presidents, best-selling author-pastors, and...Melene!

In Rwanda today (Kigali), there was a White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI) meeting held at the Serena Hotel. Speakers included Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Rick Warren, and....Melene! Yes, our Melene: WR's Child Survival Program Manager of Community Mobilization.

Along with two other WR staff, Melene shared with the 250+ audience about how health initiatives by faith-based organizations (FBOs) can make a difference in the lives of children. She also demonstrated in her presentation how FBOs can effectively work in partnership with other NGOs and national governments.

Melene's first language is Kinyarwandan, her second is French. English is either her third language, or maybe even her fourth language after Swahili. She speaks English well, but it's not easy to give a presentation in a third (or fourth!) language! And she did SO well!!

The picture here is from a distance....but if you look close you will see Melene is at the podium on the left.



The man on the right (with his back to my camera), is Rick Warren, the author and pastor, listening intently. He took a lot of notes.

Congratulations, Melene, for a job well done!!

where in the world is....John Bradsford!

This is a special post for 20-something/Interior people at Ev. Free....

Imagine my surprise this morning, showing up at a local hotel for a conference here in Kigali (see above post), and turning around to see....John Bradsford!



Now, on second thought, it's not so unusual, I guess. John and his wife Jenny moved to Kenya last September. John is the TC (Technical Consultant) for Bethany Kids, a faith-based organization (FBO) that helps to serve the needs of disabled African children. The conference this morning was for FBOs in east Africa. So John being there made a lot of sense.

Nonetheless, it was still a surprise to see him! It is funny coming all the way across the world and running into people from your hometown. John says hi to all back in sunny southern CA!

on request...

A few summers back I went on a trip to North Africa with some friends from back home, including Geoff and June. Geoff recently wrote and requested that I share about what it's like to worship here with the local Rwandese....

It's an interesting question, because here in Kigali, for the first month or so, I attended English-speaking services at a few different churches (expat friends from work invited me to go). It was a lot like worship back home in America....similar songs, similar worship style, same language (!), etc. There were a lot of Rwandans in the congregation, even more than expats, but everything still had a westernized feel to it.

After about a month, I visited some Rwandan churches here in the area. For the time being, I have decided to alternate Sundays at two of these more-traditional Rwandan-style churches in the Kigali-area. These churches both happen to be Ev. Free churches. (I am alternating Sundays, rather than attending one church only, because of what I would call burden-of-translation issues. While Rwandans are always very welcoming, and always ask me to return, I think it may be difficult to receive a visitor like me because someone feels obligated to translate for me. I admit I appreciate this a lot, but it's a tough job for the translator! So I try to give the translators a break...)

One of the churches I am attending is the church that I've told you about already, just outside of Kigali, that Baraka's father planted. It's a small-but-growing church, and is really a help to the community out there. The other church is within Kigali city limits where a team from Ev. Free Fullerton built two school buildings in the summer of 2004.

And yes.....worship is similar at both churches that I attend....and it is VERY different than back home! Not better, nor worse....I think God is the Author of wondrous diversity and receives with grace and enjoyment ANY worship offered from a sincere heart. It's just....very different!

I attended the Kigali-city church this past Sunday, and right as things were getting really exciting, with congregation members spontaneously joining the choir up front, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs, I was thinking how it was amazing that this church was the same denomination as my church back in the US! :)





I don't know the words to the songs, so at the moment I can't join in too well.....maybe next time I should at least join in on the dancing! I think Rwandese very much understand what it meant that David danced before the Lord! Baraka, in all her sweetness, purchased me a hymn-book, so maybe I can learn at least a song or two in Kinyarwandan....

Another difference in worship styles is that worship services are long here, with the worship time itself lasting at least two hours, with choir(s) and group songs and prayers and praise. Then worship is always followed by a message (sermon) and then announcements, and then a bit more singing, usually, so it's a good three or more hours of time together.



