Wednesday, June 1

What a full day we've had! It's a little after midnight here in Rwanda, but I can't sleep without recording some of our day first.

We started the day with the pastors' wives and the single mothers. Faye counted and said we had 150 women with us! Praise God for giving us an excellent review of our teaching and some great discussion with our new friends.

We also got to spend a few minutes in the parish preschool and watched the children get their morning snack from One Egg. Please take a look at their website and read about this amazing ministry