Myra and I left for Virginia/North Carolina on February 5th and intended to return home earlier this week (about April 7th). We were halfway into our trip when church services were being closed, first in NC and then VA. 

The purpose of our trip was to seek partners in the new mission of Rwanda Challenge: to offer an associate degree in Bible in Rwanda. New laws in Rwanda created the need for this new mission. By September 2023, a local church cannot meet without a legal preacher. A legal preacher is required to have an associate degree in Bible/theology by September 10, 2023. Multiple churches and individuals in VA/NC were communicating excitement about Rwanda Challenge partnering with Mid-Atlantic Christian University to provide the necessary degree. Then everything stopped; churches were not meeting, budgets were closed to anything new, and future decisions were on hold until they could assess the new normal.

​In future blogs I will provide more info on the present status and future possibilities. But, for now, Myra and I are waiting for COVID-19 to calm down in New Hampshire – 268 known cases yesterday in Rockingham County compared to three where we are staying in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. So, we are “stranded” in my niece’s camper by the Banister River where we enjoy watching two bald eagles nesting in the tall pines.

Giving thanks for small gifts while we seek God for a huge need in Rwanda.

Yesterday, April 7, 2020, was the 136th day since the earliest reported case of COVID-19 and the 26th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 80,000 deaths in 136 days.                
The Rwandan genocide claimed over 800,000 lives in 100 days.
Some estimates are as high as 1,000,000 or more deaths.

Today, most of the world is intensely aware of COVID-19. In 1994 most of the world, and especially the United States, had little to no awareness (or interest) of what was happening in Rwanda.

My intent is not to undervalue 80,000 deaths resulting in countries shutting down and borders being closed.
But I do intend to help us to pause and reflect on 800,000 to 1,000,000 deaths when the U.N. and the U.S. stood by and did nothing (except to debate the definition of genocide).