Romans Project: Conference One - Kigali, Rwanda

Today was the first ever Romans Project in Rwanda. Albert Mabasi did a great job, by God's grace, to get the word out about the conference. Rick Calenberg, International Director of the Romans Project, first met Albert in January of this year. Their acquaintance was made through a mutual contact named Benjamin Nkusi, director of ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries). I can see why Albert was recommended for the project and why Rick chose to launch the project here in Rwanda with Albert's help. Albert is a humble brother in Christ who is passionate about encouraging pastors to study and preach God's Word.

Today's conference took place in the capital of Kigali at the Assemblies of God Bible Training Center. The principal of the school, Dr. Fiani, is a friend of Albert's. He had his students ready for the two and a half hour conference by the time we arrived. We started right on time, which is not always expected in Africa. I suspect the fact that this was an all school activity accounted for the difference. These students were from 16 different denominations and spanning a range of ages. Most all of them are presently pastoring churches.

Though we had to cut the normal program by about two  hours, we were still able to cover most of the topics. Rick started with introductions of the whole team - Justin Vanier, who arrived in the early hours of Tuesday, Matt Miranda, and myself. Matt and Justin teamed up to take both video and still shots of the conference and surrounding area while Rick and I taught the various sessions. Dr. Fiani did an excellent job translating into Kinyarwanda for us. A good translator  makes a huge difference. Please pray that God would provide such quality translators at the following two conferences.

The Lord had prepared our time with this group wonderfully, in that three weeks earlier Dr. Fiani had taught an overview of Romans and given the students an assignment to write out the gospel in letter form to their congregations. During lunch Augustine, a teacher at the training center and pastor of a church, told me how perfectly our teaching today fit into what the students had just been through. This gave them motivation to preach through the book of Romans and then some concrete steps on how to study a passage and prepare a sermon. In Augustine's view, the churches throughout Rwanda are shallow in their knowledge of God's Word. Thus there is a great need to have pastors trained to preach God's Word.

Thank you for your prayers. It was evident that God had orchestrated many aspects of this first conference in Rwanda. Praise the Lord!