Rwanda 8-1-13 Class Day 4

Today is Thursday, and now, after four full days of class, I am beginning to feel exhausted.  The men were unusually full of questions today, and the questions are nearly always loaded!  You have to be very careful in answering them or they can easily backfire.  This creates tension and before long you can lose your audience.  This is something that I must keep in check all of the time.  Today, I taught the men a significant part of the morning on how to interpret, use, and preach from the story-form (narrative) literature in the Bible.  In this part of the world, narrative preaching is extremely popular.  This afternoon we moved to the books of prophecy, and by the day’s end, we were teaching them about the use of the book of Acts.

It was a very busy day and a very tiring day.  We will have one more quiz in the morning and then after compiling all of the grades, determine who needs to retest just before the lunch break.  After lunch we will create the final list of who will receive a Certificate of Completion and at 3:00 in the afternoon, we will hold the first official graduation service in Kilgali (sometimes known as Kigali as well), Rwanda.  I will include the final number tomorrow in my blog, but I know that the lion’s share of the pastors will graduate from the first class in Interpretation of Scripture.

Also this afternoon, I had the chance to interview one of the pastors from outside the city.  I hope you will visit our Facebook page to meet this second generation Baptist pastor.  Tomorrow I hope to interview a few others and include them in tomorrow night’s blog.  Their stories are all different and fascinating.  Their everyday hardships do not discourage them or make them joyless.  In fact, its just the opposite.  Most of the older men have seen so much atrocity and violence because of genocide, that nothing can keep them down for long.  They are always ready to embrace you each morning and offer a joyful greeting.

There has been little rain here for over two months and the water supply is lacking.  Several men on the property, including the pastor had to go out today to find more water supplies for the house and dorms so the men could bathe.  They brought back water, but water supplies are definitely limited.  Fortunately, I have not been affected by it, and they have supplied me with an endless supply of bottled and boiled water.

Well, I will have much more to report tomorrow!  Please pray for the final class, the final quiz, and the graduation service.  We will need wisdom and grace on how to handle all of the endless details.  I have some very important news to share with you tomorrow about the Congo part of the trip, and it is good!

Blessings from Rwanda, Africa