A final difference is the theme of worship. The photo above is of the choir in the background, joined by joyful congregants in the foreground, all singing about how God showed the way out of Egypt, through the desert, and into the promised land, and it won't be long before we all get to the promised land, because of what God has done for us by sending us Jesus as the Great Guide. So many songs center around the glories of heaven, the promises that await, the hope that we can have even in sorrow and suffering....there is a profound understanding here, it seems, that life isn't good and it isn't fair but that faith in Jesus offers comfort, help, and hope for an eternal future where there will be no more tears. It's really perspective-altering, in many ways.

That's it for now....if I can think of any more major differences (besides maybe....I don't know, different clothes!) I'll keep you posted....

idioms and expressions

It is pouring rain now in Kigali, which is normal -- it's the rainy season! From now until early May, they say. The storms here are incredible, full of lightning and thunder and power. No rainbows lately, however -- hyena wedding season must be over (see an early post from January if you're not sure what I'm talking about).

Speaking of pouring rain, I came in today to the office and mentioned to Melene, "Wow, it's pouring!" She looked at me blankly. "Pouring? What is it?" I smiled and explained, and knowing how fast Melene catches on to things, she'll be using the expression during tomorrow's storm.

Explaining idioms or expressions to one another is an almost-daily part of office life here. When I drove to the child survival office for the first time last week (thank you again, Ev. Free, for the car!), the Quality Assurance manager here greeted me joyously from his office window with an expression I didn't understand...."C'est le temps d'arroser!" Literally, it means, "It's time for the sprinkling," as in, sprinkling the lawn or sprinkling the flowers. From my own blank face, I'm sure, he proceeded to explain: it's time to celebrate, i.e., "sprinkle" the champagne! A new favorite expression. :)

An acquaintance here was struggling with some "higher-ups" in his organization who were working through some conflict with one another. "Quand les éléphants se battrent, les herbes sont détruite," he said with a laugh. Literally: "When the elephants fight, it's the grass that gets destroyed."

A Rwandan proverb I've heard a couple of times goes like this: "The coming of visitors is like a good rain. So you must come again." Rwandans love visitors -- they say this often -- and it is a nice feeling to be welcomed.

Another Rwandan proverb came up yesterday during chapel (we have a chapel service every Friday morning at WR), where the speaker was sharing about accountability. He started out by talking about order, and how it's important to know who (in this case, Who) is in charge. The proverb was, "Too many hunters confuse the dogs." :) I like that one!

I'll try to keep you posted as they come up...

we are all rwandans (part 2)

I have been meaning to finish telling the story about the short film, "We Are All Rwandans", that I saw on Sunday (see Monday's post). The director of the film, I've since found out, is the great-grand-daughter of one of the first missionaries in Rwanda. She spoke briefly before the film began on Sunday, relating how there may be financial backing to create a full-length film from these initial efforts (which resulted in a 25-minute film). Coming soon to a theater near you! (hopefully)

The film recounted the history of a social studies teacher at a boarding school for secondary students in Kibuye, in 1997. Kibuye is in the west of Rwanda, and there were exiled Rwandan militants who at this time were coming back into Rwanda and trying to stir up further trouble, especially in that region. The film begins with the narration of the school teacher, talking about what he taught the teenagers (of mixed ethnicity): that love is stronger than hatred, and unity would conquer chaos. He taught the students that each of them had a high calling: to value every human being as someone who was created in God's image. He taught them that there was something more important than ethnicity, and that was humanity.

The first part of the film briefly chronicles his classroom interaction with students, and their response to what he taught. The teens wanted to believe in peace, but still struggled with trauma and pain from the recent war. They wrestled with, but saw the importance of, forgiveness and trust.

The second part of the film shows the unfolding of a militia plan to invade the school and kill all those of Tutsi ethnicity. The soldiers successfully enter the school compound, where students are attending night classes, and demand that the students separate according to ethnicity. The students, who are terrified, nonetheless refuse, repeatedly. When one Hutu student is singled out and pressed to identify her Tutsi peers, she pauses, and then declares softly, "We are all Rwandans." It is the last thing she says before she is gunned down, along with her classmates. The film ends with a tribute to the courage of the students who confronted evil by standing in unity -- even though it cost them their lives.

