2018 Impact Report

Rwanda

Henry just returned from a month-long trip to Rwanda and Zambia. 

You may remember that in May we held our first graduation with 65 students getting their degrees (63 Master of Ministry and 2 Doctor of Ministry degrees). After the graduation we traveled to several different cities for celebration ceremonies and held meetings for recruiting new students. The testimonies of the students were so powerful that we were able to recruit over 200 new students to begin their Masters’ and Doctoral level courses!

Bishop Jean Gatarayiha
National Coordinator,
Rwanda

This trip, the new National Coordinator, Bishop Jean Gatarayiha, the new Academic Coordinator, Dr. Emmanuel Gakwaya and Henry traveled to 9 different cities to meet with virtually all the new students.

Dr. Emmanuel Gakwaya, Rwanda Academic Coordinator,

It was good for the students to see the three leaders together and it gave them the opportunity to ask questions they had about the school. It definitely was an exhausting time as every day was 10-12 hours of travel and meetings.

Meeting with students from another of our sites in Kigali. We now have IGSM training sites in nine different cities.

The last day in Rwanda we held a meeting of the IGSM Rwanda Board. We met for an entire day to discuss every aspect of our ministry in Rwanda and where we are going in the future. We are fortunate to have committed board members who represent the different cities where we have students. There was a great sense of unity and we believe we are well positioned for our future ministry in Rwanda. We currently have 223 students taking classes which is truly amazing when you consider that in 2015 we had no students at all!

IGSM has been asked to consider partnering with a school from the largest Evangelical denomination in the country. They want to start by using our Masters’ degree program. We have drafted a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which they are now reviewing to decide if it makes sense for both organizations.

Rwanda is not a large country with the total area not much bigger than Western Washington, but is viewed as one of the most progressive countries in Africa. In 2020 they will hold a meeting with leaders of all the countries of Africa as well as key delegations from many European nations. It is clear to us that God has great plans for Rwanda, not only in their own country, but also throughout Africa. When you consider what Rwanda has gone through beginning with the genocide of 1993-1994 where over 1,000,000 people were killed in just 30 days, you can see that God is doing a marvelous work in this country

Zambia

Henry also traveled to Zambia where IGSM is just in the beginning stages of development. We have a wonderful young National Coordinator – Bellah Zulu. He graduated from the University of Zambia, but then received a Fulbright scholarship to come to the U.S. for two years where he earned his Masters’ degree. He works with a non-profit religious organization in Lusaka, the capital city.

We have a new group of 17 new students who have just started taking courses. We also have met with the leader of the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) – Rev. Emmanuel Chikoya. There are over 1,000 churches in this organization that represent all the Mainline and Evangelical churches in the country. He is now meeting with the other leaders in his organization to decide if they want to move ahead with the IGSM program.