New Beginnings

I am a bit late in writing a New Year’s Blog, but it’s been a busy time! New Year’s is a time of hope and thanksgiving in Rwanda. Many people go to church on New Year’s Day, and there is a special time for thanksgiving for the year past. Many people simply give thanks for having made it through 2014 to see the new year-for God’s protection. We Americans usually take it for granted (probably too much so) that we’ll be alive for see the next year; not so for many Rwandans. Life is much too uncertain here. Their sense of God’s protection and provision is very keen.

We were able to attend a special New Year’s Day service, in the countryside of Rwanda. About a year and a half ago, a Muslim man came to our house as he had very bad keloids (or extensive scar tissue formation) that were all over his back and neck, and prevented him from moving his head back and forth. We took pity on him and tried to get him seen by a plastic surgeon in Kigali. After about 8 or 9 trips to Kigali he perhaps saw him the surgeon once-not very satisfactory. We also helped him out with some financial needs, including a mattress so that he wouldn’t have to sleep on the hard floor. We were getting frustrated with his frequent visits and our inability to help cure his medical problem. One day, Caleb realized that we couldn’t really wcwncomfort him with the fact that he would eventually be healed in heaven, as he was not a Christian. He asked our guard/gardener, Muhawe, to share the gospel with him and he accepted Jesus as his Savior! So we spent January 1^st, 2015 at the baptism of this man and we were 2 of his godparents/sponsors. For him it was really a New Life in a New Year.Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here! (2Cor 5:17)

Baptism on New Year’s Day