Oh, Rwanda. What a sweet month. If Uganda was a month of challenges and physical and spiritual exhaustion, Rwanda was a month of restoration, rejuvenation, refocusing, and resting in the Lord. Everything about Rwanda was an answer to my prayers. Geographically, Rwanda is utterly beautiful and lives up to the name of “the land of a thousand hills.” There are beautiful rolling hills everywhere and, unlike Uganda, Rwanda is clean! Instead of breathing in dust and car fumes, I could actually breathe. We were in the village of Kizirakome, about 3 hours from the Kigali (the capital of Rwanda.) We partnered with Pastor Fatier and her church, International Healing Center (IHC). Pastor Fatier, who we ended up calling mom, is an amazing woman of God. She is also a widow, who has incredible faith, a huge heart, passion to serve her community, and big dreams. She started a program sponsoring children to go to school as an act of obedience to God. What started as a sponsorship for one child quickly grew to 37 children in a few years time. She blessed our team tremendously, stressing how her home is a place of rest. She wanted us to focus solely on prayer and our ministry.We held our Children’s Ministry Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings where we played games, sang songs, and put on skits for Bible lessons. On Wednesdays, we started a men’s and women’s small group/bible study in the homes of church members, stressing the importance of a strong community. Great discussions took place in these small groups and before we left, the members planned to continue these groups moving forward. On Thursdays, we each shared our testimony and preached to the congregation. Friday mornings were spent at the hospital where we prayed for newborns and for those who were sick and admitted. In the afternoon, we continued to share our testimony and preach, but this time, focusing more on the leaders of the church. Finally, on Sundays, we preached again. Even though we had no wifi and walked an hour to church and back everyday, we loved it. Ministry was very life-giving. Pastor Fatier and the church community loved us, served us, and blessed us in more ways than we ever could. This month was the perfect time for me to have more intimacy with Jesus and to retrain my focus on Him.
A quick testimony I want to share is the time I preached on a Sunday in front of 300 people for 50 minutes..
Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely hate public speaking and is pretty much my worst nightmare.
I had found out earlier in the week that my team wanted me to speak, so I spent a lot of time throughout the week preparing and putting together a few words to share. By the end of the week, I had put together 2 sermons– one that strung together several short sermons I had preached on in other countries, and another that I was working on but quickly gave up after I had trouble coming up with only a few sentences. My attention kept going to the second sermon and it kept tugging at my heart. On the day before I was set to speak, I spent some time praying about what God wanted me to share with the church. As it would be, that small whisper that kept on telling me to preach on the sermon that wasn’t finished grew louder and louder until I felt convicted to finally listen. I spent all night working on it– I was stuck the whole week with what I wanted to say, but I was so filled with the Spirit that night that I truly believe it guided me and gave me the words to say. I ended up writing 5 pages of notes and shared those very words on Sunday, not because of my power or my incredible speaking abilities, but because the Spirit of God was moving. I spoke on the immense love of our Father; how He views us as His prized, treasured possession and we can go to Him to ask for anything and He will always give us the best. I shared how God delights to show up when His children call on His name and when they are trusting fully in Him to come through, that nothing can separate from His love because He had paid for it all on the cross. At the end of the sermon, Pastor Fatier used my sermon to open up an opportunity for anyone who wanted to give their life to Jesus. Four people ended up surrendering their lives to Jesus that day and accepting Him as their Lord and Savior. We then went into a wild session of praise and celebration and the whole church was filled with dust in the air from all the dancing. Praise God! All glory to the king. It was truly a glimpse of Heaven and I was overcome with so much joy. I was filled with so much thanks and truly humbled that God would use someone like me to share His Word and build His kingdom. I know if I hadn’t listened to that small whisper and been obedient, I could have missed out on an incredible opportunity.
These past 5 1/2 months have been amazing and arduous all at the same time and it has been a great learning experience. Initially, I didn’t feel like I was growing or changing, but as I reflect and take a glance into the rearview mirror of my journey, I can see the evidence of God’s tremendous love for me and how much I am growing. I have been learning more about myself and who I am and growing in my relationship with Jesus. I don’t want to miss out on any of the opportunities that God has planned for me and I am excited to see what else God has in store for me these next 5 1/2 months. I want to experience more of His presence in my life in a profound way and I can only hope to be a vessel for Him to work through.
quick updates:
– final deadline is March 1st and currently I have $15,849 of $16,255 (98%)
– No longer going to Turkey, but instead will be going to Montenegro!!
– Currently alive and well in Ethiopia. This month we are Unsung Heroes and will explain more in another blog so you can look forward to that.
Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support! Love you guys!
Below is a video of our month in Rwanda made by my awesome teammate Lisa!
