IS
AWESOME!!!
I just LOVE this place!
I love the adults, the children, the church, the ministry, the food, the weather, the scenery . . . EVERYTHING!!!
AND, since I love so much about this place and have SO many stories to tell, I have decided to make a list of the top 20 memories I have thus far from this country. Yes, this blog is long, but I hope you take the time to read it!! These stories may make you laugh! They may make you cry! Whatever they do, ENJOY THEM!!!
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1. We are in Kigali, Rwanda, on our first day in the country, but we want to be in Nyagatare. It has already been a long two days of traveling from Kenya, and all we have left is a two to three hour bus ride. Sounds like nothing after a 29 hour bus ride, two border crossings, and random walks all over town, right? WRONG! We are driven to the small bus (or is it a matatu?) that we will take, and we see that all the seats are already full. Hmmm. Is this really the bus we are going to take? We have seven people, including out contact Caleb, who has ridden out to escort us, and each of us Americans has a 40-50 pound big backpack, a 10-20 pound smaller backpack, and other random items. There is NO WAY we are going to fit. Well, NEVER say NEVER because they find a way to fit us. They cram our packs into the bus and press down the mobile aisle seats on top of them. We sit two to a seat in the aisle, and they place all of our other packs, tents, and random junk that has fallen from our bags in our laps. There is NO leg room whatsoever, I am trying to sit on two different seats that are at two different heights, and Carmen’s legs are pressed into her chest. She is on the verge of crying because the position she is in hurts. Not only that, but there are some people sitting by the teammates behind me that are getting angry for how close their stuff is to them. One guy says they will have to pay if their stuff touches him. We all think we will lose our minds! But, God brings us through, and we make it to our location in one piece. Yesu Ishimwe! (Praise Jesus!)
2. So, Caleb, our contact, is a very tall Rwandan. He is six feet, seven inches tall and has the stride of a giraffe. I love to walk with him because his long legs allow him to walk fast, like me. 🙂 Sometimes, he tries to take the largest strides he possibly can to see if I can keep up. My teammates laugh hysterically at us because there he is, gliding across the ground with his LONG, LONG legs, and there I am moving my much shorter legs as fast as humanly possible just to keep up with his gigantic strides. It is hilarious to have speed walking competitions like that, and for anyone who knows me, the fast walking lifts my spirits. 🙂
3. I have my own running group here in Rwanda, and it is ever-changing. 🙂 At first, a 21 year old girl named Wimana, who works here at our house, tried running with me. She ran in a blouse, skirt, and flip flops. However, she was limping the next day, so I offered her my Keens. Who would EVER want to run in flip flops? Well, she has only joined me one other time, but she is now a good friend. We say hi to each other, scare each other, and try to converse with the limited French, English, and Kenyawanda we know. 🙂 After that, a man named Frank, who is an usher at our church, tried running with me. He arrived at our doorstep in dress shoes and pants. He was huffing and puffing by the end and said I needed to find a new partner. So, for awhile, Carmen and Kelly ran with me instead. It was nice to have some Americans join me. 🙂 On the last day Carmen ran with me, we picked up a guy named Dita, age 18, along the way. I raced back and forth between him and Carmen, and boy, WAS THIS GUY FAST! Ever since that day, he has showed up on my doorstep EVERY morning without fail to run with me. Yes, he has to stop sometimes because his endurance is lacking, but I finally have someone FAST to run with on this trip! Two days ago, we gained the two other boys, Innocence, who is 10, and Kenneth, who is 15, and now we are like a team. All of them go to Faith Center, the church we attend, which is cool. They run at sporadic paces and speed up whenever someone is watching, as guys often do, and it cracks me up! Innocence said the other day, “we want you to practice us.” Haha. I LOVE IT! So, the group has been ever-changing, but it has been one of my favorite parts of being in Rwanda. OH, and it is also AWESOME when the little kids making their way to school join us randomly for parts of the run.
Dita and Innocence
4. Well, while I am still on the running theme, here is a funny story for you. So, I am walking with Tito and try to say “I love running” in Kenyawanda. He looks at me with a very strange look and corrects me. According to him, the way I was pronouncing the word “running” completely changed the meaning. Instead of saying, “I love running,” I had said, “I love diarrhea!” EWWWWW!!!!
