Sunday was a long day so we'll give you small doses to help you get through!

The day began with much discussion over the guest house plumbing.  None of us seemed to have water in our taps, but some of us were astonished to have found functioning, hot showers.  Such luxuries of course come at a cost - Isobel was woken just before dawn by a great steaming torrent of water pouring out of her bathroom all over the bedroom floor, totally saturating the rush matting.  Had she been astute, she would have previously noticed an overflow pipe directed at the waste paper bin, in an ominous fashion, indicating that this was not an isolated occurrence.  The bin was however in fact a basket, not a great vessel for collecting escaping water, so water was simply splashing everywhere.  Meanwhile 2 doors away, Paul was ‘being a man’ and taking a ‘shower' in the only dribble of cold water that was issuing from his shower unit!  Andy didn’t seem to have had any water at all in his room, nor any sleep, so he wasn’t at his most chirpy at the breakfast table!

We headed off to the cathedral next door to attend the early morning English service.  As Byumba is a bit of a backwater, where little English is spoken, there was a very small congregation so the singing was a little feeble, though as we reached the end of the first song a musician arrived with a keyboard tucked under his arm, which he duly plugged in and joined us to enrich the music, about 3 notes from the end of the hymn!  Jonathan gave  a talk, dressed in a rather ill-fitting cassock, and a comparatively small choir sang with the usual enthusiasm.

As the short service was drawing to a close, people started to dribble into the huge cathedral for the Kinyarwanda service, which we were told would be a most auspicious occasion, giving thanks for the completion of the initial plans to build a replacement cathedral, as the current cathedral, with capacity for about a thousand worshippers, is not large enough.  We were told there would be many visitors attending, which gave us the indication that we were about to embark on a seriously epic service.  However, at this point we didn't know quite how many hours we would would be in the cathedral for!

Hold on - part two of Sunday is coming up......

Sunday night - even more photos from Gasabo week!

Good-night!

Sunday night- more photos from Gasabo week - in no particular order.

Sunday night - some photos from Gasabo week - in no particular order.

Saturday's Blog:

We were woken at 6am by shrill voices, just outside our rooms as the sports ministry team was holding a children’s sports camp at a rather early hour.

Andy and Isobel went to a parish nearby to meet up with some basket weavers, who had kindly laid our their wares for inspection.  Meanwhile Paul took the vehicles for refuelling and a wash to remove all the ingrained orange dust, before they were returned to the American team.  

Daniel, who was about to attend a wedding, came to collect one of the vehicles, looking dapper in a navy city suit, though in this country it is impossible to complete an outfit with anything but shoes dusted in orange.

After the normal discrepancy over the bill, Andy paid up having been to an ATM 3 times in order to get a big enough wodge of cash, and revelled in being a momentary millionaire!

About an hour later than scheduled this afternoon, Pastor Placide finally turned up in a mini-bus to take us up to the northern diocese of Byumba.  It was a pretty drive along the valley out of Kigali, filled with bright green rice paddies where wader birds probed the waters with their long beaks.

A few miles out into the countryside, Placide pointed to a place on a wooded hillside, where he and his parents had stayed in a tented refugee camp during the genocide of 1994, which added a rather sobering dimension to an otherwise pretty view. The landscape became notably greener as we travelled north and moved to higher ground.  As the hillsides became steeper, the wooded slopes gave way to agricultural terraces along the contours, to make the best use of the land for growing crops.  

Throughout the journey the driver and Placide were listening to an extremely excited football commentator, blaring out of the radio as Rwanda was playing Uganda, but by the time we arrived at the hilltop town of Byumba, Placide reported, somewhat dejected, that Uganda had won 3 - 0!

