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I’m finally able to embrace the fact that I’m going home. I’ve been so reluctant to leave, but the insistence of reality is hard to overcome. I’m absolutely certain this is only the start of a larger mission. We’ve merely laid a foundation of relationships and set expectations for how PEACE will work with the local ICC going forward. My heart has been touched in profound and irreversible ways and I’m certain of God’s leading to return — it’s only a matter of time! Meantime, I invite you to walk slowly with me, talk softly with me, pray in emphatic thanksgiving with me, embrace the beauty of silent togetherness with me, and you too will experience a bit of the wonder of Rwanda.

Megan {Mbabazi}

Eph 4:13

Bittersweet – “Almost” describes this day – it had to end, but ended sacred!!!

Thank you God for this incredible experience – for the awesome land and people you created in Rwanda, and for the courage you gave me to answer your call! We went to teach, but we received far more then we gave! It truly is a blessing to have been a part of this team and experience. Thank you Lord! Can’t wait to go back!

Yohana (Johnny)

My prayer is that our experience in Rwanda, the lessons we learned, the relationships we built and the growth we have experienced will stay with us forever. As a team we talked about trying to be intentional about loving others well and being as selfless as we can – a lesson we saw daily through our Rwandan friends. I give God the glory for all that took place these last two weeks.

Cindy

Now back in the middle of my normal routine, I find myself day-dreaming a lot about what our team experienced, in relationships, learning’s, growth and just ‘Life’ in general. Excitement does not capture my heart’s adoration for my team’s sacrifice and service for the greater good, God’s Church in Rwanda! I am looking forward to going back sometime soon; God willing!

Brian

P.S. Peter posted his final thoughts, per the last post.

Our last days in Rwanda sped by with a bittersweet ease. The team woke up early Sunday morning in our Northern Province hotel, fresh from our wonderful gorilla trekking the previous day. As Maurice, our guide, interpreter and friend, drove us back the two hours to Kigali, we wound our way along breathtakingly beautiful and treacherously steep, curving mountain roads.  The landscape is stunning (think of an African version of the White Mountains combined with the rolling hills of the Lake District of England). The colors of the early Sunday shone in the morning light, with the Rwandese dressed in their Sunday finest walking to church (perhaps for miles). Children and families, old and young, in bright greens dresses and handsome shirts. Maurice spoke to us of different Rwandan cultural items differences and idly whiled away the long drive into the city, reminding us to always “think in love”.

Emmy, our dear interpreter for the majority of the two weeks, was happy to know we’d be attending his church for the Sunday services. Located in a snappy part of town in a hotel convention hall, it was a near mirror image of MCC back home (they even sang of our familiar songs!) The congregation was young, hip, very well dressed and completely walking their faith in full throated joyousness and song. The people were relational to the core, welcoming us with so much friendliness as if we were all just old friends whom they hadn’t seen in some time.

Before our evening plans came to be, we spent a final debrief with the leaders at the PEACE office in Kigali. Eric, Moses and Jean-Pierre graciously invited us to a wonderful African lunch; we all shared with one another the highs and not so highs of our two weeks in Rwanda, how a few things could be improved (communications among leaders) and stressed the beautiful exchanges that took place in our clean water trainings in the Northern Province. It was clear that great and lasting friendships were formed between New Hampshire and Rwanda.

The day ended with a long planned farewell dinner at Heaven, the restaurant, in Kigali city centre. Frank Reynolds, our retired senior pastor, was in Rwanda on PDL exploratory meetings with various African pastors. Frank was happy as a pig in mud to join us for dinner, along with Pastor Theo! The surreal feeling of hearing Frank’s distinct voice gently drifting through the chill Rwandan night air was something to behold. We laughed, chatted, shared and ate. It was wonderful.

Monday would be spent souvenir shopping and preparing for our departure to Europe and home. But there was so much to ponder and weigh. The friendships that were formed. The people, always so relational with their quick smiles and ready hugs. The beauty of the landscapes. The colors. The nearly unbelievable turnaround, in grace, of these people who have seen the best and the worst of themselves.

We will miss them. But there will always be another time.

Now, we will be winging our way back home to snowy New Hampshire.

Au reviour, mes amis. Thanks you for a beautiful and blessed time. The red, dusty clay of Rwanda is firmly upon our feet.

