Back from Rwanda!

We are back from a tremendous trip to Rwanda, where we led about 90 pastors through the LifeSpace training. At times the medium was as new to them as the message. They had never been asked to work with colored paper, scissors, and glue sticks, and they had never seen Play-Doh, but we all greatly enjoyed the fellowship and the interaction. Most importantly, we found that the love of God required no translation. We woke each morning to the pastors' exuberant singing, and we shared laughter and tears with them as we talked about the practice of life with God.

The terror of Rwanda's recent past remains painfully close to the surface. We visited the genocide memorial in Kigali, where 256,000 souls are buried in mass graves.

But life continues, and hope lives on. As we worshipped with these brothers and sisters in Christ, we confessed that we have never heard such singing. They sang spontaneously and freely. They sang often, and they sang long. They sang so loudly that the translator quit trying to make himself heard. They sang of hope and rejoiced in the goodness of God. As I hear their voices and see their faces, I am reminded once again of the words of Frederick Buechner: "What's lost is nothing to what's found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup."

Bob

(See the OpenSpace forum for more about the trip.)