Hello again! Well, this is our last blog entry. Friday morning was full of joy as the pastors celebrated the conclusion of their two-week teaching. Jerry began the morning with a great devotion, then the pastors sang in worship, Shane finished some teaching on prayer, and Neal spoke a brief message about the Lord’s Supper. Sharing communion together was like a taste of heaven. Christina sang “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”, while Jerry signed. Afterward, the pastors gave Rwandan names to Neal (Mugeraneza – Good Worker), John (Muvunyi-Helper), Shane (Muvandimwe- Close Brother), Christina (GisuBizo – Answer) and then Jerry (Shaka- Zeal), which we thought was the coolest name. J Locally crafted gifts rich in symbolism were given to the Good Rain team, including African shirts and dresses. Neal had a blast helping the Pastors to their buses with their 50lb bags of rice.

Peggy continues to heal and have an amazing attitude. She has insisted we continue our activities and meetings with the women and pastors. Theophile’s daughters have been Peggy’s excellent care givers while we’ve been away. Thankfully phone connections are consistent here and we were in contact with her during the day. As of this writing, John and Peggy will board their return flight Monday night, February 22 and return to Boston Tuesday mid-day, exactly one day after the rest of us. This is not ideal, but even after much effort this itinerary seemed to be the only option.

Today we drove about two hours to Batima, a remote village to the East of Kigali. We were actually just a few miles from the Burundi border. There we met Pastor Nicodeme and his wife Therese. The Harvest Christian Church there is just a few months old, but already they have a large crowd meeting in a rented building in the center of town. Christina met with 25 women, encouraging them to consider their gifts and roles as vital in the Body of Christ. After a feast of rice, fish, chicken, cooked cabbage, beans and awesome mango, we enjoyed a two hour worship service with the church, which was supposedly shorten to allow us to return to Kigali. One choir sang a song about the spiritual battles while acting out the lyrics with costumes and props!
Tomorrow will hold a morning full of worship. Then we will transition John and Peggy to a western quality hotel, and then head to the airport with mixed emotions due to leaving them behind.

God is so good…teaching us so much about the family of Christ and His work here in Rwanda. Thanks for your prayers throughout our journey.