Baptism and Confirmation

Sunday was a great day of celebration. My colleague Pastor Celestin and his wife Immaculee have three daughters and two young female dependents (not their biological children, but children for whom they have taken responsibility, for various reasons). On Sunday all five girls were baptized or confirmed in the church.

the 4 left to right for the celebration

The celebration began at the Butare Kinyarwanda parish, about a mile and a half from the PIASS campus. I walked there with some of my students and my colleague Pastor Juvenal and the new PC(USA) volunteer who had just arrived in Kigali on Thursday, after we finished the 8:30 a.m. English service at PIASS. We arrived a bit late, but that was not an issue. This is Africa. We were in time for the choirs, who sang and danced with great delight. There were five of them, so there was lots of music. The baptisms and confirmation came after the sermon, just as in many congregations in the States. The difference was that the events were divided and happened somewhat simultaneously. Three of those to be baptized were 12 or older, so they needed to answer the questions of faith for themselves. Here in the Kinyarwanda service, the Apostle’s Creed is not recited, but is sung, so the girls sang of their faith. It was delightful. The youngest to be baptized   is just 18 months old, so her parents and godmother stood and answered as parents would in the States. One of the girls had been baptized as an infant, so she was to be confirmed.

This is where the service split and the actual baptism and confirmation happened simultaneously. The Presbyterian Church here practices the phrase we use in the States – reformed and always reforming. To address the concerns of the youth who have been influenced by the Pentecostal movement in Africa, the Presbyterians of Rwanda now allows for baptism by immersion for those who wish it. (The church leaders rely on the practice of Jesus for their authority to change things in this way.) The older girls requested immersion baptism. They were the first to use the new “pool” outside the newly constructed church building. Water had to be brought in for the event. The baby was also immersed, but held by her mother. While about half of the congregation went outside to witness the baptisms, the other half remained in the sanctuary for the affirmation of faith and confirmation of the one who had been baptized as an infant. One pastor officiated at the baptism while another officiated for the confirmation. Because this was for a pastor’s children, there were many pastors attending. About15 of us watched from the congregation. The Presbyterian Church here is relatively small with fewer than 200 pastors, so it still has a “family” feel when there are celebrations for the family of the clergy. That was the case here. When the congregation split, so did the family, as Imaculee went with the girls to be baptized and Celestin stayed with the one to be confirmed. He stood with her as she answered her constitutional questions and sang of her faith. After the baptism and confirmation, the congregation was joined again and the cottage group to which the family belongs (the congregation is divided into small “cottage” groups for weekly prayers) sang for the entire congregation, to show their support of the girls. Again, it was a family event, the family of the church.

The tent for the reception

That “family feel” continued as we moved to the family’s home after the service for a reception. The entire congregation was invited. About half the congregation accepted. The family had set up a tent in the side yard, moving the living room furniture out to the tent to provide comfortable setting for some special guests and plastic chairs for others. This meant that the living room could be fitted with the buffet table to serve the over 200 who had come to the reception. After the welcoming speeches, we were entertained by the three choirs that had come with us, as we filled our plates and ate. After the generous meal came speeches and presentation of gifts to the honorees and then thank-you and farewell speeches. The celebration ended about 5 p.m., a full day of sharing joy with friends and the family of faith. There makes for a great celebration.

Sunday of Celebration

This past Sunday was a day of celebration for the English – speaking congregation in Butare. We held a triple celebration as we consecrated the new communion table, commissioned new leadership and welcomed guests from Kigali. To do all of this, the service took 3 hours. I felt as if I were back in Malawi. It was wonderful.

Worship did not begin on time, but that is to be expected. First there was the issue of not electricity and that was essential for the keyboard and the PA system that the visitors were bringing, so the solution was to hook up a generator, That took time. Then, of course we had to wait for our guests to arrive. It is a 2 hour trip from Kigali to Butare, if all goes well. That assumes that everyone was present and the bus could leave on time, but that is never the case. The group did well, in that they were only about 45 minutes later than estimated. But the time of waiting was not wasted. Those of us gathered sang and praised God. It was a joyful time.

New Communion Table

Once the service began, the first order of business was to consecrate the new communion table and pulpit. That was my responsibility. (This is the project for which I bought a goat, to help make the purchase possible.) I was honored to be the pastor to set this furniture apart for God’s glory. It is beautifully made and will serve the community for many years.

Guest Choir singing

Then the service could begin in earnest. One of the elements that made the service longer was that the guests from Kigali were French speaking, many from other countries. The pastor of this congregation had served in Butare when our congregation was French speaking, so this was a homecoming of sorts for here. What this meant was that both languages were used in the service, with translation of all parts of the service and the scriptures read in both languages. This adds time to a service. In addition, there were more choirs for the service than usual. In addition to our choir, the guests brought a choir and they had to be given time to present a number of songs and some of the young girls of our congregation had prepared songs for the visitors. One of the songs the guests sang in French was "How Great Thou Art." That spoke all gathered for worship, regardless of the language. Guests provide the opportunity for praising God, so there were a number of choruses as well. During the greetings everyone needed to be introduced so that we all knew one another and were able to worship together, so this took time as well, but was so necessary for good fellowship.

