Rwanda 11.21.10 Church

Church in Rwanda

We worshipped with the African New Life Bible Church today and I have to say that it was more "Western" (as in "American," not in "yee-haw!") than "African."

Or at least what I preconceived "African church" would be like.

I am sure it had MUCH to do with the fact that we went to the English speaking service

and MORE to do with the fact that there was another mission team visiting (about 50!) that was from Texas. 

We blended right in!

When the preaching starts, the children exit to go to Sunday school and today we went with them.

Caitlan, Jeanne, and Emily taught the 3-5 year olds.

Jeremy and Wesley took the 6-9 year olds.

And Larry and I went with the 10-12 year olds.

We only taught the English speaking kids, which was supposed to be around 10 kids in each age group.

We brought our own lessons and supplies so that we could have an activity or craft that the kids could take home.  Caitlan and Jeanne said they had about 10 kids in the room and it was going great.  But they also had about 10-15 non-English speaking kids that were kind of watching through the windows from outside.

Once they brought out the beads and googly eyes for their craft, ALL the kids in the outdoor audience ran inside to join the fun. 

No English....no problem!

Who needs English for gluing on googly eyes??

I really enjoyed the 10-12 year old age group. 

We talked about how we often look on the outside, the appearance of man, but God looks at the heart.  (lesson I got from our AWANA Council time book--thanks Erich and Steve!)

What are our attitudes?

Our thoughts?

Are they pleasing to Him?

(after church we visited a Genocide Memorial...had no idea how this lesson would speak to me during that visit.  The Genocide Memorial will be in the next post.)

The kids were very willing to look up verses and read them aloud.  We made gospel bracelets and told the gospel story using the different colored beads as well.

Here are a couple more pics from church....