15 January 2004

Dear Friends:

Bonne Année to one and all. We completed the first trimestre of the academic year the week before Christmas at the Faculté de Théologie Protestante de Butare. During the Christmas break one of my students asked me to give a sermon at the church in his village. I agreed, and after an hour-and-a-half bus ride and twenty minutes in a cab we showed up fifteen minutes in advance on Christmas morning at a rather large church in a small village, boasting a handful of commercial buildings and one paved road. I was immediately ushered into the pastor’s office, where there were about fifteen people standing about. The pastor called everyone to order, made a few announcements, and we all prayed. Then we walked into the church together, where there were some 3000 people waiting! It turned out that my student’s church, though located in a small village, was actually the main church for the entire surrounding region. And the church was packed for the Christmas service, with extra benches lining the aisles and scores of people outside looking in through the windows on every side. To some of you this may not sound like much, but for me, used to speaking to about a hundred people at a time, it was the biggest audience of my life. I preached in French and the student provided the translation. By the grace of God everything went well, and to show their appreciation, at the close of the service the congregation presented me with a live chicken. (The congregation was city-sized, but they still thought like villagers.)

It was a beautiful service that included an adult baptism and lots of singing. The congregation has 45 choirs, and six of them performed that morning to the pulsating beat of a large stretch-leather drum. (I have yet to see a working piano or organ in Rwanda though there are many electric organs.) Afterwards, everyone was very friendly and highly complimentary of my sermon. I thought I was probably too didactic, but apparently the congregation didn’t think so. Given that the educational level of ministers is quite low in the country and books are expensive and hard to come by, I think they appreciated hearing the meaning of the Christmas story given in some detail.

Following the service, I had lunch with a small group that included the pastor and his family. These were very poor people, and the meal was quite simple, but it was wonderful to be with such committed Christians. When I left, I felt truly blessed and that I had had one of the best Christmases of my life. Unfortunately the bus ride home would not have been possible with the chicken, which, alas, remained behind with the grateful family of my student that lives in the village.

Last November I had the privilege of representing my college at an HIV/AIDS conference in Nairobi, Kenya. This was a conference put on by the World Council of Churches for East Africa. Since it was a conference for Anglophones, I was naturally selected to go, but I also went with a professor who is learning English, Viateur Habarurema. We learned that the WCC estimates that there are currently about 42 million people with HIV/AIDS in the world and that 29 million of them are living in Africa. I read recently that the Rwanda government estimates that 11 percent of its population has the disease, which would mean about 900,000 people or about the number that died in the genocide of 1994. The remarkable thing is that everyone scoffs at this number, believing that a more accurate figure would be at least double or perhaps triple the government’s estimate. I can believe it. My students tell me that the problem is rampant in their villages. Also, a French medical doctor recently visited the country for a few months and assisted at 31 births. She tested each of the mothers for AIDS and found that they were all infected. The purpose of the conference was to help theological colleges and seminaries mainstream HIV/AIDS into the curriculum, especially in the areas of ethics, pastoral care and theology.

Also, we discussed issues of gender and culture that contribute to the spread of the disease and the best approaches that the churches should be taking to meet this crisis. Given the gravity of the problem, it’s shocking how little attention it receives in Rwanda, either from the government or the churches. A sea change in thinking is going to have to take place before this disease will be contained.

Our next trimestre is beginning next week, January 19, and we will continue until about the first week of July. One of my projects during this period will be to help acquire new computers for the college, now a necessity even in Africa. Also, I’ll be advising four students on their senior theses—the French use the word memoire. And around the first of July I will be returning to the States for a period of six months. Most of this time I will be in Pasadena, California; however, during the latter part I may be in Maryland. Thank you for your continuing prayers for me, the college, and for the suffering in Africa.

Que Dieu vous benisse—God bless you,

Michael Parker

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 44