By Allan McCullough

So, you’ve been noticing that on this blog we have been sharing our experiences with our “buddies” while we were in Rwanda in February of 2009. I had the unique privilege to have Emmanuel Kayijuka to be my buddy. Honestly, what can one say about Kayijuka? He is a faithful pastor, an excellent father, a man of wisdom, and he’s hilarious. Kayijuka was the source of an incredible amount of laughter for me and the rest of our team. Let me give you the quick run down about Kayijuka…

Kayijuka is an older man who works for World Relief in the Church Partnership Department. At the same time, he pastors two other Episcopal Churches on the outskirts of Kigali, Rwanda. He has a lovely wife of 30 years named Julienne and seven children (three of their own and four adopted). Kayijuka is hilarious. He has a joy in the Lord that I envy very much. The man smiles constantly, makes jokes when he can, and truly lives out 1 Corinthians 10:31 as a man who does everything for God’s glory.

When I met Kayijuka, I first thought he was a rather quiet man and was disappointed. I had expected him to be this eccentric and highly entertaining guy based on his reputation. Now, as we got to know each other, I quickly discovered that he can be eccentric and entertaining but it also did not take long for me to also understand that his first priority in life was to serve the Lord. Proverbs 13:3 tells us to carefully watch what comes out of mouths and I learned this by watching Kayijuka. He is a man of few words, but those words are meaningful.

One day, Rich led a session for us and the World Relief staff on leadership. Within that session, we did an exercise where we had to plan out our life in ministry. In the beginning of that session, we all had to answer the question, “I exist to….” Basically, we were expressing what we feel God has put us on this Earth to do. My answer was “To Teach God’s Word.” A good answer but definitely had selfish and prideful connotations attached to it. Kayijuka said, “I exist to praise God.” This blew me away. Here was a man who had lost multiple family members in the Rwandan Genocide and seen things here on earth that I hope none of us ever see. Yet, his desire and reason for living was to bring praise to God.

I hope to see Kayijuka again someday. More so, I hope that my heart can be shaped like Kayijuka’s heart. He’s an inspiration to me and I have a deep love and respect for him.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/3339045]