My parents came to Rwanda to do ministry with me for the week. It was amazing and God was all around us this week. I asked them to write a blog reflecting on the week, so here it is:
“Robin and I thank God for each of you. Your gifts of support and prayers for Katie are greatly appreciated, by us and by her.
Last week, Robin and I were in Rwanda hanging out with Katie, forty or so twenty somethings and their parents. It’s always exciting to hang out and be the church in its many various forms. Katie suggested, requested, strongly encouraged, us to do a blog post. Robin deferred to me. I wrote one after day two. Katie advised after reading “step it up Dad” my words not hers. We’ve always battled each other’s writing. Probably making a good team if we didn’t work each other’s nerves so much. I’m in tears writing as those thoughts permeate much deeper than writing styles (love you Katie). I’m probably six hours of time in this “step up” revision. It’s exhausting physically and emotionally. Try writing a blog using “notes” on your phone, in a bumpy vehicle or bouncing plane; typing with one finger; trying to cut and paste; moving things around for better flow, but only seeing eight lines or text at a time; running out of battery, no recharge options; no WiFi access; etc. I presume I’m saying too much not realizing the phone notes typing is narrow, I have no idea how this looks cut and pasted into the blog format. I’m guessing perhaps 1/3 the length or 1/4. I’ll know when it’s posted.
It would have been much easier if Katie communicated this, probably much of this week would have been easier with advance communication. I’m sure (now) the lack of communication was purposeful. We get a glimpse of the self discovery Katie experienced where “try to figure it out”, fail, do better the next time, feedback, fail again is the norm- just like life. There are no answers given but the Answer, Jesus, is always there waiting, yearning to be involved in the details of our life. Everything we do, same question, my way or His way, my thoughts or His thoughts. I’m seeing my choices, looking for a redo. That redo is called today.
Here’s a bit about our Rwanda experience. Rwanda is a clean country. I understand it is the second cleanest country in the world. Folks can often be seen sweeping the walkways to their homes or storefronts throughout the day. Kigali is working to improve their infrastructure, most notably improving the roads. Many of the drainage ditches are lined with flat stone walls making them attractive, and I presume providing labor for some in the area. Construction is going on seemingly everywhere.
We stayed at a Christian guest house. The rate sign on the door says only married couple may share a room. I’m sure that would have been the plan without the facility rule, but I appreciate the stated principle. We got a room and shared a bathroom with another couple. Electricity was usually available, however water was not. I don’t think hot water even existed except for coffee (they like it strong) and tea. WiFi crashed daily and couldn’t handle 100 users without crawling. The bathrooms had a barrel of water and small bucket as the backup system. Bucket showers were the norm, actually no showers were the norm. Not complaining, just sharing. We actually had bathrooms inside with water, unlike many in the world. Febreeze was liberally used as the antidote to dirty clothes. The nights were cooler (60s) so the rooms were ok with the windows open. The days were typical Florida, warm, in mid 80s and humid.
Breakfasts consisted of baked pieces of potato or something similar and eggs either scrambled or boiled, sometimes some sort of meat and always fruit. Lunches and dinners consisted of a meat, beans, rice, baked pieces of potato and usually a vegetable and fruit. Since the parents were joining there was protein at every meal, something the racers did not typically enjoy.
On our first full day in Rwanda we were able to visit a genocide museum and visualize the effects of the world turning a blind eye and allowing evil and hate take over, a shameful part of world history in our lifetime. The country of Rwanda is trying to heal, however the scars will last forever. They are a welcoming people despite our doing nothing when their families were being killed. As you might expect time is marked in Rwanda largely as before and after genocide. The parents of the group, experienced worship in an environment filled with the energy and passion of our respective children in praise of a mighty God. We heard the angelic sound of the predominantly female voices lifted to the heavens.
We heard testimony of God’s mighty hand in and through our adult children. We experienced healing prayer after one of the parents broke her foot getting off the bus going to worship. We prayed for her healing as well as another parent who took a big fall experiencing no severe injuries after falling several feet and a child, from the neighborhood where we were doing ministry, who was burned several days earlier was taken to a hospital by some of the team. We all prayed out loud at the same time. What sounded strange and confused on earth was heard in heaven as a unified request of the Almighty. The parent with the broken foot was later standing and walking on that foot without pain. Bruising on her foot remained so to mark where a miracle took place, much like the Old Testament setting of stones to mark sites where Gods power was made evident; the stones were stating “something powerful happened here.”
