Hello, friends.

I’m in Kigali, Rwanda and am amazed at what I see. The city is the cleanest, most progressive city of any I’ve seen in East Africa. The people are friendly, particularly the pastors I’ve been working with. And the population is highly motivated to make Rwanda the central technology and economic hub for all of East Africa. I would say they are off to a great start. There are no plastic bags allowed in the country, so you don’t see a fraction of the trash sitting around that you find in most other East African countries.

But the best part of my time here has been with Pastor Esron  and the other pastors we will be training over the next three years. They really get the concept of owning the trainings we do, and here’s why. Ever since the genocide in 1994, and the massive struggles the country faced following that with political turmoil and fighting, there has been a massive amount of aid that has been dumped into Rwanda. This has created some very unhealthy dependencies, and the Rwandans know it. So they are fighting back, turning away NGOs and even banning them from the country. They don’t want the free handouts, cause they know these will only hurt them in the long run. Instead, our pastors who have very little are working to save up to pay for copying costs of the material we bring, and will be sleeping on the floor of the church where the training will be. They want to take responsibility for making sure these trainings are reproduced, and spread throughout the country. It is so exciting to watch their motivation and vision, and fan the flame the Holy Spirit has lit in them.

So please continue to pray that God will do a wondrous work in this country. There are many opportunities, great hunger for the Word and ministry, and a balanced perspective on how to accomplish this. Tomorrow morning I will be preaching in a Rwandan church, and then continue training the pastors. Then Monday my friend Dan and I will head to Kampala Uganda to do a training for pastors there. Truly God is working in East Africa, and let us pray we can do our part is seeing His kingdom grow and His Word be preached well.

Pressing on, Eric