A Rwandan Wedding

Recently Brad and I got to attend the wedding of a friend of ours, Daniel. Daniel and his fiance had been living in different countries, so before Brad or Daniel were married they sympathized with each other having to live far away from their fiances! Now they are celebrating together.

From what I've learned so far, I understand that many Rwandan weddings have four parts. There's the "gusaba no gukwa" which means to ask and to give the dowry. This ceremony involves the family of the groom visiting the home of the bride. The families have an amazing verbal interchange that follows certain ceremony and is filled with humor.

There's also the civil wedding which is the legal component. A few friends and family gather in the government office to witness the bride and groom promising to stay faithful. The third wedding is the church wedding and the fourth component is the reception, both of which have similarities to our American weddings.

Brad witnessed the cultural ceremony but we both got to go to the church wedding and the reception. The highlights I remember are from the reception. The wedding party entered into the church to the sound of traditional Rwandan music. At the end of the procession came the singers, dancing as they went up the aisle. When the bride and groom cut their wedding cake and fed it to each other it was to symbolize that each would do their part to make sure the other was taken care of/had enough food to eat. Also, when it came time for all the guests to eat a piece of cake, the families of the bride and groom were served first. The bride served the groom's family and the groom served the bride's family. Then, all the guests were able to eat some cake and drink some Fanta! It was a beautiful wedding and it was great to be able to be a part of such an important event for Daniel and Angelique!

Kumbya Missionary Conference

We just returned from a week and a half at a missionary conference! It's located on a peninsula on Lake Kivu called Kumbya that is owned by missionaries so the conference itself is also called Kumbya. This annual Kumbya conference brings mostly American and British missionaries together from Rwanda, Uganda, and other countries around this region. You may have heard that one of the top reasons missionaries in general end up leaving their field is because of conflict (unresolved or unhealthy conflict) with other missionaries. I recently learned that much of missionary cooperation and unity in this region is because of Kumbya.

Brad and I stayed in a cabin with Molly and the Thomases. The cabin didn't have electricity, so it was kind of like camping, but under a roof and sleeping on a bed. And walking to the communal outhouses, which is an adventure in the middle of the night. At the conference there were about 120 missionaries and kids altogether. We had times of listening to speakers, sharing testimonies, worshiping together, praying together, and eating together. We would have different sessions and small group times in the morning and evening, and our afternoons were free for swimming in the beautiful (clean) lake or just resting. On some evenings we also had a talent show, a movie on a big screen, and a board game night. So, it was a pretty fun time together.

Brad and I volunteered for various odd jobs and had some meetings to go to in the afternoons, so didn't necessarily rest the whole time, but did get some rest and lots of fellowship with others.

God really used the speakers to encourage me, but mostly just challenge me again to the age-old call to come to Christ in friendship, in intimacy, in quality time, in communion with Him. My first desire and priority should be to be with Christ. To let Him love me. Only then can I love Him and only then am I able to love others. I want to be praying for that desire to be with Him, especially as we start life and work back in Kigali.

I felt so glad to be accepted into this community of believers. I know that they will become my friends, my mentors, and kind of like family in Rwanda. Not forgetting to keep learning kinyarwanda and building relationships with Rwandans, I also look forward to future times with people I met at Kumbya.