Rwanda, Rwanda

Our team went to Rwanda as part of the Crosslinks SMILE Programme. We were given the opportunity to work for two weeks alongside Norman Desire, a pastor based in Kigali. He has good links with a number of projects for children and young people as well as strong friendships with Christian head teachers, who were keen for us to come to their schools and talk to their students. We went to a lot of Christian Union meetings in secondary schools where we explained the gospel and encouraged the Christian students evangelise their friends and families. We were excited to see many young people turning to Jesus, although we also recognised a desperate need for Bibles and biblical teaching for the teenagers we met. There seemed to be a real enthusiasm among them to worship Jesus but a lack of biblical knowledge to enable them to grow as Christians.

COMMITTED

We also went into primary schools close to where we were staying and formed a particularly strong link with Kigali City School, where the children were keen to learn and the teachers noticeably committed to their pupils. One comment that has stuck with me was made by one of the teachers there to a group of the pupils who had represented their school at a parade by the local community: he told them that though they were so young they had behaved as though they were very grown up and how proud the teachers were of them all. Norman also took us to a very remote village where the vicar had offered the church building for use as a school for the local children. Their teacher was so committed that she was working entirely voluntarily - and was doing an amazing job. It was really encouraging to see Christians taking Jesus' words seriously about how to behave towards children and demonstrating respect and love for them.

CHATTED

Patrick, the chef at the guest house where we stayed, often sat and chatted with us. He is a Christian and was over the moon to find out that we were too. He makes an effort to talk to two people every day about Jesus and will go (very) far out of his way to try and serve everyone he meets in any way he can, which I think we all found inspiring. There is a great freedom to talk about Jesus in Rwanda and this made talking about the hope we have in Him so much easier than it can be in the UK. Also inspirational was that the response to any praise we gave to the people we worked with, even for a good cup of tea, was "Imana ishimwe!" - "Praise God!", and I think this is the one phrase of Kinyarwanda that will remain with us. It was a simple reminder of how much we should recognise God's hand in all we do, rather than taking the credit for the things we feel we've achieved by ourselves.

MEMORABLE

The most memorable aspect of our time in the churches and Christian Union meetings was the lengthy times of praise using both singing and dancing. Aside from the powerful and beautiful voices, which put our songs to shame at every event (though the boys made quite an impression with their dancing), we were moved by people's unrestrained joy. It also caused us to spend a lot of time thinking about Romans 12 and what it means to worship God with our whole lives. We preached on and discussed this passage more than once with the Christians we met.

SHADOW

Before this year, the bulk of our knowledge about Rwanda had come from the film Hotel Rwanda and from documentaries about the 1994 genocide. Although we discovered there is vastly more to Rwanda's history and culture, it has cast a shadow over the country. Near the beginning of our stay, Norman took us to the Genocide Memorial Centre and the things we saw and learnt there were invaluable. Norman seemed keen that we should not forget them. It was painful to watch the uncut footage of some of the things that happened, especially to young children, but at the same time it served as a stark illustration of how much our world needs God. A quote from one of the exhibits read 'Rwanda was dead', left decimated in July 1994, so to find ourselves in July 2008 in such a beautiful, vibrant and friendly country is an awesome sign of the hope we have in God, who can restore even the most spoilt parts of his creation. Many of the people we got to know were happy to talk about the genocide and we felt a strong sense of their eagerness to move on as one unified nation. This is easier said than done, though, and one of our translators - who joined us at the Memorial Centre - told us that visiting the exhibits had stirred up painful memories of the relatives she had lost. She said that however much she thinks she's moved on, looking back at what happened leaves her feeling shaken up all over again. There is still a long way to go in bringing justice and in recovering fully from what happened, and God is fundamental to that process. I hope we left something behind us during the short time we were there, but one thing's for certain: the 'land of a thousand hills' has taught us some priceless lessons about how we should be living as Christians at home. Our short trip highlighted the blessings we've been given in the United Kingdom, but also the danger we face of overlooking God in the details of our lives in a country where day-to-day living seems predictable and secure. It also demonstrated a huge area where we are not so fortunate - we have comparatively little freedom to talk about Jesus with our friends and co-workers at home and so we tend to be much more restrained in our worship. I'm never (ever) going to be able to sing or dance like an African but it's my aim to be more African in this country in the way I worship Him with my life, and with all of it.

For more information about short-term placements with Crosslinks click here