9/12/2016
To all my family who love our Lord, I am requesting your prayer support. I will be going with my brother, Chris, to see how God might use us in ministering for Come and See Africa (comeandseeafrica.org). We’ll be teaching at a two-day Pastor’s course and a three-day University Student Christian Apologetics Conference. This is our fourth Apologetics Conference in Butare in south Rwanda. We expect to see over 100 Christian students from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Congo, and Tanzania gather to sharpen their swords in defense of the Faith. Chris selected the book, “Why I am a Christian” by John Stott and gleaned from it ten reasons for being a Christian. Chris then divided the “reasons” up between himself, me, and our third speaker, Mavis Crispen. She is an Anglican pastor from London. She joined our team at last year’s Conference and was a great blessing.
When we first arrive in the capital city of Kigali, we will be meeting with Garry Friesen formerly of Multnomah University. He is a good friend and presented at our conference last year. He is now working for Africa New Life in establishing a program to train and certify new pastors throughout the country. We will be discussing partnering with them in this much needed program to firmly establish the church in Rwanda in the truth of the Word.
On our two Sundays in Rwanda, we will be preaching at the churches of our Rwandan partners. I will also be speaking to the civil and military leaders of south Rwanda at a Saturday Prayer Breakfast. Then on Saturday afternoon we will be celebrating the graduation of the University of Rwanda students who successfully completed the three-year discipleship program led by our Come and See Rwanda partners at their Joy of God Bible Institute. And that evening will be attending the Board meeting of Come and See Rwanda and discussing the future of this ministry.
As you can see, it a very full schedule. So I’ve put together a prayer schedule for whoever feels led to bring us before the Lord so that we can accomplish only what He wills. God’s Spirit is moving in powerful ways in Africa. Whenever we go to Rwanda, we rejoice and are encouraged by the demonstrations of His power. Our hearts’ desires are to help our African brothers harness that power and to direct it only to the glory of God.
Lord Bless, Frank
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Sunday afternoon, 9/18
It’s another beautiful Sunday dawn over Butare, Rwanda. Like last year, September thunderstorms welcomed us. They returned this time too and delayed our landing in Kigali by 20 minutes and knocked out the electricity repeatedly in the night. Lightening flashed on the 3-hour drive for Kigali to Butare.
I’m now through my second jet-lag racked night of attempted sleep and mostly recovered. The jet-lag flying east across the globe always seems easier to overcome than when flying west. Overall the travel to the other side of the world was no tougher than expected. Lelia got me to the Portland Airport before 6 am on Thursday. Chris met me at the Oakland airport took me to his home. I said hello to his beloved dog, Jodi. His wife, Liz was away at a meeting. We shuffled the six tightly packed luggage a bit. We always try to maximize the weight limit to carry over to Rwanda the things that are most needed there. Chris’ friend Kent picked us up and got us to the San Francisco airport in time to check in to the Dutch Airline, KLM. Minor delays were incurred but we sat through our crowded 10-hour flight to Amsterdam in relative comfort. We landed at 1 am Pacific time. We successfully met up with our English partner, Mavis, at the Amsterdam airport. I then completed the 8-hour flight to Rwanda in adjoining seats with brother Chris. We played Scrabble on his IPad and I actually beat him once. He must have been tired. It was almost noon Pacific time.
With only cat-naps during the almost 30 hours of travel it was a welcome sight to get through customs, collect our six bags of luggage, and see the smiling faces of our African partners, Franc and David. We crammed ourselves and luggage into their two SUV’s and arrived at the Presbyterian center and hotel in Kigali. We shared a three-bedroom suite with Mavis. It was good to catch up with her. Her three adult sons are a barrister (lawyer), professor, and minister. Her husband was a nuclear physicist and left her a widow almost two decades ago. She has seven grandchildren aged 7-20 that she thoroughly enjoys. Her insights into Christ’s work in her London Anglican church where she pastors are always enlightening.
