Month 7 Wrap-Up
Location: Kabuga, Rwanda
Ministry: Teaching nursery school and training the teachers, home visits, preaching, and music ministry.
Hosts: Pastor John, Bonifus and Agnes (photo below). They were such servants of the Lord who blessed us so much! We also had two wonderful translators, Rose and Edward.
Accommodations: Beds, a Western toilet and shower, and even a living room with couches. Super blessed!
Best food: Chapati, french fries and avocado.
Worst food: Ugali and any meat.
Malaria cases: Two. Luckily, I haven't felt sick at all this month.
Daily routine: Morning tea at 7:45 a.m., teach nursery school, go on a run, shower, and eat lunch by 12:30 or 1:00. In the afternoon I usually spent time doing personal devotions, then we met together as a team to worship and pray together before afternoon tea at 3:45 p.m. In the late afternoon we headed out for either church or home visits. Usually got home and had dinner around 8:00 or 9:00. After dinner we had team feedback and then usually spent some time on the Internet before heading to bed around 11:00.
Transportation: Lots and lots of walking. Sometimes we took bicycle taxis (photo below) if we were feeling lazy. Occasionally we took public transportation, which were really old vans that you can cram a lot of smelly Africans into and make frequent stops. Once we were blessed to ride in a church member's nice truck, but his son throw up all over my teammate Bethany during the ride.
Free days: Mondays. Once we went into Kigali to eat Western food at a little coffee shop, but the other days we all just stayed home to rest after eight hours of church on Sundays.
History of Rwanda: This small East African nation is still recovering from the 1994 genocide. In the span of only 100 days, almost one-million people were brutally murdered.
Most embarrassing moment: I seemed to trip on our walks on a daily basis. Apparently I spent more time gawking at the beautiful scenery and waving to children then I did watching where I was walking on the rocky, bumpy dirt roads. Once I tripped pretty bad and almost wiped out, right in front of a huge group of our Rwandan neighbors. They got quite a kick out of it.
Favorite memory: Every time we'd walk into Victory Nursery School, the kids would just mob us with hugs.
Funniest moment: Our translator Edward spoke in very formal English. Once we asked him to ask to ask Bonifus if we could call him Papa B. Edward asked him, then looked at us and said "He has accepted." I guess you had to be there, but I thought it was the funniest thing ever and laughed so hard I cried.
Biggest challenge: Adapting to African church. It's loud, long and different then anything I've experienced. But there's definitely a lot of freedom in African worship.
Lessons learned: This month was a month of personal growth for me, and I spent a lot of time really processing my experience and the changes in my heart so far on the World Race. I think the biggest lesson I learned this month is simply this: God is enough.
Prayer requests: There are a lot of orphaned children that we work with, as well as children whose families were struggling to make it. Please pray that all of these children would be sponsored so that they may have the opportunity to go to school. A few of my teammates are working on a project to help them get sponsorship, so I can get you details if you are interested in helping.
