Week 1*
–The warm welcome. “You don’t ask, you just do.”
When we first arrived to our contact’s home, Pastor James insisted that we were here to be comfortable. “Comfort” being a word I didn’t expect to hear on the Race, initially I was curious to see what this month was going to be about. But being in a home with a family this month has definitely given me a piece of comfort. Pastor told us first thing, “if you were at your home and wanted a cup of milk, would you ask someone or would you just go get it? That is what it is here for you, you don’t ask, you just do.”
-tea.
Rwanda has the best tea. Hands down. We have it for breakfast and dinner, and I would say I do at least 3 cups a day.
-Kinyarwandan names. Mutony wasay
After we were here for a few days, our host parents renamed us and gave us Rwandan names. They said they prayed about them and based them off of our behavior thus far. The name given to me was Mutony wasay, which means favorite of the father, worth the most cows (if I were given in marriage my dad would get the most cows of any child in the family), and special.
-Heidi and Bailey arrive
This month our World Race team hosted two girls, Heidi and Bailey, who were on a different trip with Adventures in Missions called Passport. What that means, is that Heidi and Bailey among 15 others raised support to go on a short-term mission trip for a month. Heidi is 20 years-old and Bailey is 18-years old. They are so wise beyond their years and have been such a blessing to our team.
-Day with Vincent da birdman
One day. What ended up just seeking to find internet, landed us in a car of Pastor James’ brother Vincent, who drove us to internet yes, but then also drove us to his farm where he has hundreds of chickens as well as a bunch of cows. From there we ended up at a country club eating lunch, picking up his kids from school, and getting home 8 hours later. The whole “one hour to run an errand thing” we quickly learned is never a short ordeal, if you have an errand you just count on being gone all day.
-Rwandan wedding
We went to our first wedding here in Rwanda on the first Saturday here. We wore traditional dresses and went to three ceremonies (out of five ceremonies normally held in a day). I think we all had fun, just like the locals who had fun staring at us.
-The warm welcome at church the first week “these could be angels amongst us. we never know!”
We attend church services on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. Our first week during all the services whenever we were introduced they all spoke very highly of us. (If only they really knew!) and a line we heard a few times was, “these could be angels amongst us, we never know!” it was really very sweet.
-struggling with feeling loved by my teammates
Coming off of a more spiritually challenging month in Cambodia, I entered this month still carrying a burden of self-pity and feeling like my team didn’t really love or appreciate me. This gets worked out later on in the month, but initially because I wasn’t feeling the most loved by my team I spent all my free time with our new family and new church friends. What was a bad thing for the sake of team unity, God still used for good because I was able to make relationships here right off the bat. (struggle to be continued)
Week 2*
-starting my week with being fully funded!
As our first week came to an end and with our off day on Monday approaching, the magic word, “internet” was stirring in all of us. For me, internet meant not only checking e-mails, facebook, and the like, but internet also meant checking my $upport account. Sunday night I joked around with my teammate Jessie about waking up on Monday and us being fully funded. I may have said it as a joke, but then I seriously considered it and prayed for it that night. Then again when I woke up, then again in team prayer, and finally the moment of truth came; I am sitting at the internet about to click that “fundraising” tab, and I say one more time, “Jessie for real. What if we are both fully funded. I would poop myself.” And… {Annoymous, $1,558} fully funded!
It was such an amazing boost, I didn’t end up pooping myself but I was freaking out for a good 20 minutes. I know I posted it but THANK YOU again to all my faithful friends and supporters. The work I’m doing is credited to you.
-feeling so much love from home, hearing updates on how all my friends are doing, thankfulness
At points in the Race when I’ve gotten online I’ve been overwhelmed by the notifications and messages on facebook, the number of e-mails, and all other things I feel like I need to accomplish on my off days. But I think I’m finally in a place where I just try to be diligent with the internet time I have, I also don’t feel guilty when my computer dies and I spend my rest day actually resting or enjoying myself. It may not seem like a terrible problem to have, but the fact that I feel freedom is the real important thing here.
