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God’s Hand Helping Young People Overcome Stumbling Blocks to the Gospel

From Jean Baptiste Magarura, National Director of Rwanda YFC

Millions are yet to hear the Gospel and that is why 36 young leaders plus four staff were sent to four areas of Rwanda. In one week they were able to share the Gospel with 4800 and 43 gave their lives to Christ, they also trained 282 youth pastors from 14 churches. Tuesday this week I had an opportunity to sit with these youth workers and I listened to their stories.

  • David, is a young leader, he attended the young leaders conference in South Africa. He led a team to Byumba (in the north of Rwanda). David explains that the outreach to Byumba was a new and great experience. He was touched to see pastors from different churches humble them­selves and work together for the kingdom of Christ, the team also surprised him in a positive way when he saw them working together in teaching, preaching with boldness and love. During the outreach program, they met with different pastors, youth at different churches; they discussed with action groups, were involved in school ministries and organized a big crusade.
  • Rhoda, a young lady, lead a team to Butare, in the south of Rwanda, known as an academic area: the National University of Rwanda (the oldest and the biggest university of the country), as well as a large number of excellent high school s are located in Butare. She said that the team had an unforgettable experience there. Since it was their first outreach, they were a little bit shy, and they were surprised to experience a warm welcome. The enjoyed school ministry, where the students received training and preaching with humble hearts. Some of the students even committed their lives to Christ and to abstain from sex outside marriage. The team organ­ized a big crusade in a high school and was astonished by the wonders of the Holy Spirit. Testimonies were shared and 29 students gave theirs lives to Christ. Rhoda explained that they learned that God is not so concerned with the abil­ity of a person, but their availability.

As they shared with me and the rest of the staff, my mind was meditating on the story we have in Luke chapter 10. I remembered that thousands in Rwanda and beyond are yet to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I heard the young people tell me that they saw the hand of God helping them to overcome serious stumbling blocks to the Gospel, as if they were echoing the very words of the seventy disciples who came back to Jesus and said “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name”. I felt like I should recruit thousands of other young people to come to the school of leadership and discipleship, and send them to the mission field because the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few.

We are praying for the capacity to:

  • Train 38 youth for 9 months and 1,600 youth pastors and workers in a year;
  • Educate and feed 600 students at Kigali Christian School every school day;
  • Finish the construction of the training center and add more buildings; Add more infrastructure at Kigali Christian School like dormitories, a dining hall, kitchen and 8 additional classrooms;
  • Build workshops for vocational training centers and schools in five places;
  • Ensure that the school of leadership and discipleship can continue the reminder of the program for 2011. The finan­ces we received were enough up to the end of May, and yet their program ends in October;
  • Acquire about 30 hectares of land outside Kigali in the next two weeks for our various crucial ministry projects, and we need funds.