The last 6 weeks of our time in Rwanda for this year were very good and exciting for us. In the past couple of years, we have not had a very busy schedule, and we wanted that to be different this year. Our schedule had us travelling to the Eastern Province and the Northern Province (some places were 4 hours away from Kigali). We have seen over 700 pastors and other church leaders during this time. The response from them has been very good.
February began with us completing the 3 months of training that began in November 2019 with Kicukiro District. This is the district in which Dave was installed as an Elder. The attendance was good all the way through the training and we ended with graduating 42 men and women. This might be the last group that goes through the full 3 months. This year we started doing the training in 2 days, but were able to reach more people. They obviously don’t get the full training, but they have found that what they receive in these 2 days is very helpful.
Lynn continued her work with her Search for Significance group, and although it started out with 9 people signing up, we ended with 3 but they came consistently throughout the training. The men and women with whom we work are so very busy with church and family commitments, that it is difficult for them to commit to something that takes more than one or two meetings.
We have again had the privilege of spending some time with Dave and Edith Hiebert while they were here with Jean Paul and Dinah Seneza. Dave & Edith have been coming to Rwanda for several years and spend 6 weeks in Jean Paul’s home, visiting people in the community and forming friendships. Each day they go from one home to another, listening to the men, women, and children, praying for them and helping them in unique ways. Many people know them, have spoken with them, and would call them friend.
We have had a couple more training sessions with a small group of men and women from several different churches. I think I wrote about them in our January newsletter. It is a very eclectic group, but they love the Lord and are eager to learn more about leading with a servant heart.
One event that Rwandans have in great abundance is the wedding. Every weekend, all year there will be at least one. The leaders in ADEPR (the church with which we work while in Rwanda) are often expected to be at all the weddings from their chapel. Add to that the weddings of family and friends and they can be at several weddings in one weekend. We’ve seen up to 5 weddings planned in the same weekend in just one chapel. (We only went to one!)
The weddings have several parts:
- the dowry, where respected older men from the groom’s family goes to the bride’s family and negotiates the “price” that will be given to the bride’s family. This will have been agreed upon by the two families three or more months ahead of the wedding.
- the civil wedding, which is done in court, which could be two weeks before the church ceremony. They are officially married but are not seen as being married and do not live together until the church ceremony.
- the dowry ceremony where there is a lot of pomp and circumstance and is just done for tradition. But this is my favourite part. Traditionally the groom’s family offers cows to the bride’s family for the honour of marrying their daughter. Usually they agree upon a money amount rather than cows. But part of the dowry ceremony has two “cow herders” coming and singing the praises of the cows that have been given. This ceremony can be very humourous as the families “negotiate”.
- then comes the church ceremony, and surprisingly to me, the parents are often not at the church ceremony. I’m not sure why.
- after the ceremony, they have the reception where gifts and Fanta are given and there is much dancing and joy.
- after two months of married life, the couple’s family and friends go to the marriage home to see how the husband has prepared it for his wife.
We enjoy the dowry part of the wedding and that is usually the only part we attend. We don’t go to all of the weddings we have been invited to, as we could be going to 10 or more weddings each time we’re there.
We completed our schedules training in the first week in May. We had been to 11 districts out of 30 so we still have some work to do! Our favourite part of the training is when we get the pastors to pray for each other. They love it because it rarely happens for them. They pray for others but who prays for the pastor?
Our translators have all had wonderful servant's hearts, willing to work for us for MUCH less than they could get almost anywhere else. We have been exceedingly blessed to work with them, and they were blessed as well.
Simeon - now in Canada, married, and recently had their first baby (Nora).
Marcellin - given full time translation work for 3 months and is working on completing his master’s degree in law.
Sylvie, also given full time work recently after agreeing to work for us, married last year,
and now expecting their first baby.
And now Alex, who, as well as the others, has a missionary heart and has been very helpful
to us as our ears and mouth for the past 2 months. He will be going to a Netherlands university
(Tyndale Theological Seminary) on a full scholarship!
Our trip back to Canada was a very stressful time. We were scheduled to leave on March 31. Then, due to Covid 19, our Canadian Government (and our children) were saying we needed to get home asap, so we changed it to leave on the 20th with no penalty for changing the ticket. We asked if we could leave earlier as everyone everywhere was saying get home! We got tickets for the 17th but had to pay for the penalty. However, our travel agent didn't pay for the tickets right away so AC took them back. Then we were given Friday (20th) again.
On the 17th during the night, I was awakened with the thought that we had to go the Brussels office and check on our tickets. We went on the 18th in the morning to Brussels Air. We told them we had flights for the Friday (20th) and just wanted to confirm them. A very friendly ticket agent said that there are no flights on Friday, Thursday is their last flight, and that flight is full – “BUT,” she said, “the good news is you were automatically put on Thursday's flight when Friday’s flight was cancelled.”!!!
So ... we left on the 19th, home on the 20th, and there were no more surprises. It was a little more circuitous when we reach Canada, having to go to Montreal, Ottawa, then Winnipeg. We were so glad to be home. We could clearly see God’s hand through all the changes (at least after the fact).
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Warm regards,
Dave & Lynn Kehler
Bridges Beyond International Ministries