Weekend Adventures!

The photo on the left is the crazy road we drove on!

The center photo is just for enjoyment of the sites of our drive to the final church!

The photo on the right is of some of the church members and the pineapples, they juice and grow.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

We have tried to make it a priority to visit as many of our Nazarene churches as we can, across all of Rwanda. While it’s easier to travel within Rwanda, we have been trying to hit other areas of the field as well, as our travels take us there. We have recently received a GPS to map latitude and longitude coordinates, at the churches that we visit, so that we can then post the location of the church on Google Earth. It’s been exciting to see where each churches location is in relation to other churches that we visit. What we are hoping is that slowly, as we visit more and more churches, we can begin to map where each of our Nazarene churches are located, and have one map of our church locations for the field. In our minds it seems possible right? Some of our districts are so large, that we have more than 100 churches in the district…so I figure if we are to visit all of the churches on the field at least once, we may need to stay in Africa for the next 50 years! Hey, it could happen. (PS, I didn’t really calculate exactly how long that would be…I was just throwing out a number, plus if our church keeps growing we will just keep getting more and more churches to visit).

We did have the opportunity at the beginning of January to visit 3 churches in one weekend. We started in Northern Rwanda, and drove some rode’s we have not yet been through to visit Gihinga Church of the Nazarene. They have a pineapple project ministry, where they have a large land they are using to grow pineapples, to both sell them and to make pineapple juice for production. As well as growing coffee to sell to larger organizations who do the production of coffee. They are using this to help their church grow as well as help their community. It’s a small little church, with MUCH potential. It was such a nice visit to see both the church members and the project, and how much success they are already having.

The next church we visited was a recent church start from November, in Kibuye. We met with the core leadership team of the church. They were able to ask many questions to the district superintendent and he was able to help guide the church into a plan for their church for the next few months. They have been trying to find a place to meet, and while we were there, they were offered the ability to rent out the big conference room in one of the hotels for only a small weekly fee, until they can find a more permanent place.

The final church we visited that weekend was Muhigi Church, and it was located all the way to what seemed to be the very top of the mountain. We kept driving, until we got to the part of the road where the road no longer existed, instead we had to drive over rocks and partial road, like when you do 4-wheeling in the states! Of course it’s difficult to explain to people the types of areas our churches are located, so Blake decided it was beneficial to take pictures! When he got out of the car to take some photos of the road, he tripped and fell, ripping his brand new pair of pants that just came with Ben from the states! He cut up his knee and we had to doctor his knee by washing off blood and putting LOTS of band-aids on it. Poor Blake! He did however, use his ripped pants as a short introduction and part of his greeting with the church members, discussing how, sometimes we may have struggles in our life and not everything is going to go as perfectly planned, but, as Christians, isn’t it wonderful that we have someone to walk with us and protect us during those times of struggles.

When we finally made it to this church, we actually met outside under trees, as the church has outgrown their church building. They have experienced huge growth of 400% in the last six months, Praise God! This weekend was such a blessing for us. We had a wonderful time, and look forward to more church visits in the weeks and months to come! Continue to pray for all of our little churches, in the little parts of every village and every area of Rwanda and the rest of our field!