Bible Study Day 1 and a bonus

Well I'll start with the bonus. Today we received a package from the Phillip Woodward family. What a blessing. Such great people. My kids were overjoyed by the Hershey's assorted chocolate and the chocolate chips. I know I will benefit from these as well when the cookies were made. However it was the 6 pack of Dr. Pepper 12 ounce bottles that drew my immediate attention. This gift, added to Sylvia's previous package containing my most favorite candy bar, Reese's peanut butter cups made for such a pleasant evening. It just doesn't matter to me that I won't go to sleep until about 2am. Now I will say that life does not revolve around such things but I can also say that it is very close.

Well onto the Bible study tonight.

I know it sounds odd but we don't start with prayer. We assume everyone has a different idea of who God is and what church and bible study are so we start on an even playing field and we organize the study in a way that does not preconceived or offensive ideas into the study. Now I don't mean offensive in a "Offend them by being religious" but rather by being sensitive that many have been hurt (some physically) by churches and are not ready for diving in to church routine.

The first series of questions ask of everyone at the study are about learning to share and confide in each other and setting the stage for prayer and intercession. We can refer to it as the discover part of the study. We want to discover things about each other and we want to discover facts about God. We first ask, "Is there anything you are concerned about or worried about this week. This allows people to interact with issues in their lives that are bothering them without feeling too vulnerable and begins to set the stage for the idea of praying later. This question is followed up by "How can this group help you in this issue?" This begins to lay the foundation of ministering to one another.

After this time we begin our study by asking someone to read from our first scripture which is Genesis 1:1-24. Creation of all things except man. (that is our next session)

Once we read we ask everyone to just simply write or say a simple summary of the passage in their own words. We want them to be able to do this because when it comes time to share with others in our daily walk we can remember our synopsis easier than memorizing 25 versus of scripture.

After everyone is given the chance to summarize we then ask, "What does this passage say about who God is"? In this passage we want every to begin with a basic, and similar understanding of the fact that God created all things. He created all things "Good" and that God had an organized plan for his creation. Later we will see in the next study that God created all this for man.

We then ask, "What does this passage say about man"? This study is more about God and less about who we are because we want each person at the study to have a single foundation for going forward. It generally does not matter who you are, if you believe in a god, you believe he created the world. Once the stage is set and we agree that God created all things and is all powerful then we move to the fact that he created man to be good and he created us in such a way as to have a personal and deep relationship with everyone of us.

The next section is the obedience section.

The next question in the study is, "What now?" "How does this passage make me different tomorrow than I was yesterday. How will I act differently tomorrow after having read this"? The answers vary but tonight it seemed that the main theme from those at the study was that God is powerful and good, he created all things and he created them good. Therefore we must respect what he has done, respect his creation and treat it as a gift.

The last part is the sharing part.

We ask, "who will you share this with during the next week"? Can you share it with a co-worker or a neighbor this week? Can you share it with your family or a friend. And even deeper, "Could you organize a similar study in your home or at your workplace using this scripture?"

We next ask about neighbors. In sharing with your neighbors can you find out how they are doing? Do they have a need that either you or this group can help with. We want them to make a connection between sharing the word of God and acts of service. These form the foundation of true worship and form the basis for building Godly communities.

Next week we give them an opportunity to report on their attempts of sharing and to give feedback on how they or we as a group can help someone in their neighborhood.

I continue to challenge and pray that some of those reading my blog will consider following this pattern of study in their neighborhoods. I want to tell each of you that before coming to Africa I was mislead by Satan into believing that I was not qualified to teach the bible to others. I am not the kind of person that can easily memorize chapters and chapters of scripture. But I know now that prayer and living a life that is transparent and using conversation that is always intentional in motive is the key. Pray every day for someone to notice when you say, "God has been good to me today". Everyone notices it when I say it because no one expects a Mzungu (white person) to say something like that in Kinyarwanda. Their eyes almost bug out and they stop what they are doing. Then, as David Lipscomb once said, "Love them until they ask you why". Speaking and living with spiritual intent always gets someone's attention. If it is someone who "hates" churchy people or "those God people" then guess what, now you have something to talk to them about. They would love to tell you all the things wrong with church. But at least they are opening the door for you to talk about God.

There are plenty of preprinted bible studies out there and on the internet. If you would like a PDF of the one we are using please email me at awillingspirit@gmail.com. I would love to share it with you. However, if you pick one from the internet or you just make up your own, remember this: If the study does not end with the question, "Who are you going to share this with" then you're not making disciples. Disciples share the word.

