“A picture says a thousand words”. (So this blog is already over the typical 500 word post! :))
The smiles in this picture say it all. Rwanda was a month of smiles and life-giving God moments.
Our family- We stayed with an awesome family, who were not only extremely hospitable, but they made us part of their family. Pastor Fred and his wife, Mamma Mary, told us their home is our home, we are their children, and they will always pray for us. Their 4 beautiful daughters (Eva, Sharon, Natasha, and Lynda), not only did a wonderful job of translating for us, but also become fast friends! And the 2 youngest boys, 8 year old Prince and 7 year old Joshua, became our little brothers.
Our Ministry- Door 2 door evangelism, morning English lessons, preaching Tuesday to Friday evenings and Sunday mornings. And of course, my favorite- children’s ministry! I had the opportunity to lead Sunday school activities 5 days a week- this was awesome!!
Our down time- Pastor Fred gave us a tour of the city- the Genocide Museum, the President’s house, the stadium, and a couple pools. A favorite place to chill was at a shopping centre with a lovely coffee shop. One of our favourite off days was bowling with the Pastor’s family, and as you can see in the picture- we had a lot of fun!
To celebrate my fellow Canadian’s birthday, we bought giant 3 ½ foot wooden spoons, and played a form of broomball. We had a fantastic time, with only a few bruises and broken spoons!
But seriously, the best part of Rwanda was: seeing broken lives saved, seeing the joy on the face of the man in a wheelchair, dancing to worship music that I don’t understand, a group of adorable children energetically singing my favorite ‘Golden Rule’ song, and the arms of a child around me saying “I love you, Anna”.
We did D2D 3 days a week, and every time was incredible. The people are hungry for the word of God, and embrace it. My team mate, BJ, started preaching to a couple of factory workers, and suddenly he is surrounded by factory workers wanting to be saved, begging for Bibles and more teaching from the word.
One of the most incredible days we had started off as a miserable, cold day. (And side note: Anna hates cold. In fact I have a new quote: “Cold is useless without snow”.) But it turned into an incredibly heart-warming day. We started off at 7 AM to go to Pastor Fred’s other church a couple hours away. The four of us in the truck bed where snuggling together to stay warm. Then, it started to pour and we were forced to stop. And the rain came at just the right time that we had to stop at just the right place to run into another team from our group, and got to spend time with our friends. We spent an incredible time of worship and teaching with the small gathering at the church before heading home, but it was such a blessing to spend this day in this way.
This is just a small way of how God leads His children, and all the glory goes to Him for such an incredible month, and once again meeting friends that will forever have an impact on us!