-door to door evangelism; the paralyzed woman; the divine appointments with Bailey and Riah
During our first real week of ministry we were able to go door to door telling people about Jesus and teaching them what the Bible says. Every house we went to welcomed us with open arms and enthusiasm. We went to a paralyzed woman’s house on the first day and the woman had tremendous faith, I was so encouraged. She told us, “I know Jesus is a God of healing and that He will heal me, it’s just all about his timing.” A few days later when we went as one large group, at each house one of us was expected to share. The crazy thing was, that every house we went to was right on. Two houses in particular were spot on. One house, one of the Passport girls Bailey, shared with the woman at the house about being tested through trials. The house was new, the woman looked well off, and when Bailey started sharing scripture about trials I was questioning in my head as to how it was going to go. After she finished sharing the woman broke her “all together” posture and confessed she was going through numerous trials and really needed to hear that. I think everyone in the room was shocked, but with God should we have really been shocked? He knows everything. A similar spot on occasion happened with another teammate Riah, she shares, God shows up, the message and scripture is spot on, and we leave. It was so cool to see all the divine appointments God had waiting for us here in Rwanda, we just had to walk into them.
-being blessed more by people than us blessing them! People being so friendly and generous
I mentioned a little above, but I have felt so blessed by all the people we visit. Whether it is through evangelism or going to lunch/dinner at church member’s houses. Everyone is so sweet to us, I feel like we are the ones being blessed this month rather than us blessing others!
our team at a woman's house for lunch
-“I think you guys better just rest in Jesus today”
It’s 7:40am Thursday, we finish our team prayer after 8 and as we are eating breakfast, we ask about what time we are supposed to be ready (time is flexible here) and then we get informed by our Pastor that “we better just rest in Jesus today”. Everyone was excited. We stopped trying to understand this culture a long time ago.
-Campus [Crusade] for Christ!
One of our first times on the bus we passed this building with a familiar logo. A few more times passing it and I’m really starting to wonder if the building is what I think it is; so one day after evangelism I tell Pastor James that I became a Christian through an organization called Campus Crusade for Christ during college and the building we were walking past had the same logo. We stop inside and hear all about the ministry there—which is in fact the office for the national director of Cru in Rwanda. The national director, Emmanuel, quickly drives up to the office from his home and we chat more about the similarities between Cru in the U.S. and Cru in Rwanda. He invites us back for prayer in a few days, which we attend with other missionaries on staff with Cru planted all over Rwanda. I think visiting here and chatting with the national director and the staff was one of the best days in Rwanda so far. I’m continually thankful for the role that Cru played in the last 4 years of my life and thankful for the opportunity to hear about them spreading God’s love here in Rwanda.
National Director Emmanuel and his wife and their weekly staff meeting//prayer
-another Rwandan wedding; “Pastor, sometimes women really like chocolate, can we stop for chocolate on the way home??”
Angie and I at our second wedding. Normal clothes this time.
-being blessed by Joseline
Joseline is a beautiful woman from Church of Hope who invited us to her home, when we arrived it was more beautiful than half the houses I’ve seen in America. I know I can speak for my whole team when I say we were more than blessed to be there. We hope that someday she can come to visit us in America so we can show her the hospitality she showed us.
-feeling really close to God and confident in his promises; so much joy!
After the first week here of getting to know our host family and doing ministry I was loving the people of Rwanda so much, and part of that was because I felt received and loved in return by them. It’s easy to love people when they show you the love back. Yet I began to realize the time I was wasting on the self-pity train, and that I needed to jump off that train and count my blessings with the girls on my team. I asked God to help me have a heart for the women on my team, and I also realized that if I would just settle and be content with where He had me, then everything would be fine. Well God went above and beyond. I feel like He gave me his Kingdom goggles and the whole second week here I felt as if I could see and discern what feelings, what emotions, and what battles had a place in the Kingdom and which ones did not. I owed my team some apologies for not being connected and I really tried to love my neighbors (teammates) as myself.
