Prayer Bulletin

Dear Family and Friends,

We continue to hear these words of Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, “Others can walk. We must run.” It seems we are always running to catch up to all the Lord is doing in Rwanda. Our family is well. Some of our friends have struggled, but God has shown His grace. Christ’s Church in Rwanda continues to thrive.

This month we ask your prayers for the following matters:

1. Our youngest daughter, Ruth was baptized on Wednesday, February 13. It has been an exciting couple months in our family as 3 of our kids have committed their lives to the Lord. Ruthie continues to display her remarkable abilities to bring peace among friends while holding firm with her sometimes troublesome brothers. May the Lord continue to develop this remarkably beautiful young woman.

2. Fellow missionaries and friends in Kigali, Patrick and Valerie Finnerty have had some difficulties. Valerie went to South Africa several weeks ago for a surgery that developed significant complications. During the last week, Valerie has made significant improvement and was recently released from Intensive Care. Praise God for His care. The Finnerty boys, Joel and Brendan will be staying with our family for a few weeks to attend school in Kigali while Patrick stays with Valerie in South Africa. May these weeks be marked with extra joy and activity in our home.

3. Christ’s Church in Rwanda (CCR) is planning for our 2 Year Anniversary Celebration on Sunday, March 1. We continue to be surprised by all God is doing through CCR. In 2007 we asked God for 300 to attend our Grand Opening and 332 attended. In 2008 we asked God for 400 to attend our 1 Year Anniversary and 423 attended. This year we are asking God for over 500 to attend.

May this Anniversary Celebration give honor to the Lord for all He has done in 2 years. Also, may it be an opportunity for seekers to explore and discover.

4. Dave’s teaching responsibility at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) is winding down from lectures and now focused on grading. May the 200 students he’s interacted with find a bright future as they graduate in a few months. Also, may this opportunity to teach Ethics produce a rich fruit of godliness and spiritual growth.

Again, thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement that sustain our family and ministry.

Imana ikurinde (May the Lord stay with All of You),

Jana and Dave Jenkins

Anniversary Sunday

There are two words that continue to run through my mind – Remember and Celebrate. They are the words a life well lived. Our nature is to collect and tell stories. Our homes and offices are filled with photos of children, graduation, marriages, new opportunities, and even defining crises. We by nature must remember.

Our memories can be both good and bad. In fact, we all have memories that cause us to grimace. Some of our memories are painful. As time goes on and we heal from the pain we will eventually discover the power of celebration. Life calls us to enjoy a good meal, music, and friendships. Without these earthly joys life would be both quite dull and meaningless.

Thus I am a firm believer in remembering with celebration. These celebratory memories come several times per year. We have Christmas, Palm Sunday, and Easter. We have birthdays and anniversaries. We have national holidays.

For my journey in Rwanda with CCR we have a yearly celebration of our CCR Anniversary Sunday. We must remember the goodness of God and our commitments to live in community.

You, your family, and friends are invited to celebrate with us on Sunday, 1 March 2009 at 10:00 a.m. Our Guest of Honor for the Anniversary Celebration will be Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable Mrs. Rosemary Museminali. Besides our church celebration and a speech from our Guest of Honor we will share refreshments and the traditional dancing of Imena Troupe.

I look forward to celebrating with many of you this coming Sunday.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave Jenkins

Two Great Years

It is that time of year again – Christ's Church in Rwanda Anniversary. You, your family, and friends are invited to celebrate with us on Sunday, 1 March 2009. Our Guest of Honor for the Anniversary Celebration will be Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable Mrs. Rosemary Museminali. (Mark your calendars as it is just 2 Sundays away.)

It has been two great years. We can not believe all the transitions that those years have brought. Thank you so much for those of you who have helped in CCR's growth.

What began as just a dream a few of shared in a home has now grown to a body that averages 250 to 300 people each Sunday. We have become one of Kigali's most diverse gathering points. Discovering unity through the Lord's love and word seems to be our calling. The Lord has been kind to many of our dreams and it seems He is using CCR as a place for those of faith to participate in the development of many diverse generations.

