August into November every year is the season of Regional
Services in the 13 regions of our Rwandan Baptist partner, the AEBR. Each region hosts a celebration where people
representing all the churches in the region gather together for a large worship
event. We want to give you a glimpse of
the one we attended on Sunday, August 19th in the region of Nyagahinika
(Nyah-gah-hee-nee-kah). (This region has
so many churches that they actually had a separate service the day before with
the first half of their churches.)
By 9:00 am, about 1500 people had gathered for this outside
service. Some people had walked 6+ hours
to get there! A joyful spirit was in the
air as, for the next two hours, choirs from the various churches sang the songs
they had rehearsed in preparation for this event. By the time the service was completed (many
hours later), 16 different choirs had participated, some more than once!
At 11:00 (two hours after the service began), it was time to
welcome and introduce everyone. This was
not a quick task. It lasted 50
minutes! Who was introduced? People who came from the various sub-regions,
AEBR’s new Legal Representative Rev. Emmanuel, the local pastors, visiting
regional pastors, CBM representatives (that’s us!), local government officials,
AEBR school heads, representatives from other denominations, etc. The attendance of each one was genuinely appreciated.
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| Showing appreciation to the local pastors and their wives |
By 11:50, we had begun the “service proper” which included a
sermon by Rev. Emmanuel, offering, more choir numbers, speeches by various
people, a couple of solos, the annual report from the Regional Pastor Pangaras,
as well as a word of challenge from AEBR’s Legal Representative.
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| Rev. Emmanuel, AEBR's Legal Representative |
There were a couple of features of the service which were
distinctly Rwandan (or at least not Canadian).
At one point a couple of women went out with water to sprinkle all over
the central area to keep the dust down.
(Mid-August is the tail end of the long dry season.) And at several times in the service, a drumming
group participated in the service, playing traditional Rwandan drums. Everyone loved them!
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| Sprinkling water to keep down the dust |
Toward the end of the service, there was the big
announcement of which church had been the top contributor to the special
regional offering. There was great
celebration as the winning church was announced and took possession of the AEBR
flag to fly proudly until next year’s regional service.
At 2:55, six hours after it began, the closing prayer was
said and the service finished. But the festivities
continued as we moved into the church for a meal together. It was a fitting conclusion to a day of
celebrating what God has been doing in their churches over the past year.