Leadership in View

April 18, 2013

We left the area the next morning and started the long trip home. 5 flights later we would arrive in Calgary on Friday the 19th mid-afternoon. 

There were many things for me to take in and process over the past 15 days. The three of has some great discussions on what we were learning and how it might impact CrossRoads Church. I’ll share a few of those thoughts with you over the next while as I am able.

Until then, I am very grateful for having had this opportunity to be in Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda. 

For the second home visit we were unable to get to her home because of the rain, but she was able to walk to where we were at the home we were just at so we still got to spend some time with her.

She said that the first thing she wanted to do was thank the Lord for leading World Relief to this area of Rwanda. When the group first started, the loneliness she was feeling was so great, but now she has fellowship with others.

The savings and interest that they made in the first cycle was very good and she was able to buy a small plot. She really wanted to show us the land but had to resign herself to just tell us that she is now able to cultivate the land and grow things that help them.

She said she is no longer lonely and has mattresses for her family. She is now also able to pay for school fees for her children. Before the group, if they had visitors come they would all have to run to their neighbors and try and collect enough bowls and other things so they could serve their visitors properly. Now they are able to have enough resources in their own house.

She said that they were no longer beggars, we buy soap and other things we need now whereas before we were not able to do this. She also said that there are volunteers now that come from the church to help with things. She said that she was so thankful.

The lady we were going to meet with in the afternoon has been a part of a savings and loan group now for a couple of years. They are in their third cycle, each cycle being 9 months long. It had been raining for some time now and so we couldn’t drive too close to her home. The closest we could get was about 1.5 kilometers away. We walked the rest of the way up and down hills that were caked in wet mud. It was a lot of fun. We were waiting for one of us to go down but it never happened. I suppose that’s a good thing but it leaves the story a little short. LOL.

 

This lady had three daughters, two of which were twins. She said that at first it was really hard to save but she was able to save enough to borrow and build a kitchen and barn. On the second cycle she was able to buy a cow.

The kitchen. Now separated from the home for better health practices.

From the outside, the kitchen and barn are in the same building with an internal wall separating the two areas.

 

The cow

Another time her daughter was very sick so she borrowed funds to pay for medical help and then she was able to pay it back.

She said that one of the things she really appreciated about the group was the fellowship with each other. Being part of the group took from a place of isolation to one of fellowship. She said, “You can’t have depression if you are in fellowship.”

With the social fund (benevolence fund) the group decided to use the money to buy everyone mattresses for their families, so this group has been very helpful for her.

Mom with three daughters

April 17, 2013

This was another great church leaders meeting. The committee members were there but they also invited other pastors to join them as well since they had visitors from Canada.

There was pastors and leaders from the Pentecostals, Free Methodists, Anglicans, Presbyterian, Methodist, Seven Day Adventists, Assemblies of God, and a couple others I couldn’t write down fast enough as they were being introduced. At the meeting in Kigali there was also a catholic priest but I didn’t hear that there was one here today.

We sang.

We prayed.

We read Psalm 133. Powerful Psalm on the unity of the brethren.

The main focus of the group was on the savings program so we were able to get a few stats. The area that we were visiting had three sectors. Don’t’ ask me about sectors sizes; I think Dan Wilson has a better handle on how big they are. I think from one end to the other end it would take about 45 minutes to drive on very rough roads, so maybe 20km in length for all three sectors. I think in walking distance, maybe three hours from the outside to the middle of the three sectors. But I’m guessing based on a few things I picked up.

Within the three sectors there are 134 savings groups that have been started over the past two years. The groups are having a huge impact on the lives of the people. 10 churches have engaged and implemented the groups. There are a total of 84 people that have been trained to lead a group.

One pastor said that since working with World Relieve their minds have been opened to new ways of doing ministry and helping those that are vulnerable. He said, “The thinking of transformational development is new to us.” And another pastor said, “We appreciate all the support we are getting and we are committed to making good use of it.”

Another said that they have begun to creatively think about the resources they already have and then begin to use those resources to help the people in the church and also in the community. By doing this they have seen the congregations rise up to the challenge and they are now doing things differently and as a result, pulling themselves out of poverty.

