Sunday's Blog: We were encouraged by the number of young people attending the English service at 8am in Byumba cathedral.  Alan preached about the Lord’s prayer and its relevance to each of us in our daily lives.

The Youth for Christ Choir took us back to the days of the 1980s Billy Graham crusades with their renditions of Amazing Grace, I Surrender All and Blessed Assurance…  In song they moved from their seats to the front of the church swaying in a rhythmic conga formation to lead the worship.

As the English service drew to a close, the cathedral began to fill with church members in readiness for the following service in the Kinyarwandan language.   The cathedral’s wooden benches were almost full to their capacity, seating 1000, and though we found a few spare spaces on a bench near the back, our white faces were soon spotted by a church warden, dressed in a green and white cassock, who eagerly re-seated us on the front row beside the font.  Almost immediately 3 church members slotted themselves strategically between us on the front bench to interpret for us individually.

Andy, who was due to preach in the service, had previously been collected by another church warden, keen to get the service started and was seated amongst the clergy on the platform in the chancel.

Although the service was three and a half hours long, it was full of variety, music and colour.  A group of between 15 - 20 new members were welcomed into the church, introduced and then enfolded in a loving embrace by their brothers and sisters.  Several newly-weds were invited to the front for well wishing, 3 young people were baptised and Andy preached whilst Pastor Elson interpreted.  The service was interspersed by wonderful African singing and dancing led by 3 choirs. 

After Andy’s message, there was a good response from the congregation to Elson’s call, inviting people to give themselves to Christ.  About 30 young people came forward for prayer and were then taken into a side room where church members talked with them, putting into place a follow up programme.

Having eaten breakfast in a great hurry to attend the early service, we then returned in the early afternoon to ‘enjoy’ barely lukewarm porridge and hard boiled eggs.

We spent a gruelling afternoon coding and sorting hundreds, if not thousands of banana fibre cards hand made by a group of local widows, ready for us to take back to sell in the UK.  Fortunately Heather produced a packet of sweets to keep up our sugar levels and cheer us on through this tedious task.  By the time Andy returned from a meeting elsewhere, the large pile of empty sweet wrappers said it all!

Once again we were invited out to dinner in 2 pastors’ homes.  The 2 grannies, Eleanor and Heather, were in their element in Pastor Elson’s home as they spent the evening passing the young baby, ‘Heavenly Joy’ from one to another, cooing over her cuteness, living up to her name.  (until she covered Heather in baby rice!)    
      

Elson’s other children Shalom and Grace were also home from boarding school for a family wedding.  Alan enjoyed finding out about Pastor Elson’s involvement in the training and follow up to the post genocide programme of reconciliation.  This social therapy programme is based on post World War II material and has been funded by the Netherlands.

Meanwhile Andy and Isobel were being entertained at Pastor Etienne’s house.  We munched through warm roasted peanuts, trying to maintain a conversation with the family as the lights flickered on and off with annoying frequency.  A storm was brewing outside as the rainy season approaches.  Clearly Rwandan electricity struggles in such weather conditions.  After a sumptuous feast of local produce, Etienne invited Isobel to eat one of the lemons off his tree.  Hoping there had been confusion in translation, she accepted the offer, only to find that it was indeed a very bitter lemon and much wincing and grimacing ensued!  Etienne’s teenage boys tried to appear macho and proceeded to down their segments with virtually expressionless faces.

The jolly evening was rounded off by Andy organising a family game of bowls using Etienne’s home grown fruit.   To add to the excitement of the impromptu game, the ‘passion fruit jack’ was extremely well camouflaged on the concrete floor and to add another dimension to the challenge, we were periodically plunged into sudden darkness as the electricity cut out again!  A fun night was had by all!

Please pray for the young people who responded and also those who were baptised in the cathedral and pray for them to be discipled.