Week 3*
-chicken slaughtering
Some of my teammates are sick and this week Pastor brought home a chicken for them to kill. Lucky for their consciences, the knife they used was so dull it took about 2 minutes just to saw through the little guy’s neck. I named our chicken John the Baptist.
-struggling with sleeping well, progressively becoming physically and emotionally strained (stand firm, resist the devil and he must flee)
For a while here I was waking up at least 5 times a night on average, and also having strange dreams. I’m not on any medication so there wasn’t a good explanation as to why. Finally on Wednesday morning I woke up from another poor night of sleep and I was just physically and emotionally exhausted. I felt drained and at the same time I couldn’t place a finger on why. My teammate Riah had also been having some troubles sleeping and she had even developed a cold, so who knows, but my team prayed over it and that night I was surprised with a giant ugly cockroach before bed, so they prayed again and I surprisingly had a good night’s sleep. Since then I haven’t had any major problems, praise God.
-having my emotional moment on Wednesday morning and wanting to stay home from evangelism…later to see God lead 2 people to Christ and being able to speak to a crowd of 25 people 🙂
I’ve found that whenever I feel apathy not to do something, if I go or do it anyway, then big things are always to follow.
-growing close to Heidi, thankful God sent me someone who reminds me of my friends back home
This is Heidi. Her parents got saved at Michigan State and were involved with Riverview when it was still a baby church. Now her family lives in Orlando, ironically another place where I have spent tons of time. She is going to be a nurse (as I once was). And all around we have a million things in common. God is so funny and the world it seems to only get smaller. I am so excited to have a new friend and a new dear sister in Christ. She is here just for the month and then goes back to America, but I’m excited to see this cute face when I get back to the States.
Heidi and a cute baby at church 🙂
-cuddle time with Dan
Dan is my new African boyfriend..
not.
Dan is the middle child of the three boys at the house. He touches and moves everything, which is pretty annoying to me and everyone else, but at the end of the day he runs up to me and just stands there and holds me. One night both his parents were gone at night and the boys were being chaotic and refusing to sleep. I pulled Dan and his little brother Joseph down onto their bed and just laid with them until they fell asleep. I feel like these boys are my own little brothers and I will be truly sad to leave them behind.
-seeing all the squad and marveling at where everyone has come in the last 7 months
-seeing myself and marveling at where I have come in the last 7 months (and also where I’ve learned some of the same lessons over again..oof.)
I really hope when I get home I’ll be a new and improved person. I think I can I think I can.
-going to visit Mutessi’s mom and dad
Mutessi is the name of our mom. And one day we had free time so she invited me to join her to go visit her mom and dad. Her parents are also watching Mutessi and Pastor James’ eldest child, Gideon, because they have better financial capability and a better school system nearby them, so Gideon visits his other brothers from time to time, but Mutessi goes and visits him as well. I love Mutessi so much so getting to meet her parents was a real joy as well.
Mutessi (mom), Mutessi's dad, me, Mutessi's mom, and Mutessi's niece Lyn
-evangelism and sharing the gospel with the Muslim man. Leading him to the door of Christ.
One day while evangelizing we met a Muslim man. He tells us, “I think the bible has errors in it because of man who wrote it.” But after some small talk and a few minutes later when we ask how we can pray for him (and others in the room) our Muslim friend says, “my prayer request is to learn how to have eternal life.” Excited for the door that just swung wide open, we share with Him the Gospel and his response is, “so if someone believed that Jesus died for their sins and they wanted forgiveness, what would they need to do?” we end by telling him that all a person must do is confess that they believe Jesus died for their sins, past present and future, and pray to God that they want a personal relationship with Him and that’s it. When we asked him if he wanted to pray that prayer he said he does but he needed to think about it again, so hopefully by now he has thought about it and we have gained a new brother. Who knew! So encouraging though.
-eating a burrito in Africa
they may not have Chipotle here but this place we went the other day was about as legit of a burrito place as you can get in Africa.
-finding peanut butter
All I have to do is walk up a hill to get it. #victory #thelittlethings
