Rwanda
Mission Statement
Building God’s kingdom through relationship and partnership as brothers and sisters in Christ.
History
Redeemer’s connection to the Karangazi Parish (in the Diocese of Gahini) in Rwanda stems from our Anglican formation as Rwanda’s mission to America. In 2004, Rwandan Archbishop Kolini initiated sister-to-sister partnerships to foster cross-cultural relationships and ministry alliances between Rwandan parishes and Anglican Mission churches in the United States. These partnerships have helped build relationships between parishes as well as individuals, priests, and bishops. The relationships are mutually beneficial and are an expression of the one, holy, catholic (universal) and apostolic Church.
Most recently, the Webers (one of our Redeemer families) have decided to follow a call to move to Gahini as missionaries in order to continue fostering these important relationships!
From our May 2019 visit, catching up with our Rwandan brothers and sisters in Gahini!
Relationship is the basis of Redeemer’s connection to the Karangazi Parish and its wider Diocese of Gahini. Though there are some 8000 miles between us, the Lord has provided many opportunities for the relationship with our Rwandan brothers and sisters to continue to be strengthened. You can read about these opportunities below!
The Weber Family: Missionaries in Gahini
The Webers moved to Gahini in the spring of 2023 in order to continue fostering our mission partnership and friendship with our sister parish in Karangazi. They’ll be doing the same for other local U.S. and Gahini parish partnerships under the umbrella of Friends of Gahini, providing support as parishes come alongside each other to better reach their communities with the Gospel. As they’ve both worked in children’s and youth ministry for nearly two decades, they’re specifically planning to focus a good portion of their work in Gahini serving alongside children and youth pastors.
The Webers are SAMS (Society of Anglican Missions and Senders) missionaries. In order to learn more about their journey and to join their prayer and support team, you can check out this video testimony and visit their SAMS webpage below!
Friends of Gahini
Our church is a member of the non-profit organization Friends of Gahini. Friends of Gahini was formed in the early 2010s out of the growing friendship between our founding rector and bishop, Alan Hawkins, and Rwandan Bishops Alexis and Manasseh in Gahini. This non-profit connects several Anglican parishes in the U.S. with parishes in the Diocese of Gahini for relationship and mutual support. It has been a springboard for further partnerships or relationships with other organizations like Sowers of Hope Agri-Faith ministry, through which Rwandans learn practical farming skills and that their profession is not something to be looked down upon, but rather rich with dignified, beautiful work.
Annual Visits to Gahini
We make an annual visit to see our mission partners, hear about what the Lord is doing in their lives, and share about what he’s up to in and around Redeemer. These face-to-face meetings with our sister parish accelerate and deepen relationships and give clarity in understanding one another’s real needs. We also love getting to catch up with the Webers when we visit and work alongside them in deepening these connections!
We know that projects may dissolve, but relationships last forever. So, during our annual visit to the Karangazi Parish, we visit with, pray for, and learn from our fellow church members. We assist with an annual theological education conference for pastors, learn about the painful history of the Rwandan Genocide, contemplate reconciliation, and meet with others to dream about how we can all use our gifts to help each other.
To get a taste of what our visits are like, check out the video from our May 2022 visit here!
Compassion International Partnership
Compassion International is a Christian humanitarian aid organization which partners with local churches around the globe to release children from poverty—combining physical, social, economic and spiritual care together, ministering to them in the name of Jesus. Many members of our congregation have partnered with Compassion International through the years to sponsor children in and around the Karangazi area, and when we’ve gone on our annual visits to our sister parish in Karangazi, several of our members have been able to tag along and meet their sponsor child! You can get a glimpse of some of our visits here!
After just exchanging letters, it’s been such a gift for several of our members to meet their sponsor child in person!
If you’d like to learn more, you can reach out to Doug West—one of our members here at Redeemer who serves as Compassion’s Church Partnership Manager for the Southeastern U.S.—here. If you’d like to sponsor a child, you can visit our Redeemer-specific Compassion page below to sponsor children who live within a 10 mile radius of our sister parish—and if you come with us on one of our annual visits, you might get to meet them!
Blog Posts
“Their lives are far more relational than ours, and perhaps because this has come through a kind of resurrection, their resulting joy and fellowship are more genuine. What I saw through the Rwandan people in that regard was a picture of God’s Kingdom.”
Hannah Umhau, on her 2019 trip to Rwanda