Parent Vision Trip through the eyes of my dad:
I want to take moment and tell what my experiences was and the blessings I saw and received while visiting my daughter, Caitlin in Rwanda this February.
At first I was hesitant to go to Rwanda, I was being selfish. I wanted this to be a vacation and Rwanda was not one of my choices of where I wanted to meet up with my daughter in the many countries that she was going to be in. But as we all know God has other plans. The months before the sign up I felt He was telling me “it is not about seeing your daughter.” I couldn’t help but remember the time Caitlin and I went on a Mission trip to Mexico with our church and what a blessing that was. I thought that this was going to be a similar experience. Well this exceeded my expectations.
The day we met our racers at the Havugimana Israel Guest House, the racers had a warm welcome for us singing and dancing, it was great. After hugging and greeting my daughter I recognized a change in her demeanor. She seemed self assured and had a peaceful calm to her. I could tell this race has affected her deeply. Especially with her monthly blogs that she has been writing.
A couple of days we went to a village to help them work on the drainage of the streets. The welcome that we got was overwhelming. I have never seen anyone so thankful and happy that we were there helping them. The poverty that they were living in was so bleak, dirt floors, no windows or doors in their homes. No clutter, everything you saw was a necessity. But you would not have known this from how happy they were, you would have thought that they had everything.
One day we went to the Genocide Museum, the travesty that had happen that year (1994) was horrendous I did not know all that had happened in Rwanda when this was going on. The media then did not tell all what went on… 500,000 to a 1,000,000 people were slaughtered. After the museum visit I realized that there were very few older generations around the city. I realized it was due to the genocide. And what was even crazier, was the village leaders were only in their twenties.
After each day of ministry we had a nightly worship. This was a true blessing, I saw racers and parents alike stand up and give their testimony. And we sang praises to our Lord. I thought about giving my testimony but I knew I would have been too emotional to give it.
Another day we went and ministered to the Village Grade School and those children were so well mannered and happy it was contagious. Even though we could not speak the same language they enjoyed us playing games with them. One thing I did notice was that they had no toys. They used their imagination to amuse themselves. The teachers were also young (in their early twenties) they worked the majority of the time for free.
I saw also that the racers bonded with each other and have formed lifetime friendship. The leaders of Adventures In Missions that were there were warm and friendly as were all the pastors that were part of Rwanda’s Ministry.
The blessings I got out of this trip was seeing my daughter grow in her walk with our Lord. And I feel that she is now my teacher and I her student in her knowledge of the Bible, and her devotion to our God. She humbles me with her obedience and love of ministering to the needy.
Please Lord keep using her to spread your joyous Word.
