RockTheDesert

Carol's Rwanda Story

Team Berryman spent 25-days this summer in Africa on 3-different,consecutive, church planting campaigns with e3 Partners Ministry. This is just one story of God’s redeeming love that we wanted to share with you!

Carol, an e3 staff member from Texas, visited this very small house (not much bigger than the vans we ride in). Carol spent time talking with a woman and her five children. The woman confessed that she used to be a faithful Christian but after she was married, her husband led her away from the Lord. One day he took another wife and abandoned her and the kids. The woman realized she needed to get her spiritual life back on track and is thrilled there will now be a church within walking distance she can attend. Wow! Carol prayed for her and her children, and she came to the afternoon meetings at new mission point.

Although the woman and her children had a decent set of clothes to wear, it was obvious that they were very poor. Because of their faithful attendance to the meetings and re-dedication of their lives to Christ, our ministry team wanted to bless them. We gave the family six (donated to us) Christ Lutheran School shirts. We stressed that the gifts were from the church and that all praise and thanks should go solely to God. Thank you Christ Lutheran School for your generosity!

Hebrews 13:16 “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

Burundi - Rwanda Border

Here's a story from Dan (aka @daninreallife). I was only able to stay for the first 1/3 of the month-long e3 campaign. I was on my way back to the USA when this event took place.

Due to the generosity of our friends at TCM International, we were able to be driven from Bujumbura to Kigali -- my first African border crossing by car.

  Tricia posed with the SUV that had our luggage securely tied to the roof. The rope was a ¼” strand of rubber from a used tire. No photographs while crossing the border, “Not Allowed!”

A Rwandan customs agent, dressed in military uniform, told us to unload the truck and open all our bags. I had one suitcase filled with over 100 Evangecubes that I thought would be confiscated or I might possibly have to pay an import tax for. I protested each bag until the “cube” bag. Sure enough, the soldier found a jackpot. He wanted me to explain why I had so many “cubes” and what we used them for. I opened one up -- when he saw the picture of Jesus he was satisfied the “cubes” were not contraband and instructed us to load up the truck. 

I instructed Manasseh, our Rwandan leader, to share the gospel using the “cube.” My motivation: he inconvenienced us, now we will inconvenience him (I know, I’m not going to win the “Missionary of the Year” award, [again]). We slowly re-loaded the truck while Manesseh shared the gospel.

I started to worry, “What about the cars behind us?” Not to worry -- it’s Africa – very few people own/drive private vehicles. We are it. There are lots of trucks and buses but no cars.

The soldier’s boss, dressed in a suit, appeared and listened for a while. Now I’m worried that we got the soldier fired. Miraculously, the boss is already a Christian. He appreciated our message.

The soldier ended up praying to receive Jesus. Unloading then re-loading the luggage turned out to be worth while after all!

One More Step

What an incredible summer of missions! Team Berryman, along with many wonderful team members, just completed a 25 day trip to Burundi and Rwanda with E3 Partners. I'll be summarizing the "numbers" in a later post.

For now, let me start with our first Saturday in Burundi by telling you about my first visit to the main marketplace in Bujumbura in January 2008. I'll never forget walking past cars and buses, dodging motorbikes and bicycle taxis while busy shoppers and hawkers brushed past us. In the short distance from the parking lot to the shops, I felt assaulted by a hundred different impressions in as many steps. At the main entrance we came upon a large, white, buggy-like contraption. I looked inside the buggy and, quite honestly, was horrified and frightened at the sight of a child with a grotesquely large, misshapen head lying there covered in a blanket. There was a sign describing the child's condition - hydro-encephalitis - and asking for money. I noticed a small basket with a few coins and bills in it before my eyes filled with tears and I had to look away. I nearly knocked people over in my haste to hurry away from that gut-wrenching sight.

Fast forward 18 months...Today we were asked to pray for a woman's healing from hydro-encephalitis. I instantly felt pangs of guilt and thought of that poor child I had seen before. When we entered the small bedroom, I realized that this was the very same child I had seen in the marketplace. Except she wasn't a child. She was actually a 20-yr old young woman named Adele. Her body size and shape were child-like and out of proportion due to hydro-encephalitis she had contracted at 9 months old.

Surprisingly, I wasn't terrified at seeing her. Instead, I was really glad God allowed me to see her again, this time through His eyes of compassion. We found out that Adele knows and loves Jesus. She sang her favorite songs to us, including "How Great Thou Art." Adele has an incredibly joyful smile and great faith that she will be healed someday. Several of us prayed for her complete healing. While we were inside praying, a crowd of people gathered outside. Steven, Michael and Randy went outside to share the Evangecube with them. Several people prayed to receive Christ. We are very thankful that God was glorified both in Adele's strong faith and in the gift of salvation received by many. Jeremiah 29:11 states that God knows the plans He has for us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Plans to give us hope and a future. He clearly has a plan for Adele's life. It's not my job to figure out that plan. But today God showed me a glimpse of that plan by replacing my horror with grace and my fear with love as He used Adele to move me one more step toward becoming like Him. Isn't that just the way it should be?

Rwanda - Land of the Lost - Outro

Before you read any further, please click HERE to view a great video by Rob, one of our team members from this Rwanda trip!

My journey to the "Land of the Lost" had some amazing statistics which don't even begin to tell the true story of redemption for every fact and figure listed. Our team of 31 North Americans, 31 Rwandan Ministry Partners, and 400+ Rwandan Nationals shared the Gospel with nearly 6,000 Rwandans. Sometimes we shared one-on-one. Sometimes in large group settings. Sometimes in homes. Sometimes on the side of the road. Sometimes in the marketplace. Sometimes with the hotel staff. Sometimes in businesses. Sometimes on the hillsides. Sharing the Gospel never gets old. It is a joy and privilege to experience the joy of salvation with people who choose to put their faith in Jesus Christ. And when the "numbers" add up to 3,800+ first-time professions of faith in Christ, it's impossible to take any credit. Just deep satisfaction that we answered the call. We moved forward. We did hard things. We sent out letters and made phone calls to raise support. We packed and re-packed. We were immunized against diseases we thought were extinct. We swallowed malaria medicine faithfully. We traveled in cramped mini-vans over bumpy, rutted, sometimes impossibly muddy roads. We got stuck in the mud. We sang and praised and worshipped the One True Living God. We prayed our guts out. We surrendered our wills and lives daily and served God gratefully. In return, He gave us joy and that joy was our strength.

Our prayer (Team Berryman) is that many more people would join us in this life-impacting adventure. The harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. The cost is high, both financially and personally. But it's a price well-invested in the Kingdom of God, serving the King of Kings, worshipping Him not just with our voices but with 100% of our lives - fully, totally, completely all-in!!

And so the question is: when will you join us on a short-term mission trip with e3 partners?

Rwanda - Land of the Lost - #4

This trip to Rwanda was an e3 Partners training trip for me. I wasn’t assigned to a team. I went to a different Mission point ever day. I had to discern where and how God could use me most effectively on each team. On our travel days, I was a shepherd and a mom. On the first day I was a coach and encourager to a first-timer. On the second day, I preached about the armor of God and I was a prayer warrior for a woman in need of deliverance from a drug addiction. By the way, I was told that on Friday this same woman came to the final discipleship meeting and said her dependence on the drug was completely gone and she’d been set free from it! On the third day I was an evangelist, sharing the Gospel with each person I met. I met a woman, my exact same age, who had survived the Genocide 15 yrs ago. I asked her if she knew God and she said she knew God because He spared her life during the Genocide. She told me her story of absolute terror. It’s too long to go in to right now. But she ended by saying that she knew God existed because there’s no other reason that she should have survived that time except for God’s divine protection. I told her that I was certain He had allowed her to live so that one day (Tuesday, June 2, 2009) I would arrive at her home and share the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ with her. She listened to my testimony and while I shared the Gospel using the evangecube. Both she and her husband and their neighbor prayed to receive Christ and were so grateful that we came to their home.  On the fourth day, I met a girl who became blind 2 years ago and told us not to feel sorry for her because the joy of the Lord was her strength and He was her protector and her provider. She was the encourager that day!  On the fifth day, we made bricks!  On the sixth day I worked with kids and empowered them to do big things for God. Every day was different. Every day God gave me different opportunities to use my gifts and life experiences to minister to people and make a hopefully make a difference in their lives. God won’t always use us to share the Gospel with words, but our lives should continually share the Gospel without words. Some days I was so tired, I didn’t want to interact with people, I just wanted to go after the tasks and get them done and checked off the list. But God always gave me an extra measure of love and compassion and purpose for every single day so that I could truly walk humbly with Him and pour out my life for others as He would continually refill me.

Rwanda - Land of the Lost #3

If you just arrived at this blog, please scroll back and read "Land of the Lost" intro, #1 & #2 then continue with today's post. I recently returned from a 10 day trip to Rwanda with e3 Partners Ministry - lots of adventure and unexpected blessings and challenges!

One of our team members was named Jonathan Hughes. He’s 21 years and an on-fire preacher and evangelist from South Carolina. He loves God with all his heart. When he prays, it’s like heaven comes down and fills the room with God’s presence. Jonathan’s grandmother spoke a word over him before she died and said that God told her Jonathan would one day preach the Gospel in Africa. Since that day, it’s been his dream to fulfill that calling. You probably should know that Jonathan has cerebral palsy. He’s in a wheelchair.

