Sometimes you go to Rwanda for a month without a plan, a place to stay, or enough money to stay for that month. Okay, maybe you don’t do that. But that’s what my team and I did in November. “Why would anyone in their right mind, do something like that?” you might ask. And that would be a great question. In short, we did it to solidify our trust in God as Jehovah Jireh (the God who provides). We wanted to empty ourselves of our resources in order to trust in God’s provision and fully lean on his plan.
And my God will supply every one of your needs according to his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
If this verse is true, that God will provide EVERY one of our needs, we wanted to see it happen. So we emptied ourselves of our resources and trusted God-that He would keep His promises. What ensued during the month was incredible! And I want to give you a quick glimpse into what He did.
At the beginning of November, our squad left Medellín, Colombia to change continents. Our flight first took us to Madrid, Spain, where we had a 12 hour layover. After that, we left for Ethiopia and had a 4 hour layover there. And since our next flight took us to Kigali, Rwanda, we decided it was a good idea, here in the Ethiopian International Airport, to start looking for lodging. Unfortunately, all our efforts only yielded a hostel at 11 US dollars a night per person. Which may seem like a steal compared to some hotels in the States. However, that’s over double our lodging budget per person per night. And we needed a place to stay. So we booked it for 3 nights with a plan to pray and ask God to provide. Keep in mind that after those three nights, we had spent over a weeks worth of lodging money.
As we prayed, we asked for free lodging. And one of my teammates, Tom, downloaded the Couchsurfing app (an app for travelers who want free lodging by ‘sleeping on people’s couches’), made a profile, and starting messaging. We were four young men who didn’t have any references, had eight bags (four 65-70L backpacking bags and four day packs), needed a place to stay, and we’re requesting the maximum amount of days allowed (which is 4). There was no reason anyone should let us stay at their home. But Jehovah Jireh. He provided. A woman named, Fetty (no relation to Fetty Wap), messaged us. She is the owner of, get this, an Indonesian Restaurant in Rwanda called, Borneo and had an extra room in the back. She and her husband, Sanju, had traveled for a few months in Africa before starting their restaurant. They found many hospitable people along the way and wanted to give back to those who were in the same situation.
The room was just big enough to fit our four sleeping mats from one side to the other and about two of our bags. But it was free lodging!
After four days, we needed another place to stay so we prayed and started messaging! God provided another woman, Claire, who was willing to house us for free. She was a 29 year old single mom who adopted a local boy named, Desisse. Before we came, she told us that she never accepts requests from men especially without references. But something told her to this time. Jehovah Jireh! Claire had two extra rooms with a queen sized bed and bug nets in each! And she let us stay for 8 days free of charge! On top of that, she fed is for free!
When our time at Claire’s had ended, we needed another place to stay so we prayed and started messaging again. We weren’t sure why at the time, but no one was responding this time. So we ended up going back to our, 11 dollars a night, hostel for a night.
By this time, we had met many people and a contact of a contact of a contact had invited us over to dinner. Ivan; a Ugandan, his wife Jordan; a Mzungu (white person) who grew up in the states, and their three children; Melissa, Aalyah, and Arrow were a lovely family! We talked about our mission and what God had already done for us and our current living situation. They quickly offered us two of their spare room for the rest of our stay in Rwanda! Jehovah Jireh!
God provided in a similar way for our ministry in Rwanda and I’ll share that I’m my next blog. But for now I just wanted to encourage anyone reading this blog to practice emptying yourself and trusting God. There’s something special to praying what the author of Proverbs 30 did when he said, “…give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” Trusting God for daily bread is quite difficult, especially in America with so much excess, but it’s possible and God honors it with deepened faith!
Thank you so much for reading! I hope this testimony was encouraging to you!