We talk a lot in the public health arena about "cost benefit analysis." This means simply, "are we maximizing the use of our money?" Sometimes hard decisions have to be made, because the decision to spend money to benefit 1000 children may mean that 100 children elsewhere lose out. I bring this up because, from the point of view of "cost benefit analysis," the student in the story above could have saved half her classmates (not to mention herself) by identifying the Tutsis in the room. But she didn't. And neither did any of her other Hutu classmates.

I am pausing for a moment, thinking.

Saving one life is a courageous act. Saving many lives is heroic. But maybe at times there's a higher calling than preventing one more death.

At the start of the film, the social studies teacher taught his class that they didn't have to fear anybody, least of all those who were killers. He didn't know about the coming attacks on the school, but he knew to teach his students not to fear men, even evil men. And I only know of one way to escape that kind of fear, because Jesus taught it to His students too: fear (revere) God....God, Who knows all about self-sacrifice, even to the point of death.

------------------

I Jn. 3:16 By this we know His love, that He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

we are all Rwandans

Rwanda has a film festival! It's in its fourth year, in fact!

The festival is here in Kigali and lasts a week, right on the heels of the nation-wide, two-week long "Hillywood" Film Festival, where huge inflatable portable screens are set up out in the villages so that movies can be shown to those who might never have access to film otherwise. Amazing!

This year, the Film Festival is featuring the opening of the Canadian-produced film, "Shake Hands With the Devil," about Dallaire, the UN General who was overseeing UN troops during the genocide. I happened to be here in 2006 when they were filming this movie, right up the road from WR's offices, so I'm looking forward to seeing it (hopefully tonight....Becca and I have plans to go).

My friend Erica invited me along with her to the Film Festival's opening yesterday at the Serena Hotel, where there were five short films being shown. One of the best features there was called, "We Are All Rwandans," and chronicled the story of secondary school students in a boarding school in Kibuye (western Rwanda), three years after the genocide.

There was a social studies teacher at that school who taught the teenagers (of mixed ethnicity) that love is stronger than hatred, and unity would conquer chaos. He taught the students that each of them had a high calling: to value every human being as someone who was created in God's image. He taught them that there was something more important than ethnicity, and that was humanity.

I don't have the opportunity right now to finish the rest of the story! But it's good! More later....

thank you, Ev. Free Fullerton!

I wanted to thank all of my friends back at Ev. Free Fullerton, who helped to purchase a vehicle for World Relief that is designated for my use this year. I have been managing to get around town by scamming rides and taking taxis (as well as the occasional moto....don't tell Mom), but the vehicle arrived yesterday, and I was so happy! It's such a blessing to have. Within the next few weeks I will be out in the field much more frequently (Lord willing) and I can't tell you how grateful I am for this car. Thank you thank you thank you!!

The car is a blue RAV-4 (I'm not sure what year) with about 30,000 miles on it. Thank you again!! :)

musanze retreat...and other news!

It's been a busy and full week! Partnership meetings (see post below) were carried out all last week, at a retreat center in Musanze. Musanze is close to Ruengheri, in the northwest part of the country near the gorillas and volcanoes. I had the privilege of going up to the retreat center one day to share about WR's child survival program on a panel about health. The meetings as a whole went well, I heard (I wasn't there the whole time because of work in Kigali), and I can't wait to get to Musanze again! It was gorgeous!

In other news, over the weekend I was able to attend a Kigali-based Ev. Free church! it was so fun! But I don't have any good photos. This church is where a short-term team from Ev. Free Fullerton built school rooms in 2004....now there are 200+ schoolchildren attending school every day there on church grounds! Next time I go I'll get a better picture.

