Psalm 51:12: Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Every day in Africa seems to get better and better. God is so intentional. He knew exactly what our team needed this month; what I needed. Life is peaceful in Rwanda. We have gracious hosts and beautiful scenery and delicious food and adorable kids that shower us with their constant affection. The presence of the Lord is so thick. I feel like a different person. A better person. I wake up happy and I go to bed happy and my jaw aches from smiling so much. I receive literally hundreds of hugs a day. I am in awe of the beauty surrounding me. Rwanda is the land of 1000 hills. We have the most gorgeous view right outside our window of rolling hills, or what I would refer to as mountains, and banana trees everywhere.
We have felt so welcome here. Our main contact, Pastor John, is kind and generous and gentle. He calls us his daughters. He's sat us down practically everyday to thank us repeatedly and to tell us what a blessing we are. But it's him, and his church and his country, that are blessing ME.
We are the 5th World Race team to work with Pastor John and Victory Church, but we are the first lucky team to be staying in a new house. There are two Rwandans that live with us and have blown me away with their servant hearts.
Bonifus is our cook and easily the most joyful person I've ever met. His smile lights up the room. It's impossible to be around him and not feel the joy of the Lord radiating from him. We communicate through charades and smiles and shared cups of tea. I could devote an entire blog to him, and I just might, but his joy is not because he's had an easy life. He has a daughter who would have been around our age, but was killed in Rwanda's genocide in 1994. And his wife Gloria and his children lived with AIDS until the Lord healed them.
Bonifus is the definition of a servant. He cooks three hot meals a day for us over a single hot plate. He refuses to let us even clear the table, let alone help with washing the dishes. Our diet consists mostly of beans, rice, potatoes, white bread, and bananas. I promised Caleb I wouldn't become a vegetarian, but for some reason I can't bring myself to eat any of the meat here. I miss me some good Kansas beef, that's for sure. I drink at least five cups of tea a day. We have tea time in the mornings and afternoons. I don't understand why we don't have this tradition in America. It's so wonderful to stop whatever you're doing and just sit down to enjoy tea and conversation together, with a cool breeze blowing in through our dining room window.
There's also a 21-year-old Rwandan woman living with us named Agnes. She is such a sweetheart. She and her four little sisters were orphaned. Agnes is also an incredible servant of the Lord. She is a teacher at Victory Nursery School, where we help every morning. She has blessed us in so many ways already, including translating for us and even doing our laundry. I am learning so much about servanthood this month.
Servanthood is a level of commitment that involves a willingness to serve and honor God with your life.
Deuteronomy 10:12: And now, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Servanthood is the act of following Jesus' humble example toward others by treating them better than yourself and helping to care for their needs.
Philipians 2:3-5: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
Watching these beautiful people serve us has been such a wake up call to how selfish I can be. Being around them is so humbling and makes me want to be a better servant myself.
Our ministry schedule this month involves teaching nursery school, door-to-door evangelism, and lots and lots of church. We were in church for almost 12 hours between Saturday and Sunday. African church is certainly different than any church I've experienced before. It is very loud, very long, and very Holy-Spirit filled. But it is so good. Our home church is Victory Church, but we also visited two other churches this weekend. They love to have mzungus (white people) come to their church and they expect us to sing and preach. Thanks to Pastor John's glowing introduction of us last night, they referred to us as the "international singers" and kept calling us to the stage. I'm sure this is particularly funny for all of you who know how bad of a voice I have. I wish you could have seen me on stage, with a rather large African woman's arm wrapped around me and her microphone shoved in my face, attempting to sing in Rwandan.
This month our team is also incredibly blessed to have two World Race Exposure girls joining our team. Leslie, 19, and Sharel, 22, live with and do ministry alongside Team Arise all month. They are both incredible women that fit in right away and we have already learned so much from them.
Please pray for my teammate Dura who has been sick ever since we got here. Please pray for healing for her and that she would be able to rejoin us in ministry soon.