Our children's program is growing. Our youth program is thriving. Our music is eclectic and full of joy.

We are rapidly making preparations for the Anniversary Sunday. Our Lord instructs us to remember and celebrate. We will retell our story, be graced by the presence of our Guest of Honor, share refreshments, and have traditional dancers.

I'm eager for the day. I will look forward to seeing you there.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave Jenkins

What Are the Rules?

A scary thing is happening at CCR. In fact it is the oldest problem that has ever happened at church. It is the substance of both conflict and discovery. People are thinking and asking questions with an open bible, history books, and their own experience.

I love it. I hope you also find friends discussing faith to be liberating. We have been on a journey for several weeks exploring freedom. We've looked at Rwanda's historical examples such our Rwanda's king's refusal to participate in the slave trade, and Rwanda being the source of the East African Revival.

We've also spent the bulk of our time with an old church planting pastor named Paul of Tarsus who wrote a literary masterpiece on freedom to a group of churches in the province of Roman Galatia about 2,000 years ago. Last week we reached a historic section. Paul wrote, "The righteous will live by faith." About 500 years ago, a German monk named Martin Luther found this passage after he spent years upon years being defeated in a quest for God, and it birthed the Protestant Reformation. Grace was rediscovered. Several of you have sent me some pointed e-mails to refine our thinking. Thank you.

"One of you wrote, "living by faith and obeying the "rules:" are they necessarily mutually exclusive?"

I believe that whenever a group assembles on a regular basis to achieve one or more purposes, the endeavor is already rule driven. Church fits this description for me. There needs to be a set of rules to govern social interaction in church; if this did not happen it would be very difficult to achieve clearly defined purposes. For me (and I assume for Martin Luther 500 years ago), rules are counter-productive when they get in the way of faith. But I believe that by observing some rules, regularly and predictably, this can be, for some (many?) an important basis of faith.

If dutifully and regularly following predictable rules (read "ritual") serve as a pathway to God, then I believe that we are heading in the right direction. If following or not following rules is used by congregants and/or church leaders to judge if someone is on the pathway to God, this is where the problems lies"

This is a point well taken. I've had to go back and read through some familiar stories. Jesus of Nazareth repeated a phrase, "Come follow me." Then those that followed listened to him teach, observed him in action, lived with him in the day to day, and discovered a greater relationship with the Father, God. Jesus clearly had a process that he used to nurture men's spirits.

Paul of Tarsus said a similar phrase, "Follow me as I follow Christ." He also was very systematic in his establishment of churches and the nurture of men's spirits. He has a pragmatic side that is quite flexible. He has an ethical side which is uncompromising. He is convinced that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, and he will do anything he considers ethical to persuade men and women to believe. However, he can not tolerate any rule that obscures faith in Jesus.

We at CCR have a solemn responsibility to nurture spirits. This will involve process and rituals. However, the process and ritual can never disrupt our desire for the finished product of a greater discovery of God. This week I am taking a side bar from our journey through Galatians. I will speak about CCR and the process we are trying to develop for spiritual nurture.

If you have some questions about CCR and our process or how you can best fit in I hope you will join us. We deeply desire to be a liberating environment for discovery and renewal.

I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave Jenkins

CAN SOMEONE PICK UP THE TRASH?

My family just returned from our Christmas vacation in Kampala – the land of Garden City Mall, Speke Munyonyo Resort, Alleygators Bowling Alley, Cineplex Cinema, and boundless biwempe churches and buvera. Entertainment knows no bounds in Kampala and her mushrooming churches provide almost as much entertainment as her noisy FM stations. My unceasing pondering mind had to wrestle deeply. Why when I drive into Kampala do the number of balokole churches and organizations become as noticeable as the uncollected trash? It seemed that every 200 meters was graced by a church and every 2 centimeters was graced by a buvera.