There is also a small clinic at the church, where medicine and nursing care is provided, sometimes free of charge, to the community, and an income-generating internet café is being built right on the property. I was able to share briefly during the Sunday service, and told them about how our church in California had been praying for them for a long time. It was really so encouraging to see all the things happening at that church!

A fun thing happened too, the first three days of this week: a CHE (Community Health Education) seminar was held at the Kigali Ev. Free church! CHE is the community development approach that I spent two months this summer learning more about in the Philippines. Here at the Kigali Ev. Free church, about 18 Rwandese pastors (and a few Rwandese health workers from the church clinic) were learning about practical ways to reach out to the community around them by integrating physical and spiritual health, and in so doing to help people know and understand God's love in meaningful ways.

I was able to participate in a small portion of the training, and it was so great to connect with the facilitator, a Congolese doctor, whom I had heard so much about from some friends in the Phillippines this summer. The seminar went well and I look forward to hearing about the next steps the pastors will take...and maybe how I can get more involved.

learning Acronym

Alert: this is a nerdy blog entry. I couldn't help it. I will post more soon about the goings-on of the past few days (there's been a lot going on!) but here is a portion of my world here that I wanted you to know about.

When I came here, I knew I would be expected to speak French at times. What I didn't anticipate, however, was how much I would end up speaking a language I never heard of till I got here: Acronym.

I have had to learn quickly that Acronym is the only way to get by in the world of non-govt organizations (NGOs). Every organization here goes by an acronym. My theory about why they do this is because NGOs are forever writing documents (ironically these are acronym-named documents), such as detailed implementation plans (DIPs) and memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and terms of reference documents (TORs), and NGOs get tired of writing their full name over and over in these documents, ad nauseum.

So World Relief in Rwanda is WRR: World Vision is WV; Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Program is CHAMP; Food for the Hungry is FHI (the "I" being for "International"). Etc., etc. It's not a bad plan, and it's convenient for most people. However, contrary to the popular saying, it's not WHO you know here, it's whether you know their acronym.

Further, to give you an idea of how confused my head can get sometimes, the child survival program (CSP) that I work with at WRR is actually called the EIP (Expanded Impact Project)...not to be confused with the EPI, the Expanded Program of Immunization (a Rwandan vaccination program). Besides doing general work in the context of C-IMCI (Community-based Integrated Management of Childhood Illness, which more frequently goes by its French acronym, PCME-C, Prise en charge des Maladies d'Enfants dans la Communauté), WRR is partnering with CW (Concern Worldwide) and IRC (the International Rescue Committee) to help implement HBM (Home-Based Management) in the context of the PMI (President's Malaria Initiative), using PNILP (another French acronym, no less, Programme Nationale Integrée de Lutte contre le Paludisme, or in other words, the National Integrated Malaria Control Program, or NIMCP).

And on it goes! I am not sure a day goes by when I don't ask Melene or somebody, What does (insert-acronym-of-choice) mean again?

One last thing on this topic: in some ways, I am oddly comforted by speaking Acronym because I realized this week I speak it at home, particularly with close girl friends. If you know what GS, YL, RR, ATL or DL is, you speak Acronym! (If you don't know what they mean, shoot me an email, and I'll fill you in.) Talk to you soon! :)

visiting friends from CA & more Baraka news

Starting last Saturday, visitors from all over the USA started arriving in Rwanda in preparation for the church partnership meetings that began here at HQs on Monday. There are many churches who are deeply interested and invested in the well-being of Africans here in the Great Lakes region of the continent (including Burundi, eastern Congo, and Kenya), and it has been fun and inspiring to interact with everyone. There are also several visiting representatives from the various field offices in Burundi, Congo, and Kenya, so it is an international fling...languages are especially fun, with people praying and giving greetings in Swahili, French, Kirundi (from Burundi), English, or Kinyarwandan. It's crazy fun!

You may recognize here three of my favorite visitors:





Brad & Leslie and Bob arrived on Saturday, and only one piece of luggage amongst them was lost, so that's not too bad! :) (And the luggage was recuperated the next day, so all in all it could have been worse....) I was so happy to see them, and it has been fun getting caught up on goings-on in CA (lots of rain) and at church (construction projects and other updates).