He was zero use of his legs, limited use of one hand and 75% use of his other hand. He has scoliosis and arthritis in his back. He recently had 2 grand mal seizures. But he felt that God was calling him to preach in Africa and that this trip with e3 Partners was the right opportunity to go. So by faith he raised the funds to go on the trip. He had a few people cautiously cheering him on, but he had even more people calling and telling him he was crazy and that he shouldn’t go. While we were in the airport, he even had a pastor call and offer to fly him home right then. But Jonathan knows that God placed him on this earth for a purpose and that purpose includes sharing the Gospel regardless of comfort zone, health, courage, disability or fear. Jonathan’s faith made a difference in my life. His preaching of the Gospel in Africa made a difference in 100’s of lives for eternity. He made a difference in the life of his ministry partner/translator, Victor, who is also in a wheelchair.

Victor is passionate about sharing the Gospel in Rwanda and just recently joined the Ministry Partner team. This was his first church-planting campaign with e3 and he was overjoyed that God sent Jonathan in his wheelchair to Rwanda to be on his ministry team. Victor was born with polio and as a result his legs are completely withered and useless. He is mostly confined to a wheelchair, although when necessary, he “walks” with flip flops placed on his hands. An amazing and humbling sight to see. These guys haven’t sidelined themselves from ministry because of their physical limitations. Instead, they’ve thrown themselves fully into ministry, knowing that God has allowed them and called them out to be difference-makers in the world. 

Rwanda - Land of the Lost #2

Continuing today with part #2 of my recent e3 Partners Ministry trip to Rwanda!

In Africa, you walk a lot. I mean really a lot. Uphill both ways sometimes. Everyone walks everywhere. On Thursday, our team had a character-building day. I think it was my favorite day of the trip. When we arrived at our Mission Point, no one was there to greet us. Finally someone walked up and told us that it was community work day. Every person in the village was required to spend the morning helping to clear land and build bricks in order to build houses for widows and the very poor. We had a choice to sit and wait for 4 hours or join in the work. We chose to join the work. We found ourselves walking downhill towards a river. Every step we took down that hill made me dread every step we’d have to take to go back up that hill. We walked among banana trees, coffee trees, sunflower fields, corn fields, so much lush greenery. At the work site, there were men and women digging and hoeing the rich red dirt, clearing and smoothing out a plot of land and putting the dirt in a large pile. Our job was to fill 5 gallon jugs of water down at the river and bring them back up. We poured the water in the dirt, then added in armfuls of straw and grass and then that was mixed together with hoes to just the right consistency for brick-making. The women would then gather up just the right amount of mud, stuff it into the brick mold then repeat over and over again until the mud was all used up. We spoke to the foreman of the project about sharing the Gospel with the crowd. She said she’d give us a chance to speak to them after they were done working for the morning. So we pitched in and worked alongside them. Two hours later, the work was done and all the people gathered on a small hillside. The foreman and a local government leader held a progress meeting with them. But then, just as promised, they turned the program over to us. I was asked to share a short message with them. I shared a verse with them out of 2 Corinthians 4:5-6. It says “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said,"Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” And so I thanked them for the privilege of serving alongside them for Jesus’ sake. And I explained that since God shines in our hearts, we wanted to represent Him well by not being served or exalted above them, but by serving them and the community. Another team member shared the Gospel using the Evangecube with them. Out of the 140 or so gathered, 101 made first time professions of faith in Jesus. It was an amazing experience. And humbling to realize that becoming like Christ we really must be willing to get our hands dirty. And sweat a little. Or a lot. And serve people. And climb down steep hills. Then climb back up steeper hills. Jesus never sat on a velvet throne while on this earth. Most likely He lived and worked in a village very similar to the ones we visited in Africa. You sit on hard wooden benches or on woven straw mats placed on the rocky, dirt floor. You hug perfect strangers. You extend God’s love to unlovely people. All because we have been called to focus our lives on what matters most to us. Hopefully, what matters most to us is following Christ. Period. Because in choosing to follow Christ, we are choosing to become like Him.

Rwanda - Land of the Lost - #1

This is part #1 of my presentation at church on June 14

I’m always blown away by the child-like abandon with which the Africans enter into worship. I mean, they go after it with every last ounce of strength they have. They wouldn’t dream of just sitting and singing a song while checking email on their phone and shuffling through their purse looking for a stick of gum. It just doesn’t happen. I captured a little 3 yr old girl on video joining in the worship time with the adults. To her it’s just as natural as breathing in and out. It’s something that’s been modeled to her from before birth and then while she was an infant and strapped to her mother’s back and now that she’s walking and talking it’s just part of the rhythm of her life.

I wonder if sometimes the child-like wonder we once had is replaced with a good feeling about God then even that sort of mellows into a “I’ll be a good person and I’ll do good things” sort of life without ever making a personal decision to follow Christ.

We met a gentleman on Tuesday who invited us into his tailor shop. At first I didn’t notice that he was handicapped. His iron crutches were laying on the floor. But then I realized that his legs were sort of withered and useless. I don’t remember his name, but I remember his face.

Such a kind man. He was a devout Catholic. Nothing wrong with that. However, we weren’t interested in his religion but his relationship with Christ. I kept asking him questions about his faith. I wanted to know if he just knew a lot about God or if he knew him personally as his Savior. He kept answering my question with a list of good works. He helps orphans by patching their clothes for free or even giving them clothes if they need them. He has an extra sewing machine next to him so that he can teach orphans the sewing trade who otherwise wouldn’t have a way to make a living. He attends church faithfully. He prays all the time. He is especially grateful that God has blessed him with a business to support himself and to help others with. He constantly prays and thanks God for his blessed life. My ministry partner, Antoinette, cracked the code when she told him “those are prayers of thanksgiving but have you ever prayed and asked Jesus to become your Lord and Savior, forgiving your sins and cleansing you from all unrighteousness?” He paused and then the light bulb went on. It was like we hit him with a ton of bricks. He asked us to please teach him that prayer. So we did and he prayed and now he’s a brand-new follower of Christ, saved by faith not by works. Randy says something to each person that is baptized Fellowship North Church “buried in the likeness of His death, raised to walk in a new kind of life.” And so this new kind of life is a life of love, full devotion and worship from which good works can’t help but flow freely and generously.

 

Rwanda - Land of the Lost - Intro

I returned from Rwanda on June 7. Randy asked me to help him illustrate his message called "Land of the Lost" (inspired by the cartoon series & current summer movie) on June 14. I came up with an intro and 4 stories with pics/videos that Randy wove into his message. I sat and wrote the whole thing (manifesto) out in about 2 hours then I emailed it to Randy. I gave him full editorial license, however, he just inserted every word into his message (could be because he was on vacation in Mexico with his family). On Sunday, we were both on the platform, taking turns with message & stories. According to Randy, I was extremely wordy - 2500 written words plus once I got comfortable, a few extra words & thoughts! Here's my intro -  [note to self - alliteration in writing = good / alliteration in speaking = tongue-twisters!]

INTRO: From the moment we walk up to the Ethiopian Airlines gate at Dulles International Airport, it’s like we’ve entered a foreign, unknown land. When we finally board the plane, strange music plays over the intercom system. Some of the flight attendants are wearing traditional Ethiopian dress. PSA’s are made first in Amharic then in broken English. So interesting and opposite feeling. And so the journey to the land of the lost begins. Once we arrive at our destination, it’s like all the distractions that plague us and keep us from truly experiencing intimacy with God sort of are stripped away. No TV. No internet. No jobs. No school. It is suddenly us and God and the mission He’s called us to. Life fades from brilliant Technicolor fast-paced madness to sudden and utter simplicity. Faith seems the natural byproduct of this lack of clutter and clamor. And prayer flows naturally and fervently in unity with the entire team. We cry out passionately to God together in multi-language unison. Then there’s the songs. The singing and the dancing are surprisingly raw and real. There's joy. There's fellowship. The ebb and the flow of relationship with God and each other spills over into praise, petition, freedom and joy. This is surely a taste of another world far from the one we now call home.

Pray

I've just added our Team Berryman June/July '09 Prayer Calendar to the Team Berryman page - check it out - or you can click HERE to view/print!

Next week we depart the USA for our incredible summer adventure in Africa. I just returned from Rwanda last weekend - it was an amazing trip!! We are looking forward to a wonderful, fruitful time of ministry this summer.

Steven has his first job this summer - camp counselor at a Day Camp - he's in charge of leading a group of 30-40 5th grade boys. He's having a great time.

Michael is done with High School, working at Chick-fil-a, trying to figure out what his life will look like at the end of the summer.

I just finished my final training trip with e3 partners ministry - I'm 1 step closer to being a full-time Church Planting Coordinator with e3. Hopefully get my uniform, name badge and secret handshake pretty soon!

Here's one of my favorite worship times from my last trip to Rwanda - love the dancing, love the passion and energy and great abandon!

What I Really Meant To Say

Cyndi Thomson sang a song a few years back called "What I Really Meant To Say." Loved that song. A great, country-flavored love song that spoke of relationship & regret. Alyssa and I used to watch CMT together and we both got hooked on their music videos. I also must admit that I got hooked on country music for the first time. I guess today's country music is more a country/pop hybrid, but you've gotta love that money-making formula!

When I was in Rwanda two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a group called Joined Hands. When my host, Manasseh Wandera, picked me up at the airport on Sunday, he informed me that I'd be speaking that night instead of Tuesday night -great, there went my prep time! I quickly prayed for inspiration and was immediately rewarded with "What I Really Meant To Say" as my overall theme. I was initially scheduled to speak to just the wives in the group. Due to some scheduling and technical difficulties, I ended up speaking to the husbands as well!

