Faith

She is not yet 16 years old, but she is a business woman, thanks to her church. Faith is an orphan who lives in a village outside of Butare. She is the proud owner of five goats. They are her business. Because of them, she has a mattress to sleep on in her one room house, has clothes to wear and food to eat and she has plans for the future. She is one of several orphans who has been helped to begin a business and slowly overcome the poverty into which she was thrust when her parents died.

The elders of her church, a rural parish outside of Butare, Rwanda, saw her situation and worked together to help her. They are not rich themselves, but they have hearts for the poorest of their parish. Encouraged by their pastor and with the aid of Felix Ngirabakunzi, a trained engineer in agriculture and agro-business, who serves as the regional development officer for the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda (EPR), they are making a difference in the lives of the poor in their parish. They met with Faith to determine her interests and abilities. With their encouragement, Faith decided that she could breed goats. The church raised the money for two goats and Felix provided her with the training she needed in the care of the goats. All through the project, he has given her guidance and training for handling the goats and for beginning her business. The breeding of the goats produced three kids. She sold them and with the money has provided for her own needs. She is now on her next generation of breeding. She has paid back the elders for their help to her by providing goats for breeding to another orphan in the parish, who is working with Felix for the same success that Faith has had.  Faith has not only learned goat breeding, but has learned to manage her own money, to make investment decisions and is expanding her abilities in farming and crop production. The goat manure helps her with that. She is self-supporting and is investing in her community. All of this has come about from a sacrificial investment of $200 by the church elders, and their confidence in Faith.

Other churches are working on similar projects with sheep and pigs for that same investment of $200 per project. To begin a project with cows is a bigger sacrifice, of $350. That is a challenge for many of the parishes, but some have been able to raise the initial cash for the project. The pastors who have the vision to reach out to the poor of their parishes have been trained at PIASS, where I am teaching. This is part of Practical Theology. I don’t work directly with Faith or her congregation, but I work with Felix through EPR and I teach the pastors who will soon be in the parishes with folks like Faith. So I am a small part of this empowering work, in the background, supporting and equipping the pastors. If you would like more information this development project, or want to know how you can partner with these enterprising churches to expand their outreach, please contact me. I’d love to tell you more.

The BIg Five

Usually, in Africa, “The Big Five” refers to the five African animals that are most difficult to track and hunt – the elephant, the lion, the leopard, the rhino and the Cape buffalo. But here at PIASS, we have begun to joke about our own “Big Five” – the five English hymns that are sung over and over again – “Trust and Obey,” “No Not One,” “Standing on the Promises,” “Surrender All,” and “Kumbaya.” These are the hymns the students know the best and so they are the ones that they sing at every worship service. Please understand that English is a relatively new language for the students. It has only been the International language of Rwanda for the past four years, so it is not unexpected that they would have a limited repertoire of hymns in this new language.

Last week, we decided to take the first steps to expand that repertoire. I had an old fashioned Hymn Sing at my house. I invited my students, any who wanted to come, and a few faculty members who are particularly interested in music, for an evening of learning new songs and then of light refreshments. Sixteen came. I had borrowed the hymn books from the chapel and the faculty member who teaches music joined us. Together we taught some of the hymns that the students didn’t know. We began with ones that they knew in Kinyarwanda but not in English, so the melodies were familiar, even if the words weren’t. They were surprised that they already knew “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Blessed Assurance,” or at least the tunes.  We sang them in both languages, as they tried to teach me the Kinyarwandan words and I worked with their pronunciation of English. They quickly caught on to “How Great Thou Art” and especially sang the chorus with joy, like many Americans do. “To God Be the Glory” took a bit more work, but one of the fellows picked up a good drum beat and that helped the learning greatly. Here a standard accompaniment in church is a single drum. For our purposes, my coffee table became a drum.  The enthusiasm for the singing increased as the beat sounded clearly.

We had agreed to sing for an hour and then to have refreshments. We went well beyond the hour and I finally had to call time, because I know that some had other commitments. We made the promise that we would have another Hymn Sing soon. The joy of the evening carried on in a relaxed fellowship time. But the benefit of the evening came on Sunday when for our small English service we sang both “Blessed Assurance” and “How Great Thou Art.” We are no longer restricted to the “Big Five.”

In the Image of God

Over 500 people, students, pastors, family members, and community residents, walked in hushed conversations a mile from a now abandoned field to the mission complex of Remera Rukoma in southern Rwanda. This was part of the property of the third mission station founded by the Eglise Prebyterien au Rwanda, the  Presbyterian Church of Rwanda (EPR) but it was also the site of a massacre of 600 Tutsis in 1994, yet one more site of the Genocide that claimed over 800,000 lives. All those killed on this site were pastors, students, and staff of the school and the hospital. The pastors had thought they could protect the students and staff, but no one was immune. The solemn walk reminded us all of that, as we retraced the steps of those who knew they were marching to their death.

The march ended at the school, where their death march had begun. There we gathered to remember, to honor those who had died and to find meaning in the midst of grief, even 19 years later, for the survivors, family and friends assembled. A great deal of that meaning came from the sermon which was the center piece of the worship service. The preacher called us to Gen. 1 and 2, where we were reminded that all humans have been created in the image of God. She talked about the power of knowing that we are made in God’s image, that we carry within us the identity of being his people. If we can live in that reality, our primary identity is not as Tutsi or Hutu, Rwandan or any other nationality or ethnic group but our primary identity is in God. This is also how we find the strength to forgive and to move forward. She then drew us to John 11:25, the assurance Jesus gives that he is the resurrection and the life. She made the strong point that death for Christians in never hopeless, regardless of the circumstances and we need to take hope in that truth as well.



