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Dave with helper

Bringing the heart of God...
...to the heart of the Rwandan countryside. By DAVE PALMER.

Great! Hallelujah! Thank you for coming! That was a wonderful talk! Amen!! Amen!!" The African churches are so pleased to see us whenever we go with a great sea of black faces and white grins in front of us - it makes you feel very strange receiving all this appreciation and love. The only problem is that when you go back the next day and ask them what they learnt from the Bible talk, they look blank and mystified! Did any of it really sink in and help them, I asked myself?! What should be simple - like the teaching: "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" - is difficult for them to grasp and follow in everyday life in a culture where money is lacking and people will steal, slander and even kill to try to get it!

This is the situation we found in some African countries like Rwanda. Lots of love and appreciation, but they find new ideas difficult to understand and take in. That is because in the elementary education that many of them grew up with, there was no development of thinking or reasoning. If you go into a Rwandan primary school you will hear a lot of chanting, choral repetition of what the teacher teaches and learning by rote , but without the skills of really thinking things through and using the knowledge. The same problem applies to understanding and learning to live how Jesus teaches in the Bible.

This is the reason why I went to do a two week Pastors' conference in Kabarore, Eastern Rwanda, a region in the heart of the countryside but also the centre of the Family of God Churches, so that I could (by God's grace!) help them to think about and grasp what the Bible teaches about how to live for God. I chose the Sermon on the Mount (Blessed are...), which was a tall order: I felt like I was teaching grandmother to suck eggs, but they needed it and it began to work!

Rumama & Hezron
David Rumama and Bishop Hezron - singing the love of Jesus to one another

With an old blackboard and a scribe, a lot of visual effects and acted out bits, people were beginning to grasp what the 'Blesseds' were all about: and could feed back to me what they had understood. The host Pastor even told me that all the Pastors were discussing the message over their lunch! I was so pleased for them, and although we only got through the first three 'Blesseds' we did finish with a Holy Communion time where for the first time people moved around, shared bread and wine with each other, prayed for each other and even sang to each other!

This was the fore-runner of a Bible School we hope to set up next year at the same venue with training in practical as well as spiritual matters including building skills, administration, money management, counselling, so that the Africans grow in their ability to greater independence in helping themselves.

Dave teaching at the blackboard
"Jesus taught without Powerpoint and so can I."

Many thanks to all who contributed your thoughts, prayers and support - we really did see great progress in understanding and an appetite for more: a very hopeful sign for the future of Rwanda starting right in the heart of the countryside.

Dave

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