Wrapping Up Rwanda--Part 4--Video of Pastor John and the Medical Clinic

If you are interested in more about the medical clinic that Grace is helping to support, check out this video. The rest of the website looks great, too.

Suffering--A Call to Action

Sunday night I caught a few minutes of the Compassion Forum on CNN. Senators Clinton and Obama were each interviewed separately on the issues of the day and asked to respond from their faith perspective. One of the questions lobbed at Senator Clinton was this: Why does a loving God allow innocent people to suffer?

(This question raises all sorts of interesting challenges. It suggests that God controls our lives--that we are God's puppets. On the one hand, we independent Americans don't want God telling us what to do. When we want what we want, we don't want God butting in. But when things don't go our way, then it's God's fault. We don't often credit God for the good that happens in life--we take that credit ourselves. But when it goes wrong, God gets the blame.

(The better question in my mind is this: Why do we, created in the image of God, commissioned to be his care-takers of each other and creation, why do we allow innocent people to suffer? Why, for example, doesn't the free world use its power, influence, and affluence to end once and for all the genocide in Darfur? Why do we in affluent countries, including the US, continue to allow and even support systems that keep food from hungry people? We currently produce enough food in the world to feed every person on the planet 2000-3000 calories of food a day. God has provided for the hungry. Why do we continue to allow that food to be hoarded? Why do we Americans continue to drive gas hogging--carbon emitting cars? God has given us the wisdom to care for this planet. Why do some of us continue to choose to exploit, oppress, hoard, and hurt the innocent? The Judeo-Christian answer to that, by the way, is sin.)

Anyway--Senator Clinton is not a trained theologian. Being a person of faith, however, like all people of faith, she is a theologian in the sense that we all have thoughts and ideas and opinions about God.

Her answer was actually brilliant! First she said she had no idea why innocent people suffer and would certainly ask God that question some day (and since the Bible never fully answers the question she's on solid footing). But then she said something like this: Suffering is a call to action. It's a call to all of us, people of faith and people with no religious affiliation, to do something about it.

Suffering is a call to action. It is a call to roll up our sleeves and make a difference. As a Christian, I'm compelled to respond because the Gospel proclaims that God entered into our suffering on a cross. He is not uninvolved. And he defeated all the forces that cause suffering through the resurrection of Jesus--bringing heaven to earth right now--not in its completeness or fulness, but it is here, pushing back the forces that hurt innocent people. And as his followers, he we have opportunity and privilege of bringing tastes of the future to people right now as we work for justice, hope, peace, and healing.

Wrapping Up Rwanda--Part 3--The Medical Clinic

One of the exiting projects Grace has the privilege of supporting is the building of a 45 bed medical clinic in Rwanda. The project is lead by Pastor John. What makes this project unique is that is is driven by the local community. They are building it. It creates jobs for the local people. The government is helping financially (as are other organizations like ours) but the community is holding the government accountable on this project vs the other way around. Rather than us Americans imposing our projects on the Rwandans, they are taking the initiative and ownership on this and we are simply partnering with them to make it happen. Here are a couple of pics of the work so far:

Wrapping Up Rwanda--Part 2--Pics from Nyamata

Here is a slide show of pics from our Rwanda trip. The first several slides are from the conference Alycia attended (photos taken by the students). The rest are from my visit to Nyamata Lutheran Church--our partner church in Rwanda (about a 20 minute drive from the capital city of Kigali). Muzigura is the pastor. One of the pics shows me standing in the doorway of a small building. That's the outhouse we helped build! (Pics taken by our cab driver--Anicet.)

Wrapping Up Rwanda--Part 1 (Alycia's surprise pics)

Here are some of the pics of Corey's surprise asking of Alycia to marry him when we arrived in Phoenix Terminal 4 after our trip to Rwanda: (Photo's by Amber Wright)

Home from Rwanda--with a Surprise!

