Here’s a photo recap of Month 2!
In Rwanda we lived with Pastor Moses, his beautiful wife Mary, and their four kids, Laurie, Deborah, Dr. Jay, and baby, Josiah. We worked with Rwanda Gospel Center in Remera and Busanza. Every morning we lead devotions for a women’s sewing school and we preached at two evening service every night. I preached once or twice a week. I still don’t love it, but it got a little less nerve racking every time.
This is where Sunday school happened at Gospel Center in Busanza, but while we were there, bricks were laid for the foundation and walls of a new school and Sunday school building. A few month ago, Moses sent my team pictures on the first day of school of the finished building! Since I saw him 9 months ago, he started a new school for the children in his neighborhood who weren’t going to school otherwise. It’s crazy, but so encouraging to see what God continues to do long after we leave.
This is Laurie, Mosie’s oldest child, and we bonded on my first night at church when I taught her a few basic east coast swing steps! At our last church service in Rwanda, we each received a new Rwandan name. Laurie had a name in mind for me all month and insisted on naming me. She chose the name Munezero, meaning “joy.”
In Rwanda I asked God for joy again and again, and when I received my new Rwandan name, something clicked. I heard the Lord telling me I was joy, and I didn’t need to hope and search for something I already had.
Rwanda was full of JOY. As a country that was devastated by genocide less than 25 years ago, the laughter and smiles at church were pure joy. The youth shouted, danced, jumped, and cried out to God in spite of the pain and heartbreak they lived through. Aside from foreigners, everyone who survived the genocide was either a killer or they lost someone they loved. I often walk by people with disabilities. May have traumatic stories I was too hesitant to ask about. There are countless people who may still live next door to someone who killed the rest of their family. There has been no justice for what happened, but never the less, the church chooses to praise and worship with everything they’ve got.
