After coming out of the wilderness that was Ethiopia, Rwanda has been like a paradise for me.
I have absolutely thrived here this for so many reasons.
My team
The ministry
The people
The history
My spiritual health has greatly improved
And the fact that we are serving directly in the capital, which is Kigali, and it also happens to be the big city, and that is the kind of place that I just come alive in.
When I was travelling to Rwanda, I had zero expectations for Rwanda, and I knew little about this small country in Africa besides the 1994 genocide (If you wanna read more about that: go check out my blog titled “Hotel Rwanda”, but be warned as it is intense).
After our mini debrief in which we got our new teams for the final 2 months of the race, my team and I found out that we had hit the ministry site jackpot (all the other teams were low key jealous of us) as we found out the we are going to be serving at the sister ministry to HopeEthiopia call Hope Rwanda that is run by the wife of the guy who runs HopEthiopia, and secretly I was hoping to get this ministry assignment too, and I was super excited when I found out we got it.
And this month did not disappoint.
I have loved serving here, and exploring the city. I have also learned so much about the history of this country, and of those ladies who we are serving at Hope Rwanda.
So what exacting have I doing to serve all month? the answer is alot!
Hope Rwanda is mainly focused on women and men who have come from some pretty rough and at times heartbreaking situations, and Hope Rwanda helps them out by teaching them a trade that is needed in the community so that they can become stable in their life, and teach them life skills such as learning to speak English. There is a women’s & guys house, and my team has been living with and serving the women at Hope Rwanda, although the 3 guys did get to spend the night at the men’s home, and us gals were able to meet a few of the men.
Our main mission this month has been to empower the women, and just be there to pour into & encourage them as they focus on making a better life for themselves and in the case of many of them their kids as well. There are a total of 20 women that are in the tailoring program at Hope, and 10 of those women are living at Hope Rwanda as they live far away or have no place to call home, but the other women live within walking distance of Hope Rwanda. Every morning the women have devo before class, and we take part in that each morning with them. We sing, dance, pray, and either one of us or one of them give the daily word, and while we don’t understand the language, it is still an amazing site to be able to witness this month.
While the women are in class, we pull 2 of them per day to do one on ones with, and during this time is when we get to hear their stories, and have a chance to encourage & empower them, pray for them, share a word with them, and give them a chance to ask questions about us & our lives back in the states. After lunch, we have a break until about 2pm, and that is when we get to teach them business English each day. These gals are extremely bright, and also highly competitive as we have played games to help them retain the English that we have taught them. The evenings are free for us to do whatever we want to, and for team time before bed. We also had the opportunity to share our testimonies with the women as a way to show them how God has worked in our lives & even changed our lives.
During our final week we put on a “Beauty 4 Ashes event”, where we all got up and spoke about worth & forgiveness, and had a drawing activity as well we washed the women’s feet (Some of them also washed ours too, which we did not expect), and we passed out Bibles to them written in their language as many of the women did have own their own Bible. The reaction of the women recieving their Bibles is by far one of my favorite memories from this month. The ladies have all bonded to us, and they love us so much just as much as we love them.
I also loved going to the Genocide Memorial and visiting the Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial.
Like Serbia, Rwanda has stolen a piece of my heart, and I have come to totally fall in love with this country and its people. Rwanda may have a tragic past, but the way that the people and the country have bounced back from those times, has just been so incredible. The people and their government are united, and peace is back in the land. I feel so honored to be here during the 25th anniversary of the end of the genocide, and to walk among the people here. This is def gonna be one of the hardest goodbyes that I’ll have to say on the Race (outside of having to say goodbye to P Squad in Boston).
One People
One Language
One Nation
I just wish that the US would follow Rwanda’s example, and maybe the US can be the awesome country that I know it can be, and have real and true national pride all the time (not just during the olympics.)
Up next is Uganda, and then Boston & Home (this is crazy to think about as this year has just flown by, and the journey has been so incredible)
Pray for safe travels for P squad as we travel to Uganda & to our ministry sites once we get there.
For myself: Pray for continued focus, and to remain present during this last month as I have a tendency to lose focus when things are coming to an end and I know that I have awesome plans ahead of me.
Til next time your fellow sister in Christ,
Bonnie
Team Titan
P Squad
Psalms 18:2
YOLO