Give thanks for the opportunity to meet with local families and share meals;  the Cathedral was full and needs to be extended/rebuilt;  a youth group activity raised £2000 towards the building of a new cathedral.

At 10.30pm in the midst of writing yesterday's blog we received the disturbing news that we were due to head off on a 7 hour journey into the wilds at a cruel 4.30am this morning!  Fortunately this seemed to have got lost in translation and we actually departed at a genteel 10.30am after securing a vehicle with a broken window (hastily repaired with a chunk of wood - somewhat obscuring Eleanor's view of the upland panorama!)

We were heading off into the countryside along some horrendous, dusty, corrugated roads congested with bikes laden with bananas, people carrying all and sundry on their heads.  Stuffed to capacity, the pick up truck struggled up the gradients and Andy negotiated the hairpin bends with terrifying skill - performing 3 (or more) point turns above a sheer drop as Heather and Isobel winced from their cosy pole position. squashed onto the front seat.

Our mission was to visit two isolated parishes, set in beautiful terraced hillsides where daily life continues to be a struggle. We received the same warm welcome in both parishes, where the pastors and their families shared abundantly of the little they had.

As if the trusty Toyota was not straining enough, 'passers by' frequently jumped aboard only to drop off (literally) as we continued along the bumpy road.   Eleanor, Alan and Pastor Placide were somewhat dismayed to find another pastor being shoe-horned into join them on the back seat, as he wished for a lift down into the valley far below to take a wedding ceremony.  From their groans there was a substantial degree of discomfort and this reached a crescendo soon after we'd delivered Pastor Onesime to his destination and Pastor Placide's cramp caused him to spring from the vehicle and have his leg massaged back into life by Alan, in the presence of an ever increasing road side audience!

Give thanks - for Pastor Onesime's recovery from a motor bike accident 4 days ago; for seeing that our visits make a difference to the parishes, letting them know that we care.

Please pray for the challenge of providing education for the children in these beautiful yet remote locations;  the responsibility on the shoulders of the pastors for coordinating and encouraging their church leading teams; safety of transport for the church leaders in their rural parishes.

It has been another interesting day for us as a team. A day of the unexpected and unplanned as well as  a day of learning and sharing with our brothers and sisters here in Rwanda. Here are few snippets.

Interrupted and missed meal times - but porridge comes to the rescue.
Team's resilience was tested by the fluid nature of the day's programme, but we're still smiling!
Covering the cathedral benches with banana fibre cards as they were recounted and recoded. An annual event as part of our visits.
Distributing hand-knitted cardigans to pastor's new-born babies. Smiling wives and bemused babies.
Managing to finish off the interviews with all the pastors. Relief all round and much to pray for.
A realisation of how much we take everyday things for granted and the respect we have for our brothers and sisters here who keep going under very trying circumstances.
Important and helpful teaching for husbands and wives.


Please pray for:
Pastors and wives as they return to their parishes, that they will have been encoursged and strengthened as a result fo their time with us here.
The plans for new buildings and site developments.
The many pastors and wives and their families who struggle with everyday challenges - food, water, education and employment.

Give thanks for:
The many new believers who have been baptised in the last year.
For the increase in numbers attending church services.
A growing commitment within congregations to serve the Lord.

We launched into the day with a hearty breakfast of chicken soup with omlettes in good time to greet the pastors and their wives and families arriving for the conference. A burst of harmonious Rwandan a capella singing launched the first session which was taken by Andy who began to trace the Kingdom of God throughout the Scriptures ably translated by Pastor Elson.

After lunch Alan and Eleanor, aka the Scottish couple, shared from their personal experience on marriage and ministry. Being newcomers, they boldly suggested they could break into groups for discussion with the result that the room emptied and they went to the ends of the campus, which meant it took some time to round everyone up to continue! Eleanor spoke from the heart about the challenges and struggles of being a vicar's wife which resonated with many of those listening.
During the breaks Andy, with Isobel's help as debutante camera person, managed to do seven interviews with pastors whose parishes are part of our 'Support A Parish' programme.

