I’m a little late at posting this considering Kaydan and I have been in Kenya for over a week now, but here’s a blog I started in Rwanda and just now finished up:
How we got here to month 10 of our Race, I do not claim to understand. The months have flown by so quickly. We will be home in America with our loved ones so soon. But before I get caught up in all that, I want to sit here and thank God for what He is doing in Rwanda.
This month we have been living in Kigali, Rwanda, in the home of Pastor Fred and his lovely family. They have welcomed us into their home so graciously and have loved us as if we were their very own family — and I guess that is because we are family (knit together by the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ). Pastor Fred calls us his children and takes such good care of us, even to the point of making us a Rwandan version of tacos which uses chapati in the place of tortillas. He drives us around everywhere in his beat up pickup truck, from which we experience the beautiful views and people of Rwanda.
It is a lot of fun, since the roads here are curvy and hilly and it reminds me of driving around in Greece. At the end of the day, after we eat dinner together, the family gathers in the living room to sing praises to our Father and to study His Word together. We learned a song in Kinyarwandan (the local language here) that we sing together about how strong our God is, and Pastor Fred even gave us our very own Kinyarwandan names. My name is Isoro (Jewel), and Kaydan’s name is is Ikamba (Crown).
Our ministry this month has been gardening and preparing for Pastor Fred’s church to reopen. About 8 months ago, the Rwandan government closed many churches in the country, asking them to make some repairs before they could receive government approval to reopen. Pastor Fred’s church was among the churches closed, and the government asked them to put in bigger windows, soundproof the walls, and replace the current wooden beams that hold up the roof with metal beams. So almost every morning, we ride in the back of his truck to his church in Gahanga, Rwanda, where we work to replant grass in the yard and remove the weeds so that the grass can grow uninhibited. While we have been here, new windows have been installed in the church walls and we have planted grass in every barren stretch of ground. We then pray over the church and thank God for all He has done and will do in Gahanga for His glory.
Working with our hands so much this month has been restful in its own way. It has left a lot of time to laugh and dance or pray and sing while we work. It has been teaching me a lot about the discipline of allowing God to remove the weeds in our lives, so that we can make a way for the good grass. It has been a reminder of all the times in Scripture God speaks to His people through gardening.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:… a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.”
– Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
God will take us through varying seasons, all of which bring Him glory – whether that be a hard season of dependence or a good season of worship for what God is doing. He is glorified always, and He always carries us through because of His great love for us.
“You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.”
– 1 Corinthians 15:36
We must be made into a new creation. When we first planted the little sprigs of grass and came back a few days later, we noticed that the grass we had planted had died. But Pastor Fred quickly assured us that the grass had to first die, so that new grass could grow from the root. It is the same with us, as God refines us and makes us more like Him.
“So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
– Matthew 7:17-20
We will recognize our brothers and sisters by their fruit. God’s Word and His Spirit do not return void, but always produce good fruit.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
– Psalm 1:1-3
We cannot yield the good fruit or the good grass on our own. We must be planted beside the Living Water. And not only must we be planted beside the Living Water, but we must be planted. We cannot plant ourselves, but God places us where He wants to use us.
Also, I want to touch on the parable in Matthew 25:14-30 about the talents given by the master (God) to his servants (us)… two of the servants invested their talents and put them to work and were able to give their master more than he had first given them. The master told those servants, ”Well done, good and faithful servant.” However, there was one servant who was afraid of his master and afraid of losing his given talents, and so he went and buried the talents in a field. When he returned the talents to his master with no profit, his master called him a “wicked and slothful servant.”
This parable relates with gardening in that it shows an alternate use of the ground. Rather than using it to garden and produce fruit, the wicked servant simply buried what he had. He was afraid of the character of his master and therefore wasn’t willing to do the hard work or risk losing what had been given him. However, if he had known the loving character of his master, he would have known that all the master required was his obedience and hard work. When we plant in faith, God is the one who does the growing. We just have to obey and put ourselves and our talents out there to be used by Him, rather than misunderstanding his character and burying our talents in fear.
“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”
– 1 Corinthians 3:7-9
Apart from God, we can do nothing good! But He delights in using us and allowing us to partner with Him in His work, and He will reward us for our obedience. And when we realize that we can do nothing apart from Him and He loves us as we are, we are free to allow God to use us and are rid of the temptation to perform in order to earn God’s love. And this brings us true rest.
Overall, we have been so immensely blessed by our time here in Rwanda, both by the family we have come to love dearly and the restful, contemplative ministry God has given us this month. Please keep their family and their ministry in your prayers, even as we leave from here in the coming days. Please pray for Pastor Fred’s wife Mary, who just yesterday arrived back in Rwanda from spending two months away in India, in order to diagnose some medical issues she was having. Please pray for continued faith for Pastor Fred, as it is easy to become weary as a Pastor of a church that is not allowed to meet. Please pray for provisions for the church that it may open again and be fruitful. And pray for favor in the eyes of the government. And pray for the church in Gahanga to thrive still, even without their building, that the Father may be glorified in His body there.
“May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever. Amen.” (This comes from 2 Corinthians 13:14, and we prayed this every evening at the end of our Bible study with the family. And now I pray the same for you.)
Also, we are still selling shirts / sweatshirts in order to raise money to return to the field in January. If you’d like to buy one there are only 6 days left to get them: https://www.bonfire.com/themissionfields/ If you’d like to contribute financially but don’t want a shirt, you can use the DONATE button at the top of this page to make a one-time or monthly contribution.
Thank you for reading, thank you for praying, and thank you for supporting us throughout this past year. We are truly grateful!