God has given us all the ability to share His word in some way or the other. Some are more fluid and obvious than others but just as sharing comes in many forms so does receiving. Your style of sharing will find someone. Just be intentional about using it.

Bless you all. We pray for so many of you daily.

Prayer requests:

Continued peace in our new environment

Block Party

Well, we have just finished cleaning up from our party. We are so blessed with good neighbors. It was good to just sit and watch them interact and to learn about culture.

I previously said I would keep you posted about the process and progress of discovery bible.

The first and foremost task is to pray. I thank each of you who have prayed. I have also prayed that some or many of you will wish to begin your own bible study/disciple making group in your neighborhoods. Always start with prayer. You must invite the Holy Spirit before you invite the first person. We have been praying for this and have asked the Holy Spirit to be present and I can say for sure he was. The party was a bit slow getting going as most things in Rwanda are. To our surprise the food was nearly on time but the guests were at least 30 minutes late. After we got started and pushed all the kids outside we just talked about the neighborhood and the fact that somehow all the people on our street know our youngest son Aaron. I assume it is because he plays out on the street with the other neighborhood kids after school almost every day. They all seem to be drawn to him. I was thankful because one of the men present was the local veterinarian and Umudugudu leader (sort of like a city councilman for the neighborhood). One of the main issues being pushed by the central government is community development. So it was easy to get them on the subject of being good neighbors. From their it was an easy transition to "Love your neighbors as yourself". They all participated in conversation about how important neighbors were and how neighbors should watch out for each other. By the end of the night all agreed that we should meet weekly and get to know each other better and have a bible study. The Umudugudu leader volunteered to have it in his home but another person suggested they share that responsibility. So next week we will have it in at Everest's (the Umudugudu leader's) home and see how it goes.

The key here in initiating the study is to just make it clear that you are not trying to lure them to a church or towards certain beliefs or denominations. Rwandans seem to be afraid of that. We simply put it in social and political terms and explained that the principals in the bible are the foundation to being good neighbors and that even if people go to church they are not being taught to read their bibles and share it with others in an intentional way. Even Everest stated that he finds it hard to help his neighbors because he does not spend enough time with them and does not know their needs.

I am just in awe of how God works.

The first study will be on Genesis 1:1-25.

The basic layout of the study is like this:

Opening:

Ask each person

What are you thankful for the past week?

What problems do you have this week?

Is there any way this group can help you?

Read Scripture:

What does this scripture say about God?

God created all things.

God created man to be like him.

God called creation "Good".

God loves man?

What does the scripture say about man?

Man was created like God.

Man was created to be with God.

Man is intended to have a personal relationship with and communicates with God.

How will this scripture make me different than I was yesterday. Or the "I will statements".

Share section:

Who will you share this scripture with during the next week? Could you share this with another group?

Do you know anyone who needs help?

How can this group help them?

The share section is the most important. It teaches that worship is not listening but rather doing. And doing is discipling. It encourages them to use what they have read in the Word to change how they live and how they serve each other. Later the progression of scripture is intended to teach them that doing for God is doing for others and that serving each other is true worship.

Well I will keep you posted. We meet next Sunday at 6 pm. Please pray for us and our group. Most of all pray that this group will share with others and in time come to a point where they become leaders in their own studies and become disciple makers. Pray that the study will be driven and dependent on the Holy Spirit and not on us. If it is to multiply it must be by their own growth and the effort of the Holy Spirit and not because I am present.

Prayer requests

Well we're finally getting settled. My house is in order and no one is throwing up. Praise God.

With our house getting into order and all of the Robinsons well we are ready to party. Block party that is. We just wanted to ask all of you to pray about our block party. After dinner tonight we were able to get around behind our house (not easy in our area) and the people behind us to the party. This was the hardest part since we thought they didn't speak english. We went around to the house and met the two people we can see and hear from our yard. They don't speak english so we actually invited them in Kinyarwanda only to find out they were the hired help. The owner was inside and she is Ugandan thus she speaks great English.

From the looks of it we will have about 30 people in addition to our family on Saturday. Please pray that we are able to start a Discovery Bible study in our neighborhood.

Please pray for one of my bible study facilitators this week as well. He has felt a desire to gain access to some of the refugee camps and find out how he can help with ministering to them. He is going down this weekend and we will meet again afterwards to find out if there is anything we can do to access this group of people.

