Bethel, Kinyarwanda, and Chinese

On Friday, a week ago, I went to Bethel for a tour. It is a small branch, about 70 members, plus a handful of commuters. Want to take a quick tour? Here you go . . .

Entrance to Bethel

Reception

Shipping Dept.

Laundry

Dining room

Sean and Mashona Lofton are ex-Brooklyn and Patterson Bethelites transplanted to Rwanda, where Sean serves on the branch committee. Do you know that aside from them and me, there are no other Americans who are presently serving in Rwanda? This is groundbreaking! The work in Rwanda really got going after the genocide in 1994, and they have an 8% increase in publishers every year, so I'm not sure why more Americans haven't gotten the idea to serve in this field 'ripe for harvesting.' So, to anyone reading this post: here's your chance to be a pioneer in the literal sense!

The major language here is Kinyarwanda. Aside from amakuru (how are you) and murakoze (thank you), I haven't learned much else. Kinyarwanda appears phonetic, so in that sense it should be easier than Chinese, but the grammar is complex. It has 16 different noun classes, and 19 ways to inflect verbs. Oh, and there are also tones. I'm not sure how many. Anyway, it may be awhile before I make any progress in this language.

There is no one working the Chinese field here. Some of the Rwandan brothers have magazine routes on Chinese people, but all they do is hand out magazines, smile, and leave. This is why some of the brothers are really anxious to learn Chinese. One brother named Jean d'Amour (literally, "John of Love"), who serves at Bethel in the Computer Department, is presently in the Sign Language field but already has his sights set on Chinese.

Epimaque and Jean d'Amour

Kigali has a few Chinese restaurants, but for the most part, the Chinese here are working on major construction projects. They are constructing a huge circular-shaped convention center in town, along with some high-rise commercial buildings. The challenge is to gain access to these sites and permission to preach to the workers. But we are slowly making progress.

Next time:  Life in Kigali (for a Chinese-American person)