Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Standing in the sand and dust among our friends in the leprosy village near Chirala, close to the Bay of Bengal yesterday I felt a surge of thankfulness rise up in me. Three years we have been coming to visit and help out with groceries and medications and dressings for their wounds and ulcers - but at last the dream of helping them to help themselves is beginning to come to fruition.

The dream of providing a fully staffed and equipped mobile medical unit to help the people with leprosy in the neglected rural villages has been achieved thanks to the generosity and faithfulness of God's people in enabling this to happen in just over one year.

The dream of bringing expert help to teach the leprosy patients how to care for themselves and each other to prevent the onset and increase of disability is about to be realised. Next week my friend, Julie and I will be conducting a one week training programme for eight village leaders. Jullie is hugely experienced in this area as an OT who worked with the Leprosy Mission Scotland in Nepal and Sudan for about five years before she retired  (for the second time).

The idea is that we train some of the leaders in prevention of disability, with  particular emphasis on the care of hands, feet and eyes which are extremely prone to damage and infection because of loss of feeling due to nerve damage in these extremities. These folk will then go back to the village and teach family groups what they have been taught by us - thus cascading the learning into the community.

Once we have gone, the programme will be monitored and overseen by the team that run the mobile clinic. The aim is to reduce the number of acutely infected ulcers and increase the general well being of the village people. This in turn will allow them to be more active in caring for their other needs themselves.

The teaching programme begins next Monday. So we would ask for prayer that we can convey what is needed clearly and that the learners are able to take it on board and be able to pass on their knowledge successfully.

Go, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves....

The preparations are nearly done. Copies of training manuals have been photocopied and bound, teaching cards laminated and packed.

Now piles of clothing and equipment litter the surfaces of the house. Julie and I are almost ready to set off in a couple of days to catch the flight to Hyderabad and then a train to Tenali in Andhra Pradesh.


Today I discovered that we can each take 30 kg of baggage so we are adding children's and baby clothes to our packing list. We do not want to waste a single kilo of free baggage allowance so these will be added to the pairs of sunglasses and eye masks donated by supporters in five churches.

We anticipate that this will be quite a tough mission trip. The message we are taking to the leaders of the leprosy affected communities will involve significant behaviour and attitude shifts and we have no way of knowing how receptive they will be to us coming in from the west and "telling them what to do". I thank God for Julie's long experience in Sudan and Nepal and for the past three or four years of my visits which have allowed me to get to know the people and hopefully to have built up some trust with them.

We step out in faith, knowing that many people are praying for us daily. Without these prayers to cover us our task would be impossible to do in our own strength. So thank you to all of you who have committed to pray for us. I will update the blog as and when I am able - but I do not yet know how easy internet access will be when we are out in the village.

The righteous care about justice for the poor. Proverbs 29:7

Leave your Country and Go to the Land I will Show You

Stepping into a new situation in a far country seems a little daunting right now. In one week I will be setting off for a new challenge in India with Julie, a friend and colleague. Our goal is to spend almost a month in one of the leprosy affected communities that OEW has been supporting from a distance for the past few years.

I have visited them several times on previous visits to the area - but only ever for a few hours at a time when taking supplies of food and clothing and accompanying the doctor from Reap India when conducting medical camps.

The people in this village have been living in terribly poor conditions, but recently OEW has supported the improvement of houses, installation of drinking water wells and basic medical care. We work in partnership with Reap India (EARE Ministries) to respond to needs as indicated by the community.

However we believe that to be a real help we needed to help the people to help themselves. We took advice from the director of the Leprosy Mission Scotland and the director of Leprosy Mission International and quickly came to the conclusion that the most helpful thing we could do was to teach them how to set up and run 'Self Care Groups.' If leprosy is not diagnosed early enough, nerves that affect the fingers, toes, legs, arms and face can be damaged which results in a loss of movement and feeling in these areas. Once sensation has been lost it cannot be restored. When a person treads on something sharp or holds something hot they do not feel pain and so they don't realise they are causing harm to their bodies.

