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Written by Baba James
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 10:59 |
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Click here to read From telecom to education, what a journey it's been by David Poilisi
Ever since I came to Rwanda in 1998, I’ve been enjoying figuring out how to pronounce and discern the meaning of incredibly hard Rwandan names. “Twajirimana” means “it is only God who can save us”, “Hatangimbabazi” means roughly “the One who is merciful is the one who can give all things”.
In Rwanda, a child is usually named a week after they are born. The parents invite their friends and members of the community to come and share some refreshments together and suggest names for their newborn child. Starting with the youngest children present at the ceremony, everyone comes and offers a name. The whole process is one of pronouncing blessings upon the child and hopes for what they will become. After getting back to Rwanda in mid January and getting over our jetlag, we invited our friends together to give our son his Rwandan name.
Our precious friends Joseph and Peli helped us make many of the arrangements for the celebration for close to 100 people. There was a menu to be planned and cooks to be hired, goats to be bought, butchered, and roasted on the big day, and a venue to set up. As the ceremony got underway under pastor Andrew Mukinisha’s wise oversight, Jodi and I felt like we had moved into a different level of acceptance in our community as parents, not just some nice young people. Meanwhile our boy was given the best gift possible in Rwanda (a cow and calf) by our precious friends Maggie and Louis Kaliningondo, and a sheep by Mohammed… quickly surpassing his old man’s livestock wealth. The names suggested for him were lovely and full of blessing. Joseph, head of our church’s security team, our neighbor, and one of my best friends suggested a name that resonated deeply with us: Dusengiyumva.
Wellspring started out 6 years ago with the hope of coming alongside our Rwandan brothers and sisters to help them fulfill their dream for their country. Against the odds but with the support of amazing donors, board members, volunteers and staff members, Wellspring has begun making a real contribution to this beautiful country’s future. Throughout Wellspring’s journey so far we have experienced so many times where God has undeniably provided for us when we needed it the most. Little James Dusengiyumva Komant will grow up hearing those stories and hopefully seeing first hand the meaning of his name lived out in this world:
“We pray to the one who hears us”.
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