Is there a difference between talent and calling, if yes, how so? Media mogul Oprah Winfrey explained it, “Your talent will allow you to have a wonderful career, but this is what I’ve learned: Your career is what you’re paid for. Your calling is what you’re made for.” “Your calling is tied directly to your gift,” said comedian Steve Harvey during a discussion with Winfrey on her talk show. Rwandan gospel singers, Erica Irakoze and Jessica Ishimwe, who happen to be twins, believe they were born and called to sing. With the aptitude and passion to worship God, there is nothing they can equate this calling to. Like many gospel singers, the duo started their journey in church, Sunday School to be exact, practicing at the age of six. Born in a Christian family, singing happened a lot, and eventually, they joined adult choirs, and later worship teams. The twins are currently part of the Christian Life Assembly (CLA) worship team, conveying the word of God through music. Although they have been doing this almost all their lives, the twins only started singing as a duo one year ago. Choosing to sing gospel is a calling from God, and a privilege for them to serve Him, they say. Making music Irakoze and Ishimwe decided to take worship to another level by recording music, thus releasing their first song dubbed “Umunyenkomezi”—loosely translated as “the one who makes me strong”. If you feel downhearted or are going through a tough situation and need to be reminded of God’s steadfast love, listen to “Umunyenkomezi”. It is painted through a Bible scripture, Jeremiah 18:6: “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” The singers’ aim is to win souls to Christ through music, they preach the gospel and give hope to the disheartened, and enable believers who relapsed to turn back to God. For them, everyone deserves a second chance, and God’s arms are wide open to receive them. After their first song, they released four more, “Sihari Yazutse”, “Ndi ku Rutare”, “Ndakubone”, and “My Lord exists”. Asked to describe their journey, the two highlight that it’s been good albeit with lows. It has brought adventure, discovery, and connection with people. However, they don’t have management to oversee what they do, which makes handling everything on their own tricky. “We are in charge of everything, in case of any project, we take on the challenges alone until it is successful. We also promote our songs solely,” Ishimwe says. She adds that even when the two are not emotionally okay, they still minister and have come to the realisation that it’s not about them but God, because from imperfection, God makes perfection. Besides, it’s fun when you do what you are zealous about, they say. The songbirds look up to American gospel singer, and 12-time Grammy award winner, CeCe Winans, as they find her immensely talented and adore her personality. They describe her as a God-fearing woman and have been fans of her music since they were kids. Irakoze and Ishimwe are also inspired by Darlene Zschech, an Australian worship leader, pastor, songwriter, and author, as they love her style of worship, and believe that her music is life-changing and anointed. Career Irakoze always yearned to be a medical doctor, since childhood. She was inspired by her mother’s condition as she (the mother) was battling cancer in 2001. She hoped she could give her all the medical attention she needed to get well. Thankfully, their mother is now a cancer survivor. Ishimwe, however, wanted to be a politician; she liked watching the news on TV and interacting with people about politics, and also participated in debates at school. The twins studied A-level in Uganda and pursued sciences (Biology and Chemistry) and it was always a challenge to be separated in class. So Ishimwe decided to take sciences as well and put her political dream aside. “After graduating from high school in 2011, we went to India for university in 2012. Unfortunately medicine was a very demanding and expensive course. We searched for any course related to medicine and found biotechnology, we both decided to pursue it and graduated in 2015,” Ishimwe says. While in the first year at the university, they tried applying for other online courses. Irakoze joined marketing management, while Ishimwe took on business administration. While pursuing those courses, they added two post graduate courses in the food nutrition and safety field, but finished them in time with their main course. After coming back to Rwanda, the two worked in a food processing industry for almost years. Irakoze was a marketing manager, Ishimwe was in administration. In September 2016, they joined a local tourism company. And in 2017, they were called for an internship placement in an international brewing company located in Rwanda but when the internship ended, they had no job. As the two planned to start their own juice processing company in Uganda, Covid-19 hit and all hope was lost. At least at that time. In September 2017, they went to Burundi, applied for one position in a Christian organisation and were both employed. It’s there that they started a club called ‘GEMS’ which stands for Girls Empowerment Motivation Scheme. With time, they started offering Christian counselling to teenagers who were dealing with issues such as low self-esteem. “Towards the end of 2018, we shifted to Rwanda, started planning for our career in music, and writing songs. We felt this was the right time to do so. Since we are soon becoming self-employed it will be easier for us to balance work and music,” they say. The vocalists were born in Burundi and are currently staying in Rwanda, working as biotechnologists professionally. When free, they love spending time with friends and family, watching movies, discovering new places, and et cetera. One would wonder what it is like to sing as sisters, but the two find it fun to write and sing songs together. “We find it more thrilling because two people are better than one.” Their future plans include preaching the gospel of Christ to the world through different means of entertainment, if possible, to create a space (label) for other gospel singers who wish to start their music but have no means. They look forward to pushing for the expansion of the Kingdom of God by providing any kind of support to whoever wants to serve God.
