Yesterday Theophile and I preached our last sermon for this trip. Today we had multiple meetings. Tomorrow I start the flight back to New Hampshire.

This morning we met with one of the leaders of Community Bible Study International in Rwanda. They are creating some great study materials for the Church in Rwanda and doing the ground work for some great ministry in Rwanda for years to come.

Following an afternoon meeting with Henry, one of our friends from last year, we met with Pius this evening. Pius opened the door for us to preach and teach in the prisons. We can share the hope of Jesus with the prisoners and teach the church leaders. It turns out the prisons have a number of churches, but the leaders, like the most  Rwandan church leaders, need training and Bible resources. I am amazed at the new doors God has opened on this one trip. He is worthy of our praise.

After an eleven hour road trip the "Rwanda Tour 2012" has come to an end. It was a long day, but I believe God used us to bless three churches in southeast Rwanda. It is still amazing to me how important it is for us to just show up. The first stop was Joshua's church where Theophile and I preached. After lunch we visited Esron's church building which has now been destroyed twice by the weather before they could construct the roof. Then we included a tourist stop at the largest waterfall in Rwanda located at the border of Tanzania. We made one more stop at Jacque's church building and prayed for the church members that had come to greet us. Now, after eleven hours, we are back at Theophile's home. 

Esron's congregation tries one more time                     Theophile and I preach from 1 John 3:1-3. The to build a mud brick building before the                        world does not know who this "old mama" storms destroy it.                                                            really is, but when Jesus appears she
                                                                                         will be like Him.

After twenty-eight days, five provinces, eight locations, and ninety-five church leaders, the "Rwanda Tour 2012" concludes tomorrow. The last group of church leaders finished today. Theophile and I will travel to the southern part of the East Province tomorrow to visit one last location. I am very tired, but fulfilled. The last two days we taught seventeen church leaders in Kigali. This group was very quick at understanding the teaching and anxious to make application in their local churches. They were especially excited to discover that everything we do in love is ministry (even at home) and that every follower of Jesus is called to be a minister. Once again, as we taught this group, I gained new insights into the life of the church in Rwanda.

Tomorrow we travel. Sunday we preach. Monday we have some meetings. Tuesday I will catch a flight out of Kigali. 
And Wednesday I plan to be home!!! 

The last group of church leaders finished today.

I had shared in a previous blog about the door that had been opened to Rwanda Challenge in the South Province. We have been invited by church leaders (various denominations) to come and teach fifty church leaders in their area.

Tuesday, God opened a new door. We had finished the two days of teaching ten church leaders in the Rwankuba sector in the Karongi District. One of the church leaders, Innocent, is the leader of his village. The oldest refugee camp in Rwanda is located in that village. We asked him if he could help us to knock on the door of the Kiziba Camp. We drove up to the entrance and after some discussion and a phone call to the president of the Kiziba Camp we were allowed to enter. Almost immediately, God led us to Mukiza Chiristophe, one of the twenty church leaders in a population of nineteen to twenty thousand. Most people in the camp are not Christians. “Do you see our situation? Why do you talk to me about God?”

Mukiza invited us into his very small home where we met his father, mother, and sister. His father thought he was about ninety years old and had been a Christian for seventy years. After Mukiza learned about Rwanda Challenge he explained that conditions in the Church in the refugee camp was worse than in the villages and towns. We were invited to come and teach the church leaders in the Kiziba Camp. We are trusting God for the resources and hope to return in February or June, 2013.

We offer praise to the God who opens doors.


Theophile gives Mukiza a Kinyarwanda

Study Bible. As Innocent walked him

through the KSB, Mukiza was increasingly

amazed at each new resource in this

Bible. This is his first opportunity to study

the Bible in detail.                                                           Mukiza with his father and mother.

Peter and Marie Claire were a great host/hostess              Nicodeme and Therese with their three 
in Cyangugu. They are not your average Rwandan              children. Nicodeme is a dedicated church 
couple. Both have government jobs.                                     leader and a good student.

We left Cyangugu Sunday after the worship service and traveled (bounced) five hours to Kibuye. We will teach two groups of church leaders in differert sectors of the Karongi District. We started "Discovering My Ministry" with the first group yesterday. The teaching went better than expected. It became obvious to the group very early that God had given them different spiritual gifts and a passion for different areas of ministry. This awareness will help them personally and how they assist people in the local church to serve in the right places. 

                                  "The right people, in the right places, for the right reasons."

This biblical truth will energize ministry in the local church.

The view from the church window in Rwankuba                After a day of teaching, we enjoy a meal at
(greater Kibuye). The view is beautiful everywhere          Home St Jean overlooking Lake Kivu.
in Rwanda.

Church leaders from greater Cyangugu are thankful 
for the many good gifts from God

Today I officially crossed the halfway point for the "Rwanda Tour 2012" and yesterday the fourth group (out of eight) of church leaders completed their two days of study.
God is blessing this trip, but I am experiencing that thirty-eight days is a long time. What I miss the most is Myra and my family. What I enjoy the most is my Rwandan friends and being used to bless the church leaders of Rwanda.

Last weekend I was supposed to preach once, but was asked to preach again on Sunday afternoon. This weekend I was supposed to preach twice, but due to a funeral today it looks like I will preach once. With the cancellation of today's service, this is the first day off Theophile and I have had.

So, we traveled down the hill with Nicodeme to Lake Kivu (the southern end) to visit where he was when he joined others in 1994 to flee to the DRC at the beginning of the genocide. We were also able to visit the property (and owner) where many "firsts" occurred in Rwanda; where the Germans first arrived, where the German and Belgian cartographers stayed for a year to create new boundaries once Lake Kivu was discovered. These are a few of the "firsts." We had to cut our visit short due to a thunderstorm which made it difficult for us to climb back up to the church building. But God, Desire (the driver), and the Land Cruiser got us home safe and dry.

Immediately after preaching tomorrow we leave for Kibuye to join Leonidas and teach two more groups.

My grandson, Dylan, was disappointed that I did not post a picture of a monkey beside the road as we traveled through the largest forest in Rwanda. So, this is for Dylan.

God provides a new painting everyday
(waking up in Nyagisozi)

Early yesterday morning we left the South Province and began an eight hour trip to Cyangugu in the southwest. On the way we traveled two and a half hours to get to the paved road, repaired one tire that picked up a nail, passed through the largest forest in Rwanda, and saw the monkeys beside the road. In the afternoon we were greated by "old" friends in Cyangugu. Polycarpe and Nicodeme hold a special place in our hearts. Nicodeme is the young man who fled to the Congo during the genocide as a ten-year old boy. His family was killed. Polycarpe is the church leader who took him into his home. I am inspired  by the generosity of Polycarpe. Now Nicodeme is one of the church leaders in Rwanda. Theophile and I are excited to be able to teach today and give the gift of the Kinyarwanda Study Bible to old and new friends in the West Province.

Polycarpe, Theophile, and Nicodeme

Excited church leaders in Nyagisozi

This afternoon we completed the teaching in the South Province. These church leaders expressed deep gratitude for the teaching and especially the gift of the Kinyarwanda Study Bible. Now, they can study the Bible in depth even without a teacher. God provided many blessings here - especially an eagerness to apply what they had learned. Also, it was an blessing to be invited by all the church leaders in this area to come back and teach them.

Tomorrow we move to Cyangungu in the southwest to meet some new church leaders and some old friends (Polycarpe and Nicodeme). I am looking forward to my first visit to the southwest.