The Road Back to Deerfield: A Call to the Great Lakes Region

​On Monday afternoon, a few hours before I boarded a plane to head back to New Hampshire, I sat down with Bishop Theo for a final debrief. I thought I had already seen and processed the depths of Rwanda, but our conversation brought me to tears all over again.

As Theo laid out the sheer magnitude of the suffering, poverty, and logistical challenges facing the African Great Lakes Region—which spans Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Burundi—my heart completely broke. But it also ignited a fire.

The Weight on a Bishop’s Shoulders

Theo received a direct call from God in 1997. That same year, he started the Harvest Christian Church. Today, he is the Bishop and overseer of 82 Harvest Christian Churches across Rwanda, Uganda, and the DRC. He also founded the Africa Hope Initiative (AHI) as an interdenominational ministry, opening the doors to everyone—Protestants, Catholics, and Muslims alike—because he believes the only way to reach people is through love in action.

But the mountain he is climbing is massive. During our meeting, I took pages of notes on the staggering crises his ministry is quietly fighting every single day:

 The Educational Crisis for Pastors: The Rwandan government now strictly mandates that all pastors must hold a Bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministry or Theology. For an aspiring rural pastor, the complete program costs $2,000—an insurmountable fortune. Without support to get them educated, local churches will never reopen after 10,000 were forced to close in 2024. 

 The Heartbreak of the Congo: In the neighboring DRC—specifically the southern region of Minembwe—communities are experiencing violent conflict and an ongoing, overlooked genocide. People are being killed and separated from their families simply because of their ethnicity. Rebels have taken everything from them. There are over 100,000 "street children" left without parents, and over 100,000 refugees are currently trapped in camps across the border in Uganda.

 The Long Wait for Empowerment: While the faith-based, joint-liability micro-loan program has successfully lifted 400 women into financial self-sufficiency, there are currently 3,000 more women on the waiting list.

 The Children of Nyamata & Ruhango: At the Child Hope Center in Ruhango, the school uniform provided to the children is the only piece of clothing they own. They learn in it, play in it, and sleep in it. For these kids, and the dozens waiting for sponsorship at the Nita (Nyamata) and Batima centers, the single school meal Theo provides is the only food they will eat all day.

Real, Christocentric Ministry

Seeing Theo’s work firsthand redefined my understanding of faith. This isn't high-level, comfortable theology. This is a real, Christocentric ministry that lives out the raw text of Scripture. It is the literal execution of James 1:27:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Theo is meeting the poorest of the poor exactly where they are—combating teen addiction, teaching young adults trade skills, giving livestock to starving families, and digging clean water wells for forgotten villages. They start every single morning with a gospel devotional and close every night in focused prayer. They are our Christian brothers and sisters, and they are living through incredibly hard times. They need us to hear their voices. They need us to stand with them.

Launching Church Leaders Connection

I cannot witness this kind of resilience paired with this level of extreme need and just walk away. God did not send me to East Africa just to give a few lectures and go home to my comfortable routine.

That is why I am officially launching Church Leaders Connection: Equipping Leaders, Strengthening Churches.

Our immediate mission is to build a direct, sustainable pipeline of relationship, advocacy, and financial support from the West straight into the Great Lakes Region. We are going to:

1. Partner American pastors with Rwandan and Congolese pastors to meet once a week via Zoom for direct mentoring, encouragement, and brotherhood, culminating in annual trips to visit them on the ground.

2. Help raise funds for the $2,000 tuition fees to keep grassroots pastors educated and their churches legally open.

3. Directly sponsor children and fund the micro-loan programs to cut down that devastating 3,000-woman waiting list.

36 Hours to Process

On Monday night, I left Kigali and began the grueling, 36-hour journey home.

It was an exhausting itinerary: flying from Kigali to Entebbe, then up to Brussels, down to Washington D.C., into Boston, and finally driving back to our home in Deerfield. By the time I stepped through my front door, I was completely, utterly spent—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

But as I sat in those airport terminals over those 36 hours, looking at the contrast of Western wealth around me, the faces of the Batwa children, the women creating pottery out of the dirt, and the young beauty school students offering me a cow kept flashing before my eyes.

American Christians simply do not know or understand the level of poverty out there. We need people to see it, to visit, to pray, to donate, and to advocate.

I went to Rwanda thinking I was the teacher. But I was the one who got schooled. The trip is over, but the work is just beginning. Thank you for walking this road with me—now, let’s stand with them.