5. One night, Carmen, Michelle, and I all wake up to the scariest screaming on the face of the planet. It sounds like someone is either possessed or on the verge of a massacre–like something straight from the pit of Hell!! After a few minutes of the insanity, Carmen starts praying, and it stops almost immediately. Thank goodness. But, THEN, Michelle says she has to go to the bathroom, which is of course outside in the darkness. NOW? Are you kidding me? Right after THAT? Well . . . . I guess I kind of need to use the bathroom too. Too much Rwandan tea before bed is never a good idea! We are so scared . . . Well, at least I AM! So, we both go out into the darkness. Standing up to my fear, I step out into the night. And nothing bad happens. The next day, it turns out NO ONE else heard it. It really didn’t make sense HOW that didn’t awake them. Caleb says it may have been a man with mental problems or meningitis. I guess we will never know. BUT, I do know this. I NEVER want to hear that again!!
6. So, our toilet is a mud hole outside in a little “shed.” One day, I am taking care of business, and I look out the crack in the door. Wow, that is kind of a big crack! I see four kids making eye contact with me and smiling at me from behind the fence. OH, GREAT!! They can see me! How embarrassing is that? I leave the bathroom and head back to the house, feeling stupid. I tell the girls in my room. Then suddenly, I am like, maybe I should ask them if they know Jesus! So, I go back out and talk to the four kids on the other side of the fence. They have limited English, but we have a good time talking, AND it turns out they all know the Lord. Now, everyday, we meet each other by the fence, and I ask how their days have been and we smile at one another. And, this is all because they saw me while I was in the toilet . . . ah-hahaha.
7. It is our second day of evangelism, and we come to a house with several people working outside. We approach them, and we find they are open to us sharing with them. I tell them the gospel story, and they all seem to understand. However, they want to know about the time Christ will reign on earth, the new heaven, and the new earth, and how it all fits together. This is a difficult topic to cover, but I turn with them to Revelation 20 and 21 and, with God’s help, try to be as thorough as possible in answering their questions. As this time of reading and discussion ensues, the group enlarges to about 30 adults and children. By the end, FIVE MEN are READY to receive Jesus. HOW EXCITING!!! After we pray together, one of the men, Innocent, says, “I AM A NEW MAN!” What a great day!
8. On that same day of house to house, our translator, Tito, takes us down to the river. After looking at the muddy water and the cows and saying hello to the half-dressed men, he says we will take a shortcut. Now, this “shortcut” heads in the opposite direction of where we are staying. I try to question how it is shorter, but it is useless. So, we leave the river, walk through a crowd of longhorns, and head off in the opposite direction. We are in the middle of nowhere. All we see are fields and roaming cows. Well, suddenly, I hear a groan from Michelle. Her flip flop is broken . . . .and there is no way to fix it. She tries clomping along and says she is fine, but Tito just will not let it go. He offers her his shoes, but she refuses. Once we hit a road with some houses, he runs to the first one he sees. He talks to a woman for awhile and comes running back with a pair of white shoes with a bit of a heal. Michelle tries them on, and they do not fit. He runs back, and to our amazement, the woman takes the shoes off of her very feet and hands them to Tito. Tito returns, and they fit perfectly. WHAT GENEROSITY! Wow, we were blown away. The woman was willing to give up the shoes on her very feet for a stranger. Isn’t that a perfect example of what Jesus would do??
9. I am randomly sitting out of the porch one day, and a child walks up. I find out the child’s name is DANIELLE. So, we start to have a conversation, and partway through, the child says my white skin in beautiful. I reply with, “YOU are beautiful!” I say it several times, and after saying it, I am met with this response, “I am handsome.” That is when it hits me . . . . . “Wait is your name DANIEL?” “Yes.” WHAT? This was a boy? OH NO! I felt like an idiot. I was SURE he had said “Danielle,” and I guess I just assumed that is what I heard since he was wearing a shirt with the word “girls” on it. Oh, you have to love the language barrier!
10. That same day, I have the chance to talk to Daniel’s sister, Lydia, on the porch. Well, it turns out she had been listening to me preach to the five men that were saved earlier in the day. You never know WHO is listening here, which is pretty awesome! She picks up the Bible sitting there and turns to Revelation 20 and 21, right where I had been preaching. What a good memory she has! I later find out she is first position in her class, AND, when I ask what she wants to be when she grows up, she said, “the president of Rwanda.” What ambition!
11. One day, I am sitting out on the porch AGAIN, journaling and talking to God, and three men walk up. We say hello to one another, I ask what their names are, and then, as I usually do, I ask if they know Jesus. Only one of them is a Christian, and he says the other two, Ezi and Immanuel, do not know Jesus. BUT, he says they WANT to know about Jesus. He says I can tell them about Jesus right then and there. So, I proceed to share the gospel with them, as the believing man translates for me. At the end, BOTH of them want to receive Jesus, so I pray for them and then with them. They are both SO HAPPY! I invite them to church, and they are off on their way. Talk about the lost coming right to my doorstep! That opportunity fell right in my lap! WOW!
