Looking back at my time in Rwanda it seems like a flash. I had picked this route in excitement to go to Africa. My mom had been in the past and her pictures showed nothing but pure joy. I wanted a piece of that for myself. So as the plane landed and we stepped off after 3 days of travel I was finally here! Ready fro the next three months in Africa.
As we got off the plain we were escorted onto the runway and then to a bus that would take us to the main building. Another long line and praying our visas came through and we had finally made it into Rwanda. After making it through we walked outside to meet four Rwandan pastors. Two of them right away let off a spirit of joy and craziness. And wouldn’t you guess it one of them was my host for the month. After a long bumpy van ride we had finally made it to our home for the month.
During our time here, each team was given a host. My team was placed with a family who was headed by a pastor, named Moses, his wife, Mary, and their five children, from oldest to youngest, Lori, Deborah, Jay, Josiah, and Isiah.
Moses was that joyful and crazy spirited man that welcomed us into his home. He was married to a beautiful women named Mary, and they had 5 children. From oldest to youngest, Lori, Deborah, Jay, Josiah, and Isaiah. They were a family truly filled with love for the Lord and for others. Living within the compound was also two of Mary’s sisters (Josephine and Donna), Mose’s brother (Simon) and then a a young man who was working with their church (Jacque).
The schools in Rwanda were in their last week as we arrived. Moses and his wife owned a small school near their house. They had found that in their area so many families had little to no money so for many it was impossible for them to send their children to school. So they opened one that welcomed any and all children who fit within the age range and that could get themselves there. The school included a baby class, middle class, and high class. This was like a preschool through maybe first grade level in the states. The first week we were with them we helped in the classrooms. The kids were taking final exams so we would assist where we could with that and then make sure that they all had a great time during their recess! They had a hard time finding and keeping teachers here and had recently lost one due to the limited pay they could give, owning and running it themselves. Myself and my teammate Riley were given the second class which consisted of 4 and 5 year olds (who knew I would be teaching kindergarten age again!). This was the class that no longer had a teacher so we were handed a piece of chalk and asked to teach them! This turned into a lot of songs, smiles and high fives. It was challenging but a great time in the end. During the recess time we played games, danced, sang, and played lots of football (soccer). Even kids who were not part of the school would come to play with the mazoongoos (white people). That time was so sweet and always sent us home with big smiles, full hearts and tired bodies!
We came to Rwanda at a very broken and torn time. In our first days there we also came to learn that the government had recently shut down over 600 Christian churches. The placed a new “building code” in affect that caused then to no longer be up to code therefore people were no longer allowed to meet there. They would require things such as a certain type of window, cement floors, a roof that met a certain code, a parking lot (even if no one there drove cars), as well as a specific tank and bathroom system and so on. There were 4 churches that Moses helped start/run within his area. Because of this horrible happening we were quickly put to work in getting one of the four churches that Moses owned back up and running. Our second week we spent armed with sledge hammers, pick axes, shovels, and our bare hands. As they had finished a few things on the list we were sent to work on lifting and laying the floor. This was a month I had been waiting for! Manual labor!! As we became more familiar with what needed done and the resources we had we began carrying smaller rocks in and laying them as level as possible. As we use up all the smaller rocks from the delivery we moved on to the larger rocks. Now these were hard rocks.. So I grabbed a sledge hammer and started smashing. With pieces of rock flying and smaller rocks being created we were able to fill more of the floor. This would allow for them to buy less concrete to meet the requirements necessary for the floor. We dug holes to create a porch and a handicap ramp. We put a lot of sweat and even a little blood into that place hoping that soon the doors would be open again for people to come and worship. After a week of hard work and a few trips to the bakery down the street for some doughnuts we finished! We had covered and leveled the floor so they could now lay the concrete and seal it. One step closer towards opening the church!
After we completed the work that we could do on the church we were in our final week and a half in Rwanda. We went back to the school in hopes of doing some more manual labor there but soon realized we did not have the tools needed to complete what the pastor wanted to do. As Moses began to list off the things they still needed to complete the Lord began to speak to me. There was this huge list that needed done in order to open part of the school again as a church and just to make it a more fun place to go for the children. The Lord had blessed me so much in the ability to come on this trip and just in life with all that he has provided for me. So that is when the Lord said to me so clearly that I needed to provide the paint for the school. I was to use some donations that had been made to me after I was fully funded and buy what was needed to continue our work for the last week. That is something that i never could have done without those people that believed in me and continued to donate to me. Who provided the funds to make that happen.
So our last week we spent painting the outside walls, all of the classrooms, and then the alphabets, numbers, and baseboards. What an incredible experience to be able to end our time there right where we started. Now there were no kids since they were on break so we were able to do some renovations. We started with a fresh coat of paint on the outside, from there we designed a logo for the school and Riley outlined it in three different places. As some helped her fill in the logo others of us moved inside to point the classrooms. As this task was challenging (covering up an oil based paint form the previous paint job) we were finally able to do it! I then had the privilege of painting on the alphabets in each classroom. That was one thing that truly stuck with me from this project. As a teacher it is so neat to be able to say that I had a small part in furthering the education of children all around the world. Even if it was something as small as giving them an alphabet reference on their wall. What a sweet mark to leave from many generations to come.
As we painted kids from all over the town would come and talk with us (I even got to use the little French I could remember from high school with one little boy!), they would play soccer, tell us jokes, and even catch goats for us to take pictures with. It ended up being some of the most fun times we had during our time there.
What a blessing it was to be able to serve in such a way along some people that were truly doing such amazing things for the Lord. And honestly after 3 months of working in ways that would could not see automatic fruits from was a little hard. We would invest a lot of time and energy in teaching, building relationships, preaching and evangelizing but never had anything to look at as direct fruits. Which don’t get me wrong that is totally fine. God planted those seeds through us and is using them for great things but it was so very nice to be able to directly see the things that were accomplished due to our manual labor. Floors were raised, schools were painted, and kids were loved. And that was oh so sweet.
Overall our time on Rwanda, with Moses and his family was so wonderful. They showed us love and went above and beyond anything we could have asked for. They celebrated our American Thanksgiving with us, taught us how to wash laundry by hand and loved us like we had been part of the family our whole lives. I am so grateful fro the time I had with them and know that my first month in Africa was the best it could have been because God gave me their family. It was bitter sweet leaving Rwanda but I know that I was able to leave a little piece of love there that I can look back on and that will be shared with many others as they pass through that small village.
