We just finished our first month in Africa. That’s crazy to believe. This was the first time we had a full month with no plans to participate in Ask The Lord. Basically what we do is head into the country without host being set up. We come together as a team and we pray and ask the spirit to lead us. This month was very tricky because on top of not knowing where we were going to be doing ministry we also were on a set budget of 5 dollars a day for food and lodging. That’s the normal budget but Rwanda turned out to be a lot more expensive than other countries. It was about 11 dollars a day to stay somewhere and each meal was about 5 dollars. So we needed God to show up in a big way, and he did. Our team “Da’Boise” started this month with a lot of uncertainty. But we were focused on asking God to provide for us and like he tends to do he started showing off.
Our first couple of days we really had no clue what was going to happen. Coming into a new country let alone continent is strange. Everything is new and you really feel a little bit lost. We had a few days of sickness and just really wondering where this month would lead us. Our budget for lodging was only half of what the cheapest hostel we could find was. The food money again was about half of what we needed. And the beauty we would come to find in this is that when we don’t have enough but are still willing God shows up.
Fety and Sanju
We found an app called couch surfing and sent out some messages looking for free places to stay and we found them. The first place we found was a small room in the back of an Indonesian restaurant called Borneo. It is owned by an Indonesian woman and her husband. Fetus and Sanju. This was not the ideal place to stay. Four grown men were sleeping on the floor of a small room in the back of this restaurant. Quite comical if you ask me but God showed up. We decide to pray and go out. We went up to the local park in Kigali looking for some sort of ministry. As we were walking somewhere we really shouldn’t have been we heard a song on the man in front of us phone. We stopped and asked him if he was a believer and he said yes. His name is Enoch. He then invited us to his seventh day Adventist church. The service was about four hours but we met a woman they call sister Jackie. She lived on Enoch’s land and showed us incredible hospitality. If we weren’t staying at Borneo we would have never met Enoch who led us to Jackie who led us to Ivan and Jordan.
Claire and Sise
We then moved on from our host and found another one. Claire. Claire is an angel sent from the lord. She didn’t host men with poor or no references, which I had none. But I felt called to reach out regardless. She said we could stay and we joined her for dinner. Before we got there the team spent the day fasting and praying. My focus was on gratitude and for more provision. We ate and instantly connected with her. My team was taking communion nightly and we asked her to participate. She did. She then asked if we wanted to say what we were thankful for and pray. We did. After it was over she offered us to stay for four extra days. Claire has a nice house and has adopted a child named DA’sisse. What a picture of beauty this child is. He has a problem with his tendons in his feet and struggles with walking but he has a spirit of pure joy. He plays and loves all sports. He always wanted us to play with him and we did. I truly saw God in these people and just the hospitality that was shown to us. We barely paid for food and lodging was completely free. My heart goes out to this family and what God is doing in them. If you ever have a minute join us as we continue to pray for healing in her son and gratitude for his incredible spirit.
Daniel
We also visited the genocide memorial in Kigali. In Rwanda the genocide of 1994 is a huge part of this countries history. I have never seen a country that seemed so lost recover so well. There’s an overwhelming sense of responsibility and forgiveness in the people here. We met a man at the memorial named Daniel. He worked there and gave us directions. We later ran into him on the road. We got to spend a lot of time with with Daniel throughout our month. Daniel is an incredible soul. He is very proud to be Rwandan. He is a part of his church’s choir and spends a lot of time ministering to the youth. His love for God and desire to be a Godly man is infectious. In a country where leadership is so crucial in its development I know the lord has huge plans for Daniel. He is doing great things through him. He even got it set up where we could lead a soccer camp and teach a word about Jesus. Multiple times this man went out of his way to ensure that we were enjoying and successful in our ministry efforts. Much love to you Daniel.
Jordan and Ivan
So back to sister Jackie. When we were eating with her we were told she wanted us to eat with her cousin and his wife who is a missionary. We accepted and arrived to there house as our time at Claire’s was running out. We ate and learned about the family and they told us they host people. One of their goals last year was that they wanted to be more generous with what they had and hosting people. Ivan told us that night if we needed a place to stay we could stay there. We gladly accepted and moved in with all of our stuff. Their house is beautiful and private. They have three amazing children. I actually grew super close with the toddler Arrow, sick name by the way. Throughout our time here I got to witness what a truly family of God is. They both work at an international school on Kigali. Ivan is about to finish his masters and Jordan is a teacher/heads up missions for her school. Throughout our time here we got to stay for free. We pretty much ate to our fill daily for little money and this enabled us to use our money for other things we needed. We bought 10 soccer balls that we led multiple camps with. Which enabled us to reach people in villages where we could share the word. In fact or last camp after we prayed two younger men asked for individual prayer and we did. We then invited them to church and they came.
They also raise money to continue to live and do what they do. Here is the link to their donation page if you are interested in helping them out. https://rceinternational.webconnex.com/55910
And here is the link to their Facebook page to get a glimpse into seeing more day to day stuff. https://www.facebook.com/theimpactjourney/
They have impacted myself, my team and so many others and whether you support them financially or through prayer they will be grateful!
Evod
We met Evod at Christian Life Assembly. A international English speaking church in Kigali. Evod was a usher here. We were invited by Daniel because he knew we would like to experience and English speaking church after being away from them for so long. Daniel is friends with Evod. Evod knows Ivan. The connections God had laid before us were incredible to say the least. Evod knew some friends who coached local soccer teams. We told him our mission and he immediately helped us. We got another camp set up and got to spend two days working with the kids at this camp. He also really took over when our friends from the camp joined us at church. God is using him in big ways and I am so thankful we got to meet him. I am pretty sure right now he is in Kenya on a missions trip. He loves to serve the lord and has a truly awesome spirit.
Without any of these hosts or friends none of this is possible. In a month of uncertainty and a fiscally small amount of money God showed up in huge ways. He provided a place to sleep every night. He provided food for us. And he allowed us to be comfortable (for the most part) during this time so that we could spend our days doing ministry and serving others. It’s absolutely crazy looking back at how everything played out. How we went from having no direction to really having an overload of provision and ministry.
I am currently in Uganda. We just finished debrief and are already doing big things here in our fifth month. We had a team change and I am now with brother Taylor, the team lead. Brandon, Riley, Alicia and Frieda. This is an incredible group of people and I am excited to start again with them and be apart of a team that I think is going to do really big things. If you would pray for us as we don’t have a host again this month. We are already moving quickly and making an impact and being impacted by the people here.
God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.
Love y’all.
