(From L to R: My cousin, Lori, and her husband Tom in their new home--Kigali, Rwanda. Me with Eric, a survivor from the Rwanda Genocide who visited Regent University last fall)
(Sorry this is all bunched up. I copied it, and for some reason it won't separate the paragraphs...)
I was getting ready to e-mail my cousins in Rwanda, Africa, when I stopped to ponder and reflect on the things God has spoken to me about this nation for the past year. I have wept, uncontrollably at times, for God’s heartache for the people who were affected by the worst genocide since the Holocaust (USA Today)--the 1994 Genocide. While I’ve shared my most intimate times with the Lord interceding and weeping for Rwanda, I don't think I have the slightest inkling as to how God is connecting me to others in the Body of Christ and the world through carrying this tremendous burden.
Rick Warren, one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" (TIME Magazine, 2005), founder and senior pastor of the fourth largest church in America--Saddleback Church, in California--is the author of the bestseller "Purpose Driven Life", a book that says the purpose drven life is one committed to worship, fellowship, spiritual growth, ministry, and fulfilling our mission on Earth. Not only was the Purpose Driven Life the first book I read as a new believer, but I read it at least three consecutive times after that and was so moved that I used it for “book studies” with unbelievers. My copy is highlighted, underlined, and filled with notes and revelations. I couldn’t get enough of it. Either could Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, who phoned Warren after reading the book stating, “I am a purpose-driven man. Come help rebuild this country.” (USA Today)
The same man who contributed to my transformation as a Christian, and Paul Kagame’s, through the Purpose Driven Life, has a vision to see Rwanda transform into a “Purpose Driven Nation” by training and raising up leaders in Rwanda. He could very well be the man I partner with in vision and join in ministry in Rwanda. And let me tell you, there is nothing I'd rather do than join Rick Warren and others whom God has similarly burdened for this people and nation. Talk about POWERFUL movements in the Kingdom of God!!!! One purpose, one vision=one transformed nation in Africa!!!! Bring it on!!!!
My cousins, Tom and Lori Wheeler, are living in Kigali, Rwanda now with their children. When I found out they moved there this summer to join Rick Warren and his ministry, I went crazy! How incredible that I have family living in the very roots of a nation I’ve been called to intercede for and hope to one day visit?! USA Today said this, and it absolutely shook me because it breaks down every presupposition people have about not doing missions because they haven’t been “called” or don’t have a necessarily esteemed “title”: “Even if he's only remembered as the man who helped bring sidewalks to Kigali, Wheeler says he feels that he's part of something big: 'God's working here,' he says, 'after so much suffering.'" I think we can learn something significant from Tom—every effort counts. Following Christ costs us everything, and sometimes, we should just go to meet the need.
As a personal reflection… it just blows my mind to see what God is doing and how He’s moving there. All those endless days and nights I spent weeping for these people were not in vain; to share in their suffering is a tremendous privilege. We are called to carry one another’s burdens, and mourn with those who mourn. But for the longest time, I felt like what I was feeling was deeper than carrying just the Rwandan's burdens. It wasn’t long before God revealed to me that I was carrying HIS heartache for His people in Rwanda. And I gotta tell ya, sharing God's pain and the Rwandan's pain is more than I ever thought I could possibly feel, but it's GOOD, and it gives me the privilege of sincerely rejoicing with them when God’s response is so remarkable! Their pain has become my pain, so their answer is my answer.
This nation is headed nowhere but up! Praise GOD! 14 years of gruesome pain is being washed away day by day. Forgiveness, Healing, Joy, and Peace are only among the few treasures the Rwandans are receiving, and it’s attributed to a God who loves them so much He’s burdened endless believers across the world to intercede for them, and has stirred them to DO something, something as “mundane” as some might say building sidewalks is. Every prayer counts, every weeping experience (that is designed to cause us to see and feel through God's eyes and heart), and every action is contributing to the Kingdom of God. Don’t underestimate your significance to God—He rescued you so that you can rescue others. Please do your part!
(The link to the Rwanda article with my cousins and Rick Warren)
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