One of our mission team members, Steve Emerson, has stated a couple of times during our mission that God must love Sundays. Why that day more than any other? Because as Christians all around the world worship God on Sunday, it results – from God’s perspective – in 24 hours of praise, confession, renewal of the Saints and salvation of the lost.
Our Sundays here have definitely been amazing. As our team entered church today, services had already begun in our portion of this 24 hour global worship. Approximately 475-500 Rwandans were singing and celebrating Christ the Lord. Twenty minutes later, as the choirs continued to sing, the crowd had grown to 950 people. A little less than half of these were guests from other churches who had come to participate in this service. My team members and I could sense the presence of God in our midst. After I preached the message on forgiveness, there were 15 who came to the altar to profess their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and approximately 400 – 500 believers who confessed the sin of revenge and unforgiveness. Following their time of confession, the Senior Pastor, my translator, Pastor Emmanuel, and I prayed and asked God to heal the wounds and the brokenness of those who had been emotionally wounded.
Through the morning, I was also blessed with the opportunity to help lead and serve Communion (the Lord’s Supper) and pray for a beautiful baby girl during a baby dedication. In addition, several individuals were confirmed for membership, including some in the choir. These individuals who had requested membership presented their testimonies and then their witness in the community was evaluated through the testimony of others. After the time of evaluation, if their faith was true and witness was good, they were accepted into the choir. Four couples were presented to the church who were entering engagement and wanted the blessing and support of the church as they moved toward marriage.
I share these details because I was encouraged to see this church recognize such things as serious matters within the family of God. I believe that in the U.S. our churches have become too casual about these matters. In Rwanda, in this church, accountability within the body of Christ has great value; that was refreshing to see.
In the evening, I was asked to speak at the Disciples of Jesus Assembly, a small mission church led by a pastor who has worked as a translator for us. What a blessing to worship with them tonight! About 35-40 Christians gathered for worship. Steve Emerson was asked to share a testimony. He shared two stories that emphasized the fact that there are times when God allows suffering, difficulty, even the sinful actions of others into our lives, and we don’t understand why. Steve’s stories completely set things up for me to preach again on forgiveness and call those who had been wounded by others to trust God and forgive, even if they do not know why God would allow evil things to impact their lives. During the response time more than 21 people confessed their sin of returning evil for evil. After a time of prayer for confession, our team and the pastors from the church gathered around those individuals, asking for God to heal the wounds caused by the evil done against them.
An amazing day! And as our day of worship ended here in Rwanda, many in the U.S., including my wife and kids, were heading out the door for church to begin their portion of the 24 hours of global worship — on the day God must really love!
