“The end of October saw our fifth annual PTW retreat. We headed down to lake Kivu to contemplate our topic for the weekend – speaking the truth in love. Many of our Rwandan friends have told us that deceit is a particular problem in Rwandan culture, and we have also experienced this for ourselves. In Western cultures we tend to start relationship with the premise of trust. We trust someone until they prove to be untrustworthy. In Rwanda it is the opposite, you are untrustworthy until you prove you can be trusted. For this reason people hold back and do not give away too much about themselves in case it could be used against them. This makes developing meaningful relationships a long and painful process. However, as a Christian community we hope to be free from deceit and dishonesty and therefore build relationships built on trust. We were challenged that Jesus is the embodiment of ultimate truth and so we must walk in the light as he is in the light and be people of truth. Please pray that all of us at PTW would become people who love truth, because Jesus is the truth. Pray that we would not give into cultural norms and that we would become known as people who stand for, and speak, the truth in love.”