happening at all souls
gashirabwoba school opens with 250 students
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Only a year ago, the hill named Gashirabwoba in a remote corner of Cyangugu Diocese in Rwanda looked much as we see it here. This deserted spot had given its name to a local soccer field, whose name in turn had become synonymous with a horrific massacre that occurred there during the genocide of 1994. Fifteen years later, the legacy of the genocide lives on in the orphans who had to raise themselves, without parenting nor education. Today, some of them now have children of their own. Only a year ago, a child in Gashirabwoba had no hope of rising out of a life of abject poverty.
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This is that same hillside today. It was less than three years ago that we officially took on a challenge from our good friend Bishop Geoffrey Rwubussisi of Cyangugu to raise $20,000 to build a school on the site. Even after we made the commitment, the price tag kept growing (the inaccessibility of the site made the project difficult to estimate). It was a little over a year ago that we finished raising about $107,000 and began sending the funds to Rwanda.
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It was just this February of 09 that Bishop Geoffrey sent, along with his love, the joyful word that construction is completed and that 250 students are now enrolled in Gashirabwoba School. Thanks be to God! Our toil over the last few years is now by God's grace bearing fruit in the form of hope for a new generation in an otherwise nearly-forgotten corner of the world.
Of course, the school still faces many challenges. Inclement weather delayed construction, which in turn caused the school to miss out on government funds for its operating budget. The school is presently funded by the Diocese of Cyangugu, which as you might imagine, doesn't have a surplus of resources. How will they do it? |
This moment offers us an opportunity for reflection. How did we do it? How did a new little church with no building of its own at the time raise so much money so quickly in a faltering economy? Through hard work and persistence, perhaps. But the real answer is simply that we didn't do it. When our efforts are in tune with God's purposes, He takes our meager offerings and does more with them than we dare imagine. Likewise, we join Bishop Geoffrey in trusting God to sustain Gashirabwoba School. Please pray that God would take that work which we were privileged to help begin, and use it to bring healing and hope to Gashirabwoba for many years to come.
all souls church, bolivia
Knock. Knock. Knock.
So begins the traditional welcoming of a bishop to one of his parishes, with the hollow thud of wooden staff against the wood of the closed narthex doors. At the start of the Sunday morning worship and holy communion service, 10 August 2008, our clergy and wardens opened the doors to welcome the Rt Rev Frank Lyons, Bishop of La Iglesia Episcopal Anglicana de Bolivia, and seat him in the chancel for the first time as our own bishop as well. Bishop Lyons is well known to us at All Souls. He was with us at our very first service four years ago, and has visited us often since then. It was only more recently, though, that he has been at liberty to take on oversight of our congregation and clergy, and to receive us into the Anglican Church of Bolivia. This temporary measure keeps us as part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and provides us with continued godly episcopal oversight until such a time as the Communion establishes a new orthodox Anglican province here in North America. We thank God for Bishop Lyons' ministry to us.
We also thank God for our time in the Anglican Mission in the Americas, and for its bishops who watched over us during our early years as a congregation. Through them we've made friends around the world, including with the Diocese of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and Bishop Geoffrey Rwubussissi. God has allowed us to play a part in the life of that diocese, and its people have in turn blessed us greatly. We look forward to continued friendship and collaboration with them for many years to come.
We also look forward to continued partnership with our local AMiA congregations, and indeed with all of our sister Anglican churches in the Common Cause Partnership. We rejoice in this new phase in the life of our own congregation, now as part of the Anglican Church of Bolivia.
the least of my brothers
98th Street on the west side of Cleveland was once a tidy and quiet working-class neighborhood. But, in a story repeated all across urban America, a changing economy, shifting demographics, and a freeway overpass cut the heart out of the community, leaving it a rundown dilapidated shadow of its former self. In July 2008 ten of our youth and six adults drove to Cleveland to participate in All Souls first summer youth mission trip. Partnering with the Nehemiah Mission of Cleveland, they labored to clean up and restore yards and houses along 98th Street whose owners had given up on keeping them in good repair. That's right; our young people worked hard for an entire week painting, weeding, building - whatever needed to be done to help restore a sense of civic pride to a downtrodden neighborhood. The work was difficult, but fortunately, the laborers were sufficient to accomplish a lot of work which will help the Nehemiah Mission to bring light into dark areas, and to be the body of Christ in the city of Cleveland. Thank you so much for your prayers and support, and we look forward to doing this again next year!
Our young people planned this trip in order to serve others, not to get anything out of it for themselves. Yet, they found that you can't help but grow when serving the Lord. As a group they grew closer together, learning to work with each other in less than ideal situations. Each person on the trip also got to learn more and more what it means to truly serve God with right actions and with right hearts, as well. The week is best summed up in what Jesus said in a parable in Matthew 25: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least my brothers, you did it to me." That was the spirit of the trip, and a lesson learned to stay with each participant for the rest of their lives.
