I know, I know. It’s been too long. I arrived to Cambodia yesterday (2nd of April) I am sorry for the way I have been lacking in keeping you updated. I have about 6 rough drafts of different blogs I want to post but I just can’t seem to finalize any of them…
Here is a quick overlook of where I have been:
• August 8th – Chile
• September 8-19th – Peru
• October 3rd – 12th – Ecuador
• October 15th – November 7th – Colombia
• November 7th – December 4th – Rwanda
• December 4th – January 1st – Uganda
• January 2nd – January 29th – Kenya
• January 30th – February 3rd – Malaysia
• February 4th – April 2nd – Thailand
*Note: some of the days vary a little because travel days can last a whole day or sometimes three!
I want to go back to my time in Rwanda and explain a little more of what it was that we got to experience there. At that time, I was still with my first team, Agape Vita.
This was the first month our team experienced living in someone’s home, eating daily meals in someone’s kitchen, and shared a bathroom with 11 people.
During that month, we spent our first week doing what Faith Center Ministries called door-to-door ministry. We walked around the neighborhood and found people to encourage and talk to. We heard their stories, their burdens, and prayer requests. People invited us into their homes without hesitation. Every night, we went to a small gathering at the church and worshiped together and shared something from the Bible. Our team took turns sharing things that God was teaching us.
We even had the opportunity to share some of the things God was teaching us when we were invited to talk on a local Christian radio station!
We were even invited to a wedding and participated in the community clean up day held throughout Rwanda on the last Saturday of every month. It was during these times that God was teaching me about the art of interruption.
The rest of the weeks in Rwanda, we spent most of our mornings teaching English since the kids were on break and then we would arrange a game time in the afternoons to give the kids an opportunity to hang out instead of stay stuck at home.
Of course, the teacher in me came alive during this time. I truly enjoyed being with kids, teaching, and then enjoying time together in play. These moments stole my heart and made Rwanda the first place where saying goodbye brought me to tears.
I still get messages from the family we connected with in Kigali, Rwanda. And every time, my heart aches. My heart is truly found in different places of the world.
When we were teaching English, some of the kiddos that attended class were coming from the Lighthouse Children’s Home nearby. The connections made were so dear and we were invited over to the home to spend some time with them and their “aunties,” aka, their caretakers.
I also hear from one of the aunties, Allen, often. And she updates me on my girl, Hope. Oh, how my heart wishes so much I could give this precious girl and all the kids at Lighthouse everything they could ever need and want. Their dance performances for us, their giggles, and their love are some of the dearest things I have experienced on the Race.
Only about three more months of this journey left, and I am looking back at all these moments and memories, trying to figure out where time went…
See you soon!
“Life was certainly intended to be lived as ongoing ministry, not separate from ministry. Of course, the more I asked Father God to give me His eyes for the people He brought into our life and home, the more he confirmed that He did not view anyone as the next ministry project or person to be evangelized but as someone just like me, who needed to be lavished with His undeserved, unmerited blessing, love and favor.
He was changing my vision. Again, giving me eyes to see that we most deeply experience his beauty when we walk with others in the darkness.
[…]
This lifestyle of sharing and inviting others in to sit at our tables, rest on our couches, shower in our bathrooms, and sleep in our beds goes against everything Western culture teaches about valuing personal space and privacy. With all these extra people, quiet and personal space were things of the past. I used to find it inconvenient, disruptive, even uncomfortable but God continued to stretch me more and more and to teach me that this interruptable public lifestyle is the way he desires me to live and to love.[…] I began to practice the art of being interrupted.”
Excerpt from “Daring to Hope” by Katie Davis Majors