We plan to work with the village leaders teaching them how to care for their eyes, hands and feet so that they can then cascade this teaching to the people in the community. Julie and I will be teaching for three weeks so it will be quite a challenge for us. This preventative work will complement the service provided by our mobile medical vehicle / ambulance. This has been purchased thanks to the generous giving of our supporters. We are taking with us the finance to customise and kit it out while we are there. So I would extend a very big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this project over the past eighteen months.

Please pray for us.

"Do not be afraid little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom." Luke 12:33

Give us Today our Daily Bread

Something close to my heart in Rwanda is the work among the deaf at the Mango Tree Church. This began a few years ago when two women from Open Hands came out with a team of evangelists from Wales. Susan, who is profoundly deaf herself, and Ruth her friend and sign language interpreter now come out to Rwanda twice a year. They have built up a powerful ministry to around 50 deaf people in partnership with the church.



Hazel, Susan and Ruth

In Rwanda the deaf (along with other disabled people) struggle to find acceptance, education and the means to survive independently. Many are desperately poor, have little to eat and live in very poor accommodation. They also have little access to bible teaching and the opportunity to learn about and get to know the love of Jesus Christ. Susan and Ruth have now learned Rwandan sign language and are doing a wonderful job of teaching, supporting and loving the deaf of Kanombe and its environs.



Susan with Nadia and Christine (both deaf)

They have found a few sponsors in UK to help with school fees for the children. They have instigated the establishment of a sewing workshop in the church to enable the deaf young women to earn a little money making clothes and crafts for sale. It has not been easy and there have been many problems and setbacks but rthis work is giving the deaf a chance in life that was not there for them before. Some of the young people have been baptised now and others have gone on to be confirmed into the Anglican church. One young man is now a church warden. Church members are taking a sign language course which runs every Wednesday in the church building and one or two do their best to interpret during the services. The deaf have formed their own choir and when they get up to worship the Lord together tears spring to my eyes! What a wonderful witness to God's love and mercy.

Sign language class in the Mango Tree Church

The plan now is to build a proper centre for the deaf next to the church. The land is there and the will to do it is strong. This will be a place for vocational training for young men and women. The sewing workshop as it is just now is in a very small space which limits their activities. The centre will also provide teaching of literacy skills, health education and sign language - also will be a place for counselling and other practical help. We are praying that the Lord will open the way for the money needed and that others will catch the vision to help these neglected and lovely people who just need a chance in life to exercise their true potential.

Susan with the sewing workshop girls

Deliver us from Evil

Yesterday was very moving - I had been invited by Louis to accompany him to a genocide memorial service in a small rural community called Ruhanga, about 45 minutes from here. He first took me there in 2000 on my first visit to Rwanda.and I was deeply affected by that first visit. The village centre at that time consisted of a badly damaged and deserted church building, some simple graves with an inscription nearby stating that George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, had visited a year or two earlier. Then Louis took me into a school building next door to meet the 200 orphans that had survived the genocide. He explained to me that 5,000 people had been locked inside the church building and then killed by the Interahamwe militia. These children had somehow escaped death. many had been babies strapped to their mothers' backs and had been pulled out from under the bodies. Others had hidden or been injured and left for dead. Now they were living in the school being cared for as best he could by the village pastor and his wife.

I was keen to go back with Louis and see what had happened since then. When we arrived there were thousands of people there - all gathered under awnings in the open air on top of a mountain - close to the village of Ruhanga. The church where the massacre took place has been converted into a genocide memorial site and a new church building for the village has been put up.

Apart from Louis there were five other bishops and the archbishop all in their purple robes. Louis did the opening prayer as the parish is in his diocese. The whole thing took all morning. It was set out like a stadium with a large central space. A big truck appeared at one point and parked in the middle. Then the men started unloading coffins. They were lined up opposite where we were sitting on small benches to keep them off the wet ground. Each one was draped in purple and white cloth coverings and people kept coming forward and placing bouquets, framed photographs and huge flower arrangements on them. Some of these coffins were very large and only one or two were normal size. Some were group remains and some were whole families. I counted nine coffins in all but was told that they contained the remains of 159 people who had recently been dug up from a mass grave.

