Radical Hospitality

We have been waiting for you.

Those words sounded so good to the six strangers who showed up at the Kigali Lutheran Parish Sunday morning.  Lars, Luke, Ryan, Emily, Jake, and I should have felt out of place.  We didn’t look like everyone else.  We didn’t speak like everyone else.  We were far from home.  But we didn’t feel out of place.  “We have been waiting for you,” said one of the men of the congregation as he shook my hand.

The congregation didn’t let us sit alone.  They sat in between us so we would have someone to translate.  The bishop spoke in Kinyarwanda.  He told the congregation to welcome the “big, strong” visitors. (We are arguably the tallest bunch of YAGMs to be deployed.)  “They are tall but they are young,” the bishop continued.  He told the congregation that we had left our parents, so now they needed to be our parents.  He told the youth that many of us had left behind brothers and sisters, so now they needed to be our brothers and sisters.  Looking at us he said,”We will be your parents, your pastors, your bishop.” As he continued his sermon, he talked about unity.  He shared his excitement about building this relationship between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Lutheran Church of Rwanda.   He addressed the six of us directly and urged us to work hard so that our time here would be a testimony to the future of this relationship.  When he finished, he invited us to the front to introduce ourselves.  He had the congregation turn to us with open arms, as if in a hug.

After church we had lunch with the youth of the congregation.  (In Rwanda, when they say youth, they mean people in their twenties.)  We were overwhelmed by their hospitality.  They were eager to help us learn Kinyarwanda.  They gave us their cell phone numbers in case we ever needed help.  They tried to provide us with the insight to their culture that you can’t learn about in books.  We talked about college, about the careers we want, about what we like to do for fun.  I was amazed by the ownership these peers of mine took in not only their church but also their country as a whole.  After we ate, one of the girls stood up to offer us an official welcome from the youth group.  “We love you,” she said, “We already love you.”  She said she hopes we will become like twin sisters and twin brothers.  Smiling, she pointed to me and said, “You are my twin sister.”

This is an exciting time for the Lutheran Church of Rwanda.  It’s still a relatively small church and less than twenty years old.  It’s roots are in Tanzania, Rwanda’s neighbor to the east. Many Rwandans were refugees in Tanzania during the genocide in 1994 and the violence prior to that.  When the refugees returned to Rwanda in the mid-1990’s, they brought Lutheranism with them.  What’s cool about the history of the Lutheran Church of Rwanda is that it was not founded by foreign missionaries but by Rwandans. 

Welcoming foreign missionaries is new to them. 

Being a missionary is new to me.

This is gonna be cool.

ELCA and LCR youth.

My twin sister and I.  See the resemblance?

Waiting for the Sun

I’m not sure if it’s the jet lag or excitement that has caused me to wake before the sun this morning.  I lie here awake, snuggled under my mosquito net, reflecting on the last week and a half, ready for the day to start.  After many weeks of preparation and anticipation, the journey officially began last Wednesday as I said my goodbye to my family and boarded a plane to Chicago.  Thankfully a few teary goodbyes where followed by many more hellos.  The YAGM program staff excitedly welcomed the 63 of us at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.  We discussed themes of accompaniment, racial justice, and religious pluralism, among other things.  Throughout the week, I was continually amazed by my peers.  I was amazed by the experiences that brought them here, the hard questions they asked, and their desire to connect with those around them.

One of the highlights of the week was the scavenger hunt Saturday night.  To practice navigating unfamiliar cities without GPS to guide us, each country group was given an envelope of clues that would lead us to various restaurants of our host countries’ cuisine.  The clues led us all over Chicago and the six of us going to Rwanda eventually found our way to a little African restaurant downtown.

Another highlight was our final night in Chicago.  The evening began with a closing worship service.  As we were commissioned for a year of service abroad, I know I was not the only one overwhelmed by the journey ahead and hesitant to leave this community we had formed in the last week.  But one of my favorite things about these new friends I have made is the energy with which they approach life and with which they worship.  So true to form, as the tears dried, the service ended in a dance party.

Wednesday morning brought another round of goodbyes as we left for new homes all over the world.  One of the songs we had been singing throughout the week was a swingin’ African tune with the lyrics, “Come walk with us.  The journey is long.”  This song took on a whole new meaning as our group sat on the tarmac in Chicago waiting for engine problems to be fixed.  And then as our plane flew circles waiting for a storm to pass over Washington D.C.  And then as we turned around to refuel in Pittsburg.  And then as another lightening storm lit up the Pittsburg runway.  Long story short, we arrived in Kigali a day later than planned but in good spirits and with all of our luggage.  Kate, our country coordinator, greeted us at the airport and brought us to a guest house in Kigali where we will be spending the next three weeks learning more about the country and trying to master Kinyarwanda before we go to our various placement sites throughout the country.

Now, I’m just waiting for the sun to rise so I can begin to explore my new home.