Tribes

I just finished reading ‘Tribes’ by Seth Godin.  It’s a great book that carries the thesis that we can all be leaders.  All we need are followers.  There are tribes everywhere in search of a leader.  Godin defines a tribe as ‘a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to a cause’. 

 He describes two perspectives of life; one being the factory perspective and the other being the tribal perspective.  Factories were great in their day but only require management while tribes require leadership.  In my years in corporate America, I have seen lots of good managers, but a very few good leaders.  The corporate (factory) mentality actually discourages leadership and encourages management. 

In a short piece about change, Godin wisely states, “change almost never fails because it is too early.  It almost always fails because it is too late.”  He urges people to embrace change and to become change agents without fear of being criticized or put down because of their willingness to propose something that is out of the ordinary.  He says that being criticized is way better than being ignored and being part of the factory!

I learned a lot of lessons from the book and reinforced some older lessons I have learned.  I need to find someone to pass it along to , as he asks on the last page.  Anyone want to read it?

The picture that won’t go away

I’ve been back from Rwanda for a couple of days now and I’ve been processing all I saw and did while I was there.  It was an incredible trip in so many ways!  (I feel like I’ve used ‘incredible’ way too many times to describe the trip.)  

There is one visual that just won’t get out of my head, though.  When we were at the street boys ministry; called the Dream Center, I noticed that quite a few of the street boys didn’t have a full set of clothes.  Many, many of them had only a t-shirt.  They would wear this t-shirt the best way they could to cover themselves properly.  These were, in a lot of cases, teen-aged boys who knew they wanted to be covered properly.

They would wear their t-shirt in an unusual way.  They would pull the neck part of the t-shirt up their legs and over their waist so that the neck would be at their belt line and the t-shirt would hang down to their knees.  How sad.

Again, though, these boys were full of smiles.  They loved seeing us and they loved interacting, hugging, and letting us love on them.  Truly amazing.

 

Street boys

We took a lot of things to give away to the street boys; flip flops, candy, clothes, etc.  But, as Paul Brasley put it later that night, I think those boys would have been just as happy to see us if we came empty handed but with hearts full of love.  Yes, they needed many of these physical items, but they craved loves, hugs, and smiles and the love of Jesus.

Shoes

 

Street Boys Shoes

A few weeks ago Pastor Peter challenged us to leave our shoes at the Celebration service so they can go to an organization called Soles4Souls to be given to folks who needs shoes.  The local newspaper did a small blurb on the act of kindness and there was quite a buzz in the anonymous posts to the paper’s website. 

I saw, first-hand, the need for some shoes this week.  I took the picture above at the street boy ministry this past Monday.  This was, obviously, the only pair of shoes this little boy had and he walked the streets in these shoes all day long.  

We brought a bunch of flip flops with us to Rwanda and took them to the Street Boy ministry to give out that day.  The boys, including this boy with such a sad pair of shoes, all left with a new pair of flip flops.  

God tells us to be compassionate and he puts compassion in our hearts.  Flip flops are a tool we can use to show this compassion.  There are lots of things we can use as compassion tools every day if we just keep our eyes and our hearts open.

God is good…all the time!

 

New Flip Flops!

Hospital visit

We visited a hospital in Kigali yesterday.  If you’ve never been outside the US, then you cannot fathom the conditions in this hospital.  We would never let one of our loved ones inside a hospital like this.  But there were plenty of patients in this hospital.  

Before we visited the wards, Pastor Peter got to deliver a message at the hospital’s chapel service.  He did a great job preaching about the man who was let through the roof by his friends to be healed by Jesus.  

The wards were amazing.  I visited the men’s ward with Mike Tunks, Jonathan Rand, and Jeff Tenley.  We took small gifts to them, bananas, cookies, a lollipop, and things like that and we prayed with each man individually.  We didn’t know what each man was suffering with, but it appeared that quite a few of them had AIDS.  We prayed for them all and we could feel the Spirit of God moving.  It was an awesome experience. 

It was nice, too, to see a lot of family members visiting their relatives.  The relatives and the patients all welcomed prayers on their behalf and many times the family members would join in agreement with our prayers.

