This past week has been quite eventful on many levels. Hope Rwanda teachers hit the ground running with a very busy week of arrangements and ministry before heading to Butare for the week of teacher training for MINEDUC.
On top of Mt Kigali, known for its occult practices, is a very humble pastor establishing a local church. An ongoing relationship with the team, a visit was due together with a food parcel (40kg rice, 20kg beans, 2arms of bananas etc) to bless the pastor and staff who sow into the church, children’s ministry and surrounding community. The team spent several hours teaching on early childhood development, first aid and leadership whilst others played community soccer with a rolled up paper ball outside. My joggers won’t be returning to Oz!
We know the ministry was significant and God’s ever-present protection covered us, as the journey back down the 55° slope, was eventful. With 18 of us onboard, we had an accident. Miraculously no serious injury but, wrote off a minibus and a house; could have been fatal. The photos aren’t meant to scare but give glory to God for His divine protection over us, the 50 or so people we could have hit due to brake failure, and the cliff we could have gone over. The community rallied around us to offer assistance and their exclamation that “the God those muzungus worship is very strong”.
Some pretty significant meetings were held during the week also, as a prelude to 2010 and beyond. God is opening amazing doors of opportunity into pre-service training at the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE); training district inspectors, area of special education, syllabus for distance ed, ICT training and assisting in the design and roll-out of a standardized post-service training, in collaboration with MINEDUC and the UK Government. One can only stand in awe to understand the significant impact of these strategic partnerships for the future of education in Rwanda. In one of my spare weeks I was able to sit in on 3 lectures at KIE to understand style of delivery and methods of training teachers; I was lucky enough to meet with one of the lecturers afterward to chat further.
What an honour it is to stand before 650 of MINEDUC’s handpicked teachers from each of the 30 districts of Rwanda, to provide knowledge, skill and encouragement to those who hold the future president, leaders and generations of Rwanda in their hands. GO TEAM!!! And thank you God for the vision of Hope Rwanda.
