10th Anniversary Service of the Church in Kigali, Rwanda

TEN YEARS IN THE THOUSAND HILLS
10th Anniversary Service of the Church In Kigali, Rwanda

By Rayola Osanya-Nyynéque

In May 1997, two disciples landed in Kigali from Nairobi to plant the Lord’s church there. They had never been to the country and didn’t know the language. 10 years later, on the 9th of December, 115 people gathered to celebrate a decade of disciple-making in the Rwandese capital. They are from the country, they know the language, and thanks to the hard work of successive leaders of the congregation, they know the Lord.

Present at the occasion were the couple that planted the church, Rayola and Georgeanne Osanya-Nyynéque, one brother who has at a stage in the last 10 years led the Kigali church, Charles Omollo, and East Africa co-lead evangelist Steve Mukenya.

The occasion also served as a handover of sorts as Charles, together with his wife Josephine will next month take over the reigns of stewardship of the Kigali church. Samson and Judy, who have heroically led the church for the last few years, will return to Nairobi.

The mood of celebration was punctuated by traditional Rwandan music, praise choruses, two duets, a fashion show and powerful preaching.

“The messages were just for me,” said one lady who used to be a member of the congregation. “I’ve been through a lot this last year, and the last message today encouraged me.”

With the theme of “Amazing Grace” for the occasion, Charles shared the Lord’s Supper message, Steve the keynote message, and Rayola the concluding thoughts.

Reflecting on the occasion, Samson shares, “God is gracious. It’s great to see what God has done knowing that 10 years ago it was just 2 people who arrived in Kigali to preach God’s word. It’s great to see that there is church here 10 years later – it’s God’s power being revealed.”

Judy says, “It’s very encouraging to see young Christians rising up.” Georgeanne echoes this. “There are a lot of bright, upcoming disciples in Kigali,” she says, “It has been encouraging to come for the tenth anniversary service and see the church going strong.”

Charles’ sentiments, as he savoured the colour, choreography and Christianity of the occasion was, “We have disciples here who are willing to serve and that is what we need for growth.”

Alphonse, who has been a disciple for the last eight years, says, “We all need to persevere. It’s been sad seeing people fall away, especially of late, and so we must all resist Satan. I am happy and my goal is for the Kigali church to be a shining example among African congregations.”

The scenic and stunningly beautiful country of Rwanda is known as the “Land of A Thousand Hills.” With its past of civil war and genocide and its present of poverty, high prices and unemployment, some have referred to it as the “Land of A Thousand Problems.” But by relying on God’s grace, which is sufficient, and His power, which is made perfect in weakness, the disciples’ dream, desire and determination is to write Rwanda into the annuls of history as the “Land of Thousands and Thousands of Disciples of Christ”