phone messages.

Thought I'd share 1 story from Rwanda...although I don't have very many pictures to show yet...Dan forgot his memory card for his camera. So before I left, I gave him the card from my camera so he could take lots of Sudan pics.

I was a Team Lead - Michael was on my team. We each had a ministry partner/translator. We also had a Bishop from Burundi on our team named Independence. He didn't need a translator. We had a group of 9 nationals from the Mother Church in Kibuye join us for daily door-to-door evangelism. On the first day, after training on how to use the Evangecube, we split up into 5 teams and headed out to share the Gospel. Emmanuel was my ministry partner. Jane was Michael's ministry partner. We all went in different directions. I headed down the road, led by two nationals. From the road there was a stunning view of Lake Kivu. I was looking straight ahead, trying to spot some houses to stop at. Suddenly our nationals made a sharp right turn and disappeared off the side of the mountain. Or so I thought. I inched cautiously over to the edge and looked straight down. Realized that there were houses built into the side of the cliffs and all along the path down to the lake. There were narrow, muddy trails weaving back and forth all the way down. Great. Just great. Emmanuel went ahead of me, carrying my water bottle, my backpack, his backpack, and holding my hand the whole way. He was very kind and didn't mind when I stopped to re-group every 10 steps. We reached a house. Went inside. It was a small room. Small table. 1 bench. Very clean. Concrete floor. 2 chairs. There was an older gentleman inside. Probably in his early 70's. Very welcoming. Three more adults showed up and entered the room. They probably saw us (strangers) heading down the trail and were curious about what was going on. Two young boys entered the room. I was able to share the Gospel with the whole group. All of them prayed to receive Christ. I did a short discipleship lesson. Gave them tracts to read and urged them to read the tracts to their families and to pass along the message of Christ to others. One of the young boys turned out to be an orphan. He was 6 years old. This was his grandpa's home. He had come to live here when his parents died. His name was Claude. He followed us around the rest of the week and whenever asked could recite the story of salvation and knew the meaning of all the pictures on the Evangecube. As soon as Dan arrives home (Sept 29), I'll post a picture of Claude. He wore a lime green shirt every day. In the villages, people tend to have only 1 set of clothes. It's pretty easy to remember people day to day because you recognize their clothes. 

 

New Cubes

Guess what we got in the mail last week...

These are pocket-size Evangecubes! Dan ordered 100 of them. So many that they actually came with their own retail display case which we proudly have showcased on the sideboard in the dining room! You can see from the picture that Dan spent some serious time designing his merchandise display.

From left to right you can see the entire story of salvation just by glancing at the display. Jesus on the cross. Soldiers guarding the tomb where Jesus was buried. The miracle of the resurrection. Jesus is the bridge - the way, the truth, the life. Choose God's free gift of salvation. He's waiting to take you by the hand, offer you forgiveness & reconciliation with Him as well as an abundant & eternal life. There's even a basic discipleship lesson on the far right. And of course, you can clip these cubes on your belt right next to your phone and/or pager, you can clamp it on a backpack or purse, and if you're just the simple, no-frills type, you can just carry it in your hand.

These are part of our "arsenal" that we take with us to Rwanda. They are an invaluable evangelism tool. Over the course of the week, we will tell the story of salvation multiple times. And each time we do, it becomes even more ingrained in our hearts and impressed in our minds. It is amazing how God is using this simple tool to make His name known in the most remote places in the world. We are anxiously waiting to board that plane on Wednesday. We are so blessed to be able to share this experience with our sons. They are excited about seeing the place that captured our hearts and for which we are giving up life as we've known it for 21 years in order to be "all in" on this e3 journey.

Rwanda in 5

It's Friday. Normally a busier day than most because of all the weekend prep that goes on. Setting the stage. Designing Easy Worship presentation. Music copied and put on music stands. Worship order finalized and printed. All these tasks are familiar and necessary like dots on i's and crosses on t's. But today, this Friday, I've added a new layer of tasks to be completed. I'm determined to not have a terrible Tuesday the day before we leave. So I'm trying to cross huge chunks of items off my to-do list, starting today. I've got guest musicians scheduled to come in on the Sundays I'm gone so I'm finalizing details with them. I'm burning CDs for the worship team and band. I'm putting together packets of music for both weeks. I'm also building the Easy Worship shows for both weeks. I'm buying batteries and Lay's potato chips (long story). I'm re-confirming availability of band and singers. I'm even putting together a contingency plan in case of catastrophic projector failure. I've got lyric sheets ready to pass out to the congregation and lyrics & music for singers and band. Just in case! 

In just 5 short days, we will board a plane and head to Washington D.C. where we will meet the other members of our North American team of Missionaries to Rwanda. We will then travel to Ethiopia and spend one night before the final leg of our journey which takes us to Kigali, the capitol of Rwanda. After we go through customs, we will be greeted by a welcoming committee of e3 trainers and Rwandan nationals. It's a custom they have of coming to the airport to greet us. Then we'll pile our luggage and supplies and ourselves into 12 passenger Toyota vans which will carry us to the Kibuye region. We will check into a guest house. Get settled. Then get started on the work which we've been called to do.