We asked them how they are enjoying working together and one said that they use to be very protective of their congregation for fear that another pastor might take some of them. But now they meet together and are very accepting of each other.

They also told us that after a couple days training from World Relief on starting savings groups they started meeting together and training each other because they had the material that World Relief has supplied in the initial training.

Great group! You could tell they were not as far along as the church leaders group in Kigali but the enthusiasm and desire to affect positive change in their community will not be lost on these leaders. As World Relief continues to invest in them in the coming months a years, this area is going to experience a large transformation.

April 17, 2013 

World Relief wanted us to see another area in Rwanda where they want to begin another Church Empowerment Zone (CEZ), but as of yet they were just running the savings and loan program. They had already mobilized the denominational and church leaders to begin meeting together once a month to strategize this part of the program with the thought that in January when they launch the CEZ that these pastors will be somewhat acquainted with each other and ready to dig into the full program.

We could have driven but it’s about a 7 hour drive through potholes the size of the car, or so I was told. We would stay overnight and then fly back Thursday morning to Kigali and begin the long trek home to Red Deer.

In the Kigali airport while we waited for boarding the prop plane there was a TV running a British documentary. It was on a plane crash. Go figure! Not sure who picked that channel. J

We had 4-5 things on the itinerary, but it had rained for most of the morning and we were unable to get around to every location. Regardless, what we did see was really important and provided additional information for us in regards to the church leaders and the savings groups. This alone made the trip well worth the extra time it took to fly to Kemembe. 

Flying west to Kemembe from Kigali

We took another drive to another open field where a church was running a Child Development Program. On the way it started to rain and by the time we got there it was pouring. The kids usually meet and play outside but today they were all brought inside a little house across from the church. I have no idea how many kids were in this small space, but I’m going to guess at 30 in a space that was no more than about 12 feet by 10 feet, with three volunteers and the rest of us, which would be another 6 adults. As it was pouring outside, we got very wet coming into the house but it’s not like in Canada where the air cools down when it rains. It was still Africa hot. And now wet. There was no light in the house so it was dim and the oxygen was depleting fast. So amid all that, we were trying hard to focus on what we were experiencing and learning about the program.

World Relief explained a bit of the program to us in the vehicle in the way over and then a volunteer added to what we had learned on the way there. The church recruits volunteers from their Sunday School teachers and World Relief has created some courses that they can take to train them in leading the children. Part of the course is how to teach Sunday School better on Sundays because until the CEZ program, most Sunday Schools were just a babysitting time so that the adults could worship. It’s not that the teachers planned it this way, they just had never thought that they could actually use the time on Sundays to teach the children about Jesus. So the course opened up a whole new world for the teachers and they were excited to use the material.

The course they take basically gives them the skills to lead a children’s program during the week in the neighborhood. They don’t meet in a church, just somewhere in an open field so that it attracts many children from the area. They play games together but mostly learned about their own high value as a child of God; they learned discipline, basic hygiene, safety around other adults or order youth, and how to boil water so that it was safe. They also learned about Jesus as each week they heard a bible story.

The volunteer that spoke to us in the house told us that when they first started the program in this area the children were completely unmanageable but they learned discipline and that was why they were so well behaved in the house.  I would agree, however they were pretty excited to see us so I think they let their guard down a little. J

Sometimes a child that attended the program would have a real win in their home because they would bring home a basic principle of how to be clean, or boil water, etc. Sometimes the parent would pull them from the program because they didn’t trust what was being taught. In many cases like this, the parent eventually would come around and let their children come back. For some, the parents started coming to church because the children asked them to take them.

It was still pouring when we left. But it was worth being there to see the volunteers from the churches excited about that they were teaching the children. Oh, by the way, the volunteers they recruit are intentionally from different churches so they work together to deliver the program.  And who did the recruiting? The church leaders of course. 

We were running late to meet with a Savings and Loan Group who were conducting their weekly meeting. We were invited to watch but not ask questions until the meeting was over. There were around 10 present, I don’t remember counting. I think two were absent. They worked through an agenda of praying, taking roll call, opening the box with three padlocks, charged everyone a standard benevolence fee and then collecting money for new shares from the group. Once a month they also add to their agenda the loan requests and the loan payments. All matters if business is done in front of everyone.