I basically shared my testimony. My main point was - I don't want to live a life of regret - I don't want to get to the end of my life and look back and say "what I really meant to say" or "what I really meant to do" or "where I really meant to go". I talked about being a promise keeper not just a promise maker. I talked about how our time on this earth is more about becoming holy than happy. I talked about the blessing of being raised in a Christian family with grandparents and parents who lived authentic Christian lives and who prayed constantly. I rambled on a bit I suppose. But at the end of it, I found myself so grateful for the life I've been given to live. Life isn't easy sometimes. I've made millions of mistakes. I do have regrets, but I'm learning to let them go and continue moving forward, to live live forgiven, to walk humbly yet boldly in God's grace.

Check out this music video, just for fun.

My First Video Creation Using Pinnacle

This video is best viewed in AVI format - really beautiful, clear pictures, no skips or jumps, timing is right on. When I uploaded it to YouTube via Pinnacle (just click on one easy button), the pictures got a little bent out of shape/distorted and blurry(er). I've compiled pictures from our own cameras as well as our team members so some are better than others. Overall I'm relatively happy that I've finally got it posted on YouTube for the world to view!!

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!!

Rwanda Stories - In The Red

It seems that from every e3 mission trip I go on, a memorable theme emerges. This time, for me, it was all about God's provision. He is, after all, Jehovah-Jireh, God our Provider. He definitely intended for us to really know that about Him by the end of the week.

Before we left for Rwanda, we knew that our trip was over-budget by over $4000. This was mostly due to out-of-control airline costs which seemed to go up every day before we finally had funds from everyone to purchase them. Also, a few months after setting the final price for the trip, we found out that part of our budget needed to include leaving behind $600 per church site to assist with the cost of putting a roof on a new building. Great. Another $4800 in the red. Dan and I decided that we'd pull that amount out of his support account when we returned home. We were prepared for the trip to be even more in the red due to fluctuating prices and a lot of unknown expenses that we might incur. We knew that God would provide for our needs. He had already provided an incredible team of North Americans and Rwandan ministry partners. We'd had safe travel. All of our luggage arrived with us. These were all small miracles. Then God started to get really creative. He made Toyota Land Cruiser available for Dan to drive which meant that we could cram 6 team members in that vehicle with him and save over $2000 by not having to rent another van. He ended up spending $110 on fuel. That's quite a savings! Somehow, with God's provision, the budget ended up in the black AND we left that additional $4800 for roofs. That was a huge miracle!!  When God provides, He provides generously, abundantly, without holding back, and all for His glory!!

  More on God's provision in my next post...

Philippians 4:19 "You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes." THE MESSAGE BIBLE

Rwanda Stories - Sunday

Our E3 trip to Rwanda is an epic tale of God's faithfulness. God's plans were carried out according to His will and purposes. We were the message-bearers, the servants, the foot-washers, the encouragers, the hill-climbers, the disciple-makers, an eclectic team called together for 10 days of travel, ministry, partnership, and celebration! Each team member was a blessing to the team in various ways throughout the week. From words of encouragement to chocolate and popcorn, to cold medicine, to smiles, to hands clasped in unity, to utter silliness, to despair and fear, everything we brought to the table was ultimately for God's glory and to make His Name known to the Rwandans we encountered.

I was the leader of Team #1. This is a picture of Team #1's Mission Point church site. Our task for the week was relatively simple: share the Gospel with everyone we met while walking throughout the village, invite new Christians to a discipleship meeting in the afternoon, equip the new church with materials and resources to continue the ministry after our team is gone, and help to establish a brand new, baby church by the end of the week!!

The church plans to rent this site until God provides a way for them to buy the land and building...asking price is 1,000,000 rwandan francs - about $2000 US dollars. On Sunday morning, we worshipped at the Mother Church which was several miles away from here. On Sunday afternoon, our team met with the Mother Church Pastor (Charles) and the Missions Point Pastor-in-training (Jean Claude), along with a group of about 50 church members (from the Mother Church) at the Mission Point for a time of prayer walking. We walked over the entire site, praying that God would do a mighty work in this village during our four short days of sharing the Gospel and building His church. By the end of the first day, we were humbled and amazed to see how abundantly God began to answer our prayers!
My two team members, Rachel and Sara, along with their ministry partners Jane & Maureen, are telling the story of Creation and using a 7 ft wide laminated poster to share beautiful, bright pictures which show what God created each day!

Rwanda - My First Wordle

I am a full-fledged Wordle addict after just one visit to Wordle.net - aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
I typed in as many words as I could think of to describe our recent e3partners mission trip to Rwanda. Next I'm going to have our entire team submit 20 descriptive words to me and I'll create a Wordle which I might have made into a team T-shirt!!! This is a great find - thank you Mark Jaffrey & Jim Drake for posting about Wordle and giving me yet another addiction to overcome!

Click on this thumbnail to see the full-size version - I think you'll love it!!

"Bunk Beds?"

Email from Dan...23 March 2008

Easter Sunday in Rwanda is low key. The Rwandans decorate cars and a table in the church with flowers.

I visited the orphanage today that we will all visit in June. The orphanage is the most horrible yet beautiful alternative homeless street children in Kigali have. The children are clean and well clothed. Attached is a photo of the orphanage. I wish I could describe the orphanage but words cannot convey the experience.

According to Dan (he called me yesterday!), Sidney (fellow e3 campaigner, loves Rwanda) has gotten 350 pairs of shoes donated to the orphanage and they are being shipped from the USA. Sidney is an accountant at a major aeronautical company and has conducted an independent audit of the orphanage - it passed with no problem - it is run with integrity and compassion.

Letter from Dan

22 March 2008

Muraho (hello), Team Rwanda, just finished Leadership Development Course (LDC) with pastors in Nyabihu, Gisenyi, Rwanda. Ildephonse is the coordinating pastor (oh yeah try to say all these names). He is a voluntary e3 rwanda staff member and very well organized. Over 150 pastors and church leaders attended the conference.

During the evangelism workshop the pastors and church leaders went out into the streets to practice the evangecube. In 45-minutes 232 people accepted Jesus. One man experienced immediate life change. After he prayed to accept Jesus, he handed the pastor his pipe and "weed" saying, "I don't want to this anymore. This is sin."

The people are physically and spiritual hungry. The average person gets 1-meal every 3-days. We feed the pastors and church leaders lunch. Meal time was culturally shocking. The pastors went first and piled shredded chicken, rice, greens (?), sauce, and cows hoof (?) in their bowls like they hadn't eaten in, well, 3-days. When they were done the church leader men were invited to eat. They quickly grabbed the cleanest dirty dishes and attacked the food line. Then after all the men were full the women got their shot, mostly rice (None of the North Americans ate. We wanted the nationals to have all the food).

Heavy Suitcases

Dan left on Wednesday for Rwanda and Burundi. He's joining several other  e3 partners staff in conducting LDCs - Leadership Development Conferences - for upcoming church-planting trips this summer. Click HERE for prayer calendar for this trip. Click HERE for latest Team Berryman update!

This pic is of the stuff that didn't fit in his alloted 2 suitcases. He had to add a third bag in order to haul all the extra materials with him for the LDCs. 20 e-cubes, 400 laminated bookmarks, 100's of pens, nearly 7,000 pages of printed materials, proclaimers, mega-voices...he called me from Atlanta - his luggage weighed so much that they charged him an extra $150 - at least he'll be leaving most of that stuff in Africa!!

On a more frugal note, text messages are only .35 cents. Here's some of the cryptic text messages I've received so far.

• I have arrived in rwanda. I was met by mike & sidney. Brussels air is the best. Bags were wet from heavy rains in atlanta.
• Happy anniversary! 21.75 years, can you believe it?
• We are in ruhengeri at the guest house. LDC tomorrow. Then back to Kigali. I'm leaning how to make campaign successful.
• Halfway done with 1st ldc. Over 211 professions of faith with pastors practicing with ecube. Pastor Japhet is here.
• In Africa, the LORD is risen

Featured Video - Kenya/Rwanda - June '07

Enjoy this video which includes mostly our Kenya trip with a couple of clips of Rwanda mixed in!

The Africans dressed in mostly red are part of the Maasai tribe. They are the cattle owners/herders in Kenya. They are nomadic and still follow ancient tribal customs such as drinking cow's blood. Yuck. They also live in extremely short huts made from dried mud and manure. The Maasai women traditionally build the homes. They are not very tall so they only build the houses as tall as they can reach. Ironically, Maasai men are extremely tall, so they have to hunch way over in in order to move about in their homes. We were blessed to be able to meet with a group of Christian Maasai. We worshiped with them and they let us look inside their homes and allowed us to take pictures of them.

From 53 seconds to 57 seconds, you'll see the green hills of Rwanda. Then from 1:03 to 1:08 you'll catch just a 5 second glimpse of some children in Rwanda.

Church Planting

The way I see it, all you need to plant a church is bricks - any size, any shape, possibly some mortar if it's available, and of course, some scaffolding for the hard to reach places!

Actually, we take very seriously the fact that the Church is a body of believers who gather together for worship and community. The church building itself is a bonus. In the rural villages in Africa, people gather for "church" in empty fields, under trees, in front yards or backyards or in the town square or at the top of a hill or in a banana grove...whatever location is within walking distance of "the church" is where they meet.