On a less important side but certainly an issue that is just pounding away at my cultural adjustment: I can't find my all in one printer/scanner/copier. Seems silly but little things like this really mess up your day when you are looking for just one little thing to go right. Example. Tuesday my daughter was sick and at home. I was committed to getting at least one thing done so I decided to get the stove in the kitchen. I took it out of the box and realized that it was natural gas ready and had to be converted before using propane gas. This made me nervous since this is something I would normally call someone to do if I live in the States. After getting this done I finally got ready to hook it up to the gas bottle and discovered that they are not sold or shipped with an intake adaptor to hook up the propane. I panicked. The idea of trying to find such a part in this country (or continent) is insane. I called a plumber and tried to explain that the stove needed to be fixed. Well I had to go to the airport to pick him up (he was working in the general area) and bring him back to my house. He looked at it and disappeared for almost 2 hours. In the meantime I decided that I would get the drier out. It had rained all day and the clothes on the line had been there over 24 hours. Well the drier doesn't come with a cord. Can't get one of those here either. Have to get an electrician. Oddly enough, I did the one thing I would never do in the states (convert the stove) and I couldn't do or get done the two things that would have taken an hour in the States. To make things worse we had to cancel language for the day because Kristin and Grace were sick. We discovered the next day that the lesson we were on was house hold appliances. If we would have language that day I would have been able to tell the plumber that the stove was broken in Kinyarwanda. Finding my printer would have made it a good day. But it is lost. Pray for things to go right the rest of the week. Maybe even pray for the printer to show up.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to be present at our block party.

Blessings

Update

I know many of you have been praying about our block party and we are so thankful. However we were not able to have the party today. We feel like we have been attacked in so many ways this week and as a result were unable to host our neighbors.

Just as we were making plans for our party our container was released from customs. We had just called someone to arrange for the food and the guys at customs called and informed us of the release. They told us it would be the following morning but was not until 5 pm that night. Not only was the initial truck load delayed it took a total of three trips to bring our things to our house. For the next 4 days we did nothing but sort through things and try to get organized. We had so much to put away it was astounding. The final blow was Kristin waking up sick today. We had to ask our neighbors to postpone our party until next week.

We do want to say how thankful we are to have received our container in such a short time but even in a good thing there is the sense of failure. We committed ourselves to connecting with our neighbors tonight but we just could not fight the fatigue and ensuing illness that has hit our household.

We ask for your prays for Kristin as she recovers from her illness and we ask that you pray for strength so that we can make our house at least safe to walk around in so that we can have our block party next weekend.

Pray for our efforts to reach our neighbors and make disciples in our community. I will continue to pray for each of you as you struggle in the same battle to bring discipleship to your homes and neighbors.

Blessings to all.

Planting Churches/Living Lives of Intentionality

Over the past months, including the last few months in the US and the first 6 weeks here we have been undergoing a change in paradigm that is a growing trend among missionaries of many denominations. We are working on a biblical model known as CPM (cpmtr.org) that in the end we pray we will see the establishment of not one church but many churches in our region and possibly even hundreds of churches in Rwanda. The first thing we have to deal with among our team is culture. We have all struggled to rid ourselves of the culture of building church and training leaders. We realize that Jesus sent out his followers into the region before they were "well trained". He did not give them money and he did not send them to school before allowing them to speak in his name. He sent them out a little at time. He rejoiced in their success and taught them when they failed.

Our paradigm shift is first to stop using the word church planters and start using disciple makers. The term church planting has so many images associated with it that it is more of a burden than a job. In America and in Rwanda the word church has two meanings. One for those on the inside and one for those on the outside. Unfortunately those on the outside see church as restrictive and suffocating or even false. They don't see church and God as being the same and they cannot understand why they are different. Our goal here is not to bring those around us into contact with "church people" and conform them but to take those around us into a relationship with God in a peaceful and comfortable surrounding in which they already live and transform them. Conforming is teaching church culture. Transforming is disciple making. One statement we hear around here often is churches don't replicate, disciples replicate. So you have to ask yourself, "Am I a church goer or a disciple"? Here in Rwanda they are not the same.

I say all of this as a preface to a prayer request and a challenge. Here in Rwanda we commit ourselves to living intentional lives. By this I mean that every person we meet is a potential disciple and may be that one person who is willing to start a discovery bible study (DBS) in his neighborhood. We try to go into every conversation and relationship with the intent of finding out how peaceful a person is and whether they are spiritually oriented. There are plenty of spiritual people who don't know God and who don't go to church. This takes much prayer. So my first challenge to each of you is to be intentional about your prayers for those around you such as your neighbors and your co-workers.

