Hitting the books --

15,000 of them

By JOHN FORTMEYER

CNNW publisher
    PORTLAND — Like most any university professor, Garry Friesen is an avid bookworm and is no stranger to libraries. But when the Multnomah University faculty member was approached last year to help organize a library for a new theological school in Africa, he felt a bit inadequate.
    “My first comment was, ‘I don’t think I know how to do that.’ ’’
    He does now.
    With his eyes probably more than a little weary from the months of effort, Friesen personally scanned 35,000 books donated last year through a campaign coordinated by Mult-nomah, and selected 15,000 to be shipped this month to Rwanda. The roughly 425 boxes of books — which Friesen values at an estimated $500,000 to $700,000 — will comprise the first library for the Rwanda Evangelical School of Theology in that nation’s capital of Kigali.
    The books were amassed during collection drives last spring and fall that Multnomah’s student body enthusiastically took on as a project.
   “I’m amazed at how the students owned the project, talked about it and got excited about it,” said Rwanda native and current Multnomah student Fred Katagwa, who is Rwanda executive director for Africa New Life Ministries, based in that nation. “It’s a miracle!”
    The ministry, founded in 2001 by Charles Buregeya, reaches out to the widows and ophans of Rwanda, which in the 1990s experienced a genocide that claimed nearly 800,000 lives. Africa New Life is establishing the new theological school on its headquarters property in Kigali.
    To better prepare to lead the organization, Buregeya attended Multnomah Biblical Seminary. Katagwa followed Buregeya’s example and came to Portland in the fall of 2008 to begin studies at Multnomah. He graduates this spring.
    Katagwa and Alan Hotchkiss, who heads up Africa New Life’s office in Portland as the ministry’s executive director for the United States., said the new library addresses a huge need in Rwanda, as there is currently only one public library in the entire nation. Even though it will be part of a theological school, the new library also will be open to the general public.
   “It’s an evangelistic opportunity,” said Hotchkiss. “This is going to be the second public library in all of Rwanda.”
    The new school also is a big step toward filling a huge training gap in that nation, Hotchkiss added.
   “About 95 percent of pastors in Rwanda have never had any formal theological training,” he said.
    Katagwa said longtime Multnomah faculty member Ron Frost suggested that a library be set up in Rwanda. But to receive accreditation there, it needed to have at least 10,000 books.
    In a Multnomah chapel program in February 2009, Katagwa spoke about the need, and students set a goal of collecting 2,009 books by spring graduation 2009. But the campaign took off faster than expected, and that goal was reached easily. The book drive was extended into the fall semester, and the books poured in from a wide range of sources — clergy, teachers, missionaries, and churches.
   “It would be very hard to know how many people have given,” said Katagwa.
    Eight hundred of the books came from the personal library of former Multnomah President Joe Aldrich, who died last year. The books were  donated by his wife, Ruthe.
    As the books flowed in, so did the workload for Friesen, who had volunteered to review the donations. The project diverted his attention from a writing sabattical that he had scheduled. He sought out everyone he thought might advise him on what the library needed.
   “I asked just about everybody who knew more than I did, which was everyone in the world,” he quipped.
    Friesen said that in looking over the books, he sought to avoid those with a clearly “American slant,” selecting volumes that had more of an international tone but that also were theologically sound.
   “It was my best guess at what a reputable Bible college institution would have on the shelves,” he said.
    The 20,000 books that didn’t make the cut will be gradually sold, with proceeds going toward a student endowment fund.
    Friesen said the entire Multnomah community has played a role, and he gave special credit to the university’s library staff for their invaluable guidance and for making space available for the sorting and cataloguing of the donated books. He said members of the Multnomah family have put in many “happy hours” on the project — because their efforts will make people in Kigali happy.
    The completion of the project will be celebrated in a May 3 chapel program at Multnomah.
    For more on Africa New Life Ministries, go to www.anlm.org or phone 503-906-1590.