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.

From start to finish we saw the good hand of God upon the trip to Rwanda.

In all the planning, as decisions were made on what to take and what to leave, as travel arrangements were changed resulting in less clothing for the children of Rwanda, and less personal clothing for the team. All the necessary “stuff” got there with the odd miracle or three on the way.

At Perth airport the generators were too heavy – they went through, we had excess excess, that went through without cost. In Kigali, import duty was required on the generators but that was waived. Every one and every thing arrived safe and well. Praise God.

The leaders of the Christian Unity Fellowship met us at the airport in Kigali and we experienced our first taste of the great love and warmth that only grew in intensity during our stay. They gave of all they possessed again and again that we might experience the great love of their Saviour that they revealed in every part of their lives.

They thought we were there to encourage and help them. We trust we did in some small way, but they taught us to reevaluate how we live our lives. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and be reminded that the material things of this world will fade into nothing. We need constantly to be renewing our minds that we may approve what God’s good and acceptable will is for us.

There is so much more to tell.

Every blessing,

John Korn

Over the next few weeks I am going to post reflections written by members of the 2007 team who visited Rwanda in May.

The first of these comes from Sue Knight.

Much planning and fundraising followed. Five of us joined Andrew each funding our own vaccinations, flights, accommodation, meals etc. The monies raised through fundraising all went to the continuing work at the CUF.

We were met at the Rwanda International Airport and warmly greeted by Pastor John Mihigo, his wife and several of his church leaders.

During our stay I found the Rwandans to be very hospitable, generous, polite, gracious, friendly, grateful. One observation that overwhelms me even now is how grateful the people were that we were interested in them and their country. They would often say ‘Thank you for coming to our country and being interested in us’. The only thing they ever asked of us was our prayers.Their land is beautifully mountainous with rich volcanic soil, producing delicious bananas, pineapples, potatoes, sugar cane, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, tea, tomatoes, sorghum and millet and more. Despite this there are still millions of poor.

A very impressive project we were introduced to was ‘The Self-Help Groups’. Pastor John has instigated this work, the aim to create sustainability amongst the poorest of the poor, to build their hope and self worth, and lessen a society of dependency. The groups must consist of at least 10 and no more than 20 members, majority of whom are women and they decide what their group project will be. First they give them selves a name. We met 3 groups – their names were “The Faithful Ones”, “The Circle of Love”, and “The Determined Ones”. As each group is formed it is initially overseen by a volunteer facilitator who educates a group leader in simple book keeping, how to conduct a meeting, teaches banking, technology, vision, leadership and how to encourage its members to better their potential. The facilitator from time to time does ongoing education with the groups.

Sue looking on at a Self Help group meeting

A Group can hire a small piece of land and grow some produce for sale eg egg-plant, peppers (capsicums), or purchase a young goat to on-sell (being the middle man was a foreign concept and took a little while to be accepted), grass weaving or grow grass for sale to cattle owners. The groups have access to Micro Finance if necessary to start their business. They meet each week and must repay a little of their debt and bank a little into their own bank account and into a group/corporate account. Where they had no money they now can see their savings grow. They carry a countenance of pride and self worth. They can borrow from the corporate to pay for their children to go to school, do repairs to their home, expand their business and still have the means to repay the loan. There are currently 52 of these groups!

I hope to have the privilege of visiting the beautiful Rwandans again.