After spending the first few days here in Rwanda, in the capital city of Kigali, I meet up with the rest of my team in Nyagatare on Saturday. Being one of the squad’s logistics leaders I had to stay behind in Kigali to work on some logistics that needed to be taken care of before we left Africa at the end of the month. One of the main reasons was to get Chinese visas for the squad which did not work out as planned, but no problem we will get them in Asia in the next couple of months.
My first day of ministry with my team was Monday, we started out doing door to door, which apparently is a lot of what you do in Africa. Except it looked a little different than last month, since last month our route for the day was planned out ahead a time by the pastors we were working with in order for us to visit people in the church along the way. This month we are literally going door to door or store front to store front, not knowing who we might talk to next.
The day started out a little slow and I was starting to get a little frustrated. Finally about 45 minutes into our walk we stopped at a store front that was down a long dirt road a little ways out of town. The owners brought out benches for us to sit on and before we knew it we had a crowd of people gathering around us. Some believers and some not, but everyone wanted to hear what we had to say. So we started to preach and let them know who Christ is and what he has done for us. There was one older man there who was asking some really good questions about sin and why Christ died for us.
We continued to slowly move our way down the street spending time visiting with people, encouraging them and praying for them. But it was not until we were about ready to head back for lunch when I was leaving a small store after talking with the owner when a man came up to me and was very adamant about saying something to me. I looked down at my watch and thought “it’s about time to head home, but I sure want to know what this man is talking about.” So I hollered to Jessica, our translator to come over and tell me what he was saying. Apparently he wanted us to come back to his house and pray. Then before even thinking about what time it is, I said “sure.”
We then walked another 15 minutes in the opposite direction even farther down the same dirt road. Until we came to a small dirt hut on the side of the road, surrounded by a few other houses. Once again before we knew it people started to surround us and I had no clue as to where they were coming from. Then before we started preaching to them and telling them about Christ, I looked at Jessica and asked her “where is the man who brought us here?”, since it appeared he had vanished. She then pointed at the man standing right in front of me and said “this is him.” Instantly I thought to myself “this can’t be him, he is Muslim.” Apparently he had gone inside while we were all outside waiting and changed into his traditional Muslim clothing. It blew my mind that this Muslim man had heard us preaching the word of God and came to me and asked if we could come to his home and pray for him. But I was even more excited that we had a chance to let him know who Christ is. So I began to speak, telling him and the 40 plus people who by then had gathered around us about Christ and how much he loves us no matter who we are. He was very quiet and attentive as to what we were talking about. At the end he asked a few good questions and we got the opportunity to pray for him. However it gets better, as we were leaving we invited him to Church with us that night and sure enough he showed up. Again we had a chance to read some more scripture to him and speak with him a little further. I will continue to pray that my new friend Rashid will continue to come to Church and will find his true salvation.
This month appears to have a lot in store for us, already several members of my team witnessed healing while I was gone in Kigali. But I see if being a lot harder than the past couple months since we are practically living on top of each other in this small three room apartment. I ask that you continue to pray for us, that we will be open to where God wants to use us and patience with each other.
