August 15, 2005
Dear Friends:
Greetings from Rwanda, land of a thousand hills. Several of you
have written recently asking for an updated prayer letter so that
you will know how to pray for me, the work of the Faculté,
and the work of Christ in Rwanda. I appreciate these letters very
much, so please don’t hesitate to insist on more letters
from me. I’ve put off writing because the work here has
been so discouraging lately, and, frankly, I’m embarrassed
about how badly things have been run. But of course this is all
the more reason to write clearly about the needs here and to enlist
your prayers. So here goes.
We’ve had a difficult academic year, which runs from January
through September. The dean (or head) of the Faculté is
also the president of the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda. He was
elected to this post three and a half years ago and will probably
be reelected next December for another four-year term. Because
of his dual responsibilities, he is only at the school one or
two days a month. Consequently, the long-term planning that would
greatly help the college is not being given the attention that
it needs, and many administrative problems that might be easily
resolved as they arise are allowed to continue for months or even
longer. Administrative problems were exacerbated when the administrative
secretary (a kind of assistant dean) was asked to leave after
doing badly on his doctoral defense. His position has not yet
been filled.
Other problems abound. The person responsible for keeping the
physical plant of the college in good repair (this includes everything
from toilets to computers) was dismissed last month after having
been caught with his hand in the till. The number of full-time
professors is still too small, which means that we rely on short-term
professors, who necessarily disrupt the normal schedule of the
college. The full-time professors here are sometimes called to
put in more hours than the college rules require. For example,
I will be teaching 315 hours next year when a full-professor should
only be teaching 240 hours. I love teaching, so this is not a
tremendous burden for me, but it does mean that I have less time
for other aspects of college life.
Another problem is the frequent lack of electricity. I can now
count only on having power for a few hours each night, which is
not enough to do the work that I need to do on the computer. My
own computer, which crashed for the third time a couple of months
ago, is a lost cause. I’d like to replace it, but computers
here have a 50 percent tax, so I’m waiting for an opportunity
to go abroad to buy another. With the generous contributions of
a church in Arizona, I ordered a dozen computers for the school
last January. These were shipped from England earlier this year,
probably on the slowest boat that could be found. I have heard
that they arrived in Dar El Salaam in early July, but they have
yet to make the overland route to Kigali. What’s taking
them so long to arrive I cannot say. In any event, there is no
lack of tangible things for which the college could use your prayers.
I enjoyed a brief respite from all this last month when I taught
American literature at the National University of Rwanda, which
is at the other end of Butare. The course is 45 hours long, and
as a visiting professor I give it over a two-week period. This
is a little hard on me but normal fare for the students. As much
as possible I accent the Christian, spiritual, and moral aspects
of the American literary canon. We discuss Hawthorne on sin, Melville
on the mystery of the universe, Crane on courage, Hemingway on
fate, and so forth. Sometimes the subject matter gets by the students,
as when we discuss Emerson’s transcendentalism or Salinger’s
existentialism or Vonnegut’s post-modernism. But the students
always respond to the great biblical themes and allusions in American
literature—Ahab’s idolatry in Moby Dick,
Uncle Tom as a Christ figure in Beecher’s work, Winthrop’s
vision of America as “a city upon a hill.” Though
a Muslim student once converted after taking a couple of my classes,
I don’t think I’m making many converts in this effort.
Rather, my intention is to deepen the faith of the students who
attend. African students are usually quite a religious group,
so this is not often a difficult task. I was especially encouraged
by this year’s class, which was one of the best I’ve
ever had. Students seemed not only to grasp the material but to
be genuinely moved by it—or so the professor may hope. The
proof in the pudding is that several of these students have requested
that I be their advisor for their senior theses, which will explore
various spiritual aspects of American literature.
Despite the difficulties mentioned above, I hope you all know
that I continue to be very dedicated to this work. The students
make it all worthwhile, both at the Faculté and at the
university. And once again, I thank everyone for your prayers,
letters, and financial support.
Que Dieu vous benisse,
Michael Parker
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
323 |