Saturday was a very enjoyable day. We breakfasted with Gary Bohanan at the Presbyterian Center. He is a retired Assembly of God pastor from Oklahoma and a very active missionary in Rwanda for the past 6 years. He is a church planter and deeply involved in pastor training. He is a good friend to our director, Franc, who has often served as his translator. We discussed some of the issues facing the Assembly of God churches in Rwanda and hope to connect him with our partners at Calvary Church in Illinois. They are planning to send a team next year to Butare and could greatly benefit the churches in south Rwanda.
We then left Mavis to rest and went to the business district with Franc to exchange the cash offering that we brought in our money belts into the Rwandan francs. The exchange rate went from 660 francs/dollar to 825. So inflation has decreased the value of the francs. This is not good for Rwanda, but it does increase the value of our dollar contributions in paying off the Lighthouse loan. We also made some purchases for the Lighthouse. I was again blown away by the overall progress made by Rwanda since the genocide. New large building continues to sprout up in the capital. The streets are cleaner and safer than Portland streets. The stability of the Kagame government has made Rwanda an island of peace among the endemic instability of the surrounding East African nations. There are certainly concerns about some of the limitations of free-speech and the omnipresent security forces. But it seems that making talk of tribal identification socially inappropriate and organizations based on tribal identity illegal was a wise decision. It certainly seems that the majority of the Rwandans, who benefit from the stability and economic prosperity of the present government, agree. They easily passed the constitutional amendment to allow Kagame to serve a third term. And seeing how neighboring Burundi is again descending into tribal Hutu/Tutsi chaos makes his policies seem even more correct by way of contrast.
After shopping we went to a very good Indian Restaurant to meet up with our old friend, Garry Friesen. He still calls himself the “Rwandan Rookie”. But after nearly 3 years, he seems to be grasping the realities of the Rwandan Church like a veteran. After retiring from 30 years of teaching Bible at Multnomah University, he now continues to lead in the establishing of the African New Life Seminary in Kigali. We discussed partnering with them in their new initiative for pastor training. He described their first pilot program for 40 bush pastors. Most of the pastors have the equivalent of a third grade education. Africa New Life provides 300 hours of Bible training in six week-long intensive training sessions stretched over a twelve-month period. So the pastors have to commit to take a week off every other month to complete the training. The cost is about 10% of such training in a conventional setting. If we were to partner with them, we would need to select up to 40 local pastors in our area and provide their room and board during the six training sessions. David and Franc will think it through and we will discuss it at our Come and See Rwanda Board meeting next Saturday.
Franc also arranged for their banker to come to the restaurant to meet Chris and me and discuss the loan. The bank has concerns about repayment and we could certainly use your prayers in finding God’s solutions to this need.
David and Mavis started the drive down to Butare as Chris and I talked with Garry. Then Chris couldn’t find his IPad and hoped that he had left it in David’s car. Franc called David on the phone and we stopped and met up half way down at Kim’s memorial. David said that he searched the luggage in the back and couldn’t found the IPad. But then he saw it on the roof of the SUV! The cover is magnetized and apparently held it on to the roof over the hour and half drive over the bumpy, windy Rwandan highway. My sister Jeanne had given me a keychain for my birthday last week. It said: “Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.” Chris said that his angel kept up with David and had his finger pressed on his IPad. We met up with the man who cares for Kim’s memorial. He was the one that got the knife to cut the seat belt loose to help Chris out of the over-turned crash. I was glad to get a picture of him and Chris at the site of Kim’s death from six years ago. It is still hard, but it is good to see the good that God can work out of tragedy.
We arrived at the Lighthouse at about 6:30. I was surprised to see the Internet Café packed. Franc told me that the students were using it to register for classes. It’s a good service! Also the next Sunday afternoon we heard shouting above our room at lunch. Franc said the college student now meet informally each Sunday afternoon in the top floor restaurant. They installed their largest flat screen and show premier soccer league games on it. Again a good student fellowship activity. Anyway, that evening I distributed the gifts that Lelia had packed for the children of our African friends. Chris handed out all the stuff that he had packed. We were told which churches we would both would be preaching at the following morning. And then we crashed into bed again.
