Rwanda Mission Partnership

I have categorized my reflections of Rwanda into two parts; 1) Physical and 2) Spiritual.

1) As I reflect back over our recent trip to Rwanda, I’m reminded of the shear poverty. Although I have seen poverty as a tourist in other African countries, in Rwanda I was able to get to know and share with these people myself. The people of C.U.F. are people of poverty . They don’t have many material things; they lack electricity, running water and proper sewage, but they possess a richness which is built into their lives and displayed though their character and personalities.

Ron with CUF leaders at business meeting

As we shared our lives for nearly two weeks I found them to be warm, friendly and humble people. Within this time of sharing we ate, laughed, cried, and had lots and lots hugs which all helped us to grow to love each other.

Although their culture is very different to ours we could not help but to bond with them and im sure we can say that we brough a part of them with us back home to Australia. This spiritual connection is one that has to be experienced first hand to be fully understood.

2 ) God is alive in Rwanda the people of the C.U.F. are full of the Holy Spirit, they worship God in word, music, singing and dancing which lasts up to 4 hours, its just absolutely fantastic. Time seem to fly by. They pray out loud and all together some clap, each praising God their own way (something we could learn). People show love and generosity, giving freely, even out of their poverty.

Joy Mukagasangwa, the main teacher in the CUF primary school is in a critical condition in King Faysal hospital in Kigali. While doctors are unsure of her exact condition she appears to be suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms and is regularly having several litres of fluid drained from her lungs. Dr’s have also found what appears to be a tumour between her heart and esophagus which, on top of the fluid in her lungs, making it difficult for her to breath or eat.

Facilities in Kigali are limited and Dr’s would like to transfer her to Kampala but do not have the means to care for her on the journey.

Please join with us and our brothers and sisters in the CUF as we pray for a miracle. Joy is the mainstay of the school, is a mother with young children and a wife to Theo. In each of her roles she is treasured and important.

Things are progressing quickly and time is getting away from us! With the likelihood of the 2007 trip taking place in May rather than June/July, to coincide with the Amahoro Africa gathering in Uganda, the need to fundraise has taken on a new urgency.

We have set up a new credit card processing facility and so are now able to accept credit card donations.

To make a donation - just click on the “Donate Now” link. This will take you to the completely secure transaction site powered by Paymate.

Of course you can still donate by sending us a cheque, made out to Day 4 Ministries, by Western Union money order or by Australia Post postal orders. 100% of all donations recieved go to Rwanda. No management fees, wages or levy’s are drawn for our Australian ministry. A 2.2% transaction fee does apply to credit card payments. This fee is charged by the payment gateway and not by Day 4.

Fundraising Requests

• Sponsorship for the Amahoro Africa conference. Funds are required to help cover the cost of sending John and Andrew to this conference in May 2007.
• Solar Panels - Three solar panels and associated equipment is needed for the CUF church building on Mt Kigali making it possible to run electrical appliances (such as a TV and DVD, computer etc) for use in the CUF ministry.
• School Building fund - We are also raising funds to go towards the building of a separate school building for Unity Academy on Mt Kigali. The school currently meets in the church building but is under pressure from the government to move into its own buildings. The cost of building 2 classrooms and fitting out is approximately $13,000.00 US.
• Laptop computer for church use, record keeping, communications etc. - Approximately $1480.00 US.
• Kinyarwanda Bibles and Hymn books - Bibles in the local language of Kinyarwanda for church people.
• The Book Fund - a fund established to purchase educational books and materials as required for use by school children and church leadership.
• Vehicle fund - to fund the purchase of a mini-bus (approx. $5000.00 US) for the use of the church, school and as a sustainable fundraising project during the week.

If you have any questions about any of these projects or have ideas for a project that you think may be beneficial for the Mt Kigali community (particularly financially self-sustaining projects) please let us know!

I recently found out about a conference coming up in Uganda in May next year (2007) aimed at equipping local church leaders and connecting locals with western partners in mission. It is geared towards developing the emerging/missional church movement in the African context and informing the western church on ways to partner with African churches in culturally acceptable ways (not the traditional colonial approach).

I was particularly interested in this as it seemed many of the ideals Amahoro Africa - the name of the organisation and the conference - were promoting where also those John and I were trying to work with.

It looks like John will be attending the gathering and I am hoping that I will also be able to get along as the organisers have since shown interest in the CUF-Day 4 partnership and feel we might have something to add to the gathering.

You can read more about Amahoro Africa here. They have a blog which you can view here and there is specific information relating to the gathering here.

The Mission Partnership was formed in 2003 when John Mihigo, pastor of the Christian Unity Fellowship in Rwanda made contact with Andrew Rigg, founder of Day 4, in Australia. This led to the establishment of an ongoing partnership between the two organisations, culminating with a mission team from Australia visiting Rwanda in 2004.

The partnership has continued from that time with Day 4 involved in fundraising and supporting the ongoing work of CUF in Kigali and elsewhere in Rwanda. This includes community development projects, such as the installation of rain-water tanks on Mt Kigali, payment of a stipend for school teachers in the CUF community school (Unity Academy) and the purchase of land for a church plant in rural Rwanda.
Another team from Australia will be visiting Rwanda in June 2007.

This is just a brief overview of the many things we have achieved through our partnership over the past 4 years. For more information send us an email or join in a discussion on this blogsite.

My (John Mihigo’s) addition:

Thank you Andrew for this blog. In recognition of the things you wrote up here, I want to thank you on behalf of Christian Unity Fellowship, my community on Mt. Kigali, and country as whole for our indispensable partnership that is obviously God-ordained. Once more we are praying for the upcoming trip next year. We look forward to it, and we think it will even be more fruitful than that of last year. I know you must be doing the same. It is never too early to plan for, and pray for such projects. I therefore ask that you mobilize as much prayer as you can, from your end, so that God will be honoured by this trip much more.

Keep up the good work. ‘Your labour in the Lord is not in vain’.

Well - after more than 2 years - Day 4 are taking another team to Rwanda. I am suffering from Rwanda withdrawal and can hardly wait to get back to Kigali and to see my Rwandan “family” again. John has told me that Gladys is still referring to me as her brother-in-law!

A lot of things have happened since we were last there. The church building is almost finished now. We were able to fundraise for roofing, seating, doors and windows and, I think, plastering (John will be able to tell you more). It will be a different place from the last time we were there.

One of my favourite projects is also up and running - I’ll get John to tell you more about this too - it’s the AIDS outreach. Last I heard it was being run by John’s nephew, Fred and involves educating the Mt Kigali locals about AIDS, how it’s transmitted and how to prevent it (abstinence model). The program is based around cultural plays and other interactive methods of delivery.

It looks like there will only be one other Rwanda 04 veteran going with us this time - that’s Dani. Dani was 18 the last time we went and the youngest member of the team. Now’s she’s 21 and still going to be the youngest team member.

The 2007 team consists of:

John Korn from Binningup Beach Christian Fellowship
Colin Rigg from Harvey Church of Christ
Sue Knight from Harvey Church of Christ
Ron Georgie from Harvey Church of Christ
Dani Faed from Mt Hawthorn Baptist Church
Kylie Flemming from Bunbury Church of Christ
and
Me, Andrew Rigg from Binningup Beach Christian Fellowship.