This is "the church" our team planted. It meets in this grassy green field, right next to the water spigots for the village.

Silly & Not So Silly Stuff

This is Ky. He is a seasoned campaigner. He has the most amazingly comprehensive packing list I've ever seen. Retired firefighter. From California originally. Now lives in Oregon. He was on our trip to Rwanda then continued on to Sudan with Dan and Patricia. While in Rwanda, we had to make our own lunches. We brought loads of peanut butter & jelly & honey. Bread was provided for us. The bread slicer was missing half of its blades. So each loaf of bread went something like - slice, slice, slice, BIG slice, BIG slice, HUMONGOUS slice, slice, slice, GIANT slice, etc. We only had a butter knife to work with and Ky volunteered to cut each thick slice in half. Don't even ask about the crumbs and mangled slices of bread. It wasn't pretty. But when you're hungry, bread is bread, and we appreciated every single misshapen slice.   

I finally finished our Sept/Oct Team Berryman Update newsletter. Click here to see the final product.

Dan is now preparing for his second training trip. This will be E3's first ever church planting campaign in Burundi, January 17-27. He needs to recruit at least 2 more campaigners. Email Dan if you're interested and available those dates. [email protected].

Check out this great website http://www.hisgreatplan.com/. Mike & Mary Wagner are E3 Church Planters and they are very good at what they do. If you've never been on a trip before, you've got to go on at least 1 trip with the Wagners. You'll be hooked!

We are working on setting up dessert parties in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area to give us a chance to share with friends and friends of friends what it is that we've been called to do with E3 Partners Ministry. We'd love to have you join us. Please email Marina at [email protected] if you're interested in attending or hosting. Thanks.

Rwanda Video

Check out this video - it contains brief highlights of our recent trip to Rwanda.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

100

On our first day of evangelism we headed down the road to share with anyone and everyone we encountered. After the 1st house, we climbed back up the rocky, muddy cliff and headed back down the dirt road. We probably went 100 yards when we saw a large pile of rocks - large flat pieces all piled up into a rust-colored "seating area." Then we noticed a young man walking toward us. We stopped him and asked if we could share with him. He agreed.  As soon as we started sharing the Gospel, more and more people arrived and wanted to listen. Some sat on the rocks. Others stood. All who listened were convicted by the Holy Spirit and all prayed to receive Christ as their Savior. I shared the discipleship side of the Evangecube. Wrote down names and handed out Gospel tracts. Still others arrived and wanted to listen to the Gospel. A group of school children arrived. They waited patiently while I shared with probably three or four groups of people.

I noticed an older gentleman sitting on the rocks, waiting. He had a walking stick. His clothes were pretty tattered, but not any worse than the rest of the people I saw. I was finally able to walk over and talk to the man. He listened carefully to the Gospel. He prayed to receive Christ as his Savior. He gave us his contact info. He told us he was born in 1907. That man was 100 years old. My translator, Emmanuel, didn't believe him and questioned him about it. The man said that during World War II, he was already married and some of his children were already out of the house. 100. That's old. That's a long time to wait before making the most important, life-changing decision of your life - becoming a follower of Christ, forgiven, set free, reconciled to the Father through the Son, saved and born again. I don't know his story. Maybe he never heard the Gospel before. Maybe he heard it before and rejected it. Maybe he followed a more tribal religion. Maybe while he was young he never thought about eternal things. Maybe he had a mom who was a Christian and he rebelled against "her religion." Maybe he had a good life and didn't need God. Maybe he was a good person and didn't ever feel the need for forgiveness. Maybe God allowed him to live to be 100 so that he could hear the Gospel yet one more time...

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. 

 

Finally Home

We made it home...finally. Africa is a really, really long way from home. And it seems to take twice as long to get home. Our luggage did not make it home with us. Which is a much better scenario than not having our luggage make it to Africa with us - which happened to one of our team members. His luggage arrived in Rwanda on the day we were heading back to the USA. I got a knock on my door at 1:45am this morning - 4 suitcases needed to be signed for. I can sleep better now, knowing that our dirty laundry has arrived!

We are grateful for the prayers of friends and family. It was an amazing trip. We all had life-changing moments personally too. That was cool.

Kibuye, Rwanda has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world...it's right on Lake Kivu which is an enormous, blue green body of water. We kept our window open at night and could hear the waves lapping the shore gently. None of the photos I took can truly depict its beauty. Hopefully others on the trip were able to capture the sights and scenery...as soon as those photos are available, I'll start building a new photo album for the trip. For now, I'll just post a few photos and start telling stories tomorrow when I can think coherently!

8:25 AM Departure

Our flight leaves at 8:25 am.

We are packed. We are more ready to go than ever before. We've maxed out the weight in our suitcases. Tons of printed materials will go with us and stay in Rwanda. We've got nearly 20 pounds of peanut butter for our team lunches. That won't be coming back with us. We borrowed a laptop from a friend. I'll be able to keep a journal, but I'll have to wait to publish it 'til we get back. So I won't be "Rocking The Desert" again until September 17.

It's getting late. I'm off to bed for 4 hours.

A Favorite Thing

This painting is one of my favorite things. I purchased it in Rwanda in March 2007. It is hand-painted batik on cloth (at least that's what the shopkeeper told me). I love it because when I saw it, I had an "aha" moment.

The familiar DaVinci version of The Last Supper, with it's aging European-looking men, has never been very inspiring to me personally.

I haven't found one disciple in particular whom I identify with. They are just Jesus' disciples, the ones He called to follow Him, the ones He did life with, the ones who had specific purpose in serving with Him and carrying on His message after the Ascension, the ones who started The Church and ministered to the people just as He did and started spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, just as He asked them to in The Great Commission.

Hmmm. That sounds like OUR job description too. Only now, when I look at my painting, I don't see specific faces and personalities. I see me. And us. We are the disciples Jesus has called to do exactly what the disciples were first called to do. Follow Him. Do life deeply with Him. Live with His purposes driving our lives. Serve people. Carry on His message of hope, healing, justice, compassion, mercy, love, peace, eternal life, abundant life. Be a passionate member of The Church, minister to people through the church and sometimes in spite of the church. Take the Gospel message to the ends of the Earth. In whatever way you possibly can.

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.

Packing, packing, packing

Today was a packing day. Dan spent 60% of the day packing and re-packing for Africa. He is a very thorough packer. He packs all food items in large ziploc bags. He packs sets of clothes in extra large ziploc bags. We are taking a lot of printed materials - discipleship lessons, tracts, etc. We are taking a lot of Evangecubes. We've got MegaVoices in Kinyarwanda (language in Rwanda). We've got Proclaimers in Kinyarwanda. Since Dan is staying and going on a campaign to Sudan after Rwanda, he is taking packs of tuna and canned fruit and granola bars. We're taking gifts for translators. Gifts for people Dan will be staying with. Toiletries to give to translators. Hand sanitizer. Malaria meds. We've got pens and notebooks. Umbrellas. Mosquito repellent and sunblock. We're taking an extra load of stuff for the team - 6 large jars of peanut butter. 6 large jars of jelly. 5lb jar of honey. 500 sandwich baggies. Dan usually loads a bag as full as possible. Then he stands on the scale with it. He deducts his weight from the total to find the weight of the bag. Packing is a lot of work. But it's also a lot of fun. It's exciting to plan and dream and pray for the trip and for the people we will meet and for the churches that will be planted and for the team members who will receive an immeasurable blessing from the trip and the translators who will be loyal, inseparable friends/ministry partners before the end of the first day.

This is Dan with Jean-Marie, his Ministry Partner in Rwanda in March '07. We are hoping he'll be a part of the September e3 campaign. We've kept in contact via email. I'm excited about seeing him. He was just a part of the August campaign in Rwanda. He is a great translator and a student of the Word and a wonderful co-laborer in God's work!

2 Week Checkup

We leave for Rwanda 2 weeks from today...

I'm already mostly packed.
I know exactly how to pack for Michael & Steven.
Dan packs for himself. That way he can sneak in his stash of candy bars, cans of nuts, fast food condiment packets, etc.

My goal is to be more spiritually prepared this time. We've been asked, as team leads, to be prepared to speak for 20-25 minutes each time we are at a church gathering. That means I'll have to be able to impart spiritual truths to both those we do ministry with and the new converts who gather with us every afternoon and at the church service on Sunday. I am intimidated by this task. I know that God will hold me accountable for the words that I speak. I'm also looking forward to seeing God work in me and through me to make His name known.

I don't want to be like Megaphone Man. When we first moved to Phoenix, we were driving west on Camelback Road toward 16th Street. We were in the left turn lane and had the red light. On the south west corner, I could see a white mini-van with a couple of bored looking teens loitering around it, sitting on the bumper, etc. And I could see a man - youth pastor looking guy - with a megaphone milling about on the street corner. We all rolled down our windows to listen to what he was saying. MM was yelling at every car, every pedestrian, the entire intersection - something about hell, sin, condemnation, burning in hell, repent, repent, be saved, turn from your evil lives...etc...etc. Wow. Now that's real commitment, don't you think??? Actually, I was absolutely mortified that someone could possibly think that yelling into a megaphone could actually produce anything but ridicule, anger, apathy and rolling eyes in the passersby.

My prayer is that God would use me and give me words to speak that glorify Him and encourage & challenge both the believers and the non-believers. No megaphone will be necessary.

