Discipling for Development

Discipling for Development (D for D) is a process we are engaging in in Rwanda that helps bring whole life transformation into Rwandan communities. We as missionaries, together with Rwandan Christians engage in relationships with people in a community, helping them to identify the resources in the community, coming up with sustainable solutions to the problems they themselves identify. We do this while also sharing God’s love for them, realizing that God’s message to them is good news in all areas of life. Teachings (and transformation) happens in the areas of economics, health, relationships, spiritual growth, farming methods, etc.

The Lord has been transforming us and the way we see Him and the way we understand the Good News that Jesus came to bring to us! Here it is in a brief explanation:

THE CREATION: God created everything good, He said it was very good! (spiritually - we were united with God; physically - there was no pain, no sickness, no death; relationally - there was peace, love, selflessness, etc; environmentally - there was enough good water, good food, people lived at peace with animals, etc) It was all amahoro (shalom). God was King of everything and everything was just the way He wanted it!

THE FALL: Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. They decided they wanted to be King, and in that sin everything was distorted or ruined! (spiritually - we were separated from God and His will for our lives; physically - then came death, sickness, pain, etc; relationally - then came hatred, jealousy, murder, war, lying, cheating, etc; environmentally, drought, famine, bad water, etc. Everything is not the way God wants it. Humans are King. It was all non-amahoro (non-shalom).

REDEMPTION: God sent Jesus, the Redeemer! Jesus came to redeem all that was distorted or ruined! Although things will never be perfect on this earth, Jesus has, is, and will continue to redeem until the day He takes us home! (spiritually - He has made a way for us be united to God and live life with Him as our King, Savior, and Friend; physically - He gives us grace in our pain, sickness, and there is hope after death. He also heals us as He chooses; relationally - He has broken down and can break down all the walls that divide us, hatred, bitterness these can all be removed and replaced with God's love flowing in us and through us; environmentally - creation is groaning for redemption from the curse of the fall, but our task of stewarding and caring for the earth has been given to us anew in Christ! To those of us who choose to live in God's Kingdom, God is King and He leads us to walk in His will; He empowers us; and He helps us in all areas of our lives!

So when we teach about goats and how God created them and what He thinks about goats and help them discover some better ways for caring for their goats we are sharing a piece of the good news...God being involved in every part of our life and helping us as we know Him more and more in our work, in our families, with our neighbors, environment, etc. So in this way we are intentionally sharing / showing the gospel message in a way that connects to what Rwandans have known and experienced in a traditional religion that touched all of life. But now we are proclaiming the true gospel that touches all of life! We believe that in D for D we have a tool for the Church that can help us to experience, live in and share the Good News of God's Kingdom to our Rwandan friends, colleagues, and neighbors in a way that speaks deeply into the hearts of Rwandans.

We are currently working in 4 communities; Murinja, Musovu, Kirambo, and Karembure. In the first 3, (Murinja, Musovu and Kirambo) we are focusing on already present Evangelical Friends Churches. Each church chose some members to be on a committee that we are meeting with regularly and mentoring.

The fourth community is Karembure, in which we do not currently have a church. There are many Friends Church members who have recently moved to that community because they were forced from their homes. So the Yearly Meeting is thinking and planning toward planting a church there someday. We have been working with a group of community members; some are Christians, some are not. We have been meeting with them as well regularly, building relationships and beginning the whole-life mentoring process.

We are going to make a blog entry describing each of these communities in the next few weeks. So to learn more about this, please check back and learn how you can pray specifically for each of our communities.