I believe healings will take place because of the prayers we prayed and that lives will change because of the prayers we prayed.

Momma Clementine

I got to go and visit Momma Clementine yesterday morning.  She is a single mom that Rich and Robin met a few months ago.  Here’s how they met.  Robin notice two young children (3 & 5 years old) walking down the street along.  They both had tiny babies tied on their backs.  Robin thought they were dolls tied to the children’s back but upon further examination they were twin baby girls!  There was no momma in sight!  Through a God-ordained set of circumstances, they finally met Momma Clementine.

She has eight children, the youngest is the baby twin girls.  There is another set of twins that are about 8 or 10 years old, John Damascene and John Claude.  The oldest is a girl named Clementine.  (Momma’s are known by the first name of their first born; hence Momma Clementine.)  There are four more, unfortunately I can’t remember all the names right now.  However, there is a Patrick who is about 3 and a Claudette who is probably 8 or 9.  

Before visiting Momma C. we went to the place where Rich and Robin found them.  It’s amazing that someone could live there (however, there is another family that has moved in to this place already but that’s another story for another day).  There are basically no walls to this place only some foundational supports and a very leaky roof.  There is no furniture, everyone sleeps on the ground or on a piece of cardboard if they are lucky enough to find one.  The cook pot is just a little pot over a tiny fire.  The food, some carrots, potatoes, and whatever else they can find are sitting on the ground close to the fire.  Honestly, if you don’t see it with your own eyes you cannot fathom the conidtions.

We made it on down to Momma C.’s apartment.  Rich and Robin were fortunate to find the apartment for Momma and are paying for it now.  It’s not much, but it’s dry, relatively clean (as Momma is very conscientious to keep her house, her family, and herself neat and tidy), and relatively safe.  The children are thriving now.  Rich and Robin says the newborn twins which are about 2 – 3 months old have doubled in weight since they have met them.  The other children are doing well, too.  Clementine, the oldest, is in school and Rich and Robin have found a tutor to come and help the other children get up to speed in their education.  The tutor also helps mentor Momma C.

Momma C. is not a Christian yet.  She is working her way there, though, I’m sure.  One amazing thing she said to Rich and Robin is that she can see the love of Jesus through the work they are doing and through the things our mission team is doing to help her out.  

The love of Jesus isn’t just what we preach about.  The love of Jesus is something we live out!  It’s easy to preach or teach about the love of Jesus, but I have to believe we’re called to so much more.  I have to believe that we are called to live out the love of Jesus every day, whether we’re in Kigali, Rwanda or Pembroke, New Hampshire.  

Mother Theresa once said, “if you can’t feed 100 families, then feed 1.”  Momma C. is Rich and Robin’s ‘one’!

More street boys

There is one more thing that struck me about the street boys yesterday.  As we were getting ready to leave for the day, they were getting their lunch.  They looked so happy to get lunch, it was obvious that many of them had not eaten since the last time they were at the Dream Center which would have been last Thursday.  

Yet, as they walked past us with full plates and smiling faces almost every one of them offered us some of their food.  They weren’t just offering it to us, they were almost insistent that we take some.  How can those who have so little be willing to share so much?

Pictures from Rwanda

 

 

Street Boy Ministry

Saturday Outreach

Street Boys

We visited the Dream Center street boy ministry today.  It was so incredible.  There were probably 150 boys there all looking for a meal, some medical care, and lots of hugs and love.  I was in the medical clinic that Rich runes every week and got to take pictures and watch the work that goes on there.

Rich and Robin do some great work.  They love these boys and know each one by name.  They take care of their medical needs, laugh and joke with them, and share the love of Jesus with them.  One boy, Thomas, came in with terrible sores on his shins.  Rich says he has been there many times with these sores and Rich  actually thought he would die a couple of times as they appeared septic. 

Another little boy, Foster, had a toothache.  Linda and I pulled him aside and prayed for him.  He was probably 6 years old and was a very brave little boy.  Although he had a toothache, he was most concerned with his mother because she doesn’t know Jesus.  We prayed with him, checked his mouth, gave him some antibiotics, a toothbrush, a new pair of shoes, and a hug and off he went.

