~by Jill Wager~
Our first planned outing of the Rwanda Mission Trip, participate in a Sunday morning Rwanda Church service. I was assigned to go to the Anglican church along with Tom Hewett, Steve Clark, Win Brandon, and Peggy Karg. On the bus ride over, we all practiced how to say “Good morning. My name is (Jill)” in the native tongue of Kinyarwanda. As we drove into the church ‘parking lot’, I noticed we were the only people coming in motorized transportation. Many Rwandans (up to 90+%) attend church services and most of them walk the ‘land of a thousand hills’ to go. As we approached the church, we saw several people waiting outside for the second service to start. We could hear the booming voice of the Priest giving his sermon. It is typical for services in Rwanda to last longer than the stated time of the service. We walked in about twenty minutes later to a large building filled with smiling faces. We were ushered to the front two benches to experience the service in its full glory. The service started with very enthusiastic worship, something which is rarely seen in the United States. We were encouraged to participate with the worshipers, and we all accepted the challenge. The Rwandan people want to show our Lord how much He is loved and revered. It was exhilarating! After several worship songs, the Priest called up our group to introduce ourselves. We all used our best Kinyarwandan in the introduction and we received such a joyful reception. After the introductions, it was time for us to return to our ‘home away from home’. Our group entered the bus with renewed energy and love for our Lord and the Rwandan people.
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