Greetings, CrossRoads friends!
Sunday, November 30 began quite early for some of us. One of our team members, Esteban, had been unwell throughout the night and by 5:30am Sunday, the decision was made that he should be taken to hospital. for assessment and treatment. Upon the advice of the Word Relief staff who accompany and direct us, we took him to the Butare University Teaching Hospital, where he was assessed, rehydrated, and given medical treatment. As a retired Canadian LPN, I found it interesting to observe a Rwandan hospital: some differences, many similarities. Esteban was treated professionally and respectfully. He has been "laying low" sine then, joining us for some, but not all, of our team activities; he's definitely on the mend, for which we thank God.
A phone call to Pastor Tracy for advice and direction resulted in some of you being notified of Esteban's situation, and many of you were praying for him. Much thanks!
As a result of the above, only four of our team of seven were able to attend the morning service at New Life Nyanamagabe, 9:00am-12:50pm. If you've never attended a Rwandan church service, please understand that it's difficult to explain in a brief blog what we saw, heard and felt. Suffice it to say that we joined in worship with approximately 500 brothers and sisters in Christ, as they sang, chanted, swayed, danced, bounced, knelt, beamed, and led us in worship of the living God. We joined in as we could--yes, even Bernie moved his stoic Dutch feet, *a little bit*. The words on the Power Point were, of course, in the Kiniruwandan language, so we listened, or simply sang/spoke praises to the One who will one day gather all believers to Himself, where we will worship with people from every tongue, tribe and language. We were moved; tears flowed freely--and the name of Jesus was richly lifted up!
Two adult choirs provided special music, as well as a children's choir, comprised of 122 youngsters (estimated ages 5-14)who walked single file onto the platform, where they vibrantly sang for 5-7 minutes before calmly walking back down off the platform. Do the math and you'll easily recognize that all of these littles were born well after the genocide of 1994. In fact, many of their parents were born after that time, as well. ...the point being that our great God is faithfully raising up a generation of those who still love Him and trust Him, in spite of the destructive events of the past!
One more musical "note," if I may.... I was invited to play the keyboard as the congregation sang "Jesus Paid It All," while congregants walked forward to place their offering into one of three offering boxes.
The church is two weeks into a three-week campaign of fasting and prayer. Pastor Moses powerfully and vibrantly presented more teaching and insight on this subject. We did not leave unchallenged!
After the church service, we headed into the hills for a delightful experience. Our ride was blocked briefly by a certain strutting baboon (and his community), but we did make it, as planned, to Nwungye National Park, as described in Adam's earlier blog post.
Thus ended the month of November, for us.
