Traveling no more than 5 miles an hour, the bus hugged a narrow road gouged with potholes and inched its way up a lush mountaintop in Rwanda.

It was the rainy season in the East African nation. Had it rained that day in April, the group of 22 church members from Independent Presbyterian in Memphis would have been unable to make the journey to Mwiko Village.

But the rains held off, miraculously, and the Memphis group arrived as scheduled. They were there, at the invitation of Rwanda’s Anglican bishop, to demonstrate how to teach vacation Bible school with stories, songs and games. They hosted a dental clinic.

Deborah and Rachel Meis also were there to dance.

Sisters Deborah (left) and Rachel Meis lead 250 children and adults through worship movement to the song, "I Love You Lord" at Mwiko Village - or Tom's Village - on a mountain in Rwanda.

The sisters slipped on their sturdier jazz shoes and gauzy tops soon after they arrived. A bit later, they popped a gospel song into a beat-up, battery-operated boom box they had lugged with them in their carry-on luggage. Arching their necks, the ballerinas began to move in unison, smiling as the sun spotlighted their faces.

“All these years of ballet training, this is the reason why I dance,” Deborah said in an interview after the group returned to Memphis. “I wasn’t training just to dance, but to minister through dance.”

By going on the April mission trip, 17-year-old Deborah gave up a chance to perform at Lincoln Center in New York City, and compete for more than $250,000 in scholarships to leading dance schools and ballet companies, an opportunity she gained by placing second in a regional ballet competition.

Instead, Deborah and her 21-year-old sister, Rachel, decided to join their mother, Lani, on the mission trip to Rwanda, a beautiful country with a painful past.

To some in the Memphis group, the country reminded them of Hawaii with its lush vegetation and hills and mountain ranges.

Rwandans keep their country beautiful by devoting one day a month to ensuring it is clean, even sweeping the dirt roads. They want visitors to bring only biodegradable products without plastic wrappings into the country.

Rwandans are still dealing with the pain from their past. In 1994, ethnic Hutus killed a million ethnic Tutsis in 100 days. Rwandans don’t use the word “genocide,” Memphis church members said. Survivors simply say things like, “My parents died in 1994.”

During their 10-day stay, Memphis church members watched as Rwandan family members brought just-discovered remains to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre to be buried.

“They don’t feel downtrodden,” said Kathy Garrett, a church member and nurse who helped arrange the trip. “They don’t say ‘help us.’ They say, ‘teach us. Show us what’s next.’”

Independent Presbyterian plans to return to Rwanda for the next two years to keep teaching and showing. On the April trip, organizers planned for the Memphis group to work with about 1,000 children, but word spread quickly among the villagers about the three-day vacation Bible school.

When the Memphis group arrived, the bishop and his wife cautioned them that there might be 1,500 children. On the first day of school, 2,300 children showed up. On the third day, 2,600 children arrived. None was turned away.

The mission group was told that 1,500 children might show up for their three-day vacation Bible school in Rwanda. On the first day, 2,300 arrived, and even more came the second day. Without enough supplies to go around, organizers cut the crowns into halves so that all the children would have crowns to wear. The crown symbolizes Jesus is King.

Each Memphis church member had carried two suitcases — one with clothes and a second one filled with arts, crafts, costumes and backdrops. Crafts that were meant for 1,000 were cut into halves. More crafts were made.

“Everything was beyond our ability,” said Lani Meis, who went on the trip with her two daughters. “A class of 50 is now 100. We had our own plans. It was as if God was saying, ‘I have got it how I want it. I’m going to do the impossible. Here’s my plan.’”

Meis’ daughters played their part in the plan. In addition to dancing, and leading young adults and children in dance movements to songs such as, “I Love You Lord,” they bought protein-rich eggs and fed the children.

“Basically, we didn’t have enough eggs,” Rachel said. “God literally provided.”

Deborah has no regrets about passing up a chance to dance before hundreds of people at Lincoln Center to dance in the dirt for children in Rwanda.

“I was supposed to be here in Rwanda,” she said. “I was able to use my gift.”

— Lela Garlington: (901) 529-2349