Up at 5:30 gave me time to write up most of this and prepare for the sermon. At 8 am Chris went off to preach at the early Anglican English service and the Eden Temple main service on the Wheat and Tares Parable. Franc picked me up at 9 to drive me out the Assembly of God small bush church. While we waited upon Franc, I got acquainted with our two guests from Virginia Tech. Michael and Kelsey just graduated with business degrees and are on an extended extern in business consulting in Rwanda. This is their third week at the Lighthouse. They are helping Franc with the Lighthouse website and advertising. They will be in Rwanda through November. It was good to talk a little college football with Michael and get a feel for western Virginia.
Then the 20-minute drive out to the same bush church that I spoke at last year. We all sat on the stage for much singing and dancing and praying and adult choirs and mini-sermons and offering and children’s choir and then me. I spoke on Christian joy and contrasted it to the pleasure of fun and happiness. I gave my testimony our early married happiness that was shaken by Lucinda JOY and our struggle with autism. Fun is having a good time. Happiness is good times. Joy is experiencing a good God. They were blessed and they all prayed for me and I was more blessed. Both he and Kelsey remained amazingly focused through the three hours. Michael sat next to me and I nudged him. I whispered that with no TV or afternoon Football or even clocks on the wall, these Christians were in no hurry. Afterwards they fed us lunch and took us out to a woman’s home that they were rebuilding. Her husband had been in prison for eight years and she was raising her three children in a crumbling 12 x 12 mud hut. Our ministry team coming next week is scheduled to help finish it.
Back to the Lighthouse for lunch and walk with Chris and Mavis. We had a good discussion on our favorite C. S. Lewis books. I promised to mail her a copy of Lelia’s Shatterworld trilogy. Then a nap and I’m up-to-date. We finished our walk just in time as the thunder storms just returned and the electricity is down again. Tomorrow is the Pastor’s Conference. It is such a great and humbling blessing to again be in Rwanda with such great lovers of Christ and pillars in God’s temple.
In Christ, Frank
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Tuesday evening, 9/20
The last two days have been very full. We just completed our 12-hour Pastor’s Conference. About 30 pastors from several denominations in the area remained focused and appreciative throughout. This was a fulfillment of a dream for Chris. This is what Chris has to say about it: “During the July 2009 mission trip to Rwanda, I developed a metanarrative of Christ's redemptive history in 36 parts. I wrote words and commissioned a local artist to draw 36 pictures. I also had the words translated into Kenyarwandan. Just before the July 2010 mission trip, I made 20 cloths (2ft x 3ft), 20 books with the color pictures-- laminated and spiral bound, and 100 small booklets with the words and thumbnail pictures. Kim and I used them during the 2010 mission. That whole effort was drown in tears when Kim died in Rwanda at mission's end.” They have not been used since. But this year Chris felt settle enough in this new stage in his life to bring them up for use again. Here is a link to the panels:
http: //chrisalanforeman.com/redemption/redemption.htm
The goal of the conference was to teach each of these 36 panels to Rwandan pastors/wives to provide a basic and orthodox grounding in the Faith. The words are already in Kinyarwanda so can be easily digested. There are very few Christian resources in Kinyarwanda. Chris’ church, West Hills Church, in San Mateo, printed up over a hundred booklets to hand out to the pastors. The pictures are familiar. The plan was to use a Chris, Mavis, and I to lead teaching. A different pastor opened each topic by reading the narrative in Kinyarwanda. Then either Chris, Mavis, or I would lead a short expansion of the topic. The other leaders would add anything as they felt led. Very lively and intelligent questions were taken from the pastors and a conversation was had. Chris was very good to me and gave me the 12 panels that were the meat of it: Transfiguration, Triumphal Entry, Cleansing of the Temple, Last Supper, Foot Washing, Prayer in the Garden, Betrayal, Trials, Crucifixion, Burial, Resurrection, and Appearances. I had a blast and all were blessed.
