Chapter One of the Great Story

As followers of Jesus here on earth, we get glimpses of God's glory and beauty (Psalm 96), His deep and overwhelming peace (Philippians 4:6-7), His contagious and overflowing joy (John 15:11), life as God intended it with Him. We who are in Christ have stepped into His Kingdom (His rule and reign) and can therefore begin to experience His shalom (absolute peace that comes from right relationships with God, self, others, and the rest of creation) here and now. We can experience His will being done here and now, but we are still also seeing the effects of sin and rebellion all around us including; selfishness, war, sickness, poverty, harsh environment, broken families, evil, greedy leaders, etc. We are called to enter into God's restoring work in us and all around us (Colossians 1:14-22). He allows us to partner with Him in this ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)! This is what we are called to and what we are striving to be a part of in Rwanda with Discipling for Development.

In the past months the Lord has been teaching me and calling me to a new understanding about the hope and glory of our future, for us who are in Christ! I have been realizing that in much of my life, I act like life here on earth is the end goal. We praise God when He protects us and we are so grateful (when we stop long enough to notice) that we are still breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide; we are still here! It is the Lord's love and grace that keeps us and protects our lives here on earth and with this life I am called to serve Him with all that I am, but He is showing me that this life is not the end goal! The goal is God's glory and the goal is entering into life to the absolute fullest, life with God in all of His glory, life without pain, sorrows or tears (Revelation 21:3-5)! Life without the effects of sin!

We live life here on earth, but as followers of Jesus, we are strangers here! Our home is in heaven with God (Philippians 3:20)! So when one of our loved ones, who love Jesus, stop breathing and living life here with us it is not a surprise to God and it is not even bad; it is because God loves them that He takes them, it is actually really awesome because they have reached the next part, for which we are preparing and looking forward to! Yes, it is really sad to lose them because we love them and we miss them so much! It hurts horribly to lose our loved ones! I for one, want to learn more about this future hope and allow the Lord to build my excitement and anticipation for what is to come...to enter fully into His glory! "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)

A glimpse of God's glory

C.S. Lewis explains this better than I can in the final book of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle. Some children are on a train when they experience a sudden jerk, then find themselves pulled once again into their beloved land of Narnia. Aslan is the mighty lion in Narnia that they loved and who loved them. (emphasis added)

'There was a real railway accident,' said Aslan softly. 'Your father and mother and all of you are--as you used to call it in the Shadowlands--dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.'

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

The God who loves people!

Rutikanga is a wonderful man that we have been getting to know for the past couple of years. He is a member and a leader of the Musovu Friends Church, one of the churches that we are working with in Discipling for Development (D for D).

Rutikanga with some others from the Musovu Friends Church

In 2008, through attending and learning in the first D for D Foundations seminar, Rutikanga discovered that he can use the small amount of resources he already has to give birth to more! So soon after the training he gathered some people from their church and others from the surrounding community and they started an association to help each other build their own houses!

There are 16 people in the association and a month ago the association invited us to come and be a part of their meeting where they were celebrating the completion of 4 more houses! Now they have built houses for 13 out of the 16 people in their group!!! Wow! What an amazing way to love and serve each other! Some of these women have never had a home of their own. Others lived in dilapidated houses with grass and other things serving as their roofs. But now they have their own homes with tin roofs! The local government has seen what this group is doing and has praised the group, saying that they wish more people would work together like this association. We believe that God is being glorified in a very tangible way in that community and that our friends are preaching the good news of God's love for everyone in part through loving their neighbors! May each of us love our families, friends and neighbors into the life and peace with Jesus through showing His incredible love to them!