Church in Kigali

St. Etienne Cathedral
And the Prince of Peace Choir

Our first Sunday, I think we’ve found our new church home. English service starts at 8:30 am, Kinyarwanda service follows afterwards.
This week Pastor Sam Mugisha preached and Pastor Adriaan Verwijs read scriptures and made announcements. They began with some of our favorite contemporary worship songs – Blessed Be Your Name – along with the very lively and young Prince of Peace Choir.
Our friend Diana sings, and I love this guy Eddie who sings and plays the keys (I have another favorite Eddie that played keyboard at Tech, so I like new Eddie all the more). This choir and band is very talented – apparently they travel and do appearances that pay, which makes it possible for them to travel and perform at orphanages and other pro bono concerts.
Between worship songs, Adriaan read scripture as the band played softly, and the scripture connected the meaning of the previous song with that of the next, and it was all rather beautiful. Formal scripture was read from the lectern after the contemporary music and then we sang some hymns.
I think Adriaan and Sam will be friends. Adriaan and his wife Lisette took us to an expatriate Bible study that afternoon, and just yesterday evening Sam dropped by our porch to visit and welcome us again. Sam invited us over to his home with his wife Jackie and 3-year-old Iris.
Sam is 38, Rwandan, and along with marrying about 3 couples a weekend plus funerals and baptisms, he is excited about another degree in business administration. Sam hopes to expand his ministry into something more, something that engages people outside of church walls and enters into a public context: education related, young people, professional people, microfinance maybe.
Adriaan is Dutch, and he and Lisette have served the Anglican Church in Columbia and the last 4 years here in Rwanda (and also in Holland). Adriaan speaks Kinyarwanda very well. They have two boys in school at the Rift Valley Academy in Kenya, and one boy in university in Holland.

One church we look forward to visiting:

Congregation of the Blessed Mango Tree
And the God Help Us Choir
Reverend Nathan Amoti, Administrator for the Kigali Diocese and a very funny man, asked the Archbishop – who is also Bishop of Kigali – for permission to start a new church. Nathan wanted a new church building. His grace, the Archbishop, was more than happy to endorse a new church, but why start with a mortgage. His grace recommended beginning the new church under a mango tree. Rev. Nathan actually liked that suggestion, so that’s what he did. I’m not sure how good the God Help Us Choir is, but I think they have their theology right.