It was also awesome to see Abbie and Tess washing the feet of some of the street boys that have foot issues.  They might have had sores or aches and pains with their feet.  Although we were washing them for physical reasons, it was really spiritual to see our folks serving in such a humble way.  Tess even washed one of the boys hair because he had some sort of skin issues on his head.

I could tell millions of stories, but I don’t have the time right now.  It’s sufficient to say that lots of people were blessed today!

Relationships

We had an interesting discussion last night that made me wonder who really has the worst circumstances.  We have so many luxuries in America.  We have Hi-def TV’s, iPods, nice cars, electricity, and so many more things to keep us busy.  But, we wondered if these things weren’t actually encumbrances.  Maybe the Rwandan villagers who go home to their families and spend time together because they don’t have all of these ‘luxuries’ are the ones who have the best situation. 

Their poverty is devastating, and I’m not downplaying the fact that the world community needs to come together to end poverty all over the globe, but they get the opportunity, through their poverty, to build strong family ties.  Little Sally doesn’t go to her bedroom to text with her friends and little Joey doesn’t go to his room to play video games over the Internet.  They stay together in their one-room and get to know each other, learn to love each other unconditionally, and spend some good days together.

Makes one wonder!

I have a dream for Rwanda

I have a dream for Rwanda, today! 

I have a dream that Rwanda will be a major business center for Eastern Africa.  Rwanda is a land filled with rich and beautiful resources such as coffee and tea, a land with advanced technology, and with people who have the strength, courage, intelligence, and resolve to harness those resources and technology and make this a land of prosperity.  I have a dream today.

I have a dream that Rwanda will be a catalyst in ending a culture of deceit, deception, corruption, and even thievery that has been a stronghold that has run rampant in Africa for way too many generations; a culture of deceit, deception, corruption, and thievery that was brought to Africa and has spread through Africa by way of the mizungu from Europe and the West.  Rwanda has a strong national leadership today, with strong moral and ethical values and with great integrity and I call on these leaders to continue on a path of ‘right’, to model integrity, and to be a light to this entire continent that shows the prosperity that comes with integrity.  I have a dream today.

I have a dream that the AIDS crisis will be eased here in Rwanda.  AIDS has taken some of Rwanda’s brightest and best and has taken them in the most productive time of their life.  I have a dream that there is work going on in Rwanda right now that will be instrumental in wiping this scourge off the face of the earth.  I have a dream today!

I have a dream that Rwanda will break out of the endless cycle of asking the mizungu for money and that Rwanda will be the light of hope and prosperity on the African continent. Rwandan men and women have the intelligence and the desire to break this cycle and to build an infrastructure that will enhance the Rwandan culture while at the same time bringing peace and prosperity to this land.  Yes, Rwandan men and women have the intelligence and the desire; the only thing missing is the dream.  I have a dream today!

I have a dream that every Rwandan from north to south and from east to west will have clean water to drink every day.  I dream that every Rwandan village and town will have plenty of clean drinking water so water born illnesses will be wiped from the conscience of every Rwandan man and woman, boy and girl.  I have a dream today!

I have a dream that Rwandan’s will put ethnic violence and a history of ethnic differences behind them forever.  God is no respecter of person nor should we be.  All men are created equal and have been given the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Rwandan’s know this and it’s time to put the ugliness of genocide behind you.  It’s time to reconcile to one another, to love one another, and to let the unity of the body of Christ pull you together to build a strong and prosperous Rwanda.  I have a dream today!

I have a dream that the people of Rwanda will ask the Holy Spirit of God to sweep over this land in a way that is similar to Pentecost and that God will hear them and there will be a Holy Spirit awaken of the like that has never before been seen in Africa.

I have a dream that Rwanda will be a center of missionary activity in Central Africa.  I dream that missionaries, Rwandan missionaries, will be sent from Rwanda into foreign lands to build God’s Kingdom.  Rwanda’s location in the center of Africa, the new airport that’s being built in Rwanda, and the technology and spirit of the African Christian make Rwanda the perfect launching place for missionaries.  I have a dream today.