Best Practices
TESTIMONY FROM RWANDA
By Jean Bosco Izabayo
“I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.” Psalms 34:1 (NIV).
On 22nd April 2020, I received a message from Reverend Ignacius Nyaga (Southern and Eastern Africa- Fund development). In this WhatsApp message, he was introducing to me his Rwandan friend, an Anglican church leader from Rwanda called Celestin. Reverend Nyaga sent me Celestin’s number and requested that I guided him how to continue doing evangelism during this period of lockdown. The same day, we got in touch with Celestin and he shared with me the struggle he has to keep feeding his church members when physical gatherings are not possible.
Celestin told me that most of his church members have smartphones and that they all use WhatsApp. We agreed that he forms a church group and I challenged him to start sharing Jesus Film short films in Kinyarwanda. We also agreed that he would ask them to share their feedback on the group and send them to me so that I rejoice with them. It worked very well for a week and a half, then I realized that I was the one downloading the videos and send them to him every day so that he shares them. Later, I taught him how to use the Jesus Film App and the website. Now he downloads whatever he wants and he is happy that all the resources are available for him to shepherd the flock.
This is one of his many testimonies (translated from Kinyarwanda to English):
“When I shared the clip-on miraculous catch of fish, I asked the members to share their reflections on the clip. I was surprised that God spoke to them in a way I never thought. The interactions were many on our WhatsApp group that we even spent much time sharing what the Lord was doing in our lives. Now we are able to feed ourselves the word of God through Jesus Film App and website. We thank God for the opportunity to have known Reverend Nyaga and to connect with the ministry in Rwanda through Bosco.” Celestin, church leader, Anglican Church of Rwanda , Byumba Diocese.
