Wednesday's Blog

The rhythmic patter of many trainers marching over the dusty car park outside our rooms woke several of us at 6am as the sports ministry team completed their routine of physical jerks before their day began.  

At the threshold of the breakfast room we were greeted by an emerald green caterpillar of gigantic proportions.  When we asked one of the staff what the creature would develop into, the response was the ubiquitous answer, “Yes.” When the question was then posed in a slightly different manner, the reply changed into something equally unhelpful, “Snake!”  This was clearly a signal to stop asking questions, step over the animal and proceed with breakfast!

Archdeacon Samuel greeted us all warmly as we arrived at the cathedral to pick up our translators.  He spoke of his wife’s particular struggle the previous day, which marked a week since the tragic death of their son.  Though his colleagues at the diocese are trying to encourage Samuel to take time out, he is a dedicated member of the team, and keen to continue with the church projects and announced that he would be joining our team, visiting the parish of Rubungo this morning. What a privilege!  His love for the people shines out, even when we don’t understand a word of what is being said.  

Rubungo was reached by a bumpy dirt track but the church building was on the hill with a lovely view over new and old houses and the piece of land the church wants to buy. The word ‘pioneers’ comes to mind when I remember the reports that they gave us.  In 2013 twenty of them came to the parish that had fallen to nothing and with prayer they built a physical church and grew a church of 184 members, supported by neighbouring parishes.  Damascene, who is a catechist, does the day to day work of the church with oversight from Pastor Francois and Pastor Israel.  Damascene and his wife Lilian have three daughters, two of whom are disabled.  The middle daughter is both physically and mentally disabled and Lilian in particular expressed deep pain and grief for them.  How good it was for Hannah to be able to come alongside her in prayer.  

On our way back to base we visited a very large parish church in a wealthy area.  The people wanted a church building that would match their own homes and they are in process of building one.  Pastor Francois showed us the progress in the building.  They have their services in the basement at the moment but hope to be in the vast main sanctuary by Christmas.  In the end it will be three storeys.  The basement is to become a pre-school nursery for community use and already miniature toilets and urinals are installed.  This parish will clearly not be part of our Support A Parish programme, but will be reaching out to a different community in Kigali.

The other half of the team then headed off into a surprisingly affluent area of newly built housing in the suburbs.  This had been an area of slum clearance, where the parishioners of Gacuriro church had been living.  At the limit of the upmarket development, affordable only by expats, the dirt track proceeded into an area of scrub woodland, where the natural vegetation was reclaiming the empty site of demolishion.  It was in the middle of this rural enclave, that a very modest little church stood, almost hidden amongst the trees.  On arrival a smartly dressed lady, Appeline came up to greet us.  She is a sociology lecturer at the university and had just come to meet us between her lectures. She immediately removed the scarf from around her neck and replaced it with a dog collar, telling us that as a lecturer at the university she is not allowed to wear ‘her uniform.’  She is overseeing the parish, which does not have sufficient funds to employ a pastor of its own, but is run on a daily basis by a dedicated catechist called Cyprien. 

We were shown into the church building, which though small, has doubled in size since last year to accommodate the 150 members and has replaced the earth floor with level concrete.  Pastor Appeline explained that this is a parish with particular challenges as Kigali’s developers are desperate to bulldoze the church and replace it with high quality housing.  The small homes of the congregation have already been erased, so all worshippers live at least 30 minutes’ walk away.  The church is totally isolated in this curious woodland setting with the developers devouring the hillside all around them.  The diocese is adamant it will retain the Christian witness in this place and is locked in constant discussion with the authorities.  Archdeacon Samuel told us that they had rejected the offer of compensation, but were holding out for a replacement piece of land for the development of a new church for that congregation.  The archbishop has been in discussion with the city mayor this week, who seemed surprised that the church felt the need to exist in the midst of its people. To show us their vision for this humble church, Pastor Appeline unrolled some incredibly impressive architectural plans for the development of building incorporating a hotel and a restaurant, as they realise that the church needs to be self sustaining and be acceptable in its gentrified setting.

Currently the parish has a very small number in the congregation (150 worshippers) and most of these are unemployed, who survive only on casual labour.  The church is very poor financially and those who are able do give a monetary tithe are few, but others are more than generous tithing way beyond 10 % of their time to build up of the fellowship.  Those few who teach in the church, are educated, but majority of the church are uneducated as they have been unable to maintain the school fees.  In spite of all these challenges, we could not fail to be impressed and encouraged by the commitment and enthusiasm of this little minnow of a church as it explained about its many activities of outreach, as it continues to swim upstream against the tide.  As if to highlight this point, whilst we sat in the church a group of road builders arrived to measure up the dirt track on behalf of the developers.  Like British workmen however, they didn’t appear to actually be doing any work!  But rather than drinking tea and leaning on their shovels, the African road builders settled themselves in a circle on the dry scrub, under a shady tree for a noisy game of cards! 

This afternoon Andy and Isobel went to visit our translator Rita in her tiny 2 room home, close to the cathedral.  Enthused by her amazing story of survival through many trials in her life, Andy wanted to offer her the opportunity to share her story to encourage others,  Facing a video camera to the absolute delight of the neighbouring children, Isobel and Rita sat on her doorstep and chatted about how she had been miraculously rescued as a baby during the genocide, brought up in an orphanage and graduated as an accountant.  Next month, though to date, she has no where near the necessary funds, she hopes to continue to study for her auditing examinations.  She is thankful for God’s hand guiding her through adversity and her ultimate dream is to help children, like herself, who are orphans and have no knowledge of their relatives at all.

Despite the fact that Pastor Brandon had been up most of the night as his wife Emily had a sickness, this indomitable American missionary couple insisted on inviting us to their home once more, this time to join with their weekly Bible study group. The evening began with the sharing of hearty platefuls of rice and beans.  We discussed a chapter from I John, during which we were plunged into darkness, as Brandon had been too busy to pay his electric bill! The group, unperturbed by the darkness continued their discussion as Emily instinctively lit a selection of candles and the study continued in a beautiful ambience.  

After sharing in prayer, it was back to base and the end of another day. Good-night all.