2 Calendars and a Video

Download prayer_calendar_rw07c.pdf

Click on the link above to download and print our Rwanda prayer calendar.
We would love to have you partner with us in prayer during our upcoming trip to Rwanda. Dan, Mike, Steve & I will travel to Rwanda on September 5 for an e3 partners church planting campaign.

Dan will then continue on to Sudan for another e3 partners church planting campaign which also happens to be his first training trip. I know that Dan and the entire team would really appreciate your prayers as well. Click on the link below to download and print the Sudan prayer calendar. It's actually a combined calendar - our Rwanda trip back to back with the Sudan trip - since there are 3 people on our Rwanda campaign who will continue on to the Sudan campaign.

Download prayercalendarPatriciaSeptember.doc

And finally, check out this video. It was recorded recently in the area where Dan will be in Sudan.

July-August 2007 Team Berryman Update

I just sent out our July-August 2007 Team Berryman Update tonight. I really like creating these newsletters. It's fun using LetterPop to create them. Here's a link to our Profile Page at LetterPop. http://letterpop.com/people/TeamBerryman/. You can view all three of our newsletters and subscribe to them at this page as well (if you want to).

Michael starts school tomorrow. Steven starts on Thursday. Then we leave for Rwanda 3 weeks later. They will miss 8 days of school. But the experience will be worth it. Dan and I will both be team leads. I believe we will be starting/planting 16 new churches in the Kibuye, Rwanda region. We arrive on Friday. On Saturday some of us will visit a refugee camp on the border of Rwanda/The Congo. Some of us will visit a prison. We will have an opportunity to share the Gospel with large groups of people in both of these places. We are praying that the fields will be ripe for harvest. I am really getting excited about this trip. I fell in love with Rwanda last time I was there. The place, the people, the Spirit of God being poured out in that place. It's really an indescribable experience.

We will be posting a prayer calender on this blog very soon - watch for it! We would love it if you would pray for our team and for God's continued favor and revival in Rwanda.

Back Where All The Insanity Began...

Tomorrow, Joshua & Alyssa leave for 2 back-to-back missions trips in Africa. First trip is to Rwanda. Back where all the insanity began 1 year ago. They will be in a different part of Rwanda - Kibuye is the name of the city. We've spied on it using Google Earth and it looks really beautiful. They will be part of a team of 27 North Americans. Joshua's cousin & his wife (from St. Louis) will also be on the trip. They have kept in contact with many Rwandans from their previous trip and are excited about reconnecting with them on this trip. At the end of their trip, they will board a plane and join the Fellowship North group in Nairobi, Kenya. It is going to be an amazing couple of weeks for them.

They finished packing over the weekend - - they are my inspiration to not pack all night the night before we leave - - and are trying to prepare themselves spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally for the task ahead. Pray that God gives them physical strength - 20 days is a long time in Africa. Pray that God gives them emotional & mental strength as they will interact with A LOT of people, including 2 different North American teams. Also, Joshua is a Team Leader on both of the trips. Pray most of all that God will continue to pour out his Spirit of conviction, healing, blessing, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and understanding over Africa and in particular the areas where they will be ministering for the next few weeks. Pray that people would have ears that really hear and minds that really understand and hearts that are really broken and in realization of their need for a Savior.

Gorillas

Click on link below to go to U.S. News & World Report site which shows a clip of the gorilla adventure Dan went on in Rwanda. Be sure to click on full screen for best picture.

<iframe src="http://usnews.feedroom.com/linking/index.jsp?skin=embed&fr_story=769acaecb362c91e7154614731faa58a1842ad57&rf=ev&hl=true" width="308" height="330" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" ></iframe>

Rwanda - Part 14

Time to do the final wrap...Saturday we shopped. Bought some beautiful fabric to make pillows. Ask me in 1 year if they're made yet. Fancy dinner at a beautiful lodge near the gorilla volcano. Jack Hanna has a home on the golf course. Rumor has it that heads of state and celebrities have all stayed at his place.

Early morning on Sunday we began our long trek back home. At this point, memories were fading fast and it's like time was standing still yet moving forward more rapidly than we could fathom. Weird. We spent some time at the Genocide Museum. Sobering. And Sad. And Maddening. Why didn't the world help these people. Where was I when 1 million innocent people were slaughtered with machetes in cold blood?

Then off to the Kigali Airport. Waiting. Boarded a plane to Nairobi, Kenya. 6-hour layover in Kenya. Not a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The airport had a power outage that lasted for a couple of hours while we were there. We shopped. We ate. We walked. We were too tired to talk. I sent an email to Joshua & Alyssa from an internet cafe. We watched an ER re-run and another show full of violence. Not so nice. Then we finally left at about 11pm. Flew all night to London. Large group of Africans on the plane in the rows in front of us. I thought they were on an organized tourist trip to America. One person appeared to be in charge and kept reassuring them and making sure they were all seated properly. Turns out they were refugees from the Congo all seeking asylum in the U.S.A. They were headed to New York. Parted ways with our group in London. Dan and I ate breakfast at TGI Fridays. A proper English breakfast (I assume) complete with baked beans, sausage, bacon, egg, toast. $4 for an 8 oz bottle of water. On our way to our gate, stopped in at Starbucks for a white chocolate mocha and a frappuccino. Boarded our plane for Washington D.C. Back row. Right next to the only bathroom on the plane. Really long flight. Boring in-flight movie. Went thru customs when we landed. Then we waited for our flight to Phoenix. Made a couple of cell phone calls (finally!) Tried (unsuccessfully) to change our seats (very last row, both middle seats). And then we met Eric. I noticed two Africans sitting in the seats across from us. A young woman and man. I wasn't totally sure if they were together or not. Trying to be friendly, I asked the woman what language her Bible was printed in. I was pretty sure it was a Bible - gold edging on the pages, she had a tiny cross on a chain around her neck. The woman appeared to not understand me at all. Then the young man next to her tried to answer my question. It turns out that he had met her in Ethiopia a few hours earlier when she needed assistance understanding where and when to board the plane headed for Phoenix. Since he was headed for Phoenix, he was appointed to be her unofficial "guardian." I asked him where he was from. I was elated to learn he was from Rwanda. His name was Eric. We managed to exchange contact information before we boarded the plane. We saw each other at the baggage claim carousel in Phoenix. Told him we would call and have him over for dinner.

OK, so tonight, we had Eric over for dinner. I am so happy that God put Eric in our path. I look forward to getting to know him. I'm hoping that I'll pick up some helpful phrases in Kinyarwandan. I hope that we can be a blessing to him as he gets acclimated to life in Phoenix. He is here on a student visa, studying mechanical engineering at ASU. Dan showed him the wonders of our computer, including Google Earth and digital photos. We actually pinpointed his home in Rwanda. Amazing. I hope to post a photo of him in a future post. Forgot to take the photo. For sure next time. Eric speaks Kinyarwandan, French and English and Swahili. He lost many family members in the genocide, including a younger brother. Life is not fair.

So, the journey is told and will probably be re-told many times. And Rwanda will be a part of us forever. I feel like our lives are permanently entwined with this beautiful part of Africa. There are so many more people who need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. So many dreams were birthed in this place. We will follow the calling with all our hearts and hopefully mobilize many others to do the same. For Him. Because of Him. It's all about Him.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Rwanda - Part 13

The Unity Goat Project. Designed to provide assistance to the poorest/neediest families in the local church. Each Church Plant pastor decides which families could benefit immediately from a goat. Then goats are distributed accordingly. Each of those families agrees that they will return the offspring of the goat to the church for distribution to another needy family. Etc. Etc. Etc. This could and should go on for a very long time. The cost of each impregnated goat is $25-$30. Each goat typically has twins or triplets. It gets a little complicated. But they have a good system. There is a three-fold value in each goat. First of all, it produces milk which the people can drink. Second, it produces manure which they use for fertilizer. Great idea. Third, they can eventually slaughter it and eat it. I suppose if times were really tough, they could also sell it for cash. I wonder how much a used goat sells for??!!

This trip changed the course of my life. I know that sounds pretty dramatic. But really, our lives will never be the same. On the Tuesday that Dan went back to work, he turned in his resignation letter. That was a pretty big deal. He signed up for a course called Body Builders which is designed to teach you the Biblical way to approach support-raising. I'm attending the course with him. It's in Jacksonville, FL. He has been assigned two mentors through e3...one will mentor him with fundraising, another with becoming a Church Planter. We are both very excited about the process he is embarking on.

And now, moving on to Burundi. Burundi is a small country in Africa directly south of Rwanda. This is a country that is very open to having e3 partners come in and evangelize the entire country. The president is a fully devoted follower of Christ. So, there is a possibility that Dan would become involved in church planting there. I am also praying about becoming involved in e3 partners as a Church Planting Coordinator. This is something that I am actually almost wrestling with. I know that I love being involved in ministry. Up to this point, it's been in music/worship in local churches. I'm wondering what in the world God is up to. Being a missionary wouldn't be so far removed from working in a church. We'd actually work with churches and mobilize groups of people from churches to go on trips. I'm watching and waiting to see God start to orchestrate the details and provide us little glimpses of what the future might hold. Maybe I need to have more blind faith than that. Maybe as I move forward, the road will be invisible. Am I ready for that kind of faith?

