Rwanda Mission 2008

Rwanda, Burundi, Congo(DRC) 2008
Mission Report
Target Missioners:
1. University Students in Discipleship Groups,
2. Young Trinity Fellowship Associates,
3. Trinity Fellowship staff.

Target Mission Areas:
Youth groups in churches and institutions in;
1.Bujumbura in Burundi,
2.Gisenyi in Rwanda,
3.Goma, Butembo and Beni in Congo(DRC)

Background information:
The Lord has greatly blessed us and widely opened doors for us to initiate discipleship work in the three countries of the central Africa by bringing people over to challenge us to do so. It has been impossible to meet the demands so we are doing what the grace of God enables us to do.

For this particular trip we had many invitations especially from Burundi and Congo.
The initial host in Burundi had scheduled meeting in four provinces of Burundi that he oversees, namely; Gitega, Karuzi, Kayanza and ngozi, however this was cancelled almost the last minute due to other changes by the other ministers within the same denomination. This caused us to take some of the invitations we had turned down.

We were not able to get many students to join in the mission because very few had passports and the cost of Kshs 35000 was too high for some to raise, took too long to confirm most of the arrangements and most associates needed long enough notice. Because of the financial constraint only two TF staff could go. We had expected at least ten missioners but we ended up with five and two had to join us in Congo because their travel Documents could not be ready in good time.

The Mission

I Left Nairobi on Monday 14th of July. I stopped over at Kigali for the night of 15th and some time with the family of the late Ngondo and one of TF associates Mapedo.I Met Olec the Pastor who was making plans for meetings in Goma in Congo. I also got an opportunity to teach Evangecube to some of the bible college students Mapendo teaches. I left Kigali in the morning and got to Bujumbura the afternoon of 16th.

I needed to confirm meetings, work with the hosts for venues and check for the accommodations. I had good time catching up with my friends and contacts in Bujumbura.
Florence and Helen arrived at 3 pm and after lunch we took them to pastor Erustus’ place. Pastor Erastus was their host.

Our first formal meeting was Students Discipleship Ministry, Bienvenu and Crispin had organized it. We trained 20 students on how ti witness using evagecube. We went out witnessing and reached 28 people and 15 of them got saved.

Later in the evening we met another group of students from mutanda campus who regularly go to the provinces to evangelize and taught the evangecube.

On Sunday the 20th we attended different churches but met at Bienvenu’s place. He led us to Kamenge MINEVAM Church a venue for another meeting. This group consisted of students from colleges and high schools. Some of them are studying outside the country.
We Trained 35 witnessed to 86 and 28 got saved.

On Monday 21st morning we went to lake Tanganyika and in the afternoon we did a True Love Waits (TLW) Seminar at Kanyosha. 34 youths mainly in High schools attended and 24 signed commitment cards.

Tuesday 22nd was our last day in Bujumbura and the busiest.
We started Evangecube training at 8.00 am. During lunch the group went witnessing as we went to do a lunch hour meeting with a Rohero campus Christian Union. The youth group reached 136 and 45 got saved.

In the afternoon we did True Love Waits seminar with the same youth group. After the meetings the leaders took us out for dinner. We also discussed future seminars and partnerships. They really desired more training. Many more youths needed the training.

We left for Rwanda on Wednesday 23rd, stopped over at Butare. We visited with Leah and Pini. We took some time to catch up. The following morning we left for Kigali, Met Mapendo who Helped us connect to Gisenyi. We arrived at Gisenyi at about 6.30. At Kigali we were connected by Mapendo with one of the pastors of the church we were going so we never struggled to get to the senior Pastor’s home where we were hosted.

The host church was fairly young and the membership was small. We basically spent time with members. We preached on Friday and Sunday service.

Congo.
I had to enter Congo earlier than we had planned. Olec Our Goma contacts had planned a meeting for Saturday though we had planned to go there on Sunday after Sunday service.

I arrived at Shekhinar centre (a maranatha church) slightly before 9.00am. 48 members attended the first seminar on evagecube. During the outreach 120 people were reached and 34 got saved.

I attended the same church for the Sunday service. In the afternoon I was joined by those I had left at Gisenyi and we did a True Love Waits seminar. About 40 youths attended and 25 signed the commitment cards,

On Monday 28th we did an evagecube seminar at Restoration church. More than 100 attended but only about 50 went out to witness. We reached more than 90 people and 41 got saved.

We had a break to go around the town. The following day on 29th July we traveled to Butembo a one days journey. We trusted God for safety. Some of the regions we passed had some rebel groups. We got some trouble with police because they demanded money at every spot. The Bus driver would run out give money and we would go on. We were surprised we had to pay some money even though we had visas.
We got to Butembo at around 8.00pm and were accommodated by Olec’s family since we could not get the hosts by then.

We met the hosts (CECA 20) the following day and we were distributed to stay with families.

On Friday 31st we had a ladies seminar. We had not anticipated this but the Leaders insisted that we do it. We shared Ephesians 5:21-33 Love and submission.

On Saturday 1st of august the venue was Matanda-Butembo CECA 20 (Communite Evagelique du Centre Afrique) 20 church. This is the equivalent of African Inland Church (AIC). We started with True Love Waits seminar. Though it was a youth seminar most of the church leadership attended including the senior pastor. We had to adjust to their Kiswahili, sometimes learning some French words they readily mixed with Kiswahili. More than 50 youths attended but just a handful filled the commitment cards. In the afternoon we had a question and answer session. The presence of church leaders did not discourage the youth from asking questions.

On Saturday the 2nd we trained 116 members to witness with evangecube even though less the 100 went out to witness. We had about 30 minutes of witnessing because of rains. We were able to reach more than 80 people and 34 got saved.

On Sunday we were distributed to churches where we had opportunities to preach in the Sunday services. We convened back at Matanda and did leadership training. We were so encouraged that the pastors acknowledged their weaknesses and promised to lead the Bible way.
We visited with some families on Monday and on Tuesday we left for Beni.

We got to Beni at around three and went to a village where some pygmy families lived. It was an experience talking to them. Only two men came while we were there and the showed us some farm they were preparing to till. The government is trying to help them adopt life that will require them to settle in one place.

On Wednesday the 5th we had an evangecube seminar with members of CECA20 who were mainly youth in colleges. 39 were trained. We reached 85 people and 28 got saved. Those trained were so exited. Many had never shared the Gospel and they did not think they could lead anybody to salvation.
On Thursday the 6th we had a True Love Waits seminar with the same group in the morning. Part of the afternoon we discussed sexual purity and later on servant leadership.

We started our journey to Kenya through Uganda on Friday the 8th through Kasindi, spent a night with David’s friend in Kampala and traveled on the Saturday 9th. We reached Nairobi the night of 9th August.

Please note:
The ministry needs in the region is so overwhelming. The ‘ Field is ripe with harvest but the harvesters are few’

Those youth have great zeal but have very little knowledge of the Bible. The great danger is falling to deception. A number of youths are trying so had and are looking forward for our next visit.

Though we had some language barriers we did with a few interpreters especially those who could not understand either English or Kiswahili.

Tools like Evangecubes opened opportunities where it would have been impossible to penetrate. It is therefore very useful to invest in tools.

Recommendations:
1. There is need for follow up and very soon preferably before the end of the year. There is a great potential for growth and so if natured soon enough we will realize the effect of ministry. If not done soon enough we may lose the effect.
2. If the host groups are helped they can develop into Discipleship ministries.
3. A resource centre will help the youth learn many things and truths themselves instead of relying on people who sometimes teach halve truths.
4. Build partnership with other ministries of like minds because the need is greater than one group.