This is a picture of Kibuye and Lake Kivu. I found it on Joshua and Alyssa's photo blog. Click HERE to go to Joshua and Alyssa's photo blog (BrooksAfrica.blogspot.com). They were in Kibuye in May so you can get an idea of this incredible place where we will be sharing the Gospel. Be sure to check out the ONLINE VIDEO of the entire team ministering in Kibuye. It's very inspiring and hopefully will give you a glimpse of why we are so passionate about Rwanda.

Worship As A Lifestyle

Found this at a blog called The Cartoon Church. I'm not sure how I feel about this picture. It sort of reminds me of an experience I had several years ago. I was attending a local worship serminar. One of the speakers was the leader of a fairly well-known worship band. He spent an hour talking about worship to us. He simultaneously carried on a conversation with God. He really did. Every other sentence he spoke was to us. The remainder of his thoughts he spoke directly to God. Out loud. Once I got the rhythm of this down, I was able to figure when he was speaking to us. I'm still not sure how I feel about that experience. I'd like to think that I have a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And that I'm a worshipper who worships in spirit and in truth, 24/7. Yet I've never carried on a conversation with God out loud while conversing with others. And I've never raised my hands to the heavens at a bus stop or any other public place unless I was stretching and yawning. On the one hand, I secretly admire this utter abandon and apparent devotion to God. But my logical, judgmental, rational, conservative, non-demonstrative instincts tell me that this guy is quite possibly crazy. So if I were to look for middle ground where would I find myself? Or is middle ground too lukewarm? Just imagine this guy with his favorite football team's jersey on. The bus pulls up to the stop. There's a lifesize ad for his team on the side of the bus. And maybe a few other fans on the bus, headed for the big game together. Would they be raising their arms up, doing high fives, head-butting each other, cheering and yelling "score!" and being lost in "worship" and adoration of their team? I'm thinking that the same bystander would probably still have the word "idiot" in her thought bubble. My thought bubble might just say "smiling on the inside."

Rwanda - Part 9

I need to backtrack to Wednesday. On Wednesday morning our village (Musanze) had "court day." This is when the perpetrators and victims of the genocide get their "day in court." Interesting. When your name appears on the court docket that's your chance to make sure that justice is served. If the person accused of murdering/harming your family sincerely apologizes to you and is repentant, then the person will be forgiven. If the person accused of murdering/harming your family refuses to apologizes and is unrepentant, then the person will go to prison. WOW! Talk about a great metaphor for the kind of forgiveness Christ offers and those who choose to accept it or reject it. We weren't allowed to be in the village until 2pm. In fact, no one is really allowed to be out and about until court is over. So for this morning we were assigned to go to another Mission Point whose village wasn't having "court day." Then in the afternoon we returned to Musanze.

We were with Ana and her team in a village that seemed to be about 30 min. away from our village in the exact opposite direction. The new church site was actually right off of a paved road. There seemed to be a lot more "city" influence in this area. Lots of bicycles, motorcycles, even a couple of cars occasionally. And in my opinion, the spiritual climate was totally different from our village. Jane and I went out with two nationals from the village. Both women were very sweet but extremely shy. One woman had a 3 week old baby strapped to her back. We stopped at a couple of homes and were able to disciple and pray with some women who had prayed to receive Christ earlier in the week. Then we ventured further into the banana plantation and shared with a married couple who were squeezing banana juice into a giant wooden trough. Probably making banana beer. They both prayed to receive Christ. Let me tell you - flies love bananas and banana juice - I struggled with all the flies just a little bit. Then we shared with a woman who prayed to receive Christ earlier in the week yet refused to tell them her name. She also refused to tell me her name. Then we shared with a devout Catholic who I believe knew Christ as her Savior. She had a very sweet, peaceful assurance. Then we reached a huge dry river bed. Went down a steep, sandy embankment, slipping and sliding all the way. Then crossed a bridge made of straw, twigs, and rotting plywood - I almost sat down and refused to go across. Then up the embankment on the other side. We were in yet another part of the banana grove. Came to an old woman sitting on a little grassy knoll outside her house. Shared the gospel with her. She prayed to receive Christ. While I was sharing with her, a young man, maybe in his early 20s came up and listened intently. He also prayed to receive Christ. I went through the last part of the cube with both of them - this is a simple discipleship lesson. I was struck by the thought that I was in the middle of the jungle in a village no one has ever heard of and most people will never see and I will never see these people again. Maybe in heaven we will recognize each other. As we were leaving, the young man started talking to me in limited English. He said he wanted to move to America someday because he had heard life was easy there. Whoa! Back up the bus - time for a little more conversation. I told him that life in America isn't easy. Not by any means. It's a lot more comfortable, but we pay a high price for that comfort. And then we moved on but I kept thinking about life in America and how easy it isn't. Our lives are so complicated. Relationships are mixed up and messed up. We have so many choices. And so many "needs." Life in any village or city is not easy. God promised us that it wouldn't be. Even life with Christ is not easy. But His grace is sufficient for us. He is our Sustainer. He is our Comforter. His mercies are new every morning. Think about the significance of that. He is our Provider. He is our Shelter. We are His children. We can come to Him any time. He offers to carry our burdens for us. We can rest in the shadow of His wings. He lifts us up on wings like eagles. He is listening, watching, waiting, willing, and able. He is everything we need to live this life we've been called to live. We are more than conquerors through Him. Hallelujah! Amen!