This is the first blog for Africa! I will take you through the last 3 months and catch you up to my journey here in Kenya. This blog covers month 6 in Rwanda. Welcome to Rwanda Rewind where I cover the the people, ministry, and fun things that happened in Rwanda.
MEET PASTOR FRED
When arriving we were picked up at the airport by our ministry host. His name is Fred Muyimba! He is a man that is full of joy and loves the Lord with a passion. Fred is a pastor who has 10 brothers and sisters. His parents were Rwandan refugees that fled to Uganda and had Fred. Fred told me on our way to ministry that he was Ugandan at birth but is Rwandan at heart. The second mass genocide was in 1994. In 1995, he came back to Rwanda to see where parents come from. He has been here in Rwanda as a pastor ever since and he shared with me his problems that the churches in Rwanda had been facing. He said that the government put new laws in place to shut down churches all over the country. He stated that the government shut down over 2,000 churches from across the country because of new building requirements or the requirement that all pastors have to have a bachelors degree. Until both of these are met they all of the churches are shut down. Pastor Fred doesn’t have his bachelors degree and so the team and I have decided to help fundraise for him so his church won’t be shut down. You can donate here. All funds will go straight to getting him to NAIROBI BIBLE COLLEGE in KENYA!
NYAGATARE
The team and I headed to Nyagatare to help with a church that needed help from being shut down by the government. When we arrived the church just had brick walls and a roof. The alter had concrete poured but the rest of the church was just a dirt floor and 25 holes ready for windows to be put in. We were there to help get the church to the government standards so that it wouldn’t be shut down. The team and I, every morning from 9am-1pm would shovel and carry dirt into the church to make an even floor of dirt before laying down the concrete. We did this every morning and occasionally during the day people from the village would stop and watch us. The team and I walked in lots of joy while serving the Lord. Children smiling while watching us work in the Rwandan sun. From time to time, men would come up and ask for work. Yet they thought we were getting paid to do the work that we were doing because of the joy that we had. One of the guys walked away when being told that we were serving the Lord and getting a reward from heaven. Another guy heard it and decided to pick up and shovel and from that day forward he came every day to serve the Lord. The other men working said with pride that the church they were helping to build was going to be their church. We also did Sunday School teachings that incorporated bible skits, songs, and games like duck-duck-goose. Below is what it looked like.
AFRICAN SAFARI
It has been one of my dreams to do a safari in Africa and it finally happened. The team and I were able to also bless our ministry host Pastor Fred to the safari. We went to Akagera National Park! There we had so much fun. Here is what it looked like below. You know pictures are worth a thousand words.
This is my blog about Rwanda. Pastor Fred has been a spiritual father for all of us on a team. He walks so much in the spirit and he has captured the hearts of all of my teammates and I. He opened up his home to us and he took care of us as we were his own. Words can’t express how much this man means to us by what he taught each of us. He was intentional with all of us and he even gave us Rwandan names. Please, anything that you can please donate to help Pastor Fred get to college and so his church won’t be shut down. Next blog I will share a few more things from Rwanda Recap. Thank you so much for you love, support, and prayers! If you haven’t subscribed to my blogs subscribe here.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
