I do not even know where to start with explaining this month but I’ll try.
For starters, most of you know that Eastern Africa was not part of our original route. My team had the honor to meet the woman who are responsible for the change.
This month we were partnered with Pastor Fatier and her church, The International Healing Center (IHC). To be honest, I was not looking forward to the change in our route. There were ministries in Southern Africa that I had hopes to be working with and when that all changed I didn’t know how to handle it (as mentioned in previous blog). Last month in Uganda was a little difficult so my expectations for Rwanda were not much higher. If only I knew from the start.
When we traveled to Rwanda, Pastor Fatier met us at the boarder and showed the bus where to stop on the side of the road so that my team could get off. Let me say that again, we got off randomly on the side of a road. With our packs, we walked about 5 minutes down a dirt road to her house. I was annoyed and did not want to start another month of door-to-door ministry and the feeling of constantly feeling tired.
After we were given the schedule for the week, we found out that our biggest responsibility was to pray. Pray for the church. Pray for the ministry. Pray for what we would be speaking on or share with the congregation. Pray for the family. Pray. We also did small groups on Wednesday’s, one for ladies and one for the men. Thursday’s we spoke about the different characteristics of God and how they impact us. Friday mornings we went to the hospital and prayed over newborn babies and the people admitted. In the afternoons we would go to the church and try to impart some of our [little] knowledge in the field of ministry. Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings were spent at children’s ministry, where we played games, sang songs, put on skits, and did some other things I can’t think of right now. I am not a fan of public speaking but hey, door-to-door wasn’t on that list so that was a good sign. With that we went to bed.
The next morning when I woke up, I made a nice fresh cup of instant coffee (better than I thought it would be), grabbed my headphones and my book, and walked out to the front porch. I knew then it was going to be a great month. There were fields, hills, and just this perfect serenity.
My team took advantage of our time. We had what we called Coffee Convos, almost daily, where we would focus on a certain topic and discus what we believed and why we believed it. These conversation topics ranged from hell to sex and marriage to anything and everything in between. We didn’t take this time to try to change people’s opinions but more to see other points of view and learn more about where each other are coming from.
We made some amazing relationships with the family we were staying with and other members in the church. They loved us, served us, and blessed us way more than we did them. They not only talk the talk but they walk the walk. They live for Christ in such a radical way and it was refreshing to see. Back to that bit about the people who changed our route, there is a team of prayer warriors at the IHC and it is said that when they pray for something it happens. They were praying for a World Race team to come. And we did. And I am so grateful for it. This month was the hardest to see come to an end. This group of people were the hardest to say goodbye to. Rwanda blew any expectation I had to pieces and then some.
I cannot tell you enough how great it was, so let me try to show you….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCT4pFH9ZaU
UPDATE: To all those of have donated to me recently and around the holidays, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I am SOOOOOOOO close to being fully funded! If you feel led to support me, please click on the SUPPORT ME! link in the left hand column.
Thanks! Later Days!
