CrossRoads has partnered with World Relief in Rwanda since 2013. This partnership has become much more than just a transactional or business arrangement, we are good friends, even family. They care about us and we care about them.
World Relief’s mission is to empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable.
Once we started our partnership and got to know the staff and see how they went about this, we were very impressed. They are truly seeking lasting change. They are not about the quick fix, about getting the impressive photo or trying to appease the donor. They desire that the local church to be stronger and healthier so that they can reach out into their community. This is because they really believe God’s Plan A for the world is the Church. The Church is his plan to reach out and redeem the world. What was surprising to learn is they weren’t just talking about the church in Rwanda, they also feel the same way about our church!
This became evident pretty early on. They weren’t just looking to use our financial support to accomplish their goals. They wanted to be in relationship with us. They wanted to hear our voices and invest in us. This is very unique for an organization like this.
Their model of working with partners like us is that we are connected to a particular part of the country. So, for CrossRoads, we are connected to and our support is sent towards the work happening in Nyamasheke in the SW part of the country. Other churches are connected to other parts of the country. Together we make up a team. There are currently 8 partner churches supporting Rwanda with World Relief.
Each church has an assigned Director of Strategic Partnerships who works as a liaison for us. They work hard to make sure we all know what is going on and feel part of the team. In order for this to happen they have created a number of opportunities:
- Quarterly regional zoom calls (long before the Covid zoom craze took over) where we check in, get updates from the organization and the staff on the ground and we lift each other up for prayer.
- A few global prayer meetings (also on zoom) each year where the leadership of WR will offer some teaching and then there is an opportunity for us to break into countries and pray together.
- An annual, in-person planning meeting. Each partner takes turns hosting the 3-day event. CrossRoads hosted this meeting in 2018.
- Digital Staff Newsletter where each church sends photos, video, stories or prayers to the staff in Rwanda.
- Annual ministry trips.
- Consistent visits to our church. They are available to send their staff to us so that our church family is also impacted by the relationship. It is important that the relationship and the impact goes both ways! We have hosted the World Relief President twice and have hosted Moses the Rwanda Country Director here many times. We have also hosted a number of other staff who have invested in us in different ways.
This past week a new opportunity to connect was put in place and a dream was made a reality. Members from each partner church were invited to Rwanda to make up a team that will be part of the upcoming World Relief Rwanda staff retreat! We have a small team there now to first spend a few days in Nyamasheke to see the progress of the great ministry happening there and then together with all the other partners they will be participating in the annual staff retreat.
Please keep this team in your prayers as they will be gone August 15th-26th.
On a disappointing note; I (Pastor Tracy) was on this team but the day before travel started I tested positive for Covid and had to stay back making our little team even smaller. I have full confidence in William our Communications Director and Ashley one of our Young Adults. They will be met in Kigali by Sarah from World Relief US and many others coming from the various partner churches.