After the preaching, done in French and translated for non-French speakers, came the third element of the service, the commissioning of new leadership of the Presbyterian Students’ Organization. They needed to be introduced and prayed for. They will be the ones who will minister to all Presbyterian students in the area, on behalf of our congregation. This is a significant outreach ministry and needs God’s blessing. It was a delight to share this with our guests, as well.

In all of this, the spirit was one of joy. No one looked at a watch to check the time. No one rushed through any part of the service. Each element was enjoyed as true worship to God. No celebration is complete without food, so after the service, a meal was served to everyone present. We all filed out of the sanctuary, greeted one another outside while the tables were set and the room prepared for eating.  The meal gave a wonderful opportunity for more fellowship and time for the congregation and the visitors to chat. No one was in a hurry to leave after the final speeches, even though it was after 1 p.m. and some of us had been gathered since 8:30 a.m. and our visitors had left home at dawn to arrive in Butare in time It was a day of celebration. 

Power

Power

No, I have not forgotten my “Blog Friends.” I have had intermittent power for the last week or so. Last week, the electricity went off on Thursday for a while and then again on Friday. It was off for about 2 hours each time. This is nothing unusual so I didn’t think much about it. Then on Friday evening it went off again about 10:30 p.m. It was not back on early Saturday morning.  Last Saturday was Umuganda (community service day) so everything was closed in the morning. I hoped that it would come back in the afternoon. I learned it was only our immediate area that was affected, not the whole of Butare, but that did not help our situation. My hope was futile. The power remained off all day. Sunday is not a working day, so there was no hope for the weekend. PIASS has a generator and it was in use on Sunday morning for weekend classes so after church, I went, found an empty room and a power outlet and was able to charge my laptop and my Nook. But my internet connection was not working. I use a modem that is connected to the local cell phone company. It seems that with the power outage, some of their towers were not functioning and therefore there was no power. I felt cutoff from the outside world. It became worse when I later realized that my cell phone should have been charged, too. That battery lasted until about 8 p.m. that evening and then I was totally cut off.

When I returned home from PIASS, I found water on the kitchen floor. The fridge had begun to defrost and was leaking on the floor. I cleaned it up, but there was nothing else I could do. I had no access to ice. And I had a commitment in the afternoon. I was to go to an engagement party, so I left the electricity problem behind and tried to enjoy myself. But the longer I sat at the party, the more I thought of the meat in the freezer. I worked out a plan. When I got home, I lit candles, (it was getting dark), pulled the meat from the freezer and cooked it all. Praise God for the propane stove that ignites with a match. I was able to save the meat. I shared it with my house staff on Monday, since there was no way I could eat it all myself. They were grateful for the power outage.

About 3:30 on Monday afternoon the power was restored. I sang the doxology and immediately began recharging all my electronic equipment. But the power went off again about 8 p.m. This time it was only off for about an hour. I breathed a sigh of relief. Tuesday the power went off for several hours in the afternoon, but came back on. It did the same thing in the evening. That was the pattern for Wednesday as well. On Thursday, we got word that the problem has been solved. I breathed a sigh of relief. On Friday, as an act of faith, I went to the market and bought some meat. I didn’t get a lot, but some to begin to replace what I had lost. On Friday evening, the power went out again.

Fridge as a large ice chest

By early Saturday morning, when the power had not returned, I began to worry about the meat in the freezer. I got up to find my gardener and send him to the market for ice. That is when the communication adventure began. He didn’t understand the word ice. This is reasonable, since most people here do not have freezers and there is no snow, so no frozen precipitation. I found the word in my Kinyarwandan dictionary and showed it to him. He nodded, took the money I offered him and left. He was back in 10 minutes with two bottles of cold water. I looked again at the translated word. It literally means very cold water. That is what he got for me. I got on the internet with the little power that remained in the laptop battery. and pulled up pictures of ice. He was baffled. I tried explaining, I let him read the Wikipedia explanation. He still did not understand. Then he called a friend of his who had traveled some and who knows English better than he does. The friend explained in Kinyarwanda what I could not in English. He took the money again and went off to the market. I cautiously waited. He returned about 20 minutes later to tell me that he needed more money to buy a bucket for the ice. That gave me a bit of hope. About 20 minutes after that he returned with a shiny new blue bucket filled with ice. We quickly went to work transferring the ice from the bucket to plastic zip-lock bag to pack in the freezer and the fridge. So my fridge is now serving as a giant ice chest, keeping the meat cold if not frozen.

This is Saturday late morning, and there is still no power. I am using the power of the generator at PIASS to recharge all my electronics. If the power remains off through the night, we will replenish the ice supply tomorrow. At least we have some communication and a game plan this week. Only God knows when we will have power again.