Race Day at Church!

Last Sunday, Nov. 14th we attended Christ's Church of Rwanda. We had been told of this great church by Mike, the guy building the girl's school past Nyamata. The trip to our first service was quite eventful. The Tour of Rwanda bicycle race was having their women's division start just as we were pulling out of the MTN Center's parking lot. We were stopped by a police officer and race official. Nobody spoke English so we spent the next 30 minutes trying to play charades and find out what was going on. We discovered as team cars zipped by with signs from neighboring countries and then bicyclist, that we were in the middle of a big race. So we sat back and enjoyed cheering them on. Apparently they were making laps past our spot, because we kept seeing the same racers over and over again. Finally the attendant told us that we could go. I think she may have been in error because no one else was on the streets but 1,000's of people who were there to cheer on their countries female racers all looked at us kind of funny as we sped past. We got to the end of the closure and over 30 cars were still being stopped and unable to travel on this main street,

We arrived at CRR probably 30 minutes late and were immediately struck at what a great neighborhood they were in. This was an upscale division with large, nice houses. We entered the church and were greeted by high school boys handing out bulletins. All of them were white and looked like our teens from our church. Before we made it through the lobby another man introduced himself as Bryan, the Executive Site Director. Long story short, Bryan told us all about the church, private school and briefly about CCR's vision of reaching the Rwanda "Thinkers". No sooner than we said goodbye to him did Pastor Dave Jenkins (American, http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com) come walking in. Apparently he out and about and just came back. He immediately made us feel welcome by introducing us to CCR.

By the time we made it into church we had missed 1/2 the service. But we found out that we were in good company. Everyone was late because of the road closures. The service was very comfortable and flowed beautiful. Music was lead by a Rwandan man named Moses. How can you go wrong with a man leading us named Moses?! We enjoyed singing English and Kinyarwandan praise songs as well as a hymn or two. The sermon was on Joseph and how complicated the relationships of his family were. The message really spoke to Andria and I.

Pastor Dave reminded me of a childhood pastor that had a huge impact on my life, Pastor Jim Hanson. Dave was very laid back and had a familiarity that was refreshing. Most of all you sensed God's Spirit speaking through him. We are returning there next week and will be inquiring about their school in hopes of receiving ideas about our own school start.

We praise God that he continues to lead us to meaningful relationships.