Pray and Go: The Movement in Rwanda

by David Reeves, Director of Programs

December 7, 2021

Movement is definable in many ways. There is physical movement between places or states of being, psychological movement from one way of thinking to another, and collective movement where a multitude comes together in an act of change. Some movements are barely discernible shifts. Others are difficult to miss and impossible to forget. 

Today, a movement is happening in Rwanda in which all definitions of movement are at play. In September of 2021, I was blessed enough to witness this movement and its results in person.  At a training facility outside Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city,  10 women and 25 men came together for their first meeting in two years. Covid had caused this long absence from one another’s lives, but they were reunited under their common goal. 

These men and women are movement leaders and coordinators within the 30 districts of Rwanda. They are representatives for a group that seeks to grow the kingdom of God through a simple grassroots movement and discovery Bible study. The group describes themselves as “disciples of Jesus Christ who make disciples and train disciples to make disciples.” They speak of movement as “praying and going.”

During my time with them, the leaders gathered daily to share about their work and how God had been moving during their time apart. This experience was like being in a story from Paul’s Acts of the Apostles. Their language was centered on God’s actions and the Spirit moving powerfully to guide and lead them where they should go and who they should see. They spoke of entering into communities, much as Luke 10 describes. They spoke of being led to a specific person, home, or field and their meeting a person of peace. These daily gatherings were a celebration of this movement of God.

I was a part of their meetings because they had asked Flint Global to provide training in Sustainable Conservation Agriculture (SCA).  Of the movement’s leaders, 96% are farmers. They felt that better farming methods would allow their leaders to better provide for their families and lead to improved crop production and land stewardship. They also hoped the training would be a tool through which they could better love and serve their neighbors. They could take the methods they learned and share it with their neighbors so that the entire community could flourish. With Flint’s training, this movement could feed communities in every district of Rwanda. 

Flint gladly agreed to train the movement leaders and entered into a three-year partnership that would continue the training through follow-up sessions and coaching with each leader in his or her respective districts. During the initial three-day training event, everyone present worked through the SCA curriculum and practices. In the evenings, we would sit in a circle and the leaders would share about the movement unfolding in their communities and work.

In September of 2019, the estimated number of house churches for this movement was 550. They had approximately 8,500 baptized believers. At the time of the event in September 2021, they estimated that there are now 1,941 house churches in their movement with some 30,000 baptized believers or disciples in all 30 districts of Rwanda. The DNA of these disciples is to obey the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20 and go make obedient disciples of Jesus who make obedient disciples of Jesus. Due to this well established DNA, they estimate that there are between 500-1,000 active discovery Bible studies currently happening in each district. 

This is movement. It is a movement of the Holy Spirit in the lives of obedient disciples of Jesus. It is physical movement through “praying and going” and meeting the people God has prepared. It is a movement as lives are transformed through the renewing of the mind and heart in Christ Jesus. God is doing extraordinary things in Rwanda. It is a pleasure to be invited to play a small role for these amazing people as they seek to bring holistic transformation to all peoples and communities in Rwanda. May God bless their efforts.