Another fun thing was that they all bore gifts. As well as bringing various "comfort" items (including candy corn, wow!) they also hand-carried several letters to me from friends back home. If you wrote one of those letters, thank you so much...it was such an amazing encouragement to receive them! On Sunday morning, the day after they arrived, I mentioned something about the letters, and Brad or Bob asked, "Did you read ALL of them?" When I nodded, they laughed...it's hard to explain how nice it is to receive "mail" over here, but once I started opening letters I couldn't finish till I'd reached the end. :) Thank you again!

All four of us ended up spending the weekend with Baraka and her family (including Baraka's father, Pastor Abel), and we visited different aspects of Baraka's ministry (Gate of Hope) as well as Pastor Abel's village church that I had visited last week. Baraka is not only doing counseling activities for traumatized children, but she is also helping to train the mothers of some of those children in income-generating activity (sewing).

Here is the entrance to Baraka's "office":



Isn't it cool? It is a brand new ministry, but she's doing so much good already. Our church sponsored a recent lay counseling training that she did with 20 participants; it was a week-long training, and we were able to meet one of the women that she trained at a local orphanage. Baraka is really multiplying her skills as she trains those around her to help hurting children.

Here she is with a group of children, in front of her church (many are involved in her ministry):



I will post other pictures of Baraka as the months go on, I'm sure! I had a great time at her place, again, and I learned a great Rwandan proverb: "A woman is never a guest anywhere." This means I get to help with the dishes and set the table, which makes me feel like part of the family. Maybe next I'll learn how to cook tilapia and cassava leaves (isambe)!

international women's day

It's been a busy several days, and I'm a little behind in posting. Saturday, Brad and Leslie Rose and Bob Alexander arrived from California, and we had a fantastic weekend with Baraka and her family! I'll post some photos in the next entry.

The day before they arrived, however, World Relief celebrated International Women's Day at our weekly chapel service.



Technically, IWD is on March 8th (Saturday), but the women went all out at our office, a day early. They decorated the chapel beautifully, planned the morning's ceremonial singing and dancing, and even made pretty proverbs-laden bookmarks with verses (...a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised....) to distribute. Every woman on the staff participated, including housekeeping (this is Colette, who is so kind to me and often brings me tea on the days that I work at the WR office):



Joie Claire, who capably runs HR here at HQs, is the one who made sure that I had appropriate attire and could participate in the festivities! I had a great time, especially dancing (thanks, Joie Claire!). I wish I could remember the Kinyarwandan name of this formal dress, but I can't (I've gotta find someone to write it down for me...lots of u's and a's). Below is a photo of a small group of us during the celebration (Louise, Chantal, Sarah, and me, L to R...Louise works in Child Development, Chantal works in HIV/AIDS programs, and Sarah is Director of Programs):



If you've never heard of International Women's Day, go to: http://www.internationalwomensday.com (where else, right?). The Americans I spoke to on Friday had never heard of IWD (myself included), but apparently it has been widely celebrated here in Rwanda for a couple of decades. Victor confirmed on Saturday that at least some countries in central Europe celebrate it every year as well. I learned from the website that IWD began in Copenhagen in 1911. Who knew? And where has the US branch of Hallmark been all these years, missing out on another potentially windfall-greeting-card-selling opportunity??

The joke is, of course, that there is this one day set aside for women....and the other 364 belong to the men.... :)

a few more photos from last weekend

I wanted to share a few more photos from last weekend... Baraka's home (and her church) are about 20 minutes outside of Kigali, in an area where there is a big mental health hospital. She says that when she tells people that she lives there (I can't remember the name right now) they all look at her a little funny. She has to explain that, no, she just lives in the region, not in the mental health hospital!

