Unfortunately, neighbors who have killed neighbors is everyday reality for pastors in Rwanda. Wounds are still deep twenty-five years after the Rwandan genocide.

One year ago, Bishop Selestine Seburikoko approached local missionaries for “trauma counseling” training for his pastors of the Lutheran Mission in Africa--Synod of Thousand Hills (LMA-STH) in Rwanda. These Missionaries, in turn, asked Ambassadors of Reconciliation for help.

Last March, Ted and I traveled to Rwanda to present reconciliation training to these pastors and their wives. The experience was life-changing for them and for us! You can read about our trip at aorhope.org. Your support made these miracles possible! The impact from that one trip was so great the opportunity to equip reconcilers in Africa is exploding! We have been invited back to East Africa to train hundreds of reconcilers including:

1. Teaching reconciliation to rural pastors in Uganda;
2. Teaching at the Lutheran seminary in Jinja, Uganda;
3. Reconciliation training for LC-MC missionaries and families serving East and Southern Africa;
4. Continued reconciliation training for pastors of LMA-STH in Rwanda;
5. Reconciliation Seminar for 100 pastors of the Christ Evangelism Ministry Network of Nairobi, Kenya;
6. Equipping leaders of African Leadership and Reconciliation ministries (ALARM) in Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda; and
7. Partnering with Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY—a church body of 10 million!) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, through a multi-year initiative to equip reconcilers and establish a biblical process of reconciliation and adjudication for that church body.

We find ourselves asking “What is God up to!?!?” We simply seek to be faithful to His call as He opens these doors. Your gifts make all of this possible and we invite you to be an Ambassador of Reconciliation to East Africa!

In February and March, Dwight and Rev. Dr. Bruce Zagel will visit Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda to accomplish items six and seven, above, for future trips later in 2020 and into 2021. The cost of this five-week mission trip is $30,000. The mission organization requesting our help has arranged to cover about a third of this cost. The remainder is to be raised by AoR.

Your prayers and financial support are vital for this mission opportunity. You will ensure people of East Africa hear and learn to apply the Gospel in the face of the unthinkable. Help us raise $20,000 this month to make this mission a reality.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.Romans 15:13

Thank you in advance for being an Ambassador of Reconciliation to East Africa!

Former Saint John’s member Dwight Schettler is President of Ambassadors of Reconciliation, an international ministry founded to help Christians and their churches in carrying out their peacemaking responsibilities as Christ’s Ambassadors. You can find much more about their work at www.aorhope.org.