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from the Great Lakes Region
Report from 2007
The first 6 months of this first year was packed with activities to see the ministry established. Le Rucher Ministries was registered as an international NGO in Kigali (under its official name: Mercy Ministries International); we held an official launch of the new ministry with about 100 people in attendance and Erik Spruyt, the director of our international office in Switzerland, as the speaker; we facilitated strategic planning for the regional forum leadership team; did our own strategic planning for the next 3 years; established an office; began learning to work together as a new team, and, of course, took advantage of the opportunity to minister reconciliation in all sorts of different situations and places.
We are working together with our wives, which is a new experience for all of us, but we are pleased with the new versatility we have as a team. It has been very surprising for many others, as well, to see us working as couples, but God is blessing our efforts together. We hope that by our example we might encourage other Christian workers to truly become partners in the ministry that God has called them to.
The 2nd half of the year has been just as busy! We ran 3 healing and reconciliation seminars, plus 2 follow-up seminars for 150 pastors and local government leaders in the Kigali Episcopal diocese. We helped 29 youth leaders to find healing and get reconciled and encouraged them to take the message to their churches. We worked in partnership with Geneva Bible school, running a shorter version of the healing workshop for 40 youth leaders from 8 universities in Cyangugu with the goal that they will spread the message in their schools.
Through the years we have worked with many church leaders, some of whom became ongoing reconciliation workers on teams around the country. However, we realized that many of them had never successfully ministered to their own families. So we ran a seminar for 39 wives of local reconciliation team members and conducted a follow-up seminar to evaluate the change and connect them to the existing teams. The goal is that they strengthen the ministries of their husbands and possibly come up with their own initiatives among women in their churches and communities. We were very encouraged by the response of these women and expect to see some exciting results in the future.
Esperance (LRM team member and wife of Anastase) also conducted a seminar for her extended family which ended up in repentance from the parents and much healing among the chidren. All the team is now considering to do the same.
We held our first international forum in October. Originally, it was planned to be held in Bukavu, Congo, but renewed fighting broke out nearby so at the last minute we moved it to Burundi. We had an exciting time with 60-65 reconciliation agents from Burundi (30), Rwanda (18) and the Congo (16). Our desire was to increase capacity through exchanging experiences, encouraging one another and further training. We also wanted to pray for the region together and promote healing and reconciliation in Bujumbura.
People prayed for each other in small groups. A cross workshop helped participants to deal with the hurts, frustrations and other effects related to ministry. Representatives of each country repented on behalf of their nations. We also celebrated our unity by blessing each nation. This time the training component was on repackaging the message to suit the audience, the timing, and the environment. One morning was dedicated to look at the challenges and intercede for the nations. With outreaches immediately following the forum we were able to reach more than 10,000 in the region through preaching in 3 churches and holding meetings with 2 different women intercessor groups.
People left the forum committed to balance their ministry and growth in other aspects of life: personal, family, church and community. The relationships between the nations were strengthened. They realized the need of reinforcing the work done on national level by a regional approach that will deal with their own people who have fled to other countries, who could potentially destroy all the fruits of their labour if they are not healed.
Joseph also attended a European-African Reconciliation meeting in Libreville, Gabon in July. Birthed in Berlin the aim of this process is to bring relational and spiritual transformation between the two continents. The approach is to identify the sin of colonialism, repent and commit to a new dynamic of partnership.
The last 3 months of the year, we also had Kristine Bresser with us as a consultant to assist us in strengthening our organizational foundations and to take part in obtaining testimonies which we would like to use as an example to the rest of the world that God is doing something good in this region!
This team is available to consider requests to conduct healing and reconciliation seminars in various places around the world. If interested, contact Joseph Nyamutera.