This month has been beautiful. Not only is this country full of rolling green hills with the most beautiful houses and buildings, but it is full of beautiful people. They might stare and want to pet my hair, but their hearts are beautiful. They just want to be seen and known, just like me. I get this feeling that everyone just wants to be seen and known. What better way to love someone than to make sure they know that they are noticed and their heart is known.
This month has been beautiful for my heart as well. Not only have I experienced the generosity of the Rwandan people but I have spent as much time as possible sitting with the Lord. His presence is all around me and I have loved sitting with him, reading his word, and listening to music. Not only has this allowed me to listen to him but my time spent with him has opened my eyes to the sharing of his word. It has definitely helped me this month because I have been given the opportunity to preach and teach.
This month in Rwanda, I have been staying with a pastor and his family. My team and I have enjoyed sharing a house with them. It has been amazing getting to know them and to minister with and for them. Since our host this month is a pastor, we have been given the pleasure and opportunity to help and serve in his and his wife’s church. Every evening one of the members of my team preaches. Not only has this been a growing experience for all of us but it has also been a time of sitting and spending time with the Lord. Asking him what he would like for each one of us to share. In the morning, we have been able to go and teach english and just love on the children at the church. Our mom here saw the need to open a small pre-school for the children in the neighborhood. And the Lord provided for her. There are about 30 kids that attend this school that she started a few years back and 2 classrooms. This has been a blessing for our pastor’s wife but also a blessing for the children involved. For some it is the only schooling that they might receive and for others children, it is the opportunity for them to get a head start on their learning. I once asked Mom Africa what the biggest blessing of this school inside the church has been for her and she said, “Seeing all the children here smiling and learning is the biggest blessing.” It is such a blessing to be here helping in this school. The smiles and the hugs that we receive from all of the children just fills our hearts.
Another reason this month was a blessing was because I was able to sit with Mom Africa during several occasions and just get to talk to her and get to know her heart more. Through listening to her heart, I not only learned so much but the Lord moved in my heart as well. The Lord moved in my entire team’s heart actually. We were all able to bless our host this month in some way. But really, when we have the ability to bless others the Lord rewards us just as much by seeing the smiles on the faces. The biggest blessing was that we were just there. Our mom sat us down at the end of the month and again shared here heart with us and how she felt about us all. She looked at each one of my teammates and told us that we were different. She told us that she had hosted 17 world race teams but we were different. She told us that we were spiritually mature and that she could just feel the presence of the Lord with us. She could feel it at her house, at her church, and with her 3 sons. She told us that there were things we did this month that no world race team had ever done. From preaching the way we did to loving the ladies of the church the way we did. She was blessed by us, and we will be forever grateful for being in her presence.
Another huge blessing was that the Lord provided this month. As a team, we decided we wanted to help out hosts. So we shared our hearts on how we wanted to help re-open a church by helping our hosts financially. So as a group we raised money to give to our hosts to help them put a new and improved roof on the church so they could open the doors to reach the community around the church. The Lord provided. In a little over a week, my team raised enough money for a new roof and then some. We were able to give the money but also bless them in other ways. My heart is full knowing that opening the doors of a church can have more of an impact than just my own self. Opening the doors of this church in Rwanda will provide hope, peace, and comfort for the community. God provided, and he is so much bigger than all of this.
Rwanda was a big month when it came to blessings. The Lord literally overflowed this month. And I am so glad he did.
