Historicals

A fascinating term I sometimes hear is the word "historicals." My spell check won't accept it. My dictionary does not include it, but it seems to be a word I read and hear in this region of the world. Since my dictionary does not include "historicals" it falls upon us to create the definition.

Here's my best attempt - HISTORICALS: "The first individuals to share in a vision and rally to a cause. Those willing to take risks and embark upon a historic effort no matter what the cost."

Historicals are usually defined by history. Not every cause will succeed. Not every cause will redefine the past, present, and future. However, on occasion a historic cause arises. The great challenge will be if we can be discerning enough to know when that season has arisen. Everyone wants their lives to matter. No one wants to finish life full of regrets and the question of "What could have been if only I had done _________?"

In 1999 I first came to visit my friend, Justin Rudasingwa in Rwanda. From my first days in Kigali I was fascinated by the possibility of starting an English speaking church for thought leaders who were both spiritually hungry, but religiously skeptical. I came to Kigali about one week per year after my first trip in 1999, and continued to pray for someone to arise to the task.

Instead, after 5 years the Lord stripped everything that was comfortable from me, and made it clear that I was to be the answer to my own prayer.

On June 22, 2005 my family arrived and began the task. We tried to make as many friends as possible, listen to lots of advice, served in any ways we could find (I taught Ethics at KIST, SFB, and wrote for Focus), and walked the halls of government to secure a new church registration. We received our Provisional Registration in May, 2006 and our Legal Personality in December, 2006. On 4 March 2007 we began our first worship and on 15 April 2007 we occupied our current facility.

In many ways, we've had to run to keep up with the opportunities.

This next few weeks we will be at a crucial time. The task and vision is too big for a few. We need others to join the task.

Thus we are offering our Beginnings Class this Saturday, 10 November from 1 to 5 p.m. This is the first step into understanding CCR and becoming a recognized member sharing in the vision.

It's my prayer that Rwanda is on the verge of something historic. It makes sense. After all, the East African Revival began here in the 1930's. Will God do something new in our generation? If so what will it be like? I know that if He chooses to move in an out of the ordinary way that the task will be bigger than one individual, church, or organization. Instead, he will call many to a vision of unity and renewal.

I pray that we'll be part of God's "historicals" in this generation of Rwanda.

Will you join me in this journey?

Dave