Pastor Rick Kicks off 40 Days of Purpose in Rwanda

OK...they are calling this the kickoff event for 40 Days of Purpose for Rwanda.
...if that's the case, Rick Warren just kicked a 70 yard field goal right through the uprights.

I was at the Anaheim Stadium 25th Anniversary event and it was cool, but this was a pretty awesome day.

Let me go back a day, first...

On Saturday, we discovered that the whole country of Rwanda has these periodic National Cleanup Days, where NO ONE can travel on the roads...everyone has to be busy beautifying the country and involved in cleanup activities

Really a great idea...like a big secular sabbath, but rather than rest, you scrub your community.

I just wish someone would clue me in on these awesome ideas..I'd have brought a brillo pad and some ajax...

But this really threw a wrench in our plans...going to meet more churches, schools and children's centers.

What we ended up doing was FAR better than anything I could have planned...we set out in 4 vans and attempted to drive through 10 police roadblocks to the National Stadium. What we told the police was that we were headed for a cleanup on a national project...
It worked !!!!

We got to this huge stadium and just went down on the track and prayed...it's been raining A LOT we just simply asked the Lord to look kindly on this event and for us to follow His Plans for the day. Then we fanned out all over the stadium and PRAYED

Over every seat in the stadium
Over the guests that would be coming
Over the security for the day
Over President Kigame, who would be attending
Over Bishop Kolini, the Anglican Archbishop, overseeing the day
Over Pastor Rick
Over all the details that go into preparing for 30,000 people they expected

I just chose a place in the 'endzone' where I stood in the tunnel entrance and could see the whole stadium before me and prayed for 45 minutes straight...all of us did the same...Then we fanned out and actually did some work projects with the stadium team preparing the venue.
After church at Deliverance Church and about 7 more PD churches the next morning ..we all went to the event. It felt like EVERY church in Rwanda was there...people arriving by foot, taxi, bus, and moto-bota-bota...photo of that coming.

*The Presidents speech was terrific.
*The Bishops prayer was inspiring, but
*Rick's talk was historic.

Sitting there in the grandstands, with a backdrop of thousands of ebony-black faces, I tried to take myself back to 1982 at Laguna Hills High School, in the Little Theater, with Kay Warren playing the piano and Rick preaching about how every believer is a minister...

And for that moment... I felt as though I was really involved in reaching beyond myself.

And that's a cool feeling.

LOVE IN A SHOEBOX

The looks on their faces...
The anticipation of getting a gift...
The hugs of appreciation...
The squeals of joy when they open their boxes...
The dancing...
The singing...

There is NOTHING in the world like a distribution day for Operation Christmas Child...a program that Saddleback Church partners with Samaritan's Purse around the world.

Packing the boxes is a lot of fun..
Collecting them at church is fun and fulfilling...
Sorting and sending them at the processing center is awe-inspiring...
But giving these little kids around the world a Christmas gift ( even in April...Christmas is anytime you get a gift in Christ's name) from the families of our church is the BEST.

We have had 2 huge OCC distributions here in Rwanda...one at a church...one at a church-run school... We've given out close to a thousand of these shoebox gifts to every kind of kid. We sang songs and played games..went in classrooms and shared our stories of Christ in our lives...and talked with the kids about THE GREATEST GIFT ANYONE EVER GAVE...God's gift to us, His Son, Jesus Christ...and Christ's gift of His life for us.
Pictures don't tell it all, but here's a few.

All 3 orphan girls from the street showed up at the distribution...they are listening !!