I am in Rwanda only a few days, really, so the time has been very full. I spent a day in Kigali, connecting with those coming in from out of town at the Guest House there. One of those is Fr. Gerry Schnackenberg, the priest from Colorado under whose ministry I was ordained and served as Associate Pastor. Gerry is a truly contagious Christian who shares his life and love for the Lord very openly to others. It has been good to be with him and be reminded of his important mentoring in my own pastoral journey. None of us grows alone, and we pick up things from others as we know them and love them. This is why community is vital, because without it we actually don’t grow, but remain our selves.

For two days now I have been in Ruhengeri, staying at the Guest House next to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, a glorious building with its own organic ‘feel’, that seems to come right out of the place on which it stands. Some buildings seem forced, this one emerges.

Of course, I had to visit Sonrise School, and it was wonderful to be recognized, to be called by name, and to be known there. I was invited to speak to the teachers and the students separately, as I encouraged them in their work and shared something from Luke 8–Jesus’ parable of the Sower, or perhaps it should be called the Parable of the Soils.

Sonrise School has recently started a school garden, which coincides with our own plans to begin a garden at Church of the Redeemer…so it was good to be able to bring these two gardens, thousands of miles apart, together in one conversation. And to consider how our lives reflect the work of the gardener and the soil that is found and that must be worked and tilled.

As I preached to the Sonrise students in the chapel the photo from Church of the Redeemer was on the wall behind me. What an experience to see all of us in that place, looking down upon the children. I was aware of the prayers of our church for my visit and for the school, even as I stood between the students and the photo of Redeemer, lives facing each other. It was a powerful metaphor and true.

Tomorrow is the consecration. It is expected to be a magnificent affair (probably 5 hours long) with many in attendance. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to write more on that before I head back home Monday. Peace to you.

It’s been a number of months and I find myself preparing for another trip across the waters, back to friends in a country far away. There have been some emails, and a couple of phone calls, but mostly it is the distance and time itself that has heightened the need to return–the desire to renew face to face relationships that have, in many ways, just begun. In a world of constant and immediate communication, this tie to Rwanda reminds me most of what it was like as I grew up in countries far from home–of waiting for many months to see extended family—listening to recorded tapes of friends and neighbors, cousins close and distant. Wondering if I would remember the faces of loved ones left on another shore, or the fading taste of favourite foods, unable to be enjoyed, like sacraments long neglected.  Anticipation was the greater part of the joy, it seemed, when we finally headed ‘home’. I have that same feeling again.  Nervousness mingled with desire; longing and hesitancy held together.  No web-based Face-book friends here—I am my own face-book, heading out on a plane Sunday night to be opened in person for those caring and brave enough to read its pages, as I read theirs.

Why now?  I am returning sooner than I had planned but momentous changes are afoot in Rwanda’s Anglican church as a number of bishops, including  Archbishop Kolini, retire in the next few months.  One of the new leaders–the man selected to shepherd the diocese where Redeemer is closely connected– is someone I knew well in Colorado Springs.  Laurent Mbanda and his family served in Colorado with Compassion International.  Susan worked for him, his family stayed in our house once when we went on vacation; we drank coffee together and spoke of the world beyond the mountains.  Before that he had lived in Deerfield, studying for his PhD at Trinity.  Now he is being consecrated bishop for the Shyira Diocese and will assume leadership when +John Rucyahana retires in November.  This journey brings together a number of apparently disparate paths: personal, familial, church and school-related.  But life is more coherent than we think, or at least as it appears in the moment. So for that reason, and others I can’t fully articulate, I will be in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Musanze, Rwanda on March 28th for the service of consecration, in a church of which I am part yet so far away, with people who are brothers and sisters.  This journey is really an embodied prayer that God will close the distance and bring the paths together.