When he left our house last night I gave him the best words of encouragement I could muster as I fought back the tears... 'Remember that God is already where you're going, He will always be with you and no matter how hard life may seem, God will always provide a way through.'
Cyprien is a refugee. He has no family.
I first met him in 2003 and liked him from the beginning. He was eager to see how International Teams could bring benefit to the Kiziba Refuge Camp. He would sit in the back row as we talked to the pastors in the camp about living in unity and doing ministry together - they could do more together than separately.
This birthed an idea in his mind...and he ran with it.
By 2006, he had unified 15 different denominations within the youth ministry community in the camp.
Cyprien loves God and desires that everyone knows God. When they ( the formed central youth committee - JCM ) asked us for money to do ministry and we told them that they needed to find the money within the camp, Cyprien led the way in figuring out how they could tap into the economy of the camp.
Today, they have a successful cell phone charging business (no more walking 2 hours to charge your phone!), a hair cutting salon, have harvested vegetables twice to give to the poor in the camp and are planting their third crop , have rebuilt some homes for the poorest of the poor refugees ... and they're sharing the gospel. Kiziba will miss him dearly but he has raised up many leaders to follow in his footsteps so we know the ministry will not suffer.
We will miss him dearly as well. Cyprien considers Serge and I his parents. Our hearts were torn between being so sad to see him go, to being so nervously excited for him as he walked out our gate last night for the last time.
I need to trust that words I spoke to him... God is already where he's going... May Sacramento be gracious to you Cyprien - Please God!!
4 comments:
Hi Jen! I don't think I met Cyprien when I was in Rwanda, but I only live an hour or two away from Sacramento... so please let me know if there's anything I can do for Cyprien! Feel free to give him my email if you think it might be helpful. :)
That's awesome! Hopefully your words will hold true and that he does really well there! It'll be weird going back up to Kiziba and not seeing him there!
oh... and I think you really ment "saloon" :)
@ Mike... I KNOW it`s `saloon`but figured most people would think I had a great spelling mistake!! Yes, he will be missed...
What an encouraging story!! I loved hearing how God worked in the camp. And I pray that Cyprien will have a peaceful journey to the US.
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