Although the area is not too far from Kigali, it's fairly rural in comparison. Baraka's father is a pastor, and he retired here a couple of years ago. Every Sunday Baraka's family would drive into church in Kigali, and pretty soon they were taking some neighbors with them, and after a while they had to organize different shifts of visitors so that everyone had a turn to go in to church in Kigali. Finally Baraka's father thought maybe God was telling him something....so he started a new church out in their neighborhood! It's a great and growing church (it already outgrew its first home and moved into a second!). However, somebody (an American, is what the rumor is) bought the land where the current church is standing, so they will have to move again. They are praying now for a location and a building, or money for a building.

Here's a lovely woman that Baraka and I met on the road, walking home from church to her parents' home. The baby is only 1 month old! This is a common and convenient way to transport a baby over here.



Baraka asked this woman if she went to church, and she said no, so Baraka promptly invited her to come next Sunday and the woman seemed very pleased. Baraka went on to explain to me that many people here don't go to church, since the genocide; many people still remember that often people were trapped and killed in churches. She said that instead, people often visit what she called "prayer rooms," kind of like fortune-tellers with church-like language. This has become a big problem for many people.

After church, I had the privilege of having lunch at Baraka's home (she lives with her mom and dad), and afterward I felt just like a member of the family because I got to sort beans! Baraka's mom poured three huge baskets of beans onto the table and we pulled out the bad ones. I explained to them how it reminded me of how I used to sort through puzzle pieces with my mom (back in the day, wow), pulling out the edge pieces. They all laughed, but then I wondered if they'd ever really seen a puzzle. I should bring one to them if I can find one someplace!



Here's a shot of an adorable little kiddo outside the church. He was so cute!! Like my friend Hilary says, I just wanted to put him in my pocket! :) (Hi Hil!)



Finally, in the "travel-halfway-around-the-world-to-meet-your-neighbor" category, here is a photo of the other muzungu (white) house guest at Baraka's family farm on Saturday night: his name is Dan Prince, he was a guest of JP's, and --although we had never met -- he is a member at my church back home in CA! The fact we had never met was hilarious and unheard-of to the others in this photo (next to me is Baraka, then Dan, then Baraka's sister Mary Paul, then JP). The farmhouse, behind us, has been reconstructed over the past several years, and it's very comfortable and welcoming. Dan and I had a great time catching up; he knows several of my friends (yay!). He's been helping JP out in Nairobi for about a month, while things are settling down from the crises there.



Thank you, Baraka, for a great weekend!

wisdom on the wall

I had a wonderful time this weekend visiting Baraka's family and church outside of Kigali. Besides being a lovely woman with a heart for God and a wonderful ministry for orphans, Baraka is a beloved "adopted" sister/daughter/friend of many back in my home church in CA. So I felt especially blessed being able to spend time at Baraka's ministry site (which is also the farm of her older brother, JP, another "adoptee" of my home church), as well as at her own home and her church.

As I was leaving the farm on Sunday morning, just before church, I noticed this sign on the wall:



In French, it says, "He who has lost his money has lost nothing. He who has lost his health has lost something. He who has lost his courage has lost everything."

Baraka's family has lived here in Rwanda for a long long time. Her father is a pastor and her mother is a farmer; her brothers and sisters are serving God in various capacities around the world, literally. But as I read that wisdom off the wall, I couldn't help but think about what this family has seen, the sorrows and struggles, perhaps untold horrors. Some family friends had joined us for dinner the previous night, and in inquiring about how the families knew one another, they said they went waaaay back....even running for their lives together during the genocide, they said, and laughed. And then the conversation turned to other things. Baraka remarked in passing the next morning how there had been an enormous house on the farm property that was completely destroyed during the genocide. It is always slightly surreal to hear people speak about their pasts here, because even if they are smiling, it becomes evident there are shadows across their hearts, shadows that I could never begin to understand.

I remember reading a definition of courage, once: it is not the absence of fear, but faith in the face of fear. And so it was a privilege to see such courage displayed in this humble family this weekend...they have not given up nor given in, but chosen to serve a hurting world. Courage. I think God is smiling.