Rwanda - Part 12

Friday afternoon we had a celebration service at the New Church Site. It was so much fun. Tons of singing and praising. A challenge from Dan. Final sermon from me! We also received some gifts...the mother church, the new church, each of the pastors & their wives, beautiful tokens of their appreciation. I especially was touched by the carved wooden picture of a shepherd with sheep gathered around him - that was in direct reference to the message I gave one day. Then John Peter (a super cool guy from the mother church who worked with us all week) said he had a gift for us. So we stood up to receive a Rwandan flag on a little stand. Very nice. Then finally, a woman who prayed to receive Christ on Sunday at the mother church, said she had a gift for us. She was standing there holding her young baby in her arms - so we stood up to receive whatever gift she had to give us - I assumed she had something in her hand just underneath the baby - to my amazement and shock, when I reached for her hand, she handed me her baby. I had no idea what to say or do. Then she hugged me and her picture taken with me. Then she took the baby and handed it to Dan and hugged him and had her picture taken with him. Then she took the baby back and sat down. You know, that could have been very awkward. I guess she wanted to give us something of value and maybe her child is the most valuable item she has. Not quite sure what she was thinking but I'd like to think of it as a sweet gesture. Then it was all over. We got in the van for the ride back to the Guest House. The kids, as usual, followed the van, running & racing as far as they could. We saw so many people lining the road that we recognized. I saw Jacqueline, the young woman who asked me to be her spiritual mother. I saw the teenage girl who was an orphan who had many promises broken to her in her young life, yet through Christ she now had new hope and renewed sense of purpose and was determined to share the message of Christ with as many children as she could. There was the man dressed in white who was in charge of disbursing water to villagers at his little water station...now he had received the gift of living water and would no longer thirst. There was the young man dressed in his work clothes - he's a guide at the Gorilla excursion - now he's a follower of Christ and so hungry to learn more about the Bible. He completed all of the discipleship lessons and wanted more. We saw groups of teens and pre-teens and young adults, all with a new-found faith -- this faith and the boldness to now share Christ will hopefully change the course of this entire village for eternity's sake.

We had Pastor Japhet and Pastor John D'Amour in the van with us. We were all pretty quiet on the ride back. So much had transpired. So many miracles. We started the week with a big, green, grassy field. We ended the week with a church - not a building but a living, breathing organism. People who were lost but now were found. People who were blind but now could see. Amazing.

Back at the guest house, we hung out in the gazebo next to our room. Finished up some paperwork. Then went to the celebration wrap-up for the campaign. All the teams along with the pastors and the YWAM kids were there to praise God for His mighty work that week. Each team also was able to present a lot of discipleship materials to the pastors, along with a Proclaimer (suitable for large gatherings) and a smaller, similar device, can't remember its name, (suitable for small gatherings) that had "The Story of God" on it. We also gave them all the contact information we had gathered over the week for all the people who had prayed to receive Christ. Then Robert Mutijima announced that we were also able to give 5-6 impregnated goats to each site as part of the Unity Goat Project.

More on that later.

Rwanda - Part 11

I feel like I'm finally winding down. Maybe. Friday was a wonderful day. It was a full circle day for me. Definitely. We started up the road today. Headed to a part of the banana grove I hadn't seen yet. God kept sending us groups of people to share with. A group of women. A group of men. A new group of kids. A group of field workers heading to work. A woman at her home who invited 2 passersby to join us. A group of women in the middle of the field they were planting. A group of men who were just passing by. Another group of women heading to work. And of course more and more kids. Today was particularly meaningful because of where we were for most of the early afternoon. From about 11am - 1:30pm we were in the middle of several large fields that were being plowed and planted. The first two women we shared with were in the middle of a field. So we joined them there. One woman was completely stooped over. Even when she stood up to greet us she was still bent over at the waist. She was probably in her early 70s. We asked if we could share the story of God using some pictures. They said yes. As I began to share the Evangecube, another woman joined the group. To my amazement, it was the 1st woman I led to Christ on Day 1. She was smiling and encouraging the women to listen to the message. She stayed to listen and was so happy when both of her co-workers prayed to receive Christ. Jane sat down in a pile of dirt to write down their names. I moved to the road. I noticed that John D'Amour was sharing with a group of people. They all prayed to receive Christ. By then another group had gathered around me. Jane and I shared the Cube. They all prayed to receive Christ. Three older men walked by. They stopped to hear the message. They were unbelievably happy to hear it. When I showed them the picture of God's hand reaching down from heaven, they all reached out and shook our hands. They were completely into the message. They all three prayed to receive Christ. And on and on. Finally John D'Amour said it was time to head back to the Church Plant site. I couldn't believe how quickly time had passed. I felt like I had shared the message 'til I was practically hoarse. Yet I wasn't hungry or thirsty and had no sense of what time it might be. I had a surreal moment when I realized that we were living out, in real time, the passage in John 4:34-38. 34" My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." Thank God for the "sowers" who went before me, planting seeds that they maybe thought would never be reaped. I'm talking about missionaries and pastors and evangelists and passionate people who came to this area before me, maybe even martyrs who gave up everything for the cause and now I was having the privilege of reaping the harvest. Unbelievable. It made me realize that every single "no" we had experienced was just another seed that would hopefully be reaped by someone else someday, in God's timing.

We headed back to the church for our celebration service. And it was quite a celebration! Come back tomorrow for the conclusion!!

Rwanda - Part 10

Backtrack to Thursday. Thursday morning we headed down the road instead of up the road. This is the first day that I went into someone's home. We were in a little housing compound - lots of houses fairly close together separated by some common courtyard areas. We crowded into a small, dark "front room." The floor was dirt with rocks everywhere...just like the ground outside. Three women came in to hear the gospel -- all three of them were nursing their babies. As I went through the Evangecube, I started to smell a different kind of smell behind me. I took a quick peek and noticed a large straw nest with several chickens roosting in it. That was different. All three women prayed to receive Christ. That was awesome. Then we moved on. I shared the gospel with an 85 yr old woman who was missing both legs. She had an old, rusting pair of crutches on the mat next to her. She agreed to pray with me for salvation. But then she sort of chickened out and said she couldn't understand my translator's Kinyaranda pronounciation. First time all week we had that excuse. But then her hearing miraculously improved and she again agreed to pray out loud - this time she really did it. Our Church Plant pastor, John D'Amour said that he wanted to use some of the compassion money we gave his church to help this woman.

Early in the afternoon there was a real downpour. It rained for quite a while. We had to take shelter on the porch of the courthouse. Of course, the kids thought this was great fun. We decided to go through the discipleship lessons with everyone who was there. We had probably 20 people going through the various lessons we had. Very cool. Jane kept the kids occupied with the gospel glove. I sort of wished that the kids would have stood in the rain just to rinse them off a little bit. But they either stood with us on the porch or found a banana leaf to cover their head, or a scarf around their waist to drape over their head. Oh well. A lost opportunity to wash off some of the accumulated dirt and dust and grime.

When it finally stopped raining, we gathered for our afternoon meeting. The sermon was from Ephesians 6. Putting on the full armor of God. The kids especially liked this one. But the adults really got it too. I have to thank my good friend Pam for the inspiration to expound on this particular passage. When we left the church site that afternoon, my heart sort of sank to the ground. Only one more day in this beautiful place with these beautiful people. I was overwhelmed with sadness. I don't know if I'll ever see that place again. I hope that I can. But life goes on. The church will hopefully grow deep roots and be able to plant another church someday. They hopefully caught the vision for what could be. They hopefully understand the eternal significance of their decision to follow Christ. They hopefully caught the vision for continuing to share Christ with the people in their village. It's up to God to draw them close to Himself. It's up to God to give them the desire to grow in His knowledge. It's up to God to reveal to them their spiritual gifts with which to serve the body of Christ. It's up to God to convict them and guide their steps. I pray His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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!

Rwanda - Part 8

I should write a book. Or a booklet. There is so much more of the story to tell. Stay with me. We had the privilege of working with 3 different young adults from Youth With A Mission (YWAM). All three of them represented their organization very well. They were very humble servants of God and were willing to serve in any capacity that was needed at any given moment. They were equally able to share the gospel, entertain 100's of kids, lead worship, and translate what we had to say to the people. They were invaluable to us because of all the kids at our site.

Thursday was a fantastic day. What I wrote in my devotional journal on Wednesday night may have had a lot to do with my outlook. I wrote "Be simple. Be real. Don't sell. Just tell. Lift up the name and message of Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. He speaks quite well for Himself. He draws people to Himself. We get in the way sometimes. Spinning. Persuading. Begging. Guilting. I am not. He Is. If the children are from Satan, God, please deliver us from them. If not, then please fill us up with an uncommonly deep well of love, patience, strength and endurance. Reveal Yourself to these kids. Draw them to You not to us."

The feeling today was totally different. Dan started really leading the team. I think he felt a lot more confident as a team leader today. Our entire team really came together today. All day long we stood in the gap for each other at various times. It was a wonderful, synergistic experience. The kids responded. The adults responded. We had a lot of people go through the discipleship materials. Not even the rain could keep us from accomplishing what we set out to do. In fact, the heavy rains in the afternoon reminded me of God. Pouring out His favor and blessing and Spirit upon that place. And it was refreshing and necessary and wonderful.

Rwanda - Part 7

Tonight I finally finished a list of 70 potential prayer & financial partners for Michael & Steven. They are going to Kenya with Dan and I on an e3 Partners campaign in June. Actually, a group of 23 of us from Fellowship North Church are going together. We'll meet up with a similar group from Alabama. We'll help plant new churches within walking distance of several villages. Our youth will focus on the youth and children we encounter. We hopefully will have activities, games, sports, etc. that will draw a lot of children and teens.