Some of the orphans stood and gave testimonies. One young woman (around 24 years) was very moving. She was old enough (about 6 years old at the time) to remember what happened. She witnessed her parents being murdered and then she was struck by a machete on the back of her neck and left for dead. Somehow, she survived and got away. She knew the man who had done this and he was eventually tried and sent to prison. Now he is out and back in the community. She witnessed to the love of Jesus in her life and that she had forgiven the man. She even called his name to ask him to come forward - but he either did not respond or maybe was not even there. People were in tears all around me - even the men. Crying is so against the Rwandese culture - they never normally would do this in public, if at all. Other people got up and sang mournful songs of great beauty and expressiveness. By this time the rain was pouring down in torrents, mud was everywhere and people were crowding in under the awnings. They said they welcomed the rain because it was like this in April 1994 and the heavy rain had meant that many people had been able to escape because the killers did not like "working" when it was raining so hard.

 Finally the coffins were all loaded back onto the truck to be removed to the memorial church for final burial. This was about 3/4 mile from the meeting place, the mud was deep and so Louis wisely told me to get in the car and wait. I am so pleased he did. I was out of the rain, I could observe the people and have a time of reflection about what I had witnessed. About 45 minutes later Noel, the driver got a signal from Louis to come and find him. The state of the track was appalling - there were vehicles everywhere - up to their axles in mud - but we found Louis and got on the way back fairly quickly. The ride down the mountain was interesting to say the least - a traffic jam in mud at an angle of 45 degrees - thank goodness we were in Louis's big 4 x 4 and not my small one! Louis told me on the way home that the church burial place was now completely full. The remains of 35,000 people are buried there.

What a day! I was the only 'mzungu' there - but no-one made me feel an outsider. In fact I met several clergy who had been my students at KATC a few years ago. It was a privilege to have been invited and to be with the people at this time.

Thy Kingdom Come

God's kingdom is where God's people are.At the weekend we were a group of God's people from four nations meeting together and celebrating our friendship and our love of Jesus.

Charles Ndikumana and his wife Rose came up to Kigali by bus with their ministry colleague, Ezekiel. We spent three days together here in the ministry centre at Kanombe, sharing our hopes and plans, praying together and sharing fellowship. On Saturday evening we all went into Kigali City to the new bishop's residence at Kiyovu, not far from the St Etienne Cathedral. There we spent a good time with Winnie and Louis and all three boys. Iggy and David are home for the Easter break from their boarding school in Arusha, Tanzania. I was amazed at how tall they both are. Iggy is taller than me and dwarfs his mother. David is not far behind him.

This must make Iggy almost six feet tall - no wonder he loves playing basket ball at school and is on the junior team.

Barny is now a weekly boarder at Alpha, which he loves doing. He and another boy stay in the old family house along with the new headmaster.

I must say I miss them all as my immediate neighbours on the school campus. It is especially quiet just now as the schools are all on holiday and there is hardly anyone about.

This evening I am going up to Hope Village with Elsie and Nicholas Hitimana. It is genocide memorial week at the moment and they go every day to be with the widows. I have not done this for a couple of years so it will be good to see how they are all getting on.

Thunder and Lightening

In Rwanda now for a week. This time of year is always mixed climate wise - a glorious hot day followed by a dreich and cold one. The rainy season is upon us and the Rwandese love it because the countryside is revived with lush green vegetation and beautiful flowering shrubs and bushes wherever you look.

Last year I poked some tiny cuttings - geraniums, hibiscus, a blue flowering shrub and some nasturtiums into the garden of the ministry centre. I did this more in hope than expectation! I was astonished when I arrived last week to see my front patch transformed with flowers and shrubs at least knee high. They have grown so fast that now I will need to thin them out to make room for further expansion. The rather miserable nut tree which Winnie planted about 4 or 5 years ago and stayed the same 12 inches high all that time is now about three feet tall! The mango tree I planted 3 years ago and has done nothing of note is now well over five feet. It is quite remarkable how fast these plants have taken off. Maybe I will be able to harvest some mangoes later on.

We have had some spectacular thunderstorms - thankfully I have been indoors at home when they have happened. The sheer volume of water is incredible and these storms have sometimes gone on all night - with the rain thundering on the tin roof at high volume. I have become resigned to leaks and floods now - as long as they are not directly on my head when I am in bed I can cope!