Peter

As part of our rest and relaxation day, we were privileged to take a short hike into the Bamboo forests of Rwanda, located in Musanze, to experience a ‘true’ Silverback family in their natural habitat. After trekking through thistle stinging bushes, moss covered bamboo as well as vine entangled vegetation, we came to our small family of Gorillas, which was not a large family, however had the largest Silverback of all families, named Guhonda – I think weighting at least 550lbs. Words cannot describe what we saw and/or experienced, since around 55 minutes into our observation, while being mesmerized at watching Guhonda eat; Johnny and I, as well as others were surprised when a Blackback (large male), gaited right by us, literally less than a foot away – what an exhilarating experience.

Good day from Musanze!

Brian

Friday was another beautiful day set to Rwandan Time. We wrote some thank-you notes, packed up, said a final good-bye to Pastor Elson and made it about 1 km before needing a small repair done on our van. It was “all good” as it gave us a little more time to soak in some final images of Byumba.

Before long, we were on our way back to Kigali, leaving behind beautifully terraced hills as far as the eye can see and big portions of our hearts as well.

Returning to Kigali was a bit surreal since it’s literally only an hour from Byumba, Gicumbi and yet is so incredibly different. Between occasional villages full of bright-blue uniformed children, we saw people of all ages pushing heavily-laden bicycles up steep slopes and the occasional small child just walking along the road all alone. Soon we drove along a valley with fields of sugar cane and rice, passing through communities closer together and with more industry.

All too soon, we reached Kigali and enjoyed one more leisurely meal with Emmy and our driver, DiSalle.

We’ve all grown to love Emmy so much and somewhere along the way we began thinking of him as a teammate so much that we still find ourselves looking around for him as if he’s just wandered off like Yohanna and Petero so often do.

After our second fare-well of the day, we piled all our luggage and 6 people including our driver Maurice into a land rover and set out for Musanze district, a 2.5 hour ride slowly up and down countless slopes with steep drops off the road into picturesque valleys.

Although we were headed to a new district, I wasn’t expecting things to be so different from Byumba as Musanze and Gicumbi are neighboring districts. Gone were the terraced hillsides and roughly paved roads. We passed soccer fields and agriculture predominant with banana and corn.

Part of the transformation is also that we’ve entered a new phase of our stay. No longer are we here so much on development work but have now become tourists seeking restoration. Our ride was quiet as some slept and some contemplated the last few weeks and even what the future may hold for us and the residents of Gicumbi district. 

When we arrived in the city of our destination (can’t recall the name right now!), I was very surprised to see how built up the location is with many hotels, very wide roads and tourist shops. I underestimated the tourist value of the location and what that meant for the development of the city—good or bad.

We were all quite spent and were facing a VERY early morning, so sought our beds directly after dinner with a blog half written…the gorillas weren’t going to wait for us to get our beauty sleep!

Thanks for reading and for your comments, they mean so much to us! Peter is also faring better and it was probably a good thing for him that it was a travel day full of long stretches of driving! Spoiler alert – he DID do the gorilla trek on Saturday and we were all SO thankful for that! Brian will fill you in on our Saturday in Musanze district later…

Megan

Today started like any other day, with early morning drumbeats, bountiful sunshine and promises of new things; and boy, did we experience great things!

We first visited multiple churches, and they openly shared their dreams and desires for church building and rain collection projects as well as for long-term growth and sustainability. After some further discussions, my heart became ‘heavy’ for the Rwandese people and God’s church. We were told that, due to past colonial theology, most of the church members within the local evangelical church do not biblically tithe. However, God is working mightily in their mist to raise up his church, in all dimensions. There is also great need for local job creation near each church, so the local congregation can remain intact instead of having their members move due to the lack of viable work. The pastors find that many people go church hopping, looking for what the ‘other’ can provide them. I trust that the continued development and infrastructure will increase the peoples’ active participation and investment in the church’s future.

Encouragement came to us in seeing a Tippy-Tap installed at a Pastor’s house, with some great improvements. It is awesome to see the Personal Health and Hygiene training being replicated and people being mobilized in the community.

In the afternoon, we were spoiled to see the Rugezi Wetlands. What a peaceful and miraculous place and words cannot describe its beauty! When we first arrived, a heavy rainfall greeted us with some hail. Yes, hail! Can you imagine this in Rwanda? What a neat experience that Meg Guillebaud graced us with, in showing us her dream of building a ecologically just tourist hot-spot right at the base of this divine panoramic landscape. What an impressive location, with awesome views, many waterfowl; a true bird paradise for the bird lovers out there. Another interesting fact is that this wetland is one of the major contributors to the Nile, the mighty Nile!