There is a fee for any who come to a meeting late. We were all late. I think 8 of us. So we all had to pay and it goes into the box as income generated for the day along with any shares or interest collected by the members.

The members are allowed to purchase 1 to 5 shares each week. They must purchase at least one share. Each share was 2000 francs. I think that is about 3 US dollars, but I’m not too sure on the exchange rate.

They run the group for 9 months and then pay out all earnings and then begin again. The benevolence fund is used to help a group member in a tough situation, or someone outside the group that they want to help. We are to meet a couple members from another group the next day so we will have time to speak directly with an individual and ask what they have come to appreciate about the groups. It looks like for many this is the only way they can save and so after 9 months they have a good lump sum that they can turn into livestock or something business related so that they are able to generate additional income in the future.

One of the courses that world Relief had equipped the churches with is on marriage and its importance. I asked World Relief what was the common cause of marriage breakdown and it sounded just like North America. Financial stresses and unfaithfulness.

So our visit this afternoon was to see a couple that had been through the course and opening state that their marriage was at and end but they learned so much through the course, they had falling in love with each other again. The husband did most of the talking and described his wrongful thinking on women and their value. He was thinking that his wife was not tall enough and other things and that he thought that impacts her sexuality and ability to please him. It sounded like a common misbelief because he said the training taught him different and that his wife was to be highly valued. They both talked about the temptations of being unfaithful, but after being through the course he realized that she was a gift and he was to love her.

He told us he wrote a song for her and we asked him to sing it for us. It was great. We received a brief translation after and it was much of what he told us in words. That he had made a new decision to love his wife and that his thinking was not right before but now he wants to love her.

Loved his shirt. He knew we were from Canada but I don’t think he’s heard of hockey.

So are you getting what I’m getting? So much of what we are seeing are things taking place at the lower levels of leadership. World Relief has effectively pushed out ideas, values and training to church denominational leaders, pastors, and it’s getting down to the congregation and transformed volunteers are standing up and training others and engaging with vulnerable people at all levels and with many in the community. 

One of the boys peering in the window while we met with the couple. I’m not sure if he was a son or not. it was just a great shot so I thought I would share it with you. 

This afternoon we went to see a training session in progress with a host of volunteers, the majority of which were 18-25 years of age. The training was for a course in personal self-worth, sexuality, marriage and a number of like topics. Most of these students had personally gone through the course and were now leading other groups through the course. So this training session was a refresher, but there were also some new students there that would soon be teaching their first group.

When we asked the students how they liked the course, the high majority of them shared how the course has changed their lives. And it mostly started with the very first lesson that talked about their value. The course was completely transforming for them, and as a result, made it very easy to teach others. Some of the shared stories about individuals in their group how they now have impacted other lives by teaching the course.

What was really cool for me was to know that the two instructors were trainers of trainers and volunteers themselves. We asked World Relief what they pay the volunteers and they said nothing. They are motivated by their own transformation and how they are impacting others. World Relief provides some travel money to this type of training session and a meal if it is a few hours long. 

Then we drove to visit with another lady that was an orphan and had lost her parents and relatives years ago. She told us that she was very much alone and didn’t think that anyone knows about her. She lived in a very old house that her parents use to have, but then she had to move because the government was relocating them. So she had to go. But here the church came to her and said that if she could find a plot for a house then they would help her build a home. She said that all the time since she was alone she prayed to God.

“It was a gift from God that I found this plot and so I ran to the church to tell them about it. They came and started making bricks. They had to bring water from the valley to make the bricks. They started to make the walls and they bought the iron sheets for the roof. Then I was able to make some things and sell them and was able to put the cement on the walls so that the rain would not destroy the bricks and I was able to buy windows.”

She said this house is such a wonderful gift and miracle from God. She said that after all her prayers she was realizing that God was doing something special for her and that even though she did not have a mother and father, or any other family, she has a new family in the church and she was no longer alone.