The God who changes the way we think and the way we see the world!

Tertullien and I were discussing different problems in Rwanda, specifically around the issue of the lack of land in the country. (11 million people in a land 1/6 the size of Kansas!)

We were talking about how D for D is transforming people’s lives and we remembered back to our visit to a community in Uganda called Muyembe. The surrounding villages are filled with poverty, many are hungry and malnourished, there are thieves, many people are drunk even before noon, there are not any churches, children are not in school, husbands beat wives etc. But not in Muyembe! God has transformed the people in Muyembe and therefore has transformed their community!

In Muyembe they told us that no one is ever hungry, there are no thieves, there are no bars (if a person wants to get drunk they have to go to the next village), there is a thriving church, all children go to school and the leaders said that even though they used to mediate issues between husbands and wives, now they don’t ever have to do that!
Tertullien then shared about an experience he had recently in Kirambo. He went and visited a family that he is distantly related to in Kirambo. As he visited with them, he kept hearing hopelessness from them, that they feel defeated; they are depressed and feel like there is no hope for tomorrow. They had no plans for the future and were just trying to struggle to make it through that day! Tertullien tried to encourage them and help them think through some of their issues.

After visiting with them, Tertullien went to visit a young lady from the Evangelical Friends church in Kirambo who lives very close to that family. He said, “it was like I went into a completely different world.” Her name is Janvier and she is an orphan who is a single mother with a 5-year-old child. The church has taken her in and taught her about Jesus. She was saved and has been learning D for D lessons for the last several years. The church raised some money and bought a small piece of land for her and helped her to build a house for her and her child to live in. Tertullien said that as he talked to her, she was full of joy and hope. She shared about all the different things she is doing and her plans for the future, like her plan to bring electricity to her house.

As Tertullien has reflected on the two houses he visited, he has seen the dramatic life-changing effects of knowing and learning from Jesus through the D for D process. His relatives have each other as well as many extended family members, they have lots of land to farm, but they have no hope and a general feeling of depression! Janvier has no family, no land to farm on, but she has Jesus, she has the church and therefore she has hope and joy! We are seeing that God is using what we are doing in D for D to transform the way people think and the way they see the world. May Tertullien’s relatives come to know Jesus through salvation & discipleship that transforms all of life!

Please continue to pray for Tertullien as he leads the Discipling for Development process in Kirambo. Just as God has transformed Muyembe, we are the seeing the beginnings of His transformation in the Evangelical Friends Church of Kirambo and we trust that one day He will also transform the entire community surrounding the church just like in Muyembe!

Please continue to pray for the D for D ministry in Murinja and Musovu as well. Also, pray with us as we seek direction about the future for D for D in all of Rwanda. May God’s Kingdom come and His will be done in us and through us here in Rwanda as it is in heaven!

Floating Lanterns

I’ve been discouraged sometimes lately. Thankfully it hasn’t been everyday, but there have been days when I miss people so much, when I wish I could be there in the difficult times, and I wish I could celebrate with them in the happy times. There have been nights where I feel so tired or burnt out that I don’t see how I’ll have energy to face the morning. Times when I’ve just cried. I know I’m not the only one. But, God has been giving me energy to face new days, he has been giving me strength to keep going. He’s been giving me encouragement from His people. And this morning he gave me a renewed hope.

I was reading this morning in Acts when Paul was on trial telling about his “hope in the fulfillment of God’s promise…” So, as I noticed the word, “hope” two more times in the section I was reading, and as I prayed, God was breathing hope back into my spirit, into my heart. And the fulfilled promise Paul was talking about is Christ. On a whim, I flipped back to the Old Testament to read of a promise that has now been fulfilled in Christ. I read that to those who mourn, God will give a joyous blessing instead of mourning (Isaiah 61). Christ is giving me a joyous blessing! And that’s just one tiny verse, there are innumerable other promises that God has fulfilled in Christ! I hope to keep going back to them so that I can be reminded.

Then, to finish painting this hope onto my heart, God reminded me of an image. If you’ve seen the Disney movie, “Tangled,” you’ll remember that there was a king and a queen whose baby daughter was kidnapped and never found. Every year on the night of her birthday they would light and release lanterns that float up into the air, along with everyone in the village, hoping that somehow the lights could lead her back to them. The movie shows us the king and queen eighteen years later, preparing to release their lanterns once again. His face is the saddest, kindliest face you ever saw, and her eyes mirror his sadness when she reaches up to catch the tear slipping down his face. Then, they go together to send their lanterns into the night sky.

Slowly, brilliantly, thousands of lanterns are lit and released, floating together in the sky, defying the dark, making a golden path in the air. What an image of hope! Out of sadness, out of dark, hope can still grow and shine. This is the gift that God is giving me today, and I’m going to keep asking Him to help me hope, to help me remember how he fulfills His promises, and to remind me of the picture of golden glowing lanterns against the black night sky.