Afterwards our executive director Franc closed us with our continuing call for unity. He leads the pastors group in Butare and continues encourages the Pastors to work together. He also works with all of the many Christian student groups to coordinate their activities. It is somewhat like herding cats. But as a non-denominational leader he is able to provide a neutral ground on which all can fellowship around the one Christ in the one Spirit. It is the essence of our vision.
It got warm during the Conference and we had to keep the windows and doors open and the fans going. This led to some uninvited attendees. The alpha male in the monkey troop was a little worrisome. But the momma and baby just watched from the window balcony. She brought her three-legged gimpy child. I trust they were edified by the conference. Although oftentimes they appeared bored.
I have gotten to spend more time with Michael and Kelsey from Virginia Tech. They are making very good progress on the Lighthouse website and hope to make it a lot more accessible to visitors. I need to make the time to connect with them and coordinate and link the CASA website with new Lighthouse website. This is an unexpected blessing.
Still coveting your prayers. They seem to be effective.
In Christ, Frank
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Friday evening, 9/23
Chris and I are tired, but feel satisfied and blessed. It’s been a good three days. The Fourth Annual East African Christian Apologetics Conference was an incredible experience.
The international university students started arriving Tuesday evening. Just before the starting time on Wednesday morning the Ugandan students arrived after driving all night. We were blessed to meet up with Pastor Gordon again who shepherds the Ugandan delegation every year. He has ministered with Chris for over a decade. He brought down a group of 14 from the country to the immediate north of Rwanda. He has such a great heart and does so much to advance the Kingdom. It is an honor to see him and fellowship with him.
We were a couple hours into the first session before the Congolese delegation arrived. The overall attendance wasn’t as high as in years past. For some reason, the schedule of the 20 or so Rwandan students from Kigali didn’t allow them to come. But our students did range from farther out than in years past. Overall there were 46 students from Rwanda, 14 from Uganda, 8 from the Congo, 5 from Burundi, 4 from Tanzania, 2 from Kenya, and 1 from South Sudan. Everyone was very excited about the student from South Sudan. Gordon told us that with this connection he hopes to bring 10 Sudanese students next year. Let it be, Lord.
Chris organized this Conference around John Stott’s book: “Why I am a Christian”. The theme was “Ten Reasons why I am a Christian”. Chris listed out 10 reasons why I am a Christian. He led the Wednesday morning session focused on the first reason: I am a Christian because the Claims of Christ are true and reasonable. He showed four short U-tube video clips with the classic apologetic arguments for the existence of God. In the afternoon, Mavis led the second session: I am a Christian because Jesus sought me and I needed saving. Chris followed with the third reason: Because the Holy Spirit witnesses truth to my spirit. Each of the three teachers added in as they felt led and the questions from the students were on point. Some of the Ugandans, who had driven all night, nodded a little. But overall, the focus of African university students is far superior to American students over the 6-7 hours of presentations. But as in all African Christian meetings the beginning of every session and end of every break included loud enthusiastic singing, dancing, keyboard, and the banging of the drums. The energy vented in the process seems to enable them to focus for another couple hours.
Wednesday evening after the conference I spent several hours with Michael, Kelsey, and Franc working on the Lighthouse’s new website. I charged the fee for the domain and the processing fees on my Visa and IT IS FINISHED! Praise God! You can visit it at lighthouserwanda.com. You can even access the videos and PowerPoints from the Apologetics Conference. We just pray that the new site will increase the flow of paying customers into the rooms and restaurant. There isn’t much by way of tourist attractions in south Rwanda. But what there is we splashed across the pages. The prices of the rooms are shown and the instructions on making reservations are clear. Thank you Virginia Tech and Michael and Kelsay! Then I showed them our rather pathetic and difficult to edit and navigate CASA website. I then gave them the files of CASA information used on our website. They said that they could restructure our website and make everything a lot more easy for me to edit and better for potential mission teams to access. They left this afternoon for Kigali, but assured me that they would work on our site. They said that they would have some down time over the next week and really want to keep busy. They will send me their email addresses and keep in contact. It is an unexpected blessing.
