Not long ago, Rwanda became a center of much human tragedy and suffering. And while the country continues to strive after the devastation, God has certainly not forgotten the people there. In this account, we share some of the blessings that the International Church of Christ in Rwanda saw over the last few years (see Part II).
Update from Johnson and Norah Namei from the ICOC in Rwanda:
Rwanda is a very beautiful country admired for its tremendous development since the year 1994, when it went through a genocide. I first visited the church in 2001. As a single sister in the Kampala, Uganda church, I used to come for singles retreats in Kigali. Little did I know that ten years later, God had a plan for me and my husband to come and lead the church. The Kigali church was planted in 1997 and it grew to about 80 members.
However, as years went by, many disciples fell away and the fire that was there before went down. Satan continued fighting and we praise God that we have some disciples who stood firm.
We started leading the church in 2010. When we came, the church attendance in Kigali was about ten disciples on Sunday (with five others meeting out of town in Gitarama as a house church). We began praying and fasting for God to add to our number as we shared our faith and studied the Bible with people.
The first three years were not easy for us and we started doubting whether God wanted us to lead the church in Rwanda. We baptized some disciples who also fell away during those years. We had to count the cost of either staying or leaving. Our biggest challenge was the language barrier. We often needed translators while we studied the Bible with people and preaching at church. During that year, our translators left the church and this forced us to learn the language.
After praying, fasting, and crying, we eventually made a decision to leave, but before we did God gave us the strength to keep on going. We praise God for his faithfulness. We continued praying and begging God to add to our numbers and God heard and answered our prayers. He is never too late and no situation is ever beyond his power to resurrect it.
We started 2013 with a membership of 19 disciples. We set a goal of baptizing 10 people in the year 2013 and shared it with the Kampala d-group. In July we had our first baptisms both on the same day. There was so much joy in the church. In November four brothers were baptized all on the same day. After many conversions throughout the year we had 15 sisters and 14 brothers. We had met our goal of baptizing ten disciples.
This year, 2014, God has continued to do his miracles in the Kigali church. In March, we baptized seven women and three men all on the same day (pictured above). Surely God is amazing! Currently, our membership is 40 disciples and we thank God for these many souls he is bringing into his church.
-- Johnson and Norah Namei and their two children