My prayer request is that you pray for Kristin and I this week because we have been inviting our neighbors to come to our home on Saturday for a sort of block party. It is our purposeful intent to have them in our home and find out which of them (singular or plural) are people of peace who could host a bible study in their home. We cannot have it in our home because again we are white and they will come if simply for the opportunity to come to a Mzungu home and to have the social clout that comes with that. We ask that you pray for us as we go around and invite them because they all speak different amounts of English and this will tax our rudimentary knowledge of Kinyarwanda. Pray for the person of peace that I know God has already prepared and pray that we will be able to guide this person in the leadership role of DBS leader. It is the hope that all DBS leaders become disciple makers and eventually begin teaching new DBS leaders in their circle of influence.

It is my challenge to each of you to ask yourselves, "Am I just a church goer or am I a disciple maker"? Christ did not call us to be church goers but rather disciple makers. I challenge each of you to be intentional in the next couple weeks and plan a way for you and your family to have contact with your neighbors, co-workers, lodge pals or what ever group you can bring together in your home. I challenge you to be praying for ways to identify those in your neighborhood who are peaceful people and who may be able to host a bible study. To be intentional you must pray about and think about everything you say to them. From the way you say hi to the way you respond to their questions. Example. If they say, "How are you"? The proper answer is not "fine" or even "great". Every thought and response must be intentional. Like, "God has given me peace today", or "God is good to me today". You can practice and think about these "God" statements that I promise will get the attention of a person of peace. I also challenge you to pray for persons of peace in your daily circle. Watch out, it may not be your buddy who is nice to you at work. It may be the the guy at the gas station you see every week or the person who mows your lawn. Be ready and intentional.

Jesus was intentional. He did not have to stop in Samaria on his way back to Galilee. He chose to. He had a divine appointment. I can guarantee that if you pray for God to bring people of peace into your lives he will make divine appointments for you also and you will become the disciple maker God intended you to be.

So, pray for me as I pray for you to be intentional. Again I challenge each of you to go into your neighborhoods this week and seek out the persons of peace. Be intentional. You may not start a bible study right off but keep going.

I am going to dedicate my next few blogs to the process of making disciples. The goal Kristin and I have are to make disciples dependent on God and each other and not on us. To plant disciples in each community rather than one church in a city of a million.

I recommend that anyone who is willing and has the desire to be a disciple maker read the book, "Movements That Change the World" by Steve Addison. It will excite you about the possibility of how the Holy Spirit can work in the lives of single individuals to bring the lost home.

bira shoboka!

Well I kind of feel like I've arrived today.

We have language lessons 5 days a week from 7:30 am to 8:30 am. This is particularly great because the kids leave for school at 7:05. This leaves a great time for Kristin and I to have direct and uninterrupted time with our instructor, Chris (short for a much longer Rwnadan name).

Over the last 4 weeks we have been working on basic things like asking how to get somewhere, how to give directions (note my previous blog entry about frustrations of giving directions) how to buy things at the market and so on. We have done well and feel we have advanced at at least an average pace. Well today we sort of digressed from learning how to say, "Please close the door" or "Please open the window" to simple responses to questions. One of the ways our instructor teaches is to constantly ask us questions and we answer back in Kinyarwanda. Well I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to ask, how do you say, "It is possible". I have heard so many times over the last 6 weeks , "It is impossible". So today I have officially learned, "bira shoboka". It IS possible. This hasn't really gotten me anywhere yet because if I say it they go on to explain why it is not possible and then I am lost again. I can only keep repeating, "but it is possible" to no avail.

Oh well, I am one step closer to the inner workings of this society. Certainly a society in which I will never full fit but I can feel God finding ways to draw me closer to reaching Rwanda in it's native language. I will have to add on to this new bit of language skill by learning how to to say, "With God, all things are possible". I have had to chance to share this with many over the last weeks and I am so often pleased to hear that yes, they do believe that God can do all things.

We have seen God do so much. As an update I can say that our visas were approved and our passports are stamped and official now. We don't have to plan a trip to Uganda or Burundi in 6 weeks so we can renew our visitor visas. In addition we are awaiting the final clearing of our container. It arrived about 7 days ago and the moving company here in Rwanda assures us that all the paperwork is done and approved and that the only thing left is the customs stamp. Please pray that all things work for the best the first time. The law states that we are entitled to one container per family free of tax as long as we have nothing that is intended for retail. (Which we don't). However, it is not uncommon for them to attempt to charge some tax for some of the new items on the containers but this is part of a game and if it happens then it is more delay and more paperwork. The delay means storage fees. The fees are not that high but they are unnecessary and frustrating.

One blessing today is that we received two packages in the mail today. We had mailed them to ourselves about 9 weeks ago. We were not able to fit Madelyn's bike on the container nor were we able to fit her American Girl doll and accessories in our carry-ons. We had to mail both. Well they arrived today and we just can't wait until Madelyn gets home from school today. She is doing so well and oddly enough she is our big helper. She gets quite upset if she misses her turn to hand wash the dishes after supper. She just loves the job.