Well, since I'm still up, I thought I'd try to upload more thoughts and memories of Rwanda.

To be brutally honest, after 2 wonderful days of working as a team and sharing the Gospel with so many people, Wednesday came in like a roaring lion, promising destruction, pain, and disruption. Let's talk about all the kids first. It seemed that the kids grew in numbers exponentially each day. By Wednesday, we had at least 150 kids at our site. We were definitely under-prepared with resources to deal with that many kids. Don't get me wrong, I loved the kids. Having worked with kids this year both at Ventana Academy and Rancho Solano, I've realized that I'm not as scared of kids as I used to be. I've actually started to enjoy the time I spend with the kids at school. So, I tried to take some of my real life experience into the situation. Tried to break up the kids into groups. Had one group listening to the Bible being read out loud on The Proclaimer. Tried to read a story out loud to a group of kids. Shared the gospel glove. Taught them how to sing Kum Ba Ya (who knew this song would be a big hit). Worked with them on memorizing John 14:6. And then 30 minutes later, we were out of patience and activities. I would have given just about anything for a big screen, a DVD player and a stack of movies to play for them. Dan was also extremely annoyed by the kids by this time. Although we both know the New Testament gives many examples of Jesus reaching out to children, Dan and I were perplexed and overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and as a result this was definitely interfering with our best laid plans to disciple new believers and continue our gospel presentation to the villagers. It was hot outside, my scalp got extremely sunburned so that I had little blisters on my head that itched and stung. The kids kept coming closer and closer to me, invading my personal space. Those of you who know me know that I've got a hula hoop sized personal space issue. But in Rwanda, I had kids almost nose to nose with me, sitting next to me, standing behind me, literally everywhere, sneezing in my face, touching my hands, holding my hands, pulling my hair, watching my every move, dying of curiosity to see what I'd pull out of my backpack next. I was pretty quiet on the van ride home. Back at the room I was in tears and frustrated. This ultimately led to a meltdown between Dan and I. Yes. You heard it here first. Our first cross words in 21 years (jk). I think that maybe, quite possibly, I overreacted and took out my anger and frustration on Dan. I quit his team. I quit the trip. It was all over. After we both calmed down, it appeared that there could be solutions to all issues. The storm was over. We regrouped. Apologized. Refocused on our purpose and mission. Ate dinner. Celebrated with the other teams. Slept soundly. Started again the next day. God is good. He sent us help in the form of some wonderful volunteers from YWAM. More on YWAM tomorrow.

Randy talked about Anger at God today at church. I could really relate. I think my main anger and frustration that day really was with God. Why so many kids? Why so little resources? What about the pre-teens and the teens? Where do they fit into everything? Why orphans? Why are there kids sleeping on the floor of the banana plantations at night? Where are the dads? Where are the moms who let their 6-7 year old daughters spend the entire day alone with a young baby strapped to their backs? Why are their little feet already callused and worn? Where are the sandals or shoes? What about affection? Who tucks them in at night? Why do they just get up and leave school when we walk by? Who cares about them? What do they drink? What do they eat? If their clothes turn to unwearable shreds, are there other clothes available for them to wear? Do they really realize what we're sharing with them? Is their faith real or are we just providing a forgettable distraction from their everyday lives? Does God really have a plan for their lives? (Jeremiah 29:11)

Rwanda - Part 6

Randy Shoulders asked me to share a 5-minute testimony at church today, highlighting our experience in Rwanda and then weaving it into the worship set. I've cut and pasted my notes from today. I ended up not reading the notes but I think what I said is pretty accurately expressed in the following document.

Spoken Bridge

"As some of you know, my husband Dan and I had the privilege of going to

Rwanda

with e3 Partners on an evangelistic missions trip. We joined a team of 12 other North Americans and formed 8 teams, with each team planting a brand new church in 8 different villages in the northern part of

Rwanda

near a city called Ruhengeri. Before we left on the trip, I felt a lot like Jonah. Knowing I should go. Knowing God was calling me to go. Knowing that I had -0- excuses to not go. But just dragging my feet and even up to the last few hours before we left, I still couldn’t believe I’d be getting on a plane and starting the journey to another continent. This wasn’t really part of my plan. But it was part of God’s plan. And I’m really glad I submitted to Him and His will. The whole experience was amazing and life-changing. From 9am to 2pm daily we went from house to house, hut to hut, field to field, grove to grove, person to person, to anyone who would listen, we shared the good news of salvation thru Jesus Christ. I want to tell you about the first woman I spoke to who prayed to receive Christ. She was probably in her late 50s or early 60s and lives across the street from where the new church site is. After sharing the gospel with her, I asked her if she’d like to pray to receive Christ as her personal Savior. To my utter amazement, she said yes. Then she disappeared into her house. I thought she might be praying alone in the house. But then she reappeared with a woven mat which she laid on the ground and knelt down on. I led her in a simple prayer. Then another person who’d been listening in on our conversation, a young man maybe in his late teens or early twenties, said that he’d like to accept Jesus Christ as well. So he knelt down and prayed the prayer. Then the woman, full of faith, told us that she had been pretty ill for about the past month and had been unable to work. She asked me to pray that God would heal her physically. At that moment I pretty much panicked. I’m no faith healer. I mean, of course I know that God heals. He’s the Great Physician. But at that moment, I didn’t know quite what to pray for. I thought about telling the woman that God might heal her and He might not. I thought that I should add a disclaimer with my prayer. And I certainly thought about having a trained pastor come back later to pray an eloquent, tried and true prayer for healing over her. But then I realized I was being like Jonah again. I realized right then and there that this whole trip to

Rwanda

would be one that would not only be outreach to others but that I would find my own faith and hope renewed through the faith of others. So, I prayed a pretty impassioned prayer for healing for her. I thanked God that He had already healed her spiritually and asked Him to heal her physically as well. I thanked God for her new faith. I asked God to strengthen her and give her grace to endure the ailments she had. But above all, I prayed for divine healing. Then I left it in God’s hands and we had to move on to the next house. Well, on Wednesday afternoon at our church meeting, Dan asked people to stand up and share testimonies of their new-found faith in Christ. This woman came up to the front and yelled out “Hallelujah!” To which everyone responded “Amen!” She did this three times, louder and louder each time. Then she told of how she had prayed for salvation on Monday and received the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Then of how she had asked for prayer for physical healing. And of how on Tuesday she started feeling well enough to be up and around the house. And on Wednesday, she picked up her hoe and headed out to work in the fields. She praised God with all her heart for this miraculous healing. And I’ve got to tell you, my faith has never been so strong as it was in that very moment. Not my words. Not my prayer. But her faith and God’s power healed her. I just got to share in the blessing of watching God at work. When I think about how God can and will use broken vessels, as long as they are willing to be used, I can’t help but think of how deep and wide his grace and mercy must be. God is all-sufficient, he doesn’t even need me to share the message of salvation or pray a prayer for healing. He can pretty much handle everything on His own. But He allowed me to be a part of His work in order to grow my faith and bring even more glory to Himself. God is mighty. He is strong. He heals. He listens. He is ever-watchful. Ever-waiting. All creation sings His praise. He is Holy. So holy."

Rwanda - Part 5

Every morning we woke up at 5:30am. Dan had a leader's meeting at 6:30am. Then we had worship and devotions in the gazebo with the entire team at 7:15. Pretty cool times. Once I thought I had missed the worship time because I heard all this singing. So I raced out of the room with wet hair, no bug spray on, praying no one would mind my tardiness. When I got to the gazebo, I realized that I wasn't late, I was actually early and walked into the middle of a pre-worship/devotion time. Our Ministry Partners were in the middle of praying for the North American team. Now, when I say praying, I mean all of them pouring out their hearts before God at the same time. It was really beautiful, almost like a song. It started out medium loud, then escalated to gut-wrenching intercession - really loud, then started to decresendo back down to quiet then they were done. It was almost like a conductor led them through a beautiful symphony of prayer, praise, intercession, imploring, surrender, and peace. Amazing. I felt like I was standing on holy ground. Then they broke into praise and worship again.

Every morning our breakfast was the same - plain omelettes, toast, honey, and "margarine." Oh yeah, there was also a platter of tiny bananas, fresh pineapple, and some mysterious fruits, possibly a type of passion fruit. Then we loaded into the vans and headed off to our villages. We had 8 teams - 4 vans with 2 teams on each. Pretty crowded. Every morning I tried to mentally prepare myself for my day. But it was nearly impossible. Every day was similar yet different. We shared the Gospel using the Evangecube from 9am to 1:30pm daily. Then we broke for lunch. Then discipleship lessons at the church plant site from 2-4. Then our afternoon meeting from 4-5:30. Every day was long but fruitful.

The kids turned out to be very challenging. By the end of the week we had hundreds of kids at our site. The loved to come up behind me when I was sitting on a bench and pull down on my curly hair and watch it spring up when they let go. Some of them tried to communicate with me in French. So, now I know 2 phrases in French. We told them Bible stories and used a gospel glove to share a simple story of salvation with them. Gold = heaven. Black = sin. Red = Jesus died on the cross. White = forgiveness. Green = new life. We had them memorize John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except thru Me." We also had a device called The Proclaimer. It's like an audio player that plays the New Testament in Kinyaranda which is their language. It has a solar battery which will last up to 600 times through the New Testament. The battery can also be hand-cranked to re-charge. It is waterproof and virtually indestructible. It can reach an audience of up to 300 people. When we ran out of things to do with the kids, we just turned on The Proclaimer and let it play the Word of God. Most of them sat and listened pretty intently. Adults also listened. We ran across quite a few adults who couldn't read or write so this was the perfect tool for them to hear the Bible probably for the first time.

