Rwanda July 29, 2013 – Day 1

I arrived in Kilgali late last night (Saturday).  The plane was delayed in Brussels for two hours because of severe thunder storms.  Consequently, the arrival to Kilgali was around ten o’clock.  Pastor Denys finally located me and we drove to the compound on the other side of the city.

We talked until midnight about what had been going on in our lives over the past year.  His daughters (and Pastor Denys) were enamored with my I-phone pictures, wanting me to comment on everyone that caught their eyes.  They finally let me go to bed just after midnight, with the reminder that I would be preaching in the morning for the church here on the compound.  I thought it would be no problem, but this morning they realized they had run out of coffee and morning bread, so I went to the service having had nothing to eat and no caffeine to jolt me out of my jet lag.

The service started at 9:30 and continued to 11:15 when I was finally given the pulpit.  I couldn’t tell you much about what happened before that time. My jet lag was really bad, and all my body wanted to do was shut down.  I kept reminding myself that I had slept for six hours, but my brain and eye lids kept telling me otherwise.

I preached from 2 Kings 4:1-6 on the miracle of the widow woman and her oil jar.  By the time I hit point three, I felt like I was finally making progress.  The service was dismissed just before 12:00 noon, and we were dismissed around 12:15. I came back to the house and had lunch with Pastor Denys before he left for afternoon and evening meetings.

It is thrilling to be back in Africa with the prospect of training pastors once again.  I had emailed Pastor Denys several times before leaving home about limiting the teaching time to about 5 hours a day to facilitate travel for the visiting pastors.  He announced to me on the way home that I would be starting at 8:00 am and finishing at 4:30 pm every day- so much for limiting the teaching time!  No one seems to know for sure how many we will start with tomorrow morning, but they will increase by the time of the afternoon sessions-  Fifty pastors seems to be the number today, but we will know much better by the end of the day Monday or Tuesday at the latest.  I will be sending video of interviews with some of the pastors this next week.  Our subject matter will be from pastoral issues, to family issues, to the grave and sobering subject of the genocide.  Nearly all of the pastors that I will interact with will have been affected by the mass killings of 1993-94.  I was told this morning that the men will have to have a day to prepare for the interview because of the anguish that surfaces when talking about it personally.  I am sobered by that.  I’m not sure how I will react while trying to personalize these interviews.

Well, the trip has begun!  Pray for us that God will work mightily with these pastors in both Rwanda and Congo.  We need God’s supernatural strength to walk through these busy two weeks of intense ministry. Pray for Global Baptist Training Foundation as we continue to raise the awareness of the need for training national pastors around the world!

Bruce Snavely
GLOBAL BAPTIST TRAINING FOUNDATION’