Surprise Worship Service

Villagers are erecting a canopy beside the church building. "Maybe they are having a market today."
Lake Kivu and the Congo are in the background.

We finished the training in Cyangugu on Friday. A group of church leaders from the Congo had traveled by boat to participate. Several leaders could not remain until Saturday, so we concluded the day by showing The Passion of the Christ inside the packed church building. 

Saturday we slept in until 7 a.m. At some point in the day we will show the movie again for the village and then leave early Sunday morning to travel from the southwest to the northwest. "There should be plenty of time today to catch up on some details, take some pictures, post a blog, and do some preparation for November." But about 8 a.m., while I was enjoying Rwandan coffee, bread and honey, I was informed the plan had changed. "They decided to have the worship service today and they want you to preach." So now I have about one hour to shower, dress, and think about a message.

Hand-dug ditch to catch water for household use.

Doorways from left to right: toilet (three boards with a hole in the middle), shower (small room with an uneven rock floor, a cup and a bucket with warm water), kitchen (dirt floor with several open fires).

Early worshippers began to gather about 9 a.m. followed shortly by singing... There were three choirs; one from the host church, a second from a neighboring church, and a third came by boat that morning from the Congo. Each choir each sang and danced, several times, until it was after twelve o'clock. Theophile thought we should make it brief (for Rwanda), so I preached about thirty minutes. Then the choirs sang and danced some more. The heavy rains came shortly after 3 p.m. and everyone finally dispersed.

This was not the day I was expecting, but God blessed.
Frank

Frank and Theophile preach for the morning (actually afternoon) service.