Supper was fish and chips, African-style, accompanied by a further instalment of Eleanor's Budgie Tales.

Matters for prayer and praise.

• For a good second day at the conference 
• Help with sorting out Ubushuti Cards
• Practical needs of pastors, many of whom need to build a family house
• Thanks for growing congregations and many new church buildings

Thanks for your prayers.
Alan, Eleanor, Isobel, Heather and Andy.

Wednesday's blog. An interesting day. It started with us trying to get our phones sorted with the necessary SIM cards.  Pastor Placide took us to a local trader who had his 'desk' located under a sun umbrella. The initial problem was that the trader was not under the umbrella but once he was told he had some customers he soon appeared from up the road. He fixed us up with the cards and we went on our way happy - except that three of the cards needed to be cut down to micro size to fit the phones we have. This needed to be done in the town centre, so we would have to wait until later. We moved on to visit the new diocesan school.

King Solomom Academy is located on the edge of the town next to the sports stadium. For the 68 children and three teachers the accomodation is somewhat sparse. There are just three classrooms (Patience, Goodness and Kindness) and a very basic set of toilets. Other than this there are three more half built classrooms (Love, Joy, Peace?) a staff room (Self-control?) and an office (Gentleness?) which should be finished by November. If they are, then the school will get full accreditation from the government. The diocese is not short on a vision for the site. They would like to have a primary school, a secondary school and a university located on the large site in the next few years.

From the school we visited Hannah Ministry to see what baskets they have for us to bring back. It was good to see the centre active again and they had been working hard in readiness for our visit. From there we went down into the town to get the phone cards cut to micro size and then walked back up to the diocesan centre. Over our evening meal we were treated to the hidden world of budgie breeding by Eleanor - from them being born the size of a finger nail to the intricate art of budgie foot washing. We even heard about the time Alan locked Eleanor in the aviary - but more about that another time! Suffice it to say that she did get out - eventually - and following these insights, our lives will never be the same. Bed beckoned and we gave in.

We are here! After 18 hours of travel we arrived at the Scripture Union guest house in Kigali. On the way we had a damaged case, an hour of sitting on a plane waiting to take off and a long wait for getting our entry visas. But it was all worth it to be welcomed by a beaming Pastor Samuel who had come to the airport to meet us. After a good night's sleep we went to the Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali, a difficult but important experience, and then travelled up to the diocese of Byumba with our good friend Revd Juvenal. We've had a warm welcome from Bishop Emmanuel and his senior staff and enjoyed an evening meal together.

So here are some first impressions from the team. "Beautiful landscape of terraced hillsides."  "Surprising speed of housing and road development within a year." "Hustle and bustle of the city streets in sharp contrast to the absolute silence when confronted by the harrowing images of the genocide in the Memorial Centre."

Tomorrow we visit a school and two local projects.

Thank for you prayers.

Alan, Eleanor, Isobel, Heather and Andy.

We are here! After 18 hours of travel we arrived at the Scripture Union guest house in Kigali. On the way we had a damaged case, an hour of sitting on a plane waiting to take off and a long wait for getting our entry visas. But it was all worth it to be welcomed by a beaming Pastor Samuel who had come to the airport to meet us. After a good night's sleep we went to the Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali, a difficult but important experience, and then travelled up to the diocese of Byumba with our good friend Revd Juvenal. We've had a warm welcome from Bishop Emmanuel and his senior staff and enjoyed an evening meal together.

So here are some first impressions from the team. "Beautiful landscape of terraced hillsides."  "Surprising speed of housing and road development within a year." "Hustle and bustle of the city streets in sharp contrast to the absolute silence when confronted by the harrowing images of the genocide in the Memorial Centre."

Tomorrow we visit a school and two local projects.

Thank for you prayers.

Alan, Eleanor, Isobel, Heather and Andy.