This July I had the privilege of returning to Africa for 19 days, with Empower International Ministries. In spite of the inconveniences of life in the developing world (36 hours of travel time each way; limited internet, electricity, and clean water; six and eight-legged visitors in the shower) it was such a joy to be back. Africa gets under your skin and is an amazing place.
With a great deal of editing help and last minute support from Anne Baumgarten, I was able to finish and publish the first of the workbooks which serves as a “follow along and leave behind tool” for those attending the Created to Belong seminar. One fifty-pound suitcase was filled with over 100 copies! Thanks be to God and for all of you who prayed this process through!
There is always so much to share after a trip like this and it is difficult to decide what are the highlights, because in many ways the whole thing is a highlight. So let me share a few vignettes with you about each of the three countries I ministered in: Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
Hotel Rwanda (Mille Collines, Kigali, Rwanda
Rwanda (pronounced “Randa”) was our first stop and it was also my first time there. What a memorable stay! Baraka Uwingeneye, my 29-year-old host, is a woman of great vision. I met her briefly in San Antonio last September at an Attach Conference. She is an RN and a trained counselor who as a part of her ministry vision has been training lay counselors in her country the last three years (see GateofHopeIntl.org). In Rwanda, history is marked by the 1994, 100-day genocide of one million people. Everything is referred to as “before the genocide” or “after the genocide”. Baraka, 13 at the time, fled the country with her family and spent two years in a Congolese Refugee Camp. Though she was in the States for other purposes the fall of 2009, she had been conducting internet searches trying to understand the emotional needs of so many who were traumatized as children in her country. This is how she learned about the Attach Conference. During our fifteen-minute meeting in Texas, we dreamed together about the possibility of my coming to her country to provide training regarding trauma and attachment. Little did we know, that God would so perfectly orchestrate circumstances to allow me to visit so soon! It was to her group of parents and professionals that I used the newly completed workbook for the first time. Teaching with Baraka translating was so easy because she herself has a basic understanding of attachment.
Our time together was very meaningful and I heard many accounts about the impacts of the genocide. Chief among them were the 300,000 children left orphaned. After the genocide the new president mandated families to bring in orphaned children so that virtually every family was caring for at least one orphaned child. This added burden on families, who had many of their own traumas to process, not to mention poverty level resources, made raising these “extra” children even more difficult. The Created to Belong curriculum applied directly to this area of need, not only in terms of the children but also in the application of the biblical principles of the attachment each of us was created to have with God. Rachel, one of the women in the class, had raised three orphaned children, one of whom was in the class as well-Emmanuel. And he now works with orphaned kids!
Carrie and I stayed at the African Enterprise Guest House (a ministry started by Bishop Festo Kivengere, a man Russ met during seminary days. On the outside wall of one dorm was a sign that read “Gift of Menlo Park Presbytarian Church”! The guests were all doing short term mission work of some form and it was meaningful to dialogue with each other over breakfast or dinner. I was very pleased and surprised to see my mother’s former pastor’s wife-Heidi Greider, there! And she was even more surprised to see me as she hadn’t met me prior. We shared several meaningful conversations.
The only “tourist” kind of thing I did in Rwanda, was visiting the Genocide Museum (if one would label such a thing “touristy”!). This was a hugely impactful experience, not only in understanding how this horrible thing could happen in Rwanda, but also in comprehending many of the genocides of the last 100 years (Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur, Turkey, Germany, Russia, to name a few). I was moved to tears by the “Children’s Room” where about a dozen children, some as young as infants, were highlighted with huge pictures telling their names and ages. I hadn’t realized until I had been there for several moments that along with each picture there was a bronze plaque detailing how each child had been brutally murdered. Evil personified. I wonder how God puts up with humanity?
The photo above is of me visiting Mille Collines, of “Hotel Rwanda”-fame, where the manager kept hundreds of people from being slaughtered during the genocide.
By God’s grace, Baraka may be able to come back to the US in September and stay with me while attending the upcoming Attach conference here in the Bay Area. And I hope that God will open the way for me to return to her country for a longer stay than four days next year.
Uganda
Linda, Phobice, and Carrie
My partner in ministry for all three countries was the charming Rev. Phobice Tweheyo, the wife of Rev. Frank, EIM’s Pan-African Program Coordinator. She has a demanding ministry herself, traveling throughout East Africa so it was a real privilege to have her wise company. Together, we traveled from Kigali, Rwanda (pronounced “Chigali”), to Kabale, Uganda, her hometown and the place where our EIM team ministered in 2008 (Betsy Anderson, Carrie Miles, Frank, Phobice, Margaret Kisiwiriri and myself). Some of the highlights from our stay in Uganda were Carrie’s and my meeting with the leadership of Bishop Barnum University (a satellite campus of Uganda Christian University) who invited us to come back and teach as members of their adjunct faculty. I would teach about attachment and healing from trauma, and Carrie, her New Man, New Woman, New Life curriculum. We’ll see what God does with this!
