Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.
Matthew 7:24&25
Jesus and Paul both talk about the importance of being firmly grounded in the Lord. It’s something I have grown up hearing and reading about, but I haven’t really explored or though about it much.
Until this happened:
It is a little hard to see, but coming through the fence is a four foot tall rush of water coming towards our house. As the flash flood filled our home with eight inches of water there was absolutely nothing we could do to make it stop. We picked up as much as could from the floor, tried shoving clothes, sugar cane and rocks under the door to keep the water out.
And nothing worked.
And even more terrifying was the thought of our neighbors further down the hill. Most of the homes around us were little more than tin and mud. As the waters were rising we tried calling out to them to see if they were okay, but we heard no answer.
When the waters slowed we realized that the water wasn’t going to drain from the house because it was trapped in by a small concrete wall that surrounded the porch. We grabbed buckets and started throwing water over the porch wall. After a few minutes we heard the front gate creak open. When we turned to look, there was a handful of teens from the neighborhood walking in. They came up to us, took our buckets, and started throwing water.
After our confusion turned to thankfulness, we ran to find more buckets, shovels and whatever else we could think of to get the water, mud and dirt out of our house.
And PRAISE JESUS, our neighbors who we tried to call out to came over too.
After a few hours the water and mud was out of our house, the floor was mopped, the muddy clothes were out in the yard, and the crew of neighbors who helped us started a dance party in our living room with a few of my teammates.
Wet, exhausted, and so incredibly grateful, we treated our host family to dinner at a restaurant nearby (because who wants to cook after a day like that, am I right?).
As we all sat together, laughing and enjoying each other’s company I reflected on a few things:
- I had never before felt as hopeless as I did watching the water fill our home, while it continued to rain and showed no sign of stopping. I love to fix things, I usually can think of something to do but in those moments the rain and the flood had no concern for or anyone else in the valley. I had a really authentic moment with the Lord where I saw a glimpse of His power in the waters, I saw my insignificance but in my insignificance I saw how great His love for me is. I can offer nothing to Him that He doesn’t already have, but He still loves me.
- The side of the Rwandan people that I saw that day totally contradicted the assumptions I had made about them based off what I knew about the 1994 genocide. It makes no sense to me that the same people group and culture who were rebuilding our neighbors house, draining water out of our house, washing our clothes and bed sheets, and being so servant hearted and selfless, were also the victims, witnesses and those who carried out the genocide. If I would have never heard about the genocide, it would be impossible to tell by looking at the Rwandan people I had the joy of living with and loving on.
The day of the flood was the scariest, hardest, most grace-filled and best of my time in Rwanda. As my blog started with a video from the beginning of my day, here is a picture from the end of it.