I planted a church in Kampala, but in my quiet moments I pondered if it was just more religious clutter. Did it really make a difference? As time went on during our 11 years in Kampala my church paradigms were reborn through friendly discussions with those who did not share my beliefs, but who were my colleagues in dialogue about development. My conclusions were no longer orthodox and I became a controversial figure among some balokole. Thus I arrived in Rwanda convinced that the faith community had a voice to offer, but by and large her paradigms of the last 30 years had been irrelevant noise.

During my morning Kampala run I ran on some of my old paths, but came with new eyes. History tells me that the faith community has built the leading institutions of communities during seasons of renewal. However, sometimes what masquerades for renewal seems like the loud noises of my Lord’s opponents. His opponents were masters at drawing attention to themselves with the impressive sounds of religious babble. The Kilokole language is so intense that it is like a new tribe speaking a jargon only known by itself. I know the lingo, but it all seemed the same – religious clutter with no point. About every 200 meters on my run I noticed a balokole church or N.G.O. The names changed, but it all seemed the same. The names were designed to impress. The meeting times were all the same. In fact, they prayed so often I wondered how they had time to work. The buildings were makeshift structures, and I could not but wonder what would remain if an earthquake, fire, or windstorm arose.

Then I noticed Kampala’s other striking feature – boundless buvera. Mingled among the buvera was the urban refuse of life. Occasionally, some one would sweep it all together to start a fire. For my runner’s lungs this was murder. Why can’t someone pick up the trash so I can just deal with elevation and old age? Trash, dust, and smoke are not the substance of life’s best breath. I noticed a striking pattern – the churches in Kampala that had made an impact on the city cleaned the trash in front of their structures. The biwempe who mastered in Kilokole was no different than a fish monger when it came to cleaning the trash. For those who must discern whether a church is legitimate, I offer the buvera test. Can they clean up after themselves? My suspicion is that a dirty church front represents a dirty community.

My morning run found other tests to discern the legitimate from the buvera church. The second test I would offer to provide discernment is the witchdoctor test. Can the Kilokole be easily translated to the jargon of witchdoctors? Is the music the same with only translated words? If the cross and church name were removed could this place easily be mistaken for a shrine? Is the predominant concern success by all methods, healing, and cursing those who one is jealous of? Too many biwempe are witchdoctors masquerading as Christian theologians. If this is a true church she shares my Lord’s convictions that suffering, service, and a prophetic voice are core to all she does. Witchdoctors are never comfortable in an environment where philosophic truth and uncompromising ethics reigns.

My third test is the institution test. When I read the history of religious renewals that history determined were legitimate they always left a legacy. The legacy was institutions – schools, hospitals, libraries, and community gathering points of service and knowledge. I believe particularly in our season of time in this region the building of institutions is key to a lasting legacy. Unfortunately, among some balokole “institutions” are a dirty word. They prefer to huddle and babble in their strange new tongues. Their foreign donors are even worse at institution bashing. In their quest for slide show photos they would rather show a picture of a lone snotty nosed hungry child than healthy hundreds in a school. What better way to promote donor guilt and rake in money? After all an institution requires a budget, and a budget requires accountability. Thus the buvera church prefers to avoid building institutions. The legitimate church hungers for more opportunities to build.

My fourth test is the partnership test. History also tells that during seasons of renewal Christian people put aside their denominational divisions to build. The needs of the community were too compelling for sectarian posturing. From the United States Second Great Awakening to East Africa’s Revival partnerships are a consistent mark of the legitimate legacy. In Kampala’s buvera churches are ruled by a lone pastor. He is a one man show. His preaching seeks to divide from others. His buvera community proclaims him king, and he prefers to be king of the buvera than a partner in a clean community. Thus as we discern the legitimate from the buvera we look for a leader who is most comfortable with people who reason different from he. The legitimate finds lively discussion both refining and refreshing. When the discussion brings many diverse hands together the buvera is cleaned and the community thrives.

So my morning Kampala runs affirmed my new birth. The biwempe and the buvera are close cousins. My balokole brothers at times are misguided. The path to renewal is rather simple. Can someone pick up the trash?

Come run with me.

Dave Jenkins

Dave pastors Christ’s Church in Rwanda in the Caisse Sociale Gaculiro Estate.