Last week I got to spend some time with Maggie’s 5th grade class. We had a good time and I enjoyed sharing about my past mission trips as well as The World Race. They had lots of good questions for me, and even gave me some advice, like to stay away from the small scorpions because they’re the poisonous ones(!). Thanks Maggie for inviting me into your classroom, and thank you students for helping me get even more excited about my trip!
As I’ve been studying about each country, my heart continues to be broken for the lost, forgotten, despised, or rejected ones in our world. So many children left as orphans from parents who have died of AIDS or other diseases. People starving to death because of lack of food, clean water, and needed medical attention. Societies in constant turmoil because of hatred and age-old grudges passed down from generation to generation, creating conflict and war. Poverty, warfare, death; these are the extremes I find myself continually reading about as I research these countries.
Yet, even as God breaks my heart for His people and places, He is growing within me a love and compassion for those scorned by the world. The more I read of the devastations of these countries I will go to serve, the greater my heart beats for them. In spite of all the hardships and trouble that I learn of, there’s this joy and hope bubbling over inside that can’t wait to share of the love and hope of Jesus Christ. I can’t explain it other than I know that my God is bigger than all these tragedies. He is the permanent solution to any problem. To be able to share of that knowledge and hope with even one person will be worth it. I am excited to go and proclaim the name of Jesus!
After spending our first month in Uganda, we will travel next door to the country of Rwanda. It is a small country packed with a big population. In the late 1950s, unrest between the largest two ethnic groups displaced at least 100,000 Rwandans. Some 30 years later in 1994, plans were made to return to their homeland, by force if necessary, which sadly resulted in the Rwandan genocide. Over the course of nearly 100 days, an estimated 800,000 to 1 million people were murdered, roughly 20% of the country’s population, and as many as 2 million Rwandans fled the country. To learn more through a 3 minute video click here. I hope you’ll join me and our team as we seek to be a light and bring hope to this place once ravaged by such darkness.
Fun and Interesting Facts on Rwanda
- Capital: Kigali, also the largest city
- Population: 11,262,564 – 1,153 people/sq mi making it the 3rd most densely populated country in Africa
- Similar in size to the state of Massachusetts (and Haiti!
) - Official Languages: Kinyarwanda, English, French
- Religion according to 2012 census: Roman Catholics 44%, Protestants 38%, Seventh-day Adventists 12%, Muslims 2%, 0.2% claimed no religious beliefs, and 1.3% did not state a religion
- Life Expectancy: ~60 years
- Literacy Rate: 70.5%
- Gained independence from Belgium in 1962
- Main diet: sweet potatoes, beans, corn, peas, millet, plantains, cassava, and fruit
- Average temperature is 74° with rainy seasons from March – May, and Oct – Nov
- Also known as “The Land of a Thousand Hills”, Rwanda has 5 volcanoes, 23 lakes and numerous rivers, some forming the source of the Nile River
- In 2007 Rwanda became the first country in the world to legislate an outright ban on plastic bags
- Rwanda has the world’s highest representation of women in parliament (64%)
- Rwanda has a community cleaning day on the last Saturday of the month where everyone contributes to cleaning up their neighborhood
