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.
No comments:
Post a Comment