There are so many things to talk and tell people about my time in Rwanda, but to share them all it would take up two or three day’s straight to read them. So, I will share the most impactful and biggest things we got to do thought out the month. It’s crazy to think that we are already done with the second month already. It went by so quickly.
We started of the month with our first debrief. Debriefs are a place where we come together as a squad, to discuss, relax, and process together what God is doing in our lives. During debrief we had a couple different teachings on things like how our God is just even if the word doesn’t seem like He is, or things we need to release to The Lord. For instances the things we have been holding on to, but God has been telling us that isn’t for us. He wants something better for us. My thing that I was holding on to was control. Control of the structure over my life. There’s a blog coming about this.
The time at debrief was a great time. We hung out with the friends we have made and then some, cried together, laughed together, and more importantly grew together. This thing called being a missionary is becoming more real to me.
After debrief we headed out to our ministry sites. The place that most teams went was Kigali. Kigali is the capital on Rwanda, it is really beautiful. Our team went to work with The Gospel Center of Rwanda. Our contact was a guy named Moses. I was told earlier in the race that we would know our people when we met them. This is so true.
Moses is an interesting guy. Probably never going to forget him. Before we showed up to meet him we heard so many great thing about him and how awesome he is. Well the stories were all true. This month we were blessed more then we could have imagined. He was a jokester; probably one of the best. On our first day, without knowing us, he played a prank on us. It will never be forget.
He made put our hands together; like when you show a child how to pray. Then walk around his house very quiet, without making a sound, or laughing, because that is rude he told us. So we put our hands together and started walking around the house. After walking around the house he told us to walk into the house and stay quite till the last person got in. He told us that it is a cultural thing to show respect for him and the culture, while also blessing the house. Weird tight? As we walked into the house he followed behind, and then with a straight face says, “First prank” and then started laughing his head off. It was exactly what our team needed to start off the month with.
Throughout the month we had to chance to preach lots of times. Sunday through Thursday, twice a day most times. This was a great thing for the team going forward because some of the team has never preached before, so they got a chance. Plus, I got the chance to get more practice at preaching with lots and lots of grace from the people of the church. We all got better by the end of the month. Most of the time we didn’t get much time to plan so we planned the day of, sometimes hours before. This really was a blessing, because we really had to rely on the Lord to speak through us. Letting the Holy Spirit speak through you is the whole point of preaching, it allowed us to not be able to speak from our flesh and let the Lord shine. Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t ever plan and study so that you can fully understand what scripture says.
During the mornings we would head to a sewing school to lead a bible study to some of the students there. These ladies were supper sweet. They helped me out with their sewing skills. I bought a pair of pants or trousers that were way to long for my short legs and they hemmed them up for me. We needed a couple pairs of trousers because our dress code required them. I only brought one pair……ops!!!! 
But I don’t have this problem anymore!!!. Thanks to other means that we provided for me.
Some of the other mornings we would do some manual labor. This didn’t happened as much as I thought it would. We mostly lead bible studies in the morning. But when we didn’t lead bible study we helped out at a new church building, that they had, by moving bricks, and also helping to fix some of the holes in the road in the community that we were staying in. When the rain comes it erodes away to road and makes huge crevasses in the road that are not good for cars to drive in. We also helped out by digging out two water run off ditches. These ditches were used to catch water from eroding the road but also from running into some of the houses that were down the hill from us and flooding them.
During the evening we would peach at one of the churches on Tuesday and Thursday. Then Monday, Wednesday we would peach at another church. We all took turns in preaching so that one person wasn’t doing it all. Splitting it up between seven people was really helpful.
Over all this month was amazing. It was filled with a lot of ministry and encouragement from all the people we worked with. Especially from Moses and his family. We even got new Rwandan names. Mine was Ntwali which means Hero. I kind of like this name.
We didn’t just get the names right off the bat; we had earn them by dancing. They wouldn’t let us do it at the beginning of the month, we had to wait till the end. I dreaded this all month, but it was totally worth dancing for. By far one of the best things I have been able to do. We did something that they do in their culture. We had the chance to connect with them in a deeper way and the best thing about it was that they wanted us to be a part of what they do in their culture.
During our off days we found ourselves looking for things that we could connect with their culture and experience Rwanda. A couple things that I had the chance to do was ride on a Moto. This is one of their main forms of transport. A Moto is short for a motorcycle. It is one of the most freeing feelings in the world. To ride on a back of a motorcycle, with someone that you have no idea who they are, drive you somewhere where you have no idea where it’s at or how to get there, and trusting them with your life, when millions of driving vehicles are around you, this is a great picture of how we should let God control our lives. Completely letting go and ride on the back. He knows where to take you. Now don’t get scared, I am still alive, plus they make you wear helmets, for those of you that wish I would wear a helmet. You wish was granted!!!
One of the days we had off we went the market. Markets are crazy busy. There is a ton of stuff to buy, and a ton of people there. I really enjoy walking through markets and barding with the people. They are always trying to sell you stuff at high costs, but we know what they are doing. Most of the time they respect the fact that we do this with them. I will forever love markets.
Another thing we got to experience was the Genocide Memorial. Back in 1994 Rwanda went through a horrific time. If you would like to know more about it you can find out more information if you search the genocide in Rwanda. It’s not that I don’t want to tell you about it on here, but I don’t want to give the wrong information, but I also want to honor the people and the county that we were a part of. This was a very impactful thing that I was able to see, and the fact that you can look at the country now and see so many amazing things that the county has done since, and how much effort they do to make sure this never happens again. Rwanda is one of the safest places in the world now, to be in.
The next thing I would like you to know about is this bakery that someone on our squad had found. Everything that they had there was amazing. The name was even an added part to the whole thing. It was called RZ Manna. RZ is Hebrew for miraculous. Manna is from the bible. Their meaning of RZ Manna was miraculous bread, and they lived up to their name. Plus come on, that’s a pretty cool name, if you think about it. But the real story about this bakery was about their donuts. I can’t even explain how miraculous they are. I have traveled the world, and this is the best donut I have ever had in my life. At least for the places I have traveled to. It’s not just because it was in Africa, or the fact that there wasn’t a lot of places that have things like this. This was literally the best one I have ever had. If you can imagine my face and expression I have while I’m typing this, you would understand how good they really are.
Okay now that I made you all hungry and that I have shared a little bit about the month in Rwanda. I will never forget this place!! Of course I’m not just talking about the bakery, I’m talking about Rwanda. I can’t wait to see what God has for the next month. Thanks for praying for me and my team this month, and of course thank you so much for supporting me finically, with your words, and with your thoughts.
Just a quick reminder if you are giving monthly the last month to give is in December. I am supposed to be fully funded on December 31st 2015, with processing and everything the latest day to send in, if you are still planning on giving is around Christmas, so that they can get everything worked out and in the account by the 31st. If you have already given thank you very very much!!!! I really do appreciate you!! If you are still planning on giving, please do!!! I am supper supper close to being fully funded. Just a little over $600. WOW God is awesome!!!! Just thinking about the beginning of the year, I was only around 6% funded and now I’m almost 96% funded. God is good!!!
Keep praying and seeking God out in your lives as I do the same. Love all ya’ll!!