12. One afternoon, we head farther out into the bush to preach at a church that is meeting outside of a house. We are almost there when I see an adorable looking girl, possibly around the age of three. She smiles hugely at me and runs quickly to meet me. I give her a high five, and she is still smiling a BIG smile, but then I shake her hand. She looks at me with HUGE, SCARED eyes and runs away as fast as as she can to hide behind her mother. She is crying and looks terrified. I know, we are scary “musungos”–white people. We are always frightening small children with our presence!
13. One night, Caleb asks if any of us want to go for an evening walk to visit various people in need of prayer. I am in! Well, at one of the stops, we pray over a couple that wants to have a baby, and for me, this is EXTREMELY awkward. I hardly know what is going on until partway through because almost everything that is said is in Kenyawanda. I can make out a few words here and there, and the motions help, but that makes it even MORE AWKWARD. We pray over them, and when we leave I feel compelled to say something to the woman, and so I do: “God will bless you like He blessed Hannah in the Bible!” I pray that God blesses those words because I know I wouldn’t say them on my own!
14. We all dress up in crazy Rwandan outfits, which look like curtains, for a wedding out in the bush. Once we are ready to go, we start to walk, and after about a half mile, a car pulls up. Caleb tells everyone to get in besides me. “Jenny can walk.” Amy can’t fit either, so the three of us are stuck with walking. Well, about a quarter mile later, three motorbikes pull up. Um . . . . who are THOSE for? “Get on!” our contact says. WHAT?? No way. What happened to the car? Why couldn’t Ashley or Kelly or someone else who LIKES to ride those things be here instead of me? I am NOT riding a motorbike. I am NOT riding a motorbike without a helmet. (I don’t even ride a bicycle in my neighborhood without a helmet!) I am NOT riding a motorbike in a dress. He tells us to sit sideways, but I refuse. If I have to do this, I am facing forward. So, I get on, freaking out on the inside, and we ride to the bus stop. It is my first time ever on a motorbike, and I am in a crazy curtain-looking dress with the hugest look of fear on my face. It had to be a sight to see. As soon as we arrive at the bus stop, all of my teammates are laughing at the situation. Well, I guess God wants to set me free of fear, and if that takes putting me in situations I am a bit scared of, SO BE IT!
15. One of my FAVORITE things about Rwanda is the fact we have the chance to preach all the time. Faith Center Church has a service every night, and since we have arrived, I have preached six sermons–one on love being the greatest gift, one on friendship, one on God’s plan, one on comparison, one on Peter, and one on prayer. However, out of all of them, there is one that really sticks out–the one on God’s plan. This is the sermon where I share the story of how my heart was broken and how God used that situation to bring me to the exact place I am today. I am open and vulnerable and share that although God’s plan may be a mystery to us, He is guiding our steps. We may try to fight Him or run away, but if He wants us to do something, He will use whatever it takes to bring us where He wants us to be, even if it takes breaking our hearts. At the end, I ask anyone who wants prayer–anyone who wants to give their plans and control over to the Lord–to come forward. I really don’t know what I am asking, but soon, eight people are kneeling down in the front of the church. I am not sure if they just want prayer or want to to be saved. Well, it turns out, they want to be born again. So, in the front of the church, they all give their lives to Christ. There hasn’t been a big response to many other sermons, but in the one where I shared my biggest hurt, God used my vulnerability to reach other broken hearts. That time in my life was depressing and hard, but it if hadn’t happened, those eight people may not have given their lives to Jesus!
16. It is nighttime, and my team is sitting in the living room chatting. Suddenly, we hear talking outside, and Ashley says someone is at the door. For some odd reason, as if I know something just is not right, I push back the curtain before opening the door. It was someone I did not know. For some reason, I still open the door, and it turns out there is something just not right with this man. It is clear he is a bit tipsy, and it looks like he is holding a little bag of alcohol. He tries to push himself into the house, but I push him back. All I can dumbly ask is, “Do you have a name?” Kellen, the pastor’s wife, comes and tries to take care of the situation, but he continues to sit outside the door and on the random ledges of the porch windows. At one point, it is clear he is on the other side of the curtain, and I am standing right next to it, looking at his silouette. Well, suddenly, someone whips the curtain back, and I DIVE headlong to the floor. I am just too terrified to see his eyes staring right into mine. Kellen calls Caleb, who is at church, and he literally COMES RUNNING! He has the translator and Ugandan pastor with him. Caleb THROWS the man to the ground. The man keeps trying to get back up, but the men keep pushing him down. Wow, our men are sure ready to protect us!! Kellen keeps beckoning for us to look out the window at what is happening, and Michelle takes some “paparazzi” shots. Soon, security comes and takes him away. What a funny, yet creepy, time!