Halfway through our venture back to the guesthouse to meet with the ICC (Inter Church Council) for a debriefing of our stay, we were literally ‘stopped in our tracks’ twice. First, when our van got stuck on a narrow timber bridge and one of our rear wheels came right off and was dangling in mid-air! But…no worries! Within 5 minutes (maybe less) we had twenty five people assisting us so that we could continue, and that we did … murakoze cyane (thank you)!! A little later, after much noise and bouncing around, we got stuck in a huge boulder crevice. However, this time we needed to just exit the van to alleviate the weight so we could pass. I have to say, I would not trade today’s experiences for anything!

Arriving late to our guesthouse, with some sore bottoms and ringing ears, we had a short meeting with the ICC. We can honesty say that solid relationships were built, much love was shared, and that we have learned so much from these gentle, Godly men as well as their respective communities and churches — God’s church. I personally cannot wait to see what the future holds for this growing partnership.

Blessings from Rwanda,

Brian

This post may be a bit long and I promise lots of great details, but we’re all asking as a team that before you continue, please stop and say a prayer for Peter. He’s feeling a bit under the weather and we’re praying for a speedy and complete recovery tonight. Thank you so much!

This morning started like so many others - a cool breeze of clean, crisp air, a bucket of hot water outside our door, and the distant sounds of the Guest House employees pumping water for various early-morning chores. We broke our fast as usual to the sweet strains of a seemingly Rwandan National Icon: Kenny Rogers! Brian departed early for a meeting with the Anglican Bishop and Pastor Elson. He returned enthusiastic about the foundational meeting knowing that yet another key relationship was established.

We were able to pass on our 5 Proclaimers to Pastor Elson who’s now charged with distributing these tools that share God’s Good News in strategic places were people aren’t literate. The Proclaimers are essentially Audio Bibles in the Rwandan language (Kinyarwandan) and the distributors have developed them in 522 different languages.

http://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com

Our training was moved to a smaller venue which reminded me of a one-room schoolhouse. Most of our students know no English. The others know very very little. A few of us managed to share pictures from home during our first break today and hopefully figured out how to communicate “Brother,” “Wife,” etc., … One of the students said to me in crystal clear English: I want to dance! So we danced! Our music was clapping and stomping; it was wonderfull — I’ll never forget Rolandance and her determination to communicate!

Before our lunch break, we had a bit of a scare. As Peter assisted Brian with a lesson, he fainted. Fortunately, one of our students managed to get to him before he did a complete faceplant into the concrete floor. When Peter opened his eyes, Johnny asked “how pretty am I?” In true Peter Noonan fashion, he replied “You’re beautiful” with a contented smile! We found out later that he was really enjoying lying on the cool concrete floor :)

After a short rest in the van and a couple granola bars, he was back at training. He did take it a little easier for the rest of the day, but he still isn’t 100% and we want him to be able to participate in our activities tomorrow - our last day in Byumba.

Our training in Kageyo has now completed and we left there with mixed feelings. We were very encouraged that we were able to fit in two additional lessons over what was taught in Byumba, and many of the comments made were to the effect that they pledged to take what they’d learned and bring it back to their communities. In Byumba city, more of the population has had the opportunity to learn english. Given the greater language barrier we weren’t really able to learn many of their stories; however — while we laughed together over our break times trying to make sense of hand guestures and odd-sounding words, unforgetable connections were definitely built.

At lunchtime, I had the opportunity to practice my French, liimited Kinyarwanda and creative-sign-language with three of the Kageyo pastors — Jotham, Simon and Celeste. They of course didn’t believe me when I told them how old I am. (And they didn’t believe Brian when he backed me up, either!) They insisted that I stay in Rwanda rather than return home. All in good fun of course, they offered me a cow; I said “5 cows!” They said, “No problem!”

I’m learning so much from the people in this land. Here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned:

Read More

Today was the first day of our second teaching series. Just when you thought Rwanda couldn’t possibly get any cooler, we left Byumba for Kageyo (Kuh-jay-yo) and it got Way Cooler. If somebody told me right now that God put the Garden of Eden in Rwanda, I would totally believe it.

The amount of people at the training was slightly smaller at 25 and there was more of a language barrier, as none of them spoke any english at all. But the dynamics of the teachings was even better than last week. Everybody rocked and by now, the lessons are practically memorized. Cindy managed to surprise us all with an impromptu heartfelt African-drum-lead praise & dance session.

In other news, the baboon decided to pay our room a visit last night. Just about 10 pm we lost power in the Guest House and decided to hit the hay with nothing better to do. While laying there in the dead quiet and pitch black, without any warning whatsoever, the baboon smashed into the glass sending the window crashing open directly above Peter’s head. This led to much chaos and laughing on my and Brian’s part. Peter — not so much. Somehow, the hunters have become the hunted but I keep trying to reassure Peter that Rocky the Baboon just wanted to hang out.

