This month is what I expected from Africa, and yes, I am still alive despite the lack of communication that happened this month. but before I tell stories about life or awesome things God is doing, I just want to be honest about myself. Most of the time on my blogs I tell a story about something God has done, and I love that He continues to show up in awesome ways and I have these stories to tell you. but so much of this race is about what He is doing in my personal life. The stories I share are what happened in a couple hours of one week, but there is so much that goes on in my life the rest of the hours that I usually don’t end up sharing. This trip is so different, obviously, from two week mission trips because this is currently my life. not just a trip where the sole focus is telling people about Jesus. of course, that is one of the main reasons I am here, but there is so much that goes on with community and my personal relationship with Jesus that doesn’t usually happen in a two week span of telling people about Jesus. God revealed to me at the end of Kenya during our month 5 debrief, that somewhere along the way the past few months I stopped really desiring more of Him. I was more just going through the motions of what I had to do and not loving Him like He loves me. I was scared of changing and being different when I got home, so I stopped seeking after more of God. And I didn’t even really realize I was doing it. So God stepped in. He started speaking to my heart that I was not desiring more of Him everyday, and that I had not been loving Him in the way He truly deserves. So I became really broken before Him and decided that I was not going to be scared of changing anymore and that I was going to seek more of Him and discover what He has to show me and teach me these remaining months and the rest of my life. So, I wanted to be vulnerable with you and let you in on some of my personal life and not just the crazy adventures I happen to go through on a somewhat daily basis.
so, after that, here are a few stories from rwanda for you….
our door to door most days was more like tree to tree and i enjoyed it so much. we would walk down the dirt roads in Nyagatare and stop where a few people were and they would pull a wooden bench out of somewhere and ask us to sit down and talk to them. so we would start out with about 4 people and by the end about 37 would have gathered around the white people. In Kenya i was never very comfortable going door to door in the city, but going tree to tree and talking to people was actually pretty fun for me. One of our last days there we went into one house and talked to three university student guys (well, we started with one and ended with three). We had split up, so it was Ashley, me and our translator Solomon. As soon as he told them what we were doing and why we were there, the first guy immediately asked us what the process was to be saved. Everyone I had talked to going door to door up to that point told us they were already saved, so this was the first time I had been asked how to be saved. So I got really excited and jumped right in by asking him what he believed, and when He told me he believed in God and that Jesus was the son of God, I thought to myself, well this is going to be easier than I thought. (I also discovered in this process that they spoke english which was a relief and made things much easier). But then all of a sudden they just wanted to know how to get the Holy Spirit and started pulling out all these Bible verses about the commandments and I was curious about how they knew so much about the Bible. It turns out they were seventh day adventist and wanted to debate and discuss things with us and not really know how to be saved. So it was disappointing to me that we weren’t able to lead these guys to Christ, but I counted it as a success for me, because in that house I realized that I really can do this. yes, I realize this is month 6, but door to door is still pretty new to me. So I was very excited to come to that realization of “alright, bring it God, I can do this.”
so here are a few of my “you know you’re in Africa when…” moments of the month…
1. my toilet was a 30 foot hole in the ground that I had to squat over.
2. church was in a large tin barn.
3. we were the only white people for miles around. and celebrities everywhere we went.
4. I walked over hills and through cow pastures in traditional formal African attire to attend a wedding.
5. the power went out multiple times a day and it never phased anyone. life just continues on.
6. when a storm that was almost a tornado blew through during church, and part of the roof came off and the power went out, no one left, instead we had a dance party/worship session until the roof was fixed.
7. my feet were so dirty after walking on dirt roads in flip flops for hours, that I now know what the disciples feet in the Bible looked like. and why it was such a big deal for Jesus to wash them.
Tomorrow we leave for Uganda and we will be very near the capital city for the month. so I will most likely be able to keep you much better updated on the happenings of the month. Thank you for all your prayers! They are always much needed and so very much appreciated! This was definitely one of my hardest months, but I love Rwanda nonetheless. Such a beautiful country: beautiful landscape, beautiful people, and the awesome presence of God.
seriously. the biggest horns i have ever seen.
