Missionary family departs for Rwanda
June 22, 2005
Now they also share missionaries.
Dave and Jana Jenkins were scheduled to leave the United States June 20 to serve as the first full-time workers for churches of Christ in Rwanda.
“Ground-breaking efforts are always a unique challenge,” said Dave Jenkins. He and his wife worked as missionaries in Uganda for 11 years.
“(We) are remembering the first few days that we were in Uganda and hoping the experience will make us wiser in Rwanda.”
When the Jenkinses arrived in Uganda in 1993, tensions were rising in Rwanda between the former ruling minority, the Tutsis, and the majority Hutus.
In 1916 Belgium gained control of Rwanda and governed the small country indirectly through kings of the Tutsi tribe. The Hutus forced the Tutsi rulers into exile in Uganda, and declared Rwanda a republic under Hutu rule in 1961.
Clashes between the two groups continued, and in 1990 forces of the rebel, mainly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front invaded from Uganda. Just when it seemed that a peace agreement would bring stability to the country, President Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated in 1994.
In response, the Hutu militia initiated a genocide that claimed the lives of about 800,000 men, women and children.
Today the Rwandan government struggles to rebuild the country and help its people heal. Church member Richard Lawson saw the rebuilding efforts in November 2004, when he and his wife, Pat, were invited by the Rwandan government to visit the country.
Lawson co-founded Lawson Software Inc., based in St. Paul, Minn., nine years after he graduated from Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City. Interested in opportunities to minister to Rwanda, Lawson invited Mike O'Neal, president of Oklahoma Christian, his wife, Nancy, and Jenkins, who was serving as the school's visiting missionary, to accompany him on the trip. The trip gave Jenkins the opportunity to lay the groundwork for a long-term mission.
The Quail Springs church, Oklahoma City, took oversight of the ministry, but Jenkins and several other missionaries considering work in Rwanda continue to seek funds and sponsors.
“The door to enter Rwanda appears open,” Jenkins said as he made final preparations June 18. “We are eager to begin this new journey.”
posted by Jan @ 9:54 PM
2 Comments:
Hello! I've read this article about Rwanda, and it's good, but I have seen two errors that must be corrected: where it is written "
and declared Uganda a republic under Hutu rule in 1961", I think you could have written Rwanda.
And about the genocide victims, you've written that Tutsis only were the victims, whereas a lot of Hutus have been killed also, including the former prime Minister Agatha Uwilingiyimana.
God bless you, God helps this tiny but great county
Dear Anonymous -
Thank you for reading. We have made a few changes to the article to make it correct. Please understand that the article was originally published in a U.S. newspaper with the errors. We did not write the article, but merely reproduced it here. We have, however, contacted the author of the article to inform him that we have made changes here.
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