Hello dear friends! Greetings from
Rwanda!
2.8.11
We finally made it safely to Rwanda…after a 28 hour bus ride to the
capital city of Kigali and then another 3 hours to Nyagatare town. We are the only team that did not stay in the
Kigali. The biggest surprise so
far…Rwanda is a beautiful country! There are beautiful hills around every
corner. The hills are also green and
lush with many different kinds of crops growing on them. It is one of the prettiest places we have been
(minus the 2 times we were on the ocean!) The town only have a few thousand people…somewhere around 5,000 I’m
guessing. Which is no different than the
town I grew up in in west Texas. Everywhere we go we hear people whispering mzungu. Mzungu, if you remember from previous blogs,
means “white person” in Africa. And this means any white person…not just Americans. I get the feeling they don’t get many mzungus
out here. I did hear that there are a
few Americans who teach in the schools here…haven’t seen them though…so
it’s still just a rumor to me lol.
Our ministry is somewhat similiar to that in Kenya. We will be doing a lot of house to house
evangelism. We will also be doing A LOT
of preaching…it looks as though we will be preaching every night of the
week…minus Monday’s because that is our off day. I’ll give you a glimpse, as best I can, of
what this church is like. Imagine 3
walls made of tin and a roof of tin as well. The church is narrow but very long and they have quickly outgrown
it. There is no “floor”, just
a few mats up front for those who are brought up for prayer. The only instrument is a keyboard…which
acts at the keyboard, organ, drums, and I’m not sure what else…but their
worship still rocks! lol Imagine a preacher who is 6 feet 8 inches tall…and
may possibly weigh less than me lol…he is quite long like a giraffe…and has
a slight resemblence to one when he walks. Imagine a message where the preacher hoots and hollers and every time a
good point is made…the guy on the keyboard gives the organ a good bang!
lol I don’t understand what he preaches
because they don’t speak very much English out here. English was much more common in Kenya. Here they speak a little English, French, and
Kinyarwanda. So we use a lot of
interpreters. I’m not sure anyone owns a
watch here. They call it “Africa
time”. Service can start anywhere
between 6 and 8 in the evening lol. Actually, that goes for anything we do.
We are staying at the pastor’s house. I’m not even sure how many people stay at this house…there is always
no less than 8 people (not including the 6 of us) who are running around. I have no idea which ones are house girls
(servants/maids) or relatives or just members of the church. But it’s all good because they are all pretty
nice people. We have 2 small rooms…but
a large comfy bed! There is no kitchen,
bathroom, or even running water in the house. But praise the Lord there is electricity! They cook all our meals outside. We go to the outhouse to take care of our
business. This outhouse has mud walls
and a hole in the ground. Next door is
the “shower”. The shower
consists of mud walls as well, a stool, and a hole in the ground to drain the
water. For water, we fill a very large
bowl with water. That bucket gets set on
the stool. If you saw the Malaysia video
that demonstrated a bucket shower, then you get the idea…only there was no
sitting this time…and we have a door!
non-existent! If you are reading this
during the month of February…then I got to get is posted…if not, maybe
Uganda lol.
