Rwanda is a Bunch of Hippies

                                                      Rwanda has simply blown me away.

     We have the great opportunity here to have morning devotionals with about twenty of the local girls in a small town just outside of the capital, Kigali. We all sit in a big circle and one of us muzungus (what they call “white people”) leads the discussion. The answers the girls give to our questions at the end of the devotions are so profound, and come from a place of “been there, experienced that, found the faith, and lived to share the healing”.

      It is no secret the traumatic, unfathomable horror this country faced almost 20 years ago. Talking to the people here when we do door-to-door evangelism, I have noticed that not many people are actually from Rwanda. They are from neighboring countries; Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania. It’s kind of a hodgepodge of people who came from all over to embrace in the new freedom and bring light to a country that could have easily crumbled under the post-traumatic stress of a genocide.

    This theory of mine that Rwandans are like hippies first came to me during a church service one night last week. A. of all.. these people dance like no other Africans I have ever seen. I have seen, and joined in, on some pretty ridiculous (by American standards) dance moves in church here in Africa. But the moves they do here in Rwanda, are especially unique, “out there”, and well – free. They even do moves that resemble longhorns, which is a source of great pride for one of the tribes (uh hello… how can I not connect with that?). One night I was able to embrace my inner flower child and join in on a spontaneous twirling, clapping, skipping, anything-and-everything-goes, parade around the church during worship.

  You see, the hippie generation has always been an era of great interest for me. I love when people break against the mold, be themselves, and be free. I understand there were some bad side effects to that way of thinking, but in general when people decide to not take their freedom for granted, do something humbly unique with the gift they have been given, and embrace their inner weirdos (or “true self”) – it is beyond beautiful to me.

     These Rwandans have done just that with their freedom – except they out do the hippie generation by taking it one step further. They have kept true to their cultural uniqueness but enhanced it by inviting Jesus to lead.

      We went to a wedding last Saturday (which was one of the coolest experiences on the race by the way) where I witnessed the reception. The bride and groom entered, and then immediately went to the front of the room where they sat under a gazebo-type awning for the rest of the reception and watched the show. Literally – it was a grand show put on for the bride and groom with cultural dancers who put on three different shows – all with a costume change each! It was impressive. What impressed me more was that it was dancing for Jesus. I asked our Pastor what the name of one of the songs was and he said, “The Lord is My Strong Tower”.

     It was a terrible day to forget my camera, (thankfully my fellow Longhorn, Emily Peterson brought her camera and gets all da cred for the photo attached!) but the point is these people are free, unique, and have found a way to not compromise the pieces of their heritage that make them who they are – but rather improved these things with their love of The Lord. 

And that my friends, is a case for Christianity.