It was a very long journey home. The final flight was about 12 hours plus we sat on the plane an extra hour because they couldn't get the jetway away from the plane! So glad to be home.

As we made our way from customs into the main terminal 4 at Sky Harbor Alycia had a surprise waiting for her. Her boyfriend, Corey, had flown into Phoenix to surprise her at the airport and officially propose to her! (Photo's to come.)

It was a bit touch and go for awhile. Jan, Corey, and I had been planning this for months. On Monday, while we were on our 7 hour layover in Nairobi, Alycia called Corey and found out he was "puking his guts out." I called Jan and cryptically filled her in. A few hours later, before we hopped on the flight to London, I found out from Jan that Minneapolis (where Corey lives) was in the midst of a blizzard and flights were being cancelled.

When we landed in London Alycia called Corey. He's now at the airport but he tells her he's at work--at 6 in the morning. She couldn't believe it--after he had been so sick to be at work so early in the morning.

But, all in all, it worked out and was a great surprise. We all headed over to the Stockyards Restaurant for a dinner celebration.

Finally got to sleep about 10 pm. Woke up at 3:30. Oh well.

Again, pics of Rwanda and Alycia's big proposal to come in the next few days.

Tuesday morning in London--Reflections on Rwanda

We flew out of Rwanda on Monday afternoon. We took a jumbo 767 jammed packed with people with more seats crammed into a plane than I thought possible. My daughter's knees hit the seat in front of her so imagine my knees. My table tray actually hit me in the stomach, and I have virtually no stomach left at this point! Thankfully it was only an hour flight!

After 6 hours in the Nairobi airport we flew 8 hours to London. We arrived about 6 am local time. Alycia needed to close out a bank account from her school days so we headed into cold, rainy London for a few hours. I finally ate! Two fried eggs, toast, orange juice and hot chocolate. Then off to a coffee shop for more hot chocolate and a chocolate muffin. It will be good to get back to some real food tomorrow. :)

We have a few more hours here in London and then home.

Some reflections on this trip to Rwanda:

1) My reasons for going were both personal and missional:
a) After giving in to anxiety and not going to Rwanda last summer I have been praying for the chance to get back on the horse and try it again. This was a chance for me to practice my "overcoming anxiety" skills and conquer my "imagined" fears. I decided, when I turned 50, that I didn't want anxiety to control me anymore. So this was a big deal for me personally. Considering I was sick the week before, arrived in Rwanda with no voice, I'm feeling pretty good about the trip.
b) I wanted to spend some time with Alycia before she got married. We had a really good trip together. Sometimes, both being strong-headed control types, we can butt heads. But we really got along well. A great support for each other. And she continues to amaze me with her understanding of and passion for making a difference in the world.
c) I wanted to let God set the agenda for the trip. While initially I thought I would be more involved in the conference, the periods of down time to do some church work and hang out and up time to do the things mentioned in previous posts, was a good balance. It was a spiritually fulfilling trip and a good chance to get caught up on the missions we support. It's one thing to read about them via emails. It's another to personally see it and talk with those with whom we are partnering.

2) I'd been feeling a bit disconnected from Rwanda as of late. So many different missions have come into the country and I felt like perhaps we should go somewhere else. But after being in Nyamata, and particularly after meeting with John and seeing/hearing of this work in community development, my passion for our involvement with the Lutheran church was re-ignited. I'm hoping John and his wife Robin can join us in August for a weekend so Grace'rs can see/hear of the work being done, sponsored in part by Grace.

3) While I often wrestle with the cost of going to a place like Rwanda vs. simply sending the money over, there really is no substitute for going. And I think it makes me a better pastor. Certainly some of the missional things stirring in my soul that I referred to a few posts ago would not happen without a trip like this. I appreciate the chance to represent Grace in Rwanda.

In the next few days, once the dust settles, I'll get the Nyamata pics up for you to see.

Thanks for your prayers, support, comments, and interest during my trip. It was fun being able to keep you in the loop each day.