Hours and Hours

25^th June 2012

Monday morning began with a team split when we arrived in Shyogwe; Stephanie, Hazel, Heather and Pete Ellis headed to the clinic, whilst Andy, Pete Nadin and Lucy headed to the Bible School.
At the Bible School, the team were teaching seminars throughout the day and Andy began the day with a seminar on evangelism. Pete and Lucy then led a discussion based session on working with young people and valuing their role in the Church with about 15 students. This time finished off with a very insightful discussion where the students were very interactive and it may even be said that God spoke not only through the work that was prepared but also to Pete and Lucy as they started to understand the differences and similarities between the British and Rwandan Church concerning youth work. Andy carried on teaching the students whilst Pete and Lucy went off to the clinic at the same time as the school lunchtime and so were mobbed by hundreds of children!

Stephanie’s morning at the clinic was very busy as she describes:

Standing in the middle of Shyogwe clinic at 11 on Monday, and doing a 360deg what do you see?

The reception area with about 12 people waiting, a nurse’s room where a 29 year old lady with tummy pain and palpitations is getting some help. A small window where another nurse is giving out medicines in small packets, a concrete shelf where a small child is fast asleep, a room where slides are being examined for intestinal worms, a new building where about 20 women and children are waiting for family planning, a room where an educational DVD is playing about living with HIV aids, the entrance gates where an ambulance is parked, collecting a lady with high blood pressure to take to the hospital 4km away and an enclosure with about 60 chickens . . . and the land where they will start building a new maternity block in July.

Also, no litter, tidy paths, clean toilets and a warm welcome.

After time at the clinic the team returned for another tasty lunch at the Bible school before two more seminars were taught; Heather and Pete Ellis delivered a session about setting an example as a Christian and Hazel and Stephanie taught about encouragement and pastoral care. During this time there was a wild goose chase for a toilet that finished with Stephanie and Lucy using the toilet of a random Dutch man’s house nearby, even though neither actually needed to go!

After a long day of teaching, the team were thanked by the Bible School students who had done very well to stay awake through hours and hours of our teaching. Pastor Emmanuel also interpreted every word we used, and so worked the hardest out of all of us! We gave the students some of the St. Philips and St. James Holiday Happening t-shirts and some of the Maurice Paine books, which were all very well received. We hope that our teaching has helped the students to understand something new of what it means to not only be a leader and potential pastor of the future, but also to be an everyday Christian. We then headed back to the Alleluia guest house where we worked on our seminars, as we would be delivering them again the next day for the Pastors of the Shyogwe diocese.