I was convicted (more than once on the trip) regarding my need to work harder to improve my communication skills and the necessity to tame my reaction when that failure is called out (sorry Katie). Please pray for my words to be His words, my thoughts to be His thoughts and to hold me accountable. We also experienced our adult children being “living stones” as we saw evidence of their growth in the Lord; and in their personhood. We heard from the Hosts in Rwanda how amazing our children are, which reinforced what we already knew.
Robin and I saw Katie and her strong and capable personality and faith wrapped in a better understanding of who she is, unapologetically bold in herself and her faith, yet still growing in both. Independent, yet cherishing community. We shared time with Katie, listening as she shared glimpses of her world race experiences. We laughed when she shared she learned she needed her downtime. She shared this information like it was something anybody who spent any time with her didn’t already know. Apparently “we” didn’t tell Katie – oops.
Katie shared some of her areas of growth and untruths she has overcome. Many people spend a lifetime believing the lies of what they’ve been told they can’t do or what they aren’t good at doing. Unfortunately some of these untruths are seeded in us by our parents. Perhaps in an ill conceived comment or sharing or miscommunication or maybe something often reinforced. As a parent it’s hard to hear about the pain our words inflicted on our children and the burdens they’ve been carrying as a result. This discussion provided more conviction on my communication and my need for healthy, holy communication – God knows His messages must be oft repeated to get through to me and what better messenger one of my beloved daughters to really get my attention.
I know I’ve been carrying an extra bag of cement on my midsection for years, finally got around to working on that with some marked success but God asks what about that bag of rocks, those burdens and lies I’ve been carrying around for years? When are you going to unload them? I’m thrilled to see Katie unloading her bag of rocks and I’m looking forward to start unloading mine. Anybody else like to, need to, join?
Robin, Katie and I talked about our respective desires to deepen our scripture knowledge and challenges in hearing the voice of God. I’ve carried the notion to avoid memorizing anything that’s written down whenever possible including scripture. Katie shared a reason to memorize scripture. She said “if God speaks through scripture, the more scripture you know the more you can hear Him speak”. So if God speaks to us through scripture and all I know is “Jesus wept”, I’m probably not gonna hear too much. That really resonates with the logical side of my brain.
In Kigali, folks are responsible for improving their own neighborhoods. They even take a day each month as a community in community service. The improvement plan for the neighborhood in which we served also included roadway work. The community developed a drainage plan to manage the water runoff and then level the roads. We had opportunity to help dig drainage ditches along side and love on people in an area neighborhood whose name means love. I worked alongside Ebuke who got direction from Henry over our two mornings together.. The work was hard and hot. Pick axes, shovels and hoes were at work with an occasional machete for the tough roots and interfering tree branches. The ditches crossing the hillside were up to three feet deep, while the ditches running down the hill were less than a foot.
Robin and Katie spent time with the children who lived in the neighborhood who came out while folks were working. Katie also did some shoveling, gaining a blister as proof. We found the ground got harder as we worked up the hill on our second morning of roadwork. The neighborhood folks were half our size with twice our stamina a product of their hard work.
We enjoyed a taste of Rwandan worship (praising our Lord in song and dance). I was exhausted just watching them, yet invigorated enough to do a bit of jumping too (a rare vision). I think the unscripted dance and song of praise lasted ten minutes or more. Of course I noticed the keyboardist playing in the Spirit. I’m sure God knew He was the focus of it all.