I also had the chance to visit many friends from my previous two visits to Uganda. I went to Akanyijuka (which literally translates “God remembered me” or “Moses”), an orphanage where I added on to previous trainings of the “mamas”. I was delighted to see Akanyijuka re-located on a larger property that allowed them to take in more children and best of all, allowed five separate houses where each “Mama” lives with her family of eight children. David and Katharine Guinea, from Australia, continue to provide administrative leadership and teaching at the on-site school, with a long-term goal of handing off those roles to nationals. Akanyijuka is a project of Victory Community Care Services led by Ugandan Pastor Edward Kanyesyige.
Also a part of VCCS is the Drop-In Center for the street boys. Betsy Anderson and I spent significant time there in 2008 and it was good to be back. There was sad news awaiting me there, Patrick, whose picture is on the EIM web site (he is walking on his hands) had died suddenly a month earlier. He had not been hanging out at the center for a few months and when he finally did return, he was critically ill with typhoid, malaria and dysentery. Pam and Eddie, the older English couple who minister and live among these kids, did everything they possibly could to save his life. Patrick’s recent funeral brought many of the boys back to the center for solace and support. The general mood was somber. I shared a testimony of losing my own sister at a young age and then gave a message on Jesus’ healing the man by the Pool of Bethsaida, and the question He posed to the man. “What do you want me to do for you?” I posed this as Jesus’ question to each of them. The next day I went back to the Drop-In Center and did some counseling and when I came outside to join the other boys, they burst into Happy Birthday, giving me a Cadbury chocolate bar and a card each of them had signed. It was a perfect 60th birthday away from home!
While in Kabale, I also toured two hospitals (neither of which have a surgeon). I was especially enthralled with the Newborn ICU (NICU) at Rugarama Mission Hospital. There were actually 5 incubators (none with electricity) and the mother of each preemie was gavage (tube) feeding them!
I also have to mention the clever surgical shoes worn at Kabale Hospital. As many of you may recall, in the US all surgical staff wear special paper booties over their shoes, which then have a grounding strip, which fits into the shoe. This is to prevent any kind of friction or spark that can result in an explosion of the different gases used for anesthesia. At this hospital, everyone near the surgical suites wore knee high, white plastic galoshes which I also wore while touring the facility! Very creative I thought.
Burundi
My last week was spent in Matana, Burundi as a guest of the Anglican Diocese. We drove up to Matana from Bujumbura and arrived one hour late for the Sunday service at the cathedral. The service went on for four more hours! The sermon alone took up nearly two hours! I was struck once again by the outright joy expressed in the African church through song and dance. Every time an answer to prayer was shared, the 1000+ people in the congregation would break out into joyful singing and dancing; so grateful were they for God’s faithfulness. I thought to myself, “How easily I take for granted God’s answers to prayer. Sometimes I hardly even notice.”
The Archbishop officially welcomed us (Bernard Ntahoturi) and Carrie and I brought greetings from all of you, Christ’s church in the US. We had dinner at the Archbishop’s home, and later met with him where he officially endorsed the ministry of EIM, declaring his partnership with us and commitment that the people trained in Matana would take responsibility for disbursing our trainings to the villages. Very exciting!
While in Matana I was able to teach both of my programs, Created to Belong and Healing from Trauma. I wasn’t able to finish either but it was good to have the five full days to teach what I could. There were about 30 at each seminar, comprised of clergy, Mother’s Union and other church leaders parents and people in the helping professions. It was so rewarding to be able to use the workbook there (though I began re-writes for the second edition), which not only added legitimacy but also helped clarify the information. Several of those attending were returnees from the one-day seminars I taught last year. When we finish a seminar, we present certificates to the attendees and this is a very special time for all. The Revs. Seth and Yvette Ndayirukiye translated for Phobice and me and took wonderful care of us. We had dinner at their home and one of the delicious things served was African pizza! They honored me with a lovely birthday bouquet, presented by one of their four sons.
Russ called me via Skype every morning and his encouraging voice and prayers were a welcome and needed support.
Wherever I went, I disbursed the 20 hand-made African puppets my sister lovingly created. Each a work of art, and each greatly prized and appreciated by the recipient.
There are so many other stories to tell which will have to occur either one-on-one, or at my church’s (Saratoga Federated) Go-and-Tell luncheon on September 26. Hopefully Baraka, from Rwanda, will be with me at that event.
Thanks sincerely, to each of you, for your prayers, your interest and your generous financial help with this ministry. I could not do it without you.
In His Worldwide Love,
Linda