On the 15th of March we arrived at our very first country, Rwanda. We were greeted by Bosco, our host and his family with a lot of love. Bosco runs a NGO where he nominates underprivileged children for a mentorship program, for proper schooling and to teach them the proper values and skills to be affective leaders. I immediately got excited when they told us that we would be helping at a local school teaching them from English to even sports. Members of our team was also needed at Bosco's office, for admin and advertisement of his NGO. During the days we were busy with ministry but at nights we were able to spend time with our hosts, hearing their stories, eating together and playing endless hours of card games, making it impossible for us not to feel like a family. Maybe this is what Jesus meant when He said we are all brothers an sisters in Christ, if Jesus is the center of any relationship it will flourish and thrive.
Bosco shared with us the story how God started speaking to him about mentoring children in Rwanda and how he is able today to sponser and mentor more than 200 children. Hearing his story really inspired me and gave me confidence that when you hear something from God and He instructs you, don't look for excuses, just start walking in it, He will make a way and even prosper it. I discovered that it is more important to follow Jesus, than a dream or idea, follow Jesus and He will give you the correct dreams, desires and ideas to follow and to glorify His name, and then don't get confused that sometimes your dream is not even about what you thought it was, that maybe it was only a small step to a greater purpose.
During our time in Rwanda it would have been a injustice not to go and visit the Genoside museum. About more than 20 years ago a terrible genocide occurred in Rwanda because of the accumulation of years and years of hatred and opression of different people groups. Many people were killed in that time and we heard horrendous testimonies of things that took place in the genocide. What was strange is that you could still hear fear and anxiety in the voices of the testimonies, but hatred and revenge was completely abscent. Remnants of guilt, shame, fear and sadness are left in Rwanda after the genocide, but the country and its people have decided not to hold on to the past but to learn from it and build a better future.
We ended our time in Rwanda praying for Bosco and his family, giving them prophetic words and just encouraging them. Bosco also shared that one of the Global teams that have visited him before also gave him a prophetic word that served Him as a confirmation on an important decision he needed to make and just trusting the Lord completely.
From Rwanda we were on our way to Uganda, we were greeted by Wilson, a local pastor who does church a little differently. On the first night Wilson shared his testimony with us of how he was part of a family with 23 children. He explained his father had died at a very young age witch meant that he was responsible for many of his siblings. Not being able to support his family, Wilson had to make a difficult decision, moving his family to a nearby rural city, while he then went out trying to find work. After many disappointments and almost giving up, Wilson explained that God had opened a door for him to be able to sell newspapers as a source of income. Selling the newspapers was hard work and you receive almost nothing a day to support yourselve, but Wilson didn't give up. As the time went by Wilson discovered a new way of selling newspapers, he would go out to people and businesses and ask them to sign a contract where they then would buy newspapers from him on a weekly or monthly basis. Where others only sold about 15-20 newspapers, he sold more than 7000. The newspaper company Wilson worked for soon noticed him and offered him a corporate job. Wilson used this opportunity to continue his studies and getting his degrees while working. Wilson soon even paid for his brother's and sisters to finish their education. After many years Wilson left the corporate world, using his degrees to become a bank manager, something he had a great desire and passion for. Wilson really enjoyed working at the bank but he explained that during does years he felt very distant from God. I believe when you are in a place where God does not want you, God's peace, the peace that passes all understanding will also be abcent. All this led to the prayer that would change the course of Wilson's life, "Lord what do you want me to do?". I think you must be very bold to pray this prayer, because the awnser that would follow sometimes might require a lot of obedience, but what I have learned from the people in Uganda is that " Obedience is the highest form of worship". The vision that God gave Wilson changed his life completely, he left his work and started a dicipling program where he would go to the most rural and dangerous places forming many small groups, dicipling people telling them stories, loving them and teaching them. These groups would usually consist of people using drugs, prostitutes, gangsters etc. After responding to God's voice, Wilson started seeing God move, he started with only one group he mentored and and then dicipled to go and make their own groups, and today he has more than 900 groups across Uganda. When Wilson shared his story it reminded me of the story of Joseph, how God gave him a dream, prospering him in everything he that be put his hands to and him also finding out that God had a greater plan to use his dream to help his family and even save a nation.
This was also our responsibility as we were in Uganda, we had to go out into different parts of Uganda and established
many different small groups. Once we had established a group we would revisit them for us to be able to build relationships with them and just to serve and to love them. We would even share Bible concepts with them by telling them various stories. During each meeting we would encourage everyone to be active in sharing, asking them what they are thankful for, what their needs are and how the group can maybe fulfill their needs or just asking the what they learned from the story we told. Uganda really gave me a new perspective on church but also made me think that maybe our closest relationships are our biggest ministry point.
Both Bosco and Wilson believe that before they take one step, they must first pray and acknowledge God in every dicition, pray twice and the step once.
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