Every day we shared the Gospel with anyone who would listen. We went to homes, huts, fields, banana groves, over rivers, into places most people haven't ever seen or imagined. God was definitely at work in a big way throughout the time we were there. Every day we returned to the Guest House, sunburned, exhausted, tired of talking, overwhelmed by kids, and thirsty. But God's strength was all we needed to accomplish what He had for us. By dinner time, we were revived and ready to celebrate with the other teams.

Every night, Michelle Parker and I made sack lunches for the entire team to take with them. I believe Nabisco donated a ton of pre-pack snacks so we just had to make 30 PBJs/PBHs and assemble the bags. A lot of us ended up giving our lunches away to those who worked with us during the day. I guess most Rwandans only eat 2 meals per day. So, we'd sometimes have nationals with us all day and they never ate or drank anything that I could see. They were very loving, kind people. A pleasure to work with.

More tomorrow.

Rwanda - Part 4

First a long story in order to tell some more of the story - - I feel like I've been a Christian my whole life. I'm pretty sure my mom never missed a church service while she was pregnant with me. And I'm pretty sure I was in church from 2 weeks on. I remember missing 1 Sunday when I was 11 yrs old due to extreme illness. Other than that, I was there. We even managed to find a suitable church service to attend when we were on vacation. So, when I share my testimony, I focus not so much on the terrible life I used to live but more on how important it is to share Christ with your children from when they are young and to be involved in church in order to learn how to live a life that pleases God. My conversion experience was when I was ten years old and my dad prayed with me to receive Christ. I remember the exact place and the feeling I had after I prayed. When I was 12 years old, our family switched churches. We started attending a non-Nazarene (gasp!) church called Emmanuel Faith Community Church. It was at this church that I started hearing the Bible taught in an expository manner. Wow! What a huge difference that made! - - Sitting at this church service in Rwanda, we attempted to worship with them. Tried (unsuccessfully) to keep up with the clapping and dancing. Then the pastor introduced Dan and I and pretty much turned the service over to us. Not exactly what I expected would happen. We each had a chance to share our testimonies. Then they sang some more songs. Than a short encouragement from the pastor. Then he said we would be sharing messages out of the Bible for them. Really??? That was definitely news to me. So, Dan went first. I started scrolling through all my sermons in my mind. I realized that all of them had to do with manners, etiquette, proper behavior, not fighting with your brother, etc. Not exactly spiritually deep, although I can be pretty eloquent on these topics. So, I got out my Bible. Turned to Psalm 34. Asked God to speak through me. Realized that all the years of incredible teaching at Emmanuel Faith would finally come to great use here in the middle of Rwanda. I thank God for the gift of spiritual formation that my parents gave to me. What I thought I had to say to the people wasn't nearly as important as what God allowed me to say to the people. Maybe lives were impacted and changed. I don't know. But I do know that my life was impacted and changed. I was starting to realize that this trip would be just as much for me and my faith journey as it was for the people we would be sharing the Gospel with. Awesome God! Awesome time of revelation, refining, and restoration!

This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would! 

Rwanda - Part 3

Sunday morning we woke up out of a dead sleep and experienced our shower for the first time. It wasn't nearly as primitive as I had been prepared for. Last year in Rwanda, Dan had a tub and a bucket - no shower nozzle. We at least had a hand-held shower nozzle. It is so difficult to rinse your head and face without getting water in your nose or mouth. I kept blowing water droplets off my lips hoping I wouldn't accidently swallow the tiniest drop. After showers, we poisoned ourselves with DEET spray. Although I faithfully swallowed a malaria tablet (malarone) every day, Dan chose to not go with the medicine. He claims (yet to be substantiated) that we were above the malaria line. And I'll admit we didn't meet or hear of anyone that had malaria where we were, but just to be on the safe side...we did see lots of mosquitoes due to the tropical climate, but they pretty much kept their distance. I wore my long black skirt, a long-sleeved shirt, white tennis shoes and black socks. Nice combination. We met the Mother Church pastor, Japhet and the Mission Point pastor, John D'Amour at the EER Guest House. They rode with us over to the Mother Church. The Mother Church was about a mile up a very rocky, rutted out dirt/mud road. All the way there, people stared at us. Not just because cars rarely are seen on that road, but because we were white. We were quite the novelty. All the people - women & children included, had either totally shaved heads or very, extremely close to the scalp, hair.  Since they expected a larger crowd and also wanted to attract people walking by, we met outside the building. The people sat on benches or on the ground or just stood under umbrellas (shade from the sun). The first sounds we heard were those of people enthusiastically worshipping. There was a woman keeping rhythm on a giant drum which she beat with a mallet. She was also the worship leader. Each song seemed to be very long. Our Ministry Partners explained that a lot of the songs they sing tell stories of God and what He has done. Some songs had motions and dancing. It was very cool. All a capella with people clapping along and adding harmonies. We sat at the front facing the people. As the crowd grew, I started to get sort of nervous. I felt every thought leave my head. Great. Totally blank. I realized that anything I had to say would come from God because all my earthly knowledge, "wisdom", and experience had vanished. I was left completely vulnerable and utterly dependent on God's mercy for Him to be able to use me to share His message. It was unreal. This was the feeling that I carried with me everyday. Absolute brokenness and surrender. A deep sense of belonging totally to God and knowing I was in the right place at the right time for the right purpose and the results were out of my control. It was all about divine appointments, the outpouring of God's favor and the Holy Spirit, and my obedience to share God's message. The pressure was off. The results were up to Him. If He could use me, I was willing.

More later.

Rwanda - Part 2

We had a 3 hour journey to Ruhengeri. We piled into several Toyota vans that had seen better days. But, surprisingly the brakes were pretty good. This was important because we had an uphill, curvy road to navigate. Now, I'm not normally a backseat driver, but I definitely had my braking foot ready to go. These cars had the steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle. However, we drove in the right hand lane. Interesting. I don't think I ever saw a road bigger than a 2-lane. We shared that 2-lane with traffic heading in the opposite direction, goats, children, and people. Every woman was carrying a bundle of some sort on her head. Some had giant flat bowls overflowing with produce like bananas, lettuce, passion fruit, avocados. Others had overflowing backpacks on their heads. Still others had huge 8 ft. long bunches of branches tied together and on their heads. Others had between 10-20 liter containers of water somehow balanced on their heads. Unbelievable. Most people had plastic sandals on or were barefoot. Dan took a double dose of dramamine and pretty much looked green and dozed and drooled the whole way there. The altitude didn't help his condition very much. Of course, on the way up the mountain, it started to rain. Our van had to pull over to try to roll up the windows. This was a complicated process since none of the windows were on their track. So it was pretty much a lost cause. The rain wasn't terribly cold because of the tropical climate, but our stuff got pretty wet. The windshield kept fogging up because of no defroster. But the view was absolutely beautiful. Waterfalls pouring down the mountain. Green everything. Tons of banana trees. Rows and rows of plowed fields. Steep mountainsides planted with flourishing crops. We finally arrived in Ruhengeri and found our new home for the next week. The EER Guest House. Similar to a hostel. Very simple. The grounds were pretty. Giant mosquito netting over the bed. Tiny restaurant. Smiling, helpful staff. We had a few minutes to rest and recover from the ride before dinner. At dinner we discovered an all new meaning to a high carb diet. Rice. Roasted potatoes. French fries. Sweet Potatoes (white flesh, not as sweet). Boiled bananas. Peas. Sauce with little pieces of meat swimming in it. Little pieces of fried fish. Chicken bones with very little meat. Bananas for dessert. Coca Cola & Fanta. A feast for most Rwandans. Every day we found ourselves to be very thankful for the feast after working in the villages. The time we spent around the tables was enjoyable and encouraging and enlightening. We went to bed early because Sunday was a-comin'. The day when we would meet our Mother Church pastor and Mission Point pastor. The day when the hard work would begin. While Dan prayed for relief from his motion sickness, I prayed for no mosquitoes.

More to come...

Rwanda - Part 1

Well, we made it back from Rwanda. It was an unbelievable journey. Our team of North Americans was incredible to work with. Mike & Mary Wagner are two amazing servants of God who shepherded us before, during and after the trip and imparted vision, wisdom and passion for the lost souls in Rwanda. It was a privilege to work with them. I've uploaded several photos that we took on the trip. It's hard to capture in photos what it was really like there. Our senses were assaulted from the minute we stepped off the plane in Kigali, Rwanda. We were greeted by our Ministry Partners, aka our translators. Meeting these young men & women of God was overwhelming. Their humility and their knowledge of the Bible as well as their gift for languages and the ability to translate scripture, the salvation message, and make it come alive for the people we encountered was very humbling for me. A lot of them have experienced genocide, civil war, abandonment and violence so horrific that it can't be adequately expressed in words. I could see such depth of faith in their eyes, feel it in their handshake, hear it in their voices. They were different than any people I've ever met. I almost wanted to weep every time I talked to them. They knew God and had walked with Him more intimately than I've ever imagined I could. I was so inspired to live and breathe and talk and think and be more like the Christ I saw in them.

More to follow...