About This Week’s Epiphany Feature: Ben and Cherie
Ben and Cherie Weber and six of their children have been serving the God Rwanda since 2022. They serve in Bishop Manasseh Gahima’s diocese through the organization Friends of Gahini. Their mission is to strengthen the relationship between local Anglican churches in the USA and in the Gahini Diocese as they come alongside each other to reach their communities with the Gospel.
An Update from the Webers in Rwanda
Many people in the West have a highly idealized view of Rwanda. It makes sense. For many churches in the American Anglican world, the pastors in Rwanda opened their doors when they no longer felt at home in the Episcopal Church. For the many of us who have come to know Rwanda after joining the Anglican church, we learned about the tragedy of the Genocide, the seemingly impossible work or reconciliation that the government has been striving for, and the great effort to come to our aid in a time of spiritual darkness.
Yet for many Rwandans, the gospel is a mystery they still don’t grasp in their hearts. For many, the church is a vehicle for community organization, financial support, and economic advancement. Sunday mornings are a chance to gather, sing, and dance… an entertaining experience that has nothing to do with how they live their lives the rest of the week. What can we do to push through the “profit-making initiatives” or “fun” and actually impact people’s hearts?
There is a painting at my parents’ home of a well. On the picture, it is written, “Never be too busy in your parish ministry to sit by the well and pass the time with your parishioners.” I think of that picture when I ask myself what’s important in my ministry. Sometimes the most impactful things are the hardest to quantify.
While I can measure how many kids we have helped with school fees, or people we have fed, and how many pastors we have helped now that their churches have been closed, our real impact comes in everyday encounters. It’s David who brings us milk sitting with us through evening prayer. It is Lionel who so often shows up right before dinner (suspicious) sitting with us at the table while we hold hands and pray. It is Barbara talking with Cherie about what a godly husband should look like. It is encouraging pastors to read their Bibles. It is simply living out the Christian life in front of our neighbors in the place God has put us in.
We have found that the greatest tools in ministry are the habits and spiritual disciplines we developed before ever setting foot on the mission field. We spend a lot of time planning programs or talking about initiatives, and I can add up numbers with all of those things. Yet when I look back on a morning in which I got nothing done on my list because I spent the morning with someone talking about what was on their mind, I often realize that God was changing someone’s life, and I was not even aware.
Ben and Cherie Weber are living in Gahini, Rwanda where they are building partnerships between churches in the USA and churches in Rwanda. They have lived there with 6 of their 7 children for almost two years. Currently, they are developing a school partnership program to help the church schools in the Diocese of Gahini better disciple their students.