My week on a Mountaintop

I jokingly said that last week was my first week of being a missionary, even though I’ve lived here for almost 3 years. It’s not that I haven’t been a missionary, it’s that I haven’t been a traditional missionary (but really, I’m not a traditional anything, so this really shouldn’t surprise anyone).

The mission point leader, Damascene, in his home
with scriptures painted all over his walls.

A local, Rwandan-ran, organization partnered with a North American based organization to spread the gospel, bring up leaders and plant churches. Sounds good, why would I have any reason to be skeptical? I wanted to know what exactly the role of the North Americans was; I see North Americans, or Westerners come to Rwanda for some many different reasons and leave different impacts. I couldn’t fathom the work of 12 North Americans and 12 Rwandan ministry partners could leave a significant impact…on me!

So it goes like this, each North American is partnered with a local “ministry partner” to translate and help navigate the culture. The local organization has vetted potential sponsoring “mother churches” who want to plant a church in an area there isn’t a church. They vetted and did some initial training with potential leaders in this new church. I’m not a church planter and I’ve never seen it as something I would be passionate about. Another surprise…church isn’t a building, but can be developed under a tarp in the middle of a field. 

Before I left, I met with one of my missionary mentors to ask if this could really work and what my role could be. She advised me that it was my role to bring the masses, show up and offer credibility to the local leaders and love. That’s it. I could do that. Having white skin in an area where people have never seen people with white skin drew the crowd; we were the gospel meeting speaker. We sat in the home of the local leader, letting his neighbors know that this was a man of God who brought the missionaries to his community.

Back to the evangelism, I was told that I could lead people to Jesus using a cube that reminded me of a rubric’s cube with pictures of Jesus death, burial and resurrection. I did a double take and couldn’t fathom how hearing the gospel in the demonstration of a rubric’s cube could convict people. I asked my ministry partner to take the lead the first day. This was my first trip and I wanted to see how everything worked. I saw the presentation, I saw people confess they wanted Jesus to be Lord of their life after hearing that He came to the world to solve our sin problem. He died, he was buried and on the third day, He rose. Now it was our choice to receive the gift that He gave us through His sacrifice of eternal life. 

I watched as my ministry partner lead them through this presentation and then asked them if they were to die, would they go to heaven or hell? Would they have eternal life with Christ or in a fiery hell? He spoke with love, not condemnation. He gave them the choice to think about their life and then make an assessment. He spoke softly with kindness. He told a love story.

The next day it was my turn, I introduced myself, I asked about their family and then I told them I wanted to tell them a love story. Because the sacrifice that Jesus gave is a true love story; the ultimate sacrifice of His life for our sins. They made a commitment to Jesus, they wanted to give Him their life and they wanted to share it with others. I was dumb-founded, just from a little rubric’s cube and a love story. I imagined in my mind’s eye the apostles watching us from Heaven saying, “Man, if we just had that little cube!” 

As the week went on, we shared more about being a Christian; it’s about hearing, believing, repenting, confessing, being baptized, learning to pray, sharing your story and God’s story with others and sharing hope for eternal life. 

I think my greatest moment from last week was watching three mighty men of God sharing their passion with people. There was a moment when one ministry partner was preaching an encouraging message to the leaders, one ministry partner was sharing the love story on his cube and the other was using his time to listen and encourage the mission point leader. 

I often see Rwandan women bringing their children to church alone, it’s the same in the U.S., which has brought the development of organizations like Promise Keepers and such, encouraging men to step up and be the leaders in their families and communities. Coming from a home with a strong, Christian father who leads his wife and daughters, it was so awesome to see these three men from different parts of the country and serving in different ways come together to evangelize and encourage others. I was honored to be their “North American” (even though there was question that I was 100% North American, or if I have adopted bits of the Rwandan culture into my life). 

My friend who grew up in another culture from her parents’ told me recently that she takes the best of both cultures, which has made her who she is. I like that. I had the opportunity to watch two cultures collide to serve God and I got to see that I fell somewhere in between. But most importantly, I got to see a whole bunch of people who love Jesus and have fallen madly in love with Him make a commitment to serve Him and share His love story with others.