Both Thursday and Friday morning and evening the students were up in the conference area worshipping our Lord. From 8-10 pm in the evenings and 5-7 am, we could hear their loud praises. If only the American church displayed such passion for the presence of the Lord.
Thursday morning Mavis started the session with reason four: because the Human Condition is best reflected as a shattered Image of God. Chris then presented reasons five and six: because without God the world is absurd and because the Cross of Christ demonstrates ultimate love.
In August, Chris asked us to request the subjects that we most wanted to address. Chris and Mavis responded first, so I got the leftovers. But God knew what He was doing. At first I was a little disappointed with the reasons that I ended up with. Reasons seven and eight are: because human joy is best discovered as a disciple of Christ and because human freedom is best discovered as a disciple of Christ. But as I prepared, meditated, and prayed over the topics for a month, I found them to be reasons of the heart and not head. And also reasons that seem very counter-intuitive. Most non-Christians do not view us as joyful and free. The opposite is the stereotype. And more importantly, most Christians who fall from the faith do so because they lose the conviction that these reasons are in fact truth. They find that the way of the cross excludes them from pleasures that are too tempting and limits their options in ways they their hearts seem to be leading them. So I discussed the deepest reality that: “In His presence is fullness of joy, at his right hand is pleasure forevermore”. There are pleasures that may be found in “fun”, “happiness”, or “joy”. Fun is having a good time. There are wise ways to play and have fun and ways that lead to addiction and destruction. Happiness is good times. When things are good in your life, you have pleasure. But life will always bring trials and things that shatter our happy bubbles. Joy is tied to the hope in Christ. When there is no fun and our happy dreams are shattered pieces on the floor, the disciple of Christ can still experience the joy of knowing the love of God and the hope of eternity.
I then discussed controversies surrounding freedom and determinism. What it means to be born into slavery to sin, death, Satan, and the demands of the law. Freedom in Christ is the liberty from all these chains. But a submission to the Lord of Love. I then spent a considerable amount of time addressing the abuse of liberty in the west. How the present descent of western culture in seeming total insanity is a result of the rejection of the liberty in Christ and a pursuit of liberty from our creator. These African university students are totally confused by what they see in our movies, hear in our music, hear from our universities and governments, and see on the internet. They still have the wisdom of human common sense. I had to sadly inform them that western Christians are just as confused, disquieted, and appalled by the free fall of culture into insanity and perversity. I strongly recommended to them to be very discerning concerning what they accept from flood of western culture breaking over the banks of African culture. The students truly appreciated this clarification of the mixed messages that the western church and western cultures sends them.
Thursday after the conference, Phil and Kiza Aston came by to visit with Chris and me in our room. We had met them briefly when we first arrived for introductions. But this time we had nearly an hour of talk and fellowship. They are both very soft-spoken, humble servants of Christ from Wales. They have giant hearts burning with a desire to bring Christ to the all the unreached groups in Africa. Kiza was raised in Burundi by her Welsh missionary parents and likes to go by her Burundian name. She and Phil have been in Africa for many years urging African churches to break out of their parochial attitudes and send missionaries to these unreached groups within a few hundred miles of them.
They presented their burden to the African university students Thursday evening. They had lived in a small Saharan country for twelve years as missionary. It was extremely challenging. They said that it is 100% Muslim and evangelizing is illegal. There are no churches. They were constantly followed by local authorities. But they made many friends and have a deep love and respect for Muslims. Islam is another matter. They understand deeply the oppressive nature and horror that is Islam. Their presentation to the African students was very convincing and convicting. They believe that tent-making Christian Africans would be the best missionaries to the Islam dominated northern half of Africa. It is a paradigm breaking concept for most African Christians. Missionary work is something white, westerners do. Although more and more Korean missionaries are making an impact.
