Day 6: Blessed and Humbled

My fellow missionaries and I outside of our hotel, in Muhanga, Rwanda, on the afternoon of Friday, May 13, 2016, before our first evangelistic meetings. This photo is courtesy of my fellow missionary, Vanessa.

It has been a whirlwind past few days here in Rwanda! God has been blessing tremendously. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is currently conducting a nationwide evangelistic campaign entitled "Revelation of Hope" at about 2,300 sites throughout the country; I am a member of a team of 15 missionaries based in Muhanga, Rwanda. My missionary team is quite diverse: we come from the United States, Canada and the Bahamas; some are students, others are working professionals. We range in age from 16 to over 50. One member of the group, Chantal, has family in Rwanda and has been able to visit her relatives during her stay.

Each missionary has been assigned to a site to conduct an evangelistic campaign with the assistance of the local district pastor, a translator (who many times is the district pastor), and a driver who provides the missionaries with transportation to and from their sites. I have been assigned to a site in the town of Ruhango, and have been working with Pastor Jerome to conduct the campaign. Pastor Jerome oversees six churches in his district and also serves as my translator. There are 400-600 people attending the Ruhango campaign site.

The "Revelation of Hope" campaign started on the Friday evening of May 13, 2016, with the topic of "Empires in Collision", outlining the prophecies of Daniel chapter 2, and its relevance for today. The following meetings have covered the significance of the sanctuary service, the Three Angels' Messages, the Great Controversy, and the Second Coming of Christ.

The number of people attending my group's sites range from 150 to over 2,000. Our group leader, Karen, who has coordinated several mission trips similar to this one, commented that the attendance for this nationwide evangelistic campaign has far exceeded anything that she has ever been involved with. People are arriving in numbers each night, including weekdays. There are people who walk over 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to attend our nightly meetings! Many of the roads here in Rwanda are not the well-maintained asphalt roads that we see in developed countries. Imagine red, narrow, dusty roads, filled with deep ruts, and lined on either side with a stream of pedestrians; the occasional bicycle, motorcycle, or mini-bus passing precariously close to your vehicle in either direction. One could reasonably conclude that such roads are impassable when it rains.

Outside of our preaching responsibilities, my team has been able to explore the town of Muhanga. It has been a culturally enriching experience to observe daily life in a developing country; to walk down the dusty streets lined with businesses, street vendors, bicycle taxis, motorcycle taxis and mini-buses. There are not many proper sidewalks here, so people usually walk on the shoulder of the road. One thing that I have noticed while I have been here is the amount of people that you see everywhere. The streets seem to be crowded with people and vehicles. Everyone seems to be out and about, heading to school, the market, or wherever their destination may be.

Please continue to pray for the evangelistic campaign. Where there is much prayer, there is much power, and where there is little prayer, there is little power. Each night, after the missionaries return to the hotel, we are able to gain strength and encourage one another by sharing testimonies of how God has been moving on the hearts of the people, and on our hearts as well. God has a mighty work to do in Rwanda, and I am blessed and humbled to serve Him in this capacity.