At the Diocesan Guest House we were heartily greeted by a tall jovial man, who introduced himself as Jimmy, the new manager.  It seems, as in Kigali, there have been a few improvements over the past 12 months. As with Kigali, when we requested our daily jerry cans of water, the management implied that this was no longer necessary, and that hot water would  issue from the shower - we’ll see!  In Kigali, the new fangled solar power unit, which offered great promise, only delivered hot water on occasions and certainly not in sufficient quantity to match the number of guests!  We had taken to the habit of pushing notes under each others’ doors at strange times of the night, when we actually found the system to be working!

After only 5 minutes in his new room in Byumba, Paul commented that there was no water coming out of the tap, but it appeared that the shower units, which were only cosmetic last year, might finally have been plumbed in … we wait with bated breath!

Placide joined us for dinner and we tried on several occasions to determine what the plan was for the morrow.  He seemed to be very evasive, or simply ‘very Placide’ and was keen to discuss the plans with Andy alone, whilst the rest of the team was dismissed!  The meeting is supposed to be lasting an hour, but it will probably be running to Placide-time!  He has already confused us all by announcing that the English service will be at 2am tomorrow morning.  There was a sharp in take of breath on our part (especially from Jonathan, who was destined to preach!) Suddenly this brought back memories of last year and a major point of confusion, as traditionally Rwandans count their day from sun-up at 6am, which meant that Placide’s 2am was actually 2 hours after sunrise ie 8am!  I’m sure this will not be the last point of confusion during our week in Byumba!

Once again we thank the Lord for all that we have been able to be part of in Gasabo diocese and pray that whatever lies ahead here in Byumba, we will bring glory to Jesus and be a blessing to his Church.

Until tomorrow - good-night.

Grace, Isobel, Hannah, Paul, Jonathan and Andy

Friday's Blog:

The second day of the Gasabo conference got off to an almost punctual start with more rousing African choruses and frenetic dancing.  The morning sessions’ time keeping was amazingly good with Andy concluding his teaching on Nehemiah.  When reference was made to the Armour of God Andy got all the pastors and wives to stand up and act out putting on the full armour, first with words and then silently.  A sight to behold and a great help to remembering what the Holy Spirit has given us.  We broke for lunch as planned at 12.30pm only to find absolutely no food appeared for an hour and a half.  We sat talking and waiting for a long time.   Three pastors’ wives were sitting just in front of us and could not hide their interest when up close and personal with 'mzungus', possibly for the first time.  They kept running their fingers across their foreheads as they stared at us and after some time, we finally realised that they were fascinated with Isobel and Hannah’s fringes! Though we’d not previously noticed, looking round the room, it was clearly evident that Africans don’t have fringes!  On realising what the interest was about, Isobel lent forward and a couple of ladies felt the hair of her fringe, raised their thumbs and made approving noises!  

Finally a little taxi rolled up and the driver took out a package wrapped up in a pink sheet, the first of a selection of lunch dishes.  The start of the afternoon sessions was pushed further back, when, at the time we expected to present the first seminar, a trio of smartly dressed office workers sat down to address the conference.  Apparently they were representatives from a Christian bank, encouraging pastors to make savings.  Their input might not have been exciting to listen to in English, but in a foreign language it was soporific!

The seminars finally got underway with the men and women meeting separately.  Grace had decided to lighten the mood for the pastors’ wives by inviting one of the ladies to demonstrate how to wear a traditional head dresses.  A beautiful pale blue and pink scarf was immediately pulled from a lady’s bag and Grace indicated that it was to be wrapped around Isobel’s head.  A little confusion ensued as it seemed some ladies were more expert at creating headdresses than others.  One pastor’s wife, dressed in a stunning full length turquoise African dress and matching headscarf was ushered to the fore to demonstrate how to wear a scarf effectively.  At this point there was a ripple of laughter when they realised a mzungu was going to be dressed up in front of them.  Once the scarf was fully in place, Isobel did a little twirl to their great delight, and Grace’s ice breaker had certainly done the trick!  The ladies were fully engaged with the seminar on women’s roles in God’s work of helping in many different capacities.  All listened intently to a touching personal testimony shared by Hannah.

