So just to give a quick update on what is going on this month for me, I will give you the rundown of events thus far:
All but one of our teams are in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Kigali isn’t actually a city as much as it is a cluster of cities that make up the state of Kigali. However, pretty much anyone you ask will refer to Kigali as a city (this did provide a nice amount of confusion for us though coming in and having no idea that this was the case).
Rachel (co squad leader) and I split up for the first part of the month to visit a couple different teams. I went to hang out with the one team that is not in Kigali. We were about a 3 hour bus ride away from the cluster-city. The place that we were living was deceiving at first. The house looks pretty nice at first but very quickly you realize that you are actually kind of living in the spot where the bush meets the cush. The house has plenty of space, was clean, and was empty. However, after a couple days you realize that the water is only on for a bit each day and that the power pretty much goes out all the time, sometimes leaving you with over 24 hours without power.
Honestly though, as nice as water and power are, the thing that really makes a good living situation on the world race is space. Thus, as this house had a decent amount of space, it was ok by me.
We had a lot of fun there. Gary’s team has 3 men on it so it was cool to have half of our men there together for a week or so. We would walk about 35 minutes each way to each meal and then their ministry would consist of at least another hour or two of walking. So basically, it was a LOT of walking.
Their church was awesome though. Like most African churches I have seen at this point, they meet EVERY DAY. So we would have church each night and the church there in Nyagatare was a blast. Worship was much more like a Jesus-themed dance party than anything else and we got to bring the fire from the word of God every night. I got a couple chances to place some worship songs for them on my guitar and they just got SUPER into it and would sing and dance along with me. Makes it so fun to worship when the church joins in like that.
The week with Gary’s team was legit. It was filled with a lot of praying for people at hospitals, Settlers of Katan, wall-ball, walking, dancing, seeing people healed, worshiping, wasp killing (see wasp killing uniform below), and seeing people come to know Jesus!
I had a blast that week and got to see God doing some sweet stuff with one of our teams. Delicious.
After that, I took a not so amazing bus ride back to Kigali and met up with Rachel again. We got our 6 team leaders together for a couple days to just have some time to regroup as a leadership team. That get-together marked the halfway point for our trip and I think we all needed to just get together, worship together, get fired up together, and send each other back out. I could talk for a while about that time and what God was showing me through it but I’ll just say that it was a blast and that I have so much love and respect for each person on our leadership team. These people are the reason that our squad is where it is right now and they are the reason that we are going to be leaps and bounds beyond where we are now when the end of this trip rolls around.
For about the past week now, Rachel and I have both been with Kyle’s team in eastern Kigali. Another of our teams is also just a couple blocks away from here so we have gotten to spend a bit of time with them as well. Ministry here literally just looks like being part of the church a lot of times. They have a church service every morning and every night. You know what that means. It means that the team has to have a 20-40 minute sermon planned for each morning and night! If you were ever someone who struggled with knowing how to speak in front of people about Jesus, this would be a nice little baptism by fire.
The man who is the pastor of this church is a BALLER though. His name is Moses and he is one of the most amazing men I’ve met on this trip so far. If anyone was ever wanting to come to Rwanda to do a short-term missions trip, you should get a hold of me and get this man’s contact info because he is just amazing and his church is a joy to be a part of. After church every morning, they head out into the town and share the gospel with people door to door and the team has been seeing people come to Jesus! Love it.
Kyle has a pretty big team (8 people) already and then with the addition of Rachel and myself, Pastor Moses now has 10 extra people living in his house. Things are a bit tight. Thus, Kyle and I have commandeered the yard with our tents and he draws me into pillow talk ALMOST every night which has been awesome too. Kyle is a legit Brobot and it’s been good for my soul to just have that time each day or each morning to talk stuff out.
I am planning on writing another post about kind of what Jesus has been speaking to me lately but I just wanted you guys who have had no idea what is even going on lately to be able to know what it’s looked like.
I really love this city. Kigali is an awesome place and I’m pretty sure it’s not at all what you would expect it to be. The city is incredibly clean and feels REALLY safe. It’s also just a really nice place. I am sitting at a coffee shop that would blow away a lot of coffee shops in the US right now. This entire city just has a really peaceful feel too. It is crazy how much has been able to change in the 17 years since a horrible genocide ravaged this country.
I still have yet to go see the genocide memorial but I am definitely planning on making a trip over there soon. A lot of people on our squad have already been and have warned me that it will wreck me. I have to see it though. I want to see it.
The way to get around this city is by MOTO’s (motorcycle taxis!). I can’t believe I never had before but I had never really ridden on a motorcycle until recently. It is a blast though riding around town on these things. I’m into it but trying not to get too into it. I don’t want to even think about tempting myself to want one when I get back to the states.
So yeah, Kigali is an awesome city (albeit VERY VERY expensive). The people here are a blast. The church that we are currently a part of is a delight. And overall, I am loving this country. This might be my favorite place that I have been so far on this trip even! Nuts.
In a week and a half, we head off to Uganda, source of the Nile!! We are planning on rafting the Nile right off the bat and I’m getting really excited about that. It’s going to be a blast. Love you all very much and get ready for another blog post to be hot on the tail of this one.
