Rwanda 7/29/13 – Day 3

Well the day is about over, and it has been a long one.  It started a little late because of some late pastors from a another sector of the Kilgali region.  They cannot afford to come for the entire week.  The blessing is that one of our supporting pastors and his church anticipated this and gave us a generous love gift to make it possible for people just like this to attend!  We are thrilled to be able to help them this week to get the training they desire.

The first day of class today has been a typical first seminar day.  For the Africans, they have their own cultural manner of dealing with difficulties.  By days end, we have most of the logistic problems worked out.  Tomorrow we will get back to the grueling schedule of 8:00 am to 4:30 p.m. lectures.  Today we went about five and a half hours.  The men have their first quiz in the morning and I could tell that they are a little anxious.  This is predictable because they really don’t know what to expect.  Hopefully we can get them all through the first one and set a good template for the rest of the week.  They all want to receive that certificate of completion on Friday afternoon!

I have had some really good video moments.  Last night I ran into two thirty-something year old men whose uncle’s family was killed during the genocide of 1994.  I hope you will take the time to watch this interview with these two nephews on our website – www.gbtf.net.  It should be up there by tomorrow.  It is absolutely stunning and overwhelming what they conveyed to me in the interview about the killings.  The most amazing part however is their unequivocal forgiveness of the murderers and love for those they now call their Rwandan brothers.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Rwandan genocide, it was simply a civil war between two rival tribes the Hutus and Toutsis.  The Hutus had the advantage of having a Hutu president who was unwilling to step in and stop the violence.  Unfortunately, this did not stop his own murder.  And the country was plunged into a mass genocide of the Toutsis.  There were nearly a million people who died in the murders, the main portion of them were Toutsis.  It was one of the most tragic events of the century, decimating the population of Rwanda.

I trust you will pray for this ministry.  The future of Rwanda is really in the hands of Christians who love their brothers and sisters despite their ethnic background.  We are training the present generation of pastors who are ministering in the post-genocide era.  It is a divine privilege to train these godly men who desire to minister to their people more effectively.