Mid week we were able to take a safari. Our trek began at 4:30 rising to leave by 5:30 for the 2 ish hour ride to the Park with our box breakfasts and bottled water. We rode in groups of seven in Toyota Land Cruisers (Rwanda appears to love Toyota) with tops that were opened when we got to the park, so we could stand up for pictures and sometimes just to enjoy the breeze. We were given a brief overview of the park history when we first arrived at the park visitor center. The park history was also marked by the genocide as the park was unmanaged during some of that awful period and hunters and poachers took advantage, wiping out entire species from the park. In recent years, those species have been reintroduced to the park. The park was also reduced in size after the genocide to allow space for returning refugees on former park land. After getting our box lunches we were off. I spotted the first zebra and shortly thereafter we realized Zebras were abundant in the park. During the rest of our trek, we also encountered elephants, more zebras, impalas, giraffes, baboons, wort hogs, water buck, hippopotamus, varied birds in our six hour safari. I experienced a squatty potty. Our driver and guide, “Captain,” had keen vision for seeing in the wild. Sometimes he’d just stop and wait for us to see other times he told us where to look, We worshipped our creator during our return ride, heard some new songs and different interpretations of some old ones. Captain was drumming on the dashboard for a few songs. God was praised. It was good.
Our last day in the mission field we hung out with preschoolers. Certainly not my realm. They were beginning to eat breakfast when we arrived, so we helped pass out their breakfasts comprised of whatever was brought from home. They sat in bench desks, three to a bench three on each side of the room. I sat by a boy sitting in the back alone. After breakfast came free play. I spied out “little me” hanging out under a tree by himself and attempted some engagement. I ending up just standing beside him until free play morphed into structured play, After structured play we went inside to the big room where the racers acted out the Bible story Jonah and the whale while Katie narrated and a teacher interpreted. One child played Jonah and another God. The two children were coached on the gestures and emotions for instance wagging their finger or shaking their head. Then it was the adults turn. We settled on Joshua and the battle of Jericho using Katie’s children’s bible story book. One of the kids played God, one played Joshua and three others played the people. We didn’t think about props, so Katie and another racer Luke jumped in to be the wall as Joshua and the three people marched around them. It turns out the story was a bit long for preschoolers AND for the adults. The bus then took us back to the rest of the group. Our driver Eric attempted to turn the bus around by backing up a hill. This didn’t work as the back of the bus hit the ground, so we all had to get off. The bus drivers were amazing, they’d park these busses in spots designed for cars. At several times in our Rwanda adventure the five busses were all attempting to turn around. It looked like a ballet of busses. Eric our driver got his bus backed slightly up the hill once we got off. He turned the bus around, we got back on and after the normal waiting we were on our way.
Later we were treated to a cultural show with Drummers and dancers at a school for the arts. The school also was an art gallery with works from various local artists on consignment with 40% of sales proceeds going the school to fund scholarships for students to attend the school and 60% to the artists. The piece I wanted was big and $700 which would have hung in my office which is a mini gallery thanks to my business partner Mary and a client whose art we house. Anyway transporting the big piece was going to be either expensive or a packing challenge. We opted for a smaller production type piece for our home. We then experienced the drummers and dancers. The drum sticks were the size of a thin broom handle, about twice the diameter of typical U.S. drumsticks. Despite their size the drumming was so intense they still managed to break a stick. They switched to a klnew one seemingly without missing a beat. The drummers and dancers were all students of the school except for the manager/salesman/ lead drummer/ cashier/announcer/etc who was a former student of the school. The dancers were all double jointed it seemed. Group choreography followed by individual free style allowing their personalities to shine through. After the cultural experience we were back to pack for our return home. Our journey was soon coming to an end or most likely just beginning.
Saturday morning was breakfast and worship. We heard testimonies from parents and racers. Parent in tears. Racers perhaps sensing relief in their parents were leaving. Off to lunch with parents, then to airport. Flights of 7, 14 and 3 hours await. Time to rewrite the blog!
We return to normal, changed and changing. I’m reminded of areas ripe for improvement, I’ve shared but a few. Earthly fathers fall short, I certainly do, thankfully I’m loved anyway by both my daughters. But no love compares to that of our Heavenly Father who, like this earthly father wants deeper and meaningful relationships with His children, but uniquely perfect are His thoughts and His ways. He is, was and always will be the same – perfect. And He’s still working on me, I’ll keep trying to let Him have His way, knowing failure is only when I stop seeking His way.”
LOVE YOU MOM & DAD!!! Thanks for coming all the way to Rwanda!! <3