Survivors' Choir

The remembrance continued with testimonies of remembrance and stories of moving forward by as survivor of the attack and by the widow of one of the victims. The pastors and family members were then invited to the burial site to lay flowers in memory of the victims. That was an emotional time, to see the actual graves and to see photos of those entombed there. Back at the school grounds, the remembrance continues with music and drama by several survivor groups, all who sang or spoke of remembering to ensure that such a thing never happens again. By the end of the ceremony, the tone of the event had shifted for solemn to hopeful. The day ended on a note of optimism that this was not in vain, if we can learn from it to build to the future.

These remembrances around Genocide happen every year, to remember the victims and to celebrate the survivors, but even more, to deepen the commitment that such a thing will never happen again in Rwanda. The remembering brings hope out of incredible pain and meaning out of otherwise senseless death. It is difficult, but it is important for the future.



How Great Thou Art

This morning in the small chapel of the Presbytery office of Butare, with wooden benches, some with backs and some without, the small congregation of 50 people, mostly Rwandan students of PIASS, and four lecturers and their family, belted out the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” The praise to God for his greatness was accompanied with clapping and drums, the beat of which was a bit irregular to an American ear, but heartfelt. The pronunciation was with a strong Kinyarwandan accent but the emotions were so pure and powerful.

As we began the fourth verse, I was mentally transported to another worship service. As we sang, “When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation/ And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!/ Then I shall bow in humble adoration/ And there proclaim, my God how great Thou art!” I saw in my mind’s eye the majestic stone cathedral of First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh with its vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows. I heard in my ear the mighty pipe organ and the voices of 2,000 congregants praising God. This was my home congregation as I was growing up, both physically and spiritually. The words of the familiar hymn became part of my life there.

The chorus and the drums brought me back to Rwanda -"Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee: How great Thou art, how great Thou art!" With a Kinyarwandan accent, I was overwhelmed as I had been as a young Christian by the power and majesty of God. It is the truth and power of the words, not the accent or the accompaniment that draws us into God’s presence in praise. I know that. But what a wonderfully powerful experience and reminder this was. It seemed to me today like a foretaste of heaven when we will sing God’s praise in all our accents and with the instruments of heavenly worship.

The Work Visa

I finally have my precious work visa, the means to stay and work in Rwanda. It has taken two months, numerous emails and faxes with the United States, four bus trips from Butare to Kigali, and four visits to the Rwandan Immigration office but on Monday, I got the visa.

The law is that one is to apply for a work visa within 15 days of arriving in the country. The application includes letters of appointment, terms and prove of employment, copies of transcripts, diplomas and certification of credentials, like ordination, a photo of the applicant and a police clearance from the country of nationality. Two days after I arrived, I went to the Immigration office with one of the staff of the Presbyterian Church (EPR) with whom I am working and got all the information of all that was needed. We began to assemble it. I had the transcripts and certificates with me but I didn’t have the police clearance. I got assistance from Pittsburgh Presbytery with that. It was faxed to PIASS when it was completed. EPR and PIASS gathered the letters of work certification. The HR director took all of this to Immigration to submit on the 15^th day of my arrival. He was told that everything had to be notarized to authenticate it. So we began the process of authenticating all the documents. Some were easier than others to do. I had official transcripts, so they needed to be taken to a notary, copied in his presence and the copies notarized. The same was true for all the letters and certificates. The problem became the police clearance. We learned that if I took it to the American Embassy in Kigali that could be done. So off I went to Kigali. But the Embassy has only certain times for such business and one must have an appointment for it. I didn’t. But the staff was helpful in getting me an appointment for early the next morning. The problem for me was that I was in Kigali then. That meant returning to Butare and making another trip to Kigali the next day. The appointment was for 8:30 a.m., so that I could get to Immigration with all the paper work before 11 a.m. I was grateful to the Embassy staff for their assistance. I just had to return to Butare and then leave again at 6 a.m. the next day to make all the connections, which I did.

At the Embassy, my anxiety was raised when the staff member working with me said that she had never seen a report like the one I had and it might not be accepted. If it were not, I could work through the Embassy to get a different kind of clearance report, but that would take more time (and more money, of course). She encouraged me to try with the one I had, but not to be  hopeful. So I paid for the notary services and went off to Immigration with a degree of fear that the process might not be enough. One of the staff from PIASS had accompanied me and he led me through the offices to pay the application fee (and a late fee for missing the 15 day deadline to apply) and then to make the formal application. The officer looked carefully at all the forms, took my passport and the forms and told me that I would be informed of the result of the application within a few days. I left not knowing if it were satisfactory or not. I could only wait to hear. Five days later I got a text message on my phone informing me that the permit had been granted and that I needed to come to Kigali to collect my passport between 1:30 and 3:30 the next day. That meant yet another carefully timed trip to Kigali. I also had to arrange the trip around my teaching schedule,

The Visa

On Monday of this week, I boarded a bus for Kigali at noon. By this time, I was familiar with the travel arrangements. Two hours later, I arrived at the Kigali bus depot and was met by the same helpful taxi driver who had escorted me to the Embassy and to Immigration before. He took me directly to the Immigration office, about a 10 minute drive from the bus depot. At the Visa desk, the officer told me to take a seat at the desk, no waiting. I signed a form and he handed me my passport, with the visa attached. The whole process took less than 5 minutes. Then it was back to the bus depot and back to Butare, 4 ½ hours of travel for a 5 minute transaction. But I had my work visa and it is good for 2 years before it has to be renewed. Praise God.