So it is an uphill, slow process for the Astons to communicate to the African churches the reality that they too can be missionaries. And that, in fact, they are best equipped to reach their fellow unreached Africans with the gospel. The African Christian students were deeply moved by Phil and Kiza’s message. Afterwards we led the students in praying for them and they prayed for the students. Chris and I then talked with them about how the Lighthouse can support them only a little now, but hopefully a lot more later. We parted after we prayed God’s wisdom and blessing over their vision and they prayed for us. Again, for me the greatest part of these African missions is the incredible saints that I am privileged to meet. Especially when one slide in his PowerPoint included a direct quote from Keith Green: “This generation of believers is responsible for this generation of souls throughout the whole world”. That’s my kinda guy!
This morning we started our final session with a welcoming message to the international students from the regional chief of police and the South Rwanda District governor. We had met both of these men last year. They remembered us and confirmed their strong of support Franc and the mission of Lighthouse. Mavis then presented reason nine: because I have nowhere else to go. I concluded with the final reason why we are Christians: because Jesus invited me and I accepted. My last message included a little comparison of Calvinism and Armenianism. But it mostly was a call to evangelism and “being ready to always give an answer to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.” Franc is a frustrated evangelist. In this present season in his life, he is overwhelmingly busy with administration and leading pastors and student groups. But if he had his “druthers” he would be leading the unsaved to Christ. So he concluded our conference by encouraging these Christian students to be evangelists and witnesses on the campuses.
We then divided the group into about three groups for prayer. Mavis gathered with the 15 or so young woman, Chris ministered to the Rwandan men, and I prayed over each of the men who had traveled to the Lighthouse from Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Congo, Uganda, and Burundi. It was a great blessing and privilege. Chris again gave each student a free pair of sun-glasses which pleased them no end. We received many thanks, handshakes, and hugs. Mavis said that the young ladies told her especially that her part in the conference encouraged them greatly.
As the students filtered out, we slowly deflated. After a rest, Chris, Mavis, and I walked down to the market and bought some gifts to take home. We stopped a coffee house and enjoyed an iced mocha. God is good!
In Christ, Frank
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Monday 9/26 2 pm
I’m sitting at the Starbucks at the Oakland airport waiting for the final leg of this 38-hour marathon pilgrimage. I set out at 2 pm on Sunday from the Lighthouse. So 24 hours plus a 9-hour time change and another 5 hours before I see my bed. My head is pretty foggy, but I think that adds up to 38 hours on the road with no real glitches. God is good. And I’ve got two days to recover and get un-jet-lagged before I see my first patient at 8 am on Thursday.
So let’s see how the Father wrapped up the mission. Franc had been planning the Prayer Breakfast for this visit a long time. Is was a priority for him. He understands that the good will of the civic and military leaders in the area can be of great benefit to the ministry. Franc is a good schmoozer and has created a great network of good will between the Lighthouse and the powers that be. So he was hoping that he could gather them all together and I would be the lead speaker on the topic of “Christians and the Government”. I had given this talk 18 months ago to the university students and it was well received. So I edited it down severely to fit the time and the audience. Franc moved the “Breakfast” several times to different times and even into the afternoon to try to accommodate the dignitaries. In the end it fell through, the governor couldn’t come, and it was cancelled. Thank you for your prayers. God knows. I might have been planning to say something inappropriate and offend the leaders.
Franc was much more disappointed than I was. It gave me one free day and we actually got to be tourists in Rwanda. So Saturday Pastor David drove Mavis, Chris, and me two hours to the west to “the Canopy”. That’s what they call the rain forest at Uwinka Overlook in Nyungwe National Park. It’s at a 6600-foot altitude and marks the great divide in Africa. The rain on one ridge flows into the Congo basin and onto the Atlantic Ocean. On the other side of the ridge the water flows into the Great Lakes of East Africa, into the Nile, and on to the Mediterranean Sea. We left early in the morning and arrived in time for the 10:30 guided tour. Four Germans and four older Canadian ladies who all arrived by bus from Butare accompanied us. The guide said that it was considered an “easy” 90-minute hike. I guess that it was compared to some of the tours where they are trying to see the chimps or gorillas. But it was a pretty vigorous hike for 70-year-old Mavis and us gimpy Foreman brothers. Just 11 months ago Chris was hit by a car and his left leg was shattered. My great rooftop fall is now over 17 years past.
