Rwanda Day 5- More than 8,000 Have Received Christ

Several hundred of Residents in one of Butare neighborhoods

respond to the altarcall for Salvation on Tuesday evening

following Sammy's message.  Since Monday, about 8000 people

have given their lives to Christ in different parts of the city.

It is now our fifth day since we kicked off outreach efforts here in Huye, Rwanda.  God is doing wonderful things as our partners pray.  In just five days, nearly 30,000 people have been ministered to.  As many as 8,000 have prayed with our team to receive Jesus Christ into their lives as Lord and Savior. 

The local follow-up teams are extremely busy gathering names, distributing booklets, assigning the 200 trained counselors to various groups of newly saved individuals.  It is now apparent that the 200 trained counsellors are too few for what God is doing here. 

One pastor wondered how they are going to care for all the people who are coming to Christ, suggesting that maybe we should stop the work for now until those that have responded to Christ are taken care off first.  Their is great joy as children, grown men, women, students, leaders, and people from different segments of Rwandan society are being transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A teenage girl reads through the follow-up booklet prepared

by Africa Evangelistic Enterprise moments after

praying to receive Jesus on Thursday evening.

On Wednesday and Thursday, more than 300 pastors and Christian leaders representing different churches participated in our leadership conference.  God's presence was pulpable as they followed the teachings with great attention and anthusiasm. 

Pastor Richard Munala of Mzizi church, Minneapolis, Gary and Candi Kellen and I each presented leadership materials with a special focus on relationships as a fundamental component to transformational leadership. 

 Not to be left out, two elderly men pray to receive Christ

into their lives.  The elderly are a rare sight in Rwanda

because of the genocide in the 90s.

Not only did these leaders appreciate the material, but they saw their own need for repentance and deliverance.  After the openning session on Thursday morning, one pastor requested if instead of delving into the question and answer time we would pause and allow them to repent over some things that the Holy Spirit was convicting them about. 

Today Friday we will be wrapping up the University outreach with students.  Christian students have been reaching out to their fellow students going door to door and sharing the message of salvation with them.  Pray for me as I give the final message to these young leaders of Rwandan society.

A young girl in deep prayer on Thursday evening

Tomorrow Saturday, we will be reaching out to orphanned children before hosting 70 regional political leaders over dinner.  Guests expected include the provincial governor, the mayor of Butare city, several businessmen, parliamentary representatives as well as several lead pastors of the area.  Pray that God will touch their hearts through our message to see their need for salvation and God's help in their day to day leadership roles.    

  Jesus said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Pray the Lord of the harvest that he may send more laborers.  As we continue with work here in Rwanda, we are also keenly aware of the shortage of resources to do what God has called us to do. 

Pray with us especially as we will be starting our Malawi mission early next week.  We are still in need of $ 9,000 to help us cover our ministry expenses.  As the Lord speaks to you and you are prompted to partner with us in this work, click on the donate button on the left side pannel of this page and help us complete this eight week mission successfully.  Come back over the weekend for more reports from Rwanda.