Now that I've found the verbal response to, "it is impossible", Please pray for me as I continue my quest to find the cultural response to this difficult cultural and often spiritual impasse.

Please pray that we will continue to find the "people of peace" that God has planned for us and that we will be diligent and successful in bringing them into relationships with us and finally with God.

More Frustrating than funny

It is just a reality that many of the things we experience are truly more frustrating than funny. It is a simple truth that culture shock is a reality. Many of the things we have experienced this week have humor but the burden of them has made the humor marginal.

I have to say that one of my most frustrating issues this past week has been in the area of giving and getting directions. In this country there are few if any street signs. The ones that do exist should not because no one notices them and no one can remember the names of the streets even if they live on them. So imagine trying to give directions to a man on the phone who speaks english only slightly and even that is mixed with french. He has to come from the

middle of Kigali to our district (suburb) in order to set up our internet. He calls me on the phone and says he is on his way. My directions are like this. "Okay, where are you"? His response is in french since the word hello did not clue him in that I was english. The fact that I did not say bonjour did not register to him. He says, "I'm on the road to the Senate". Fortunately I know that road. I send him on his way in the direction of a small grocery store and finally a round about that he does recognize but that is the easy part. Now it is time for the dirt roads. The road does not have a name so we say Niboye road because that is the district that the road cuts in half. After that the exact instructions are, "go 2/3 of the way to the end and go down the mountain until you reach more dirt roads with more small markets on the corner. In Tyler it would be like telling someone to go to the corner with the bank on it and turn left. I finally had to give up and go find him. However I'm finally over the nostalgia of the bumpy dirt roads and I'm tired of being stared at as I bounce all over the road when I drive. I did find him and finally I have email.

The blessing this week is that I was finally able to finish my application for visas and was able to turn them in. This was on my third attempt. The first day it took all morning to get my documents (marriage certificates, medical license and all the kid's birth certificates) copied and notarized. The immigration office closes at noon. The second day we arrived at the immigration office and I discovered that I was supposed to fill out my applications online but had not. God intervened again. Charles, the amazing man at ATN who is in charge of helping us get "official" was able to coerce someone to print them for me so I could fill them out. After scurrying to complete them before our number was called (we failed and had to get a new number) we walked to the desk and after reviewing the documents the agent said we could not proceed because the back ground in our photos was too grey. It was not nearly white enough. Again the word impossible (to which there is no answer, you have to just hang your head and walk away). We had to leave, go get all the kids and take them all to downtown to get pictures taken. I had to ask them to take them twice because they were really bad the first time. She took, "needs to have white back ground" to mean "needs to be washed out with really bright flash".

I prayed last night that God would keep the rules the same today. Here in Africa rules change from day to day and from person to person. I prayed that the person I encountered would follow the official rules and be a person of peace. I got up early and was the first person there and when I approached the agent and gave her the applications she said her name was the same as my daughter, Grace. I told her about Grace and how she got her name (I thought she would cry) then I figured since she was stuck there and appeared peaceful I would just preach to her about the meaning of the word grace while she did my paperwork. In the end I was able to finish the process and now I just have to wait for final approval and we will all be "official".

In addition we were able to go to church with our neighbors this week. The service was three hours long (no classes or breaks) and the kids were almost dead by the end. So was the lady whose job it was to keep the kids in line. The kids don't sit down front but have to sit at the back of the room under the eye of the "kid Nazi". I kind of liked it. She had to keep bopping Samuel to get him to stay seated. Don't blame him though since he is not used to such a long service. The joy in it was just the walk to church. The neighbor kids and our boys just love playing together. Aaron is so happy to have them near during the day.

(blurry but Aaron and Samuel playing soccer with neighbors)

(walk to church with neighbors)

We had a hard week and this was just the beginning of our struggle but we are blessed by God's constant affirmation of our presence in Rwanda and we enjoy seeing them come to us over and over. Please pray that he will continue to lay these in front of us and continue to pray that in all that we do we find people of peace in which we can form relationships with and prayerfully invite them to discover God with us.

Blessings to all of you.

Brian

p.s. One last funny image. We had to have our gate fixed this week because the hinge broke off. I had to call the landlord to send a crew to fix the all steel gate that weighs about 500 lb. When they arrived they brought their welder and needed a place to plug it in. When I walked in the gate I noticed a wire (not extension cord but real romex wire) with no ground leading to my back door. When I looked down this is what I found. No plug, just stripped the wires and stuck them in the outlet. Try this in the states.