Ministry in the Village

I'm sure Kigali is hard to imagine unless you've been here.  The city is made up of many hills (all with different names) and then the villages are scattered on the outskirts of the city.  On Saturday I had the awesome opportunity to go to Gatega, which is only about 20 minutes away from our hill of Gachuliro (or Gachoriro, since Rwandans use r's and l's interchangeably... as in I'm either Kerry or Kelly... it is the same to them!).  Douglas and I got to go there with Eddie, who is a pastor at our church.  He is Rwandan, but has spent time in many countries in East Africa, along with Canada (his wife is Canadian and used to be the kindergarten teacher at KICS). 


So we started on our journey not knowing what to expect.  The three of us, plus Justin (don't you love how American sounding names these Rwandans have?), who is sometimes involved with worship band, went off in Eddie's car.  We really didn't know what to expect, except for the fact that Eddie and his family had kind of adopted this village and started soccer teams there.  We drove out of the bustling city and onto horrible dirt roads that would have made me carsick, had I been riding on them for an extended period of time.  We came to a clearing in the trees where Eddie pulled in and we could see that part of the land had been cleared and sure enough... there was a dirt soccer field with bunches of kids on it!  As we came up, some of the kids called out "Manager!" because that is precisely what they call Eddie, who literally manages many things in their village.  Many of the kids came up to the car to greet us, but the ones who were in their practice remained with their team.  


We met a few of the kids, and they mostly went on with their routine.  Eddie showed us around this community property, which consisted of the dirt field and a wooden structure with benches inside.  Eddie talked to us while we watched the soccer players, the very young children who were siblings to the older kids, and many supporters (all children) on the sidelines.  He told us how he had come to this village and the children had nothing to do and hardly anyone to care about them.  Only 3% of children in this village come from families with two parents.  They are all very poor, having an extremely difficult time paying for food, school fees, and uniforms.  One of the first times he came, he brought a soccer ball and the kids were stoked!  They were excited to play with a real ball, but skeptical about why he was coming to spend time with them and help them.  He faced a lot of that before they began to trust and respect him.


Eddie started his ministry with soccer and showed the kids that he really cared about their well being!  He found a Rwandan guy who used to coach soccer and quickly got him involved.  In the months following they had four teams, including one for just girls, made up of kids from the village.  They have really come to depend on Eddie and trust him.  He also shares God's Word with them and is in the process of buying each family a Bible in Kinyarwanda.  They listen to him and are interested as he talks about Jesus, which is so awesome!  Now, on top of soccer practices, they have worship and ministry time each week.  They built the temporary structure for this purpose because the government wouldn't let him build any permanent buildings on the property.  It is awesome the way that Eddie listens to God's calling and he truly discerns how God wants him to do things.  Eddie is not at all a sports person, but through prayer and listening, he knew that soccer way the way to teach them about Christ.  


So, sorry that this is all over the place, but it was an overall really cool experience.  I've been praying about what my role should be in this place.  Currently, three of their teams have jerseys and many kids have soccer shoes.  These all have been donated by people who have come over to visit Eddie and support his ministry.  They still need so much but it  awesome to see what God has provided for them over the last year and a half.


This is a good reminder that we can be disciples, no matter the situation.  I know in the States it is not okay to talk about in schools and many workplaces, but that doesn't mean we aren't allowed to show God's love wherever we go.  So the challenge for today is like the song... "They will know we are Christians by our love!"   


Will they know?