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.