February 7, 2005

Dear Friends,

After a very good six months in the United States, I returned to Rwanda in the first week of January. This was one of the longest plane trips in my life, taking more than forty-eight hours. It included a 16-hour layover in the wonderful Nairobi Airport, with me sleeping on a bench with my computer for a pillow. But I arrived safely and more or less on time. Also, my things arrived without the least breakage or theft. Praise God! Getting back to Butare on the evening of the 5th, my long suffering dog, Cassey, was very glad to see me, and so too were the neighbors, who now no longer have to listen to her howling inconsolably through the night.

When I left, the government had been having difficulty for several months in supplying regular electricity to the country. A number of theories have been bruited about to explain this, the most colorful being that an earthquake cracked the floor of Lake Kivu, making it impossible for the water to rise to its normal level and so turn the generators of the hydroelectric plant. The most prosaic reason given is that the generators have been poorly maintained and are now in need of very costly repairs, which of course the government cannot afford. In any event, I have had very little electricity since coming back. My bill for January came to about $3.00, which speaks for itself. Fortunately, the college has a generator that it runs between 6:30 and 9:30 in the evenings. So I often find myself saving up my work through the day, typing frantically at the computer between the appointed hours, and putting a period at the end of the last sentence on a page just as the house is suddenly plunged into darkness. And in the morning, I’m often up at 5:00 reading my Bible and preparing my classes by lantern light. None of this is meant to be taken as a complaint, but simply a description of life here at the moment.

Due to a very generous gift from a church in Tucson, Arizona, last week I was able to purchase for the students 12 computers, which should arrive in about two months. The computers only cost about $132, being used computers that are refurbished in Britain. (We currently have two computers for student use, and we could use six more so that each student in a class would be able to use one at the same time.) The physical plant of the college is now largely in place, with the new auditorium having been completed in my absence. Its first use occurred last weekend when one of the students held his marriage reception there. The marriage was in some ways a heart-breaking affair, as both bride and groom were marrying for the second time. Each of their first partners had died of an AIDS-related disease, and both have AIDS themselves. But there is no discrimination against them. The Anglican Church has paid for the groom’s education at the Faculté, and he is now in his fourth and final year of studies.

As for Rwanda itself, two good pieces of international news have reached the country in the last two weeks. At the G-7 meeting in the first week of February, the leading economic nations of the world agreed to forgive all of the debts of the poorest nations of the third world, most of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. Though there may be a devil lurking in the details, this is surely good news for Rwanda. The other piece of good news concerns the Interhamwe forces in the Congo, the defeated Hutu army that fled Rwanda in 1994 and has been harassing the Congolese and Rwandans ever since. The African Union agreed to assemble two armies to disarm this group before the end of the year. If both of these problems are really solved this year, in 2006 the government may finally be able to give its full attention to the besetting concerns of health, education, poverty, and economic infrastructure that have long retarded the nation’s development.

I’m very happy to be back in Rwanda. It’s been good to see my friends here and to be teaching Christian history once more. Despite the electricity problems, I’ve managed to complete the writing of a new lecture series on the history of Christian missions since I’ve been back, and now I’ll be turning my attention to finishing a book that I began a few years ago. In your prayers, please give thanks to God for the good work that is progressing at the Faculté and for the faithfulness of the students, professors, administrators, and generous Christians abroad that keep our little world here spinning in its orbit year after year.

Que Dieu vous benisse—God bless you,

Michael Parker

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 323