The Gospel Shines Brightest in the Darkest Places!
Ambassadors of Reconciliation has been asked to provide reconciliation training for pastors in Rwanda who are desperate to be equipped to care for those still struggling in the wake of the horrific genocide of 1994. YOUR HELP URGENTLY IS NEEDED!
Bishop Selestine Munyentwari Seburikoko of the Lutheran Mission in Africa – Synod of Thousand Hills (LMA-STH) has requested help to equip pastors of their more than 20 Rwandan churches to bring the gift of Christ-centered reconciliation to Rwanda! In just 100 days, more that 1 million people were killed in the genocide. Perpetrators, victims and a generation since those atrocities all live and work together throughout Rwanda. Churches in Rwanda are a mix of all three of these groups and each group still struggles in their own unique way. While Rwanda has embarked on a national Peace and Reconciliation program with some success, these pastors are desperate for training to bring Christ-centered, Gospel-infused healing to God's people there. They have appealed to Ambassadors of Reconciliation for this help.
Mid-March, Ted and Dwight will travel to Rwanda to present the seminar Go and Be Reconciled: What Does This Mean? and the practicum Coaching People through Conflict to two dozen pastors and their wives. With this training, these pastors will be equipped to:
Remind everyone, perpetrators and survivors alike, they are God's precious children
Guide the guilty to Repent before God
Proclaim God's forgiveness through Christ
Prepare people to Confess to one another
Encourage them to Forgive as they have been forgiven for Christ's sake; and
Gently restore
Download your FREE copy of the Proclaiming God's Forgiveness pamphlet for a summary of what we'll be teaching
In order to provide training in this setting, our presentation and materials must be highly customized. These pastors do not speak English (and we don't speak Kinyarwanda) so our entire presentation will need to be translated real-time. What normally is taught in 3 days will take 5 days with translation! Similarly, teaching materials must be designed and translated. We’ll reduce 200 pages of teaching material into 20 pages. We'll invest 100s of hours in preparation for this teaching.
The overall cost of this mission trip is $20,000. The mission organization requesting our help has arranged to cover about half of this cost. The remainder is to be raised by AoR. Your gift is MATCHED DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR!
Given Rwanda's national focus on reconciliation, we anticipate tremendous reception of this teaching. We look forward to sharing many miraculous stories of confession, forgiveness and reconciliation upon our return.
Please send a gift today and make this mission a reality! Whether you make a one-time gift or elect to make a monthly gift, you will make reconciliation possible for God's children in Rwanda! Your gift is MATCHED DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR!
"All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us." (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) Remember, the Gospel shines brightest in the darkest places! Thank you for financially supporting this vital mission!!
Dwight
P.S. You can monitor progress toward our goal here.