After the conference and a meeting with the Archbishop about the Support a Pastor Program, we were invited to a farewell informal dinner, which once again took an age to arrive by taxi.  We were trying not to look at our watches and mutter about yet one more delay, because during the plenary session of the conference one of the pastors, had commented on his learning over the past couple of days, that ‘mzungus look at their watches a lot!’  With those words ringing in my mind, I’m having a quick look at my watch and signing off for tonight!

Tomorrow - Saturday - we travel up to the Diocese of Byumba, so see you all there.

Good-night.

Grace, Isobel, Hannah, Paul, Jonathan and Andy

Thursday's Blog:

The team headed up to the cathedral a Kibagabaga, for the annual Pastors’ and Wives’ Conference led by Damascus Trust.  In true African style, at the start time of 9am, there were very few pastors in attendance, but over the next 20 minutes several delegates dribbled in through the open doorway. One pastor began a very soothing African worship song and others automatically joined in.  After a few verses, people began to clap along to the beat and the tempo increased.  There was a wonderful mix of traditional African worship and versions of western hymns, sung in Kinyarwandan, with a magical African twist, all sung a cappella in beautiful harmonious voices.

After about 40 minutes of this wonderful music, the hall was almost full and everyone stood, respectfully as the Archbishop entered the room and then Archdeacon Samuel officially opened the conference.  The Archbishop addressed the pastors, their wives and catechists in Kinyarwandan, but such is his command of English that he turned to the DT team from time to time to include us too.  He began with wonderful words of encouragement to us, thanking us for standing with the church in Rwanda in their mission and church planting.  He stated, ‘This has been my vision since I became a clergyman.  You could send us money through your bank account, but coming to share with us at this conference is adding value to your gift.’  It was so helpful to hear these words directly from the Archbishop’s lips, as this answers a question asked by so many at home in UK, as to why we bother to spend so much money, time and effort to travel all this way, when really giving the cost of our airfare in Rwandan Francs to the poor communities here, would be a substantial financial boost to these struggling communities.  Clearly monetary help is certainly beneficial to these poor parishes, but personal words of encouragement from brothers and sisters abroad, is treasured.

Needless to say, Andy’s well organised timetable did not run to time!  The singing and introductions had been so prolific, that it was break time before he had even begun his first teaching session!  Everyone was provided with milky African tea, or sharp hot ginger to drink and an extremely substantial version of a doughnut, guaranteed to block up any dodgy stomach, as well as a very spicy samosa, likely to create the former!  As all good Brits, we walked to join the end of the long queue, but Archdeacon Samuel then indicated to Isobel that she should go to the front, which she initially thought was showing kindness, though the rug was soon ripped from under her, when he indelicately explained, ‘In our culture it is customary for the older people to be served first!’

Andy was very chuffed that having revised his teaching schedule (looking at seven hallmarks of leadership as found in Nehemiah), he finished the second session dead on time at 12:30pm, only to be thwarted, when informed that lunch wasn’t ready!  So after a short break a third session was squeezed in before lunch. In the meantime the rest of the team were in a back room planning their afternoon seminars, with absolutely no idea, whether this extremely fluid timetable would permit them to take place or not - this is Africa!

The team’s seminar focusing on our identity as children of Christ, seemed to be well received with audience engagement in small discussion groups.  Isobel shared from her own experience how, after being made redundant some years ago, she came to understand that her worth is who she is in Christ and not in what job she does or doesn’t have. It’s an important truth that we need to hold on to. 

After this the furniture needed to be rearranged into formal rows for Andy’s summary session and it was a real treat to hear everyone spontaneously bursting into song as they moved tables and chairs! Andy asked us all to share with another person what we had learned from the day and how it would make a difference to our lives. 

Another day of conference awaits us tomorrow, so until then - good-night.

Grace, Isobel, Hannah, Paul, Jonathan and Andy