We were all challenged but it was a blast. The tour guide pointed out the rain forest plants and the calls of the chimps, monkeys, squirrels, and birds. All of these we couldn’t actually see or spied them only briefly. The main attraction is the metal towers and three connecting suspension bridges that allow a breath taking view of the “Canopy” of the forest. The largest of the single file bridges is about 200 feet long and 180 feet above the bottom of the ravine. Mavis said that she had met her husband on a church sponsored rock climbing event over 50 years ago. She is fearless. Although she did tire out and lagged a little on the steep uphill hike back. In the high altitude we needed to stop and take some fairly long rests. That was fine with me. It gave us more time to talk. Chris, Mavis, and I never lack for interesting topics and anecdotes to share.
We stopped at David’s home town on the way back about 30 kilometers from Butare. The hotel/restaurant had a spectacular view. We had dined on the same healthy, but dull, Rwanda dishes for a week and were ready for a change. They had cheeseburgers on the menu! But after we ordered, they told us that it wasn’t available just then. So we ordered the pizza. It was okay, but somehow still tasted like the Rwandan dishes. Must be the spices they used. As we wound on the last leg back, David told us how in 1981, he had walked the 30 kilometers to Butare to move to the Anglican school. He said that he repeated the trek as a prayer walk with a fellow pastor a decade ago. How could God not bring revival upon such God hungry people?
The only other thing on the agenda for Saturday was a meeting with Come and See Rwanda Board in the evening. So we rested in our room and attempted, rather futilely, to get online. The Wi-Fi is very erratic. That’s why, I think, that your received five or six of the same emails. It was repeated attempts on my part to send the email and finally went through later. Sorry. The bad Wi-Fi may have something to do with the electricity. Although it rained only a couple times during the week, the thunderstorms were pretty much continuous in the area around us all week. So at least ten times a day the electricity would go off until they fired up their generator.
They are still using the old Army surplus diesel generator that we shipped over 3 years ago. 18 months ago we shipped over much larger, cleaner, more expensive Honeywell generator designed to back up a large building. But they couldn’t get it to work. Last September Chris’ church partner, Ken, read the 100-page manual and figured out that it wouldn’t work because it wasn’t registered online. So we did that and hoped that they would put it into service. It wasn’t. When we asked why in the spring, they said that a part was broke and that it used way too much fuel. This was odd. The part was the switch between the two types of fuels marked “NG and LP”. Franc emailed a picture of the part and we located a Honeywell generator support store close to Chris. Chris met with the representative and found him very helpful and supportive. He didn’t even charge us for one part. Franc has been working with a Rwandan who knows generator. They got the part in August, but the generator still didn’t work. So Chris went to look at it this week with the Rwandan generator expert. And they finally figured out the problem.
Two years ago we agreed that a propane fueled generator would be most economical for Rwanda. They use big propane tanks in all the restaurant kitchens. But it seems that all Rwandan generators run on either gasoline or diesel. The Rwandan generator man can’t read English. He thought “NG” meant gasoline, so they were pouring gas into the carburetor and couldn’t figure out why there wasn’t a fuel pump. They could force it to start, but it sputtered out real quick. Chris finally figured out that “NG” meant natural gas, which is totally unavailable in Rwanda. “LP” is liquid propane which is a compressed liquid in the tank and changes to a pressured gas when attached. They have two big propane tanks up in the kitchen for cooking with open flames. But the Rwandan expert refused to attach the tank. He had never done it, had never heard of such a thing, and thought it would explode. Chris emailed the Honeywell representative for advice and received a three letter response: “SMH”. Chris figured out that it means “smack my head”. He doesn’t think that the representative will want to help us anymore. But Ken arrived again on Saturday and we’re hoping that he can read the instructions and hook it up. So pray that dumping gas onto it for a year didn’t damage anything and it will work with propane. So much of effective mission work is just overcoming the curse of the Tower of Babel. Miscommunications abound.