After the lesson today, we were blessed with yet another awesome surprise and were introduced by Pastor Elson to Pastor Meg Guillebaud, who is 3rd generation missionary in Rwanda. We sat with her at her house over coffee and tea as she gave us a brief testimony of her life which was absolutely amazing. Meg’s grandfather did the first Bible translation of greek to Kinyarwandan and her father did the first Good News translation. She herself has done more for Chrisitian efforts in this country than I could even begin to recount.

Without a doubt whatsoever, I’m blessed to be with an awesome team in a trully awesome land and it just keeps getting better and better.

We ARE in paradise.

-Johnny a.k.a. Yohanna

P.S. Tomorrow we go banana picking (for Rocky the Baboon)

Every new day in Rwanda is the promise of something fresh and exciting, the continuity of our schedules combined with the possibilities of new and pleasantly unexpected beauty, adventures and relationships.

Our day began sleepily, with much needed rest and downtime. The plan for the day consisted of a supply run into town and an afternoon tour of churches and communities to better understand their needs for water.

The team made a mid-morning drive into the ‘downtown’ of Byumba. At the local flea market, we procured our needed supplies to fulfill our increasingly full week of new clean water training with the community development trainers. The market teemed with red dust, vibrant colors and pungent smells, all magnified in the late morning sun. An elderly beggar beseeched us for money. Children, a constant presence wherever we went, stared at us, fascinated by these strange ‘muzungos’, and laughed at our attempts at their language. Waterfalls of used clothing, from well-worn American shorts and jeans to European dress shirts and shoes, hung from the market stalls, competing with Indian toothpaste and soaps. Soon we had our matches, string and soap for the tippy-taps and we were off again.

The leisurely pace of Rwandan life is still a pleasant but unexpected change from our Western ways. As we met up with Pastors Elson (a wonderful man with a wicked sense of humor) and Emmanuel, we realized - yet again - how humane these people are. The Open Doors church, led by Pastor Brutus, a dear, gentle, kind man, who has come through the unimaginable horrors of the genocide with amazing grace, was typical of the beauty with which life is shared here. Stripped down to its barest essentials, Rwandan life is relational to the core. The churches we visited, to better understand the needs of the community, were of the same cloth. No pretense, no defenses or explanations, simply a desire to share their hearts and smiles with the rest of the world and their neighbors.

We came to the Pentecostal church where Megan and I were honored to speak at yesterday (in keeping with true Pentecostal tradition, I had been sorely tempted to show off my John Travolta disco moves, but decided that Rwanda had already suffered enough). Pastor Dominick was a gracious host and explained how the water for the community could be so easily collected from the massive roof. Yet, there was so much to be done. So much need, so much promise. But always hope.

The water collection abilities of these communities are small, yet the need is so great. The Nazarene church pastors, just down the street, told of how their attempts to make a cistern had been stymied by various circumstances. For this team, the dilemma of how to provide the benefits of clean water o these people while adhering to the tenets of P.E.A.C.E. was made crystal clear. How can we help them? What is the greatest need? Expertise? Capital? Hard supplies? We knew it would have to be plans formulated to best utilize the resources of the wider world with the local knowledge and will of the people of Byumba.

The day ended with a quiet, early evening coffee in the gazebo of our Anglican guesthouse. The night air was warm and sweet and Kenny Rogers (who seems to be a minor national icon) blared from the speakers. Pastor Elson joined us for some good conversation and hearty laughs. Johnny told to Elson of his love for ‘Cowboy Coffee’. ” ‘Black coffee’ is NOT an acceptable phrase in Africa!” Elson heartily teased Johnny. A wonderful woman named Hildegard, joined us. She explained her great work with an organization helping HIV infected peoples. A few minutes later, a baboon that had been lurking on the rooftops of our guesthouse, gave Cindy a near heart attack as it rattled off the steel roof and landed with a massive thud on the walkway, screeching and scurrying off towards the kitchen. At suppertime at a nearby hotel, our wonderful interpreter Emmanuel was fully inducted into the American way of life when Johnny got him, in his best New Jersey accent, to imitate the phrase “Not fer nothing, but just FUHGETTABOUTIT!” Poor Emmanuel. He’s a true Jersey Shore fan now.

On a personal level, I love these people. But I have grown to like them as well. Such friendships are what make the distance between us, both geographically and culturally, seem insignificant.

Peter