It feels so good to be back in Africa (for the third time!!!!!), covered in red dirt, sticking out like a sore thumb with my white skin and blonde hair, constantly being chased after with calls of “Muzungu, Muzungu!” by Small African Children. (in future lovingly referred to as SAC)
We are serving at Awakening Revival Healing Church in Kigali, Rwanda for the next two months. We are living with our amazing host family, Pastor Fred and his wife Mary, and two of his incredibly gorgeous daughters, Eva and Linda. (We are their second Race team.) We are blessed with three healthy, simple, delicious meals prepared by them, and A WESTERN TOILET. You heard me right! It totally makes up for the fact that we’ve been here for four days and still don’t know where we throw out our trash. Every time we ask them to show us where to throw it out,
Our ministry is teaching English to three age groups (children, youth, and ‘the old people’) from 9-12, and then preaching at a ‘conference’ (?) from 3-6, Tuesday through Friday, and then preaching and doing kids ministries (and hopefully not singing anymore) on Sunday mornings, from 8-12:30. We are all a little terrified about how much we are supposed to be preaching, but also super excited to see how the Holy Spirit shows up though us. Its going to be a cool two months.
We went to church yesterday, and as usual it was ear shatteringly loud with dancing and preaching and performing songs thrust upon us at the last moment. (Typical.)
Also typical was the openness and the love we were received with. I always kind of wonder what the local communities think of us, but theres no doubt in my mind that here they hold us in such high regard that I’m constantly humbled by the things they say about us. In the middle of his sermon yesterday, Pastor Fred talked for probably ten minutes about how we (team Hosannah) are all like Abraham, leaving his country and his family and everything to follow the voice of the Lord, and that he is going to see our obedience and honor us for it. (My favorite thing that he said was “you have new food, new country, new people, new sleeps, new, new, new everythings!!) It was so encouraging. Its evident in all their actions towards us that they want to serve us, and its hard to explain that we came to serve them!!
Today was an off day, and so we took the opportunity to take motorcycle taxies to this big mall thing and meet up with two of our teams! Riding a motorcycle in Africa was pretty sick, let me tell ya. Pretty proud of my all girl team! We rocked it. And it looks like its going to be our main form of transportation when not on our way to ministry, so thats fun!! And it was pretty great to see 50% of my old team. 🙂 Love those guys.
- As my third time in Africa, I kind of know what to expect most of the time. However, not being with a TMI team provides some new, awkward, adventurous experiences. Some of them include:
- Looking for a wifi cafe and when not having any luck going to a hotel bar that I’m 100% sure didn’t want 6 american girls using their wifi after purchasing sodas.
- Bonding with my team leader by walking through a rainstorm to find shampoo for our team, and fighting a lady to give me the correct change. (Yeah. She wouldn’t believe me, the other cashier wouldn’t believe me, so finally the manager came out, and he pulled security tapes, balanced the register, and finally admitted that “she has excess” and proceeded to return my change! PS, it was a large amount of change. Don’t judge me too harshly, I wasn’t about to let her take the money we’ve all worked so hard to fundraise!)
- Continuing to bond with my team leader as we searched and searched for a mosquito net to protect us as we sleep…it took forever and we definitely overpaid, but the two nights of uninterrupted sleep have definitely made up for it!
- Riding motorbikes to go find friends and wifi. It was sick.
- Going for a morning run and having SAC join us, or hold out their hands to give us high fives as we run past while the adults either look at us with horrified expressions or laugh their faces off.
- Eating dinner consistently at 8pm and staying up to 11pm talking. Its weird, but so much fun!
Life is beautiful. I love being a Racer. There are really tough days, homesick days, hopefully no physically sick days, days when I wonder what the heck God got me into, but time after time he renews me and shows me all the ways he’s right beside me. I can’t believe this is my life.
I feel like I always end this way, but its so true every time!! Thank you all for empowering me to do this, for providing support when I need it, and for all the prayers and financial support. Feel free to reach out anytime! I love hearing from you!
