OUR CCR FAREWELL BLESSING

As our family faces missionary adjustment in Kikago, USA we cling to the Farewell Blessing CCR gave us on our last Sunday.   Thank you for your love and care through our years in Rwanda.   Words cannot convey our appreciation.   Following is the Farewell Blessing spoken by CCR Senior Pastor, Brett Shreck.

Dave and Jana

Ecclesiastes 3:

For everything there is a season,a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.A time to embrace and a time to depart…

Our Senior Pastor, Dave Jenkins, his wife Jana and their children Caleb, Ethan, Ruth and Timothy are leaving us to follow another call in their life. Today is a time to mark the ending of their ministry here at Christ’s Church Rwanda and the beginning of their ministry in the Chicago area; it is a time to look back, and a time to look forward; a time for joy, and a time for sadness. It is a time to give thanks and praise to God for what the Jenkins have given us in our lives together.

Caleb, Ethan, Ruth, Timothy and Sophia who has gone on to university have all played an important role at CCR. We thank you for your willingness to share your home, your meals and your parents with us. We thank you for your faith and for the godly men and women we see you becoming. We thank you for your service and ministry to the church and to others. We appreciate that it can be difficult and a challenge at times to be the pastor’s children, and we want to let you know that you have handled that role with humility, dignity and strength of character. You have been a vital part of this church family and you will be missed. 

Dave and Jana, we thank you for your service to God, to CCR and to each one of us. Over these last seven years you have been our fellow workers in Christ. You have provided counseling, teaching and friendship. You were called by God to pastor us, to proclaim his Word, to baptize new believers and to announce the love and forgiveness Christ offers.

You have joined us in celebrating marriages, new births and adoptions. You have comforted us in times of sickness, sorrow and at the death of our loved ones.

You have provided leadership and guidance. At times you have challenged us. You have helped us mark our direction and have encouraged us along the way. 

Together we have served the Lord and shared in each other’s joys and sorrows. You have been important to us in our life together in Christ’s Church. You will be missed.

Offer the blessing:

That God will protect you and keep you. That he will go before you and prepare your path that you might live in joy and peace. That you will take comfort in the knowledge that his plan is one to prosper you and not to harm you. That his plan gives you a hope and a future. That you will find rest in the presence of the Lord who is with you always, even to the end of the age. And that your family will be blessed with righteousness by faith from generation to generation forever more. Amen.