A letter from Kay Day serving in Rwanda
March 2015 - A Garden Project
Dear Family and Friends,
Lenten greetings from Rwanda. Lent is not a season that is widely observed in Rwanda as the liturgical calendar is not a focus of many of the churches, but the practices of self-examination and self-sacrifice for the community are actions of Christians year-round here. So these Lenten activities become a part of life. It is in this spirit that my backyard is presently dug up. Let me explain.
One of the disciplines of the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda is “prayer cells.” This is the church’s name for small-group Bible studies in each congregation. The church provides an annual study guide for each church group to use. This guide provides questions for discussion surrounding a passage of Scripture. The questions invite self-reflection and practical applications. At one of my chapel’s recent prayer cell meetings, the students were discussing the passage from Acts 2:42-47 about the early church’s care for one another. Their observation was that as students with little money, they were not able to care for one another as the early church had. Then they talked of how the early church pooled their resources to help one another and began to discuss what their resources were that they could pool. A long discussion ended with the idea of making a vegetable garden to sell the produce and use the proceeds to meet needs of those students of the chapel who found themselves struggling. Since many of the students are from rural areas and know farming, this seemed to fit their skills and resources. But they lacked the land for the project. They asked the presbytery for the use of some of the land around our chapel, but they were told that it was already committed. Land is a precious commodity in Rwanda, with a population of 12.4 million in a country slightly smaller than the state of Maryland, which has a population of 5.9 million. Then it was time for my own self-reflection. I have a large yard, mostly in grass and flowers, except for one corner that my gardener uses for a garden for his family since they have no land to farm. There was plenty of room for another garden and still for me to have grass and flowers. So I offered the back of the yard to the students for their garden, if they were interested. They were. In fact, they were thrilled.
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So last Saturday at 8 a.m. several of them arrived with hoes in hand to begin the cultivation of the garden. The plan is for them to work on it Saturdays and a few evenings, as their schedules allow. There are about 20 of them, so it should not be a great burden on any one student. Each will contribute time and a little money for the seeds. They will grow vegetables to harvest and sell to local folks and to the kitchen staff who prepare the students’ meals (saving folks a trip to the market and providing a market for the vegetables). With the proceeds they will be able to plant more vegetables and have money to minister to the needs of the community as they arise. It is a small project, but it is a large step for the students to live out the caring of the early church. It is a joy for me to watch my students and congregants grow in their faith as they grow vegetables.
I pray that your Lenten season is as fruitful as this one is for us in Rwanda. I invite you to pray for this garden project and for the practical living of faith for my students. I praise God for your support of me and the ministry here with your continued prayers and with your finances. Thank you for being so faithful, and please continue to remember us in these ways. Blessed Lent.
Yours in Christ,
Kay (Cathie to the family)
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 152
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