17. One day, Caleb says we are going to the hospital to pray for people. He heard God telling him that is where we should go the night before. Amy, Michelle, and I enter the first room, and right off the bat, we have the chance to lead one girl named Olivia, age 18, to Christ. We walk to another room, which is FILLED with sick people, and I am drawn immediately to pray for a girl with a huge, swollen stomach. She is emaciated, her eyes are vacant, and she looks close to death’s door. The woman with her says the doctors do not know what is wrong, and she will be taken to a hospital in Kenya soon. We pray for awhile, but when it is time to move on, I am just not ready to leave. I continue to pray for her. Nothing happens though. When we leave, Amy asks me to pray for her stomach. Apparently, it started to hurt a lot when we had entered the last room. I pray over her, and the pain leaves. I am not sure if these pains came because that is where the girl we prayed over had pain, but all I know is that some type of warfare was occurring in that hospital. The girl with the swollen stomach was not healed, but I will continue to pray!!
18. One night before service, I notice there are about ten children waiting on the front porch. I recognize some from church, some from door to door evangelism, and some from morning runs. Many of these are the children are the ones Carmen taught random dances to earlier. I sit down with them and ask their names. We talk a bit, and then I ask if any of them would like to play a game. They are in!! I take them to the wet dirt in front of the house, and I circle them up. I try to teach them Ninja, but it is super hard with the language barrier. The girl who seems to understand it the best, oddly enough, is the one who is only four years old. By the end, the only thing they are all trying to do is hit me. It is hilarious!! I also play a little Simon Says with them, but soon it is time for church. Oh, how I love this place! Little kids just COME to us!
19. It is a cold, chilly, rainy Sunday–it has been raining for at least six hours straight. I am wearing a tee-shirt, longsleeve, and raincoat but wish I had on a sweatshirt too. We are all sitting in church, which meets outside under a tin roof, and we are waiting for the service to start. I look back and see a little girl wearing just a little tee-shirt and shorts. She is shivering and shaking and rubs her arms to keep warm. “Give her your raincoat to wear,” I hear in my thoughts. But . . . . I am freezing. I contemplate what to do and then just decide to do the right thing. I get up, walk back to the little girl, take my raincoat off, and proceed to put it on her. It is HUGE on her, but at least it is warm. I fix the arms so they aren’t hanging down awkwardly and zip it up for her. I walk back to my seat and sit down. “Where did you go?” asks one of my teammates. I tell them, and one pipes up and says, “You know you might never get that back, don’t you?” Hmmm. I guess I hadn’t thought of that. I just assumed I would go to her after the service, after it had warmed up, and take it back. Worry starts to creep in. But then, I realize, does it really matter if I get it back? If this little girl really has nothing else to keep warm with, I should be happy to give up a nice, new, raincoat for her. I have a chance to be Jesus to this girl. “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. . .I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” -Matthew 25:35-36, 40. Well, it turns out that the little girl gives the jacket back to me after the service, so there was no need to worry. And you know what else? During the time without the raincoat, I was actually WARMER than I had been while wearing it. How weird is that? When God calls you to do something, be it big or small, listen to Him. He WILL take care of you through it all, even if it is in a small way. 🙂
20. So, we are in church that same rainy day, and amidst all the words in languages I don’t know, my mind starts to wander. I am thinking about using my camera afterwards to take a picture with my morning running buddies, which of course, are all boys. But then, I hear some words in English coming from the pulpit. The Pastor says this: “When a man loves a woman, the first thing they do is take a photo together.” Wait a minute . . . scratch that idea! I don’t want to give my friends any WRONG ideas. Soon, the service ends, and no more than one minute later, my running friend, Dita, approaches me. My other little running friend, Innocent, is by his side. Dita says “photo” and points to himself and me. Oh no! What does this mean? Innocent helps translate and says that Dita wants to take a photo together. I warily take out my camera and give it to Innocent so he can snap a shot. I have never felt so awkward. What does this mean?? OH BROTHER!!
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WELL, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE STORIES!!!! 🙂
IF YOU MADE IT TO THE END, WAY TO BE! (Hehehehe.)
HAVE AN EXCELLENT DAY!!
