Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Rev. Elidard Twahirwa visits the USA, shares perspectives and offers challenges

By LARRY MITCHELL -Staff Writer
ChicoER.com
October 18, 2009

CHICO -- "How are you, Mommy?"

With those English words, the Rev. Elidard Twahirwa, a sturdy pastor from Africa, greeted tiny Leta Cleland, who is 99 years old.

The scene at Twin Oaks Health and Rehabilitation Center in Chico one recent afternoon was clearly not usual.

Twahirwa, a 57-year-old Lutheran minister from Rwanda, was on Day 11 of a 12-day visit. He had gone to Twin Oaks with two local pastors to visit Cleland, who is a member of Chico's Faith Lutheran Church.

The three pastors found Cleland eating her lunch in the nursing home's dining room. She was happy to set aside her meal to visit.

After some chatting, the Rev. Peg Schultz-Akerson of Faith Lutheran asked Cleland if she'd like to celebrate the Lord's Supper.

She'd be happy to, she said.

So, there in the dining room, Schultz-Akerson poured little cups of wine from a flask and produced Communion wafers.

Twahirwa stood and — in Kinyarwanda, his native tongue — said the Words of Institution. These are words Christians believe Jesus spoke at the Last Supper.

Twahirwa distributed the wine and wafers to Cleland, Schultz-Akerson and Pastor Joe Kiwovele, who was acting as an interpreter.

Kiwovele, the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Chico, is from Tanzania and speaks Swahili. Twahirwa also speaks Swahili because he lived for a number of years in Tanzania, which borders Rwanda.

As the two African men walked the halls of the nursing home, they talked, in Swahili, about how strange it seemed that Americans would send their aged relatives to live in nursing homes.
In English, Kiwovele explained what they'd been saying.

According to his culture's mores, he said, when his mother is too old to care for herself, she must come live with him, since he is her oldest son.

"And that's considered my right, not an obligation," he added.

But at the pace their countries have been taking on Western ways, perhaps in two or three generations children there will send their parents to live in care homes, Kiwovele and Twahirwa said.

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Twahirwa comes from a very rural part of Rwanda — a village called Kagitumba where there is neither running water nor electricity.

Though the small country is said to be very beautiful, it has big problems, including poverty and overpopulation.

How did it happen that a pastor from this remote spot would come visiting in Chico?

The reason is that Faith Lutheran Church and Twahirwa's Kagitumba Parish have a "sister-church" relationship.

In 2006, Schultz-Akerson and a church member, Macy Kelly — who was instrumental in strengthening the bonds between the two churches — traveled to Kagitumba for a visit.

Members of Faith Lutheran Church have been giving financial help to Kagitumba Parish.

Now it was time for Twahirwa to visit Faith Lutheran.

The Chico church members planned a full schedule for him during his time here.

He spoke to a class at Chico State University, visited the Chico State Farm and also an organic rice farm owned by a church member. He also met with a local pastors' group. He was taken through Bidwell Park and up into the mountains toward Lassen Peak. He played miniature golf with youngsters from the church, too.

And, of course, he participated in activities at Faith Lutheran. He attended a blessing of the animals, helped serve a meal to the homeless at the Torres Shelter, and joined in prayer meetings and other events.

One Sunday, he preached at two services at Faith Lutheran.

His sermon was about not preventing individuals from "coming to Jesus" and about how people must develop all three aspects of themselves: the physical, the mental and the spiritual.

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In an interview with the Enterprise-Record, Twahirwa talked about his impressions of Chico and America. Kiwovele interpreted his words.

Twahirwa said America was developed far beyond what he had imagined. He was amazed by how interested people here were in him and how many questions they had.

In coming to America, he flew on a plane for the first time.

He said Rwanda is less developed than neighboring countries like Uganda and Tanzania and that he hopes his country can also progress.

His trip into the mountains left him astonished by the vast forests, and he tried to calculate how much all that timber could be worth.

Worship services at Faith Lutheran weren't very different from those at home, he said, but instead of an hour service, church in Kagitumba lasts three hours. There is lots of singing and preaching, he said.

Asked what he believed to be the core of Christianity, he responded, "the hope of eternal life."

Most people in Rwanda are Christians, he said. A small number practice Islam, and a tiny minority adhere to traditional African religions.

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The bond between Faith Lutheran Church and Kagitumba Parish began about seven years ago.

The relationship is one of many facilitated by a worldwide association of denominations — the Lutheran World Federation — which does humanitarian and development work around the globe.

The federation encourages "companion" relationships between its members in various nations.

Faith Lutheran's denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, belongs to the federation.

Schultz-Akerson said the Lutheran Church in Rwanda was formed by Twahirwa and 13 other Rwandan pastors who had been living in Tanzania and returned to their home country after perhaps a million of its inhabitants were killed in a genocidal civil war during the 1990s.

The tiny African nation desperately needed companionship and aid.

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Twahirwa's visit was a great blessing, Schultz-Akerson said. "It's been beyond imagination."
Church members delighted in relating to the Rwandan, whose personality sparkles.

Now, all the children at Faith Lutheran know where Rwanda is, and they can say a few words in Kinyarwanda, she said.

Twahirwa left the Chicoans with a couple of challenges, too. He'd like to start sending them baskets and woven goods made by women in Kagitumba to sell locally.

Also, he asked if Faith's members could raise $40,000 to build his parish a "dream church."

This new church would easily fit inside Faith's sanctuary, but it would be much better than the present church, which was built of mud in 1997.

The Rwandan government says the Kagitumba church is infested with termites and must come down.

Raising $40,000 will be quite an endeavor, Schultz-Akerson said, adding the congregation has begun thinking about how it might be done.

One other dream, she said, is to send a delegation of youth from Chico to Kagitumba.

Note:
Staff writer Larry Mitchell can be reached at 896-7759 or lmitchell@chicoer.com .

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 5:49 PM