Our business meeting with the board started at 9 and went until 11. Chris and I gave our input concerning CASR and the Lighthouse. Please continue to pray about their cash flow to make their loan payments. We talked about options for making it work and trust that God will open up the right doors. One of the primary concerns that Chris and I discerned on this visit was just how thin the leadership is of CASR. Franc and Pastor David make almost all of the decisions about everything. Several of their key support leaders moved out of the area. Keep this in prayer also.
Chris’ church, Western Hills, sent over a team of three to complete some compassion ministries with Pastor David next week. Ken and Shirley ministered last September and seemed delighted to be back. They arrived Saturday with Franc. But the third member of their team, Margarita, had problems. Her passport was valid for only four more months. For some reason the airline rules required it to be valid for six months. They issued her a boarding pass the day before, but turned her down at the gate. They did get her on a flight the next day. But she had to go into San Francisco to extend her passport. Ken says that she an experienced traveler and didn’t seem at all intimidated about flying to Africa alone.
Sunday morning I preached at Eden Temple to about 300 singing and dancing exuberate African Christians. I shared my testimony of our Joy in the Journey with our Lucinda Joy Foreman. As I meditated on this message three times in a week, I came to realize how God transformed the curse of autism into the blessing of learning to love one that isn’t able to return it. Lucinda didn’t make us happy and is never very fun. But the deepest Joy resonates in our faith that God will make all things well and all things will be well. He does make all things beautiful in His time. The tongue of the dumb will sing for joy. Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And, oh the joy, when faith will become sight in the presence of the King.
As I was getting ready to leave, I told Franc and David and Chris that this is my favorite week of the year; better than Christmas. To feel again the warm winds of the African revival at my back and to teach young, vibrate Christians who are enthusiastic to learn is a great, great blessing. Saturday evening Chris gave me a Thank You card that was left by the Congolese students: Dear Frank and Chris Foreman, we thank you a lot of for this conference in which by you God wants us to know the reason of our nature: Christian. May God bless you and give you strength to continue this ministry. We don’t have what to pay you but we know that God will do it and we pray for it. So, when you will arrive at USA, tell all person there that Congolese people love them and pray for unity of all Christians. Thank you la lot, From Congolese Group, God Bless you.
In Christ, Frank
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Pastors Rob and Cody,
WOW! What a blessing! Still recovery from jet-lay, but still feeling blessed. I hope you got my email journal of the mission. I wanted to fill you in on the AG part of it.
The very first person and very last person I met were the AG people. The morning after I arrived I met up with the AG missionary in Rwanda, Gary Bohanon (gary.bohanon@gmail.com) in Kigali. What a tremendous man of God! I forwarded you his emails to us in July. He confirmed our conclusions about Pastor Paul and recommended that we work with Pastor Claude Gihanuka (claudiengihanuka@gmail.com). Claude is the AG Mission Leader for all Rwanda and the South Rwanda Regional Representative. So he is Pastor Paul’s immediate supervisor. His church is an hour north of the Lighthouse. I met him on my way to my return flight on Sunday. He is a very impressive man. He trained in Kenya and speaks good English. He is truly a gentle heart and a servant leader.
Both Gary and Claude believe that the greatest service that Calvary Church can accomplish in Rwanda would be in church plant building, bush pastor training, evangelism, children’s, and compassion ministries. They are greatly blessed to hear of Calvary’s interest in blessing Rwanda.
I really would like to fly out to Calvary and visit you again. I was thinking in October or November. I could fly out on Friday and return late on Sunday. What week-end would work best for you? I would like to meet with those considering going to Rwanda and encourage them in the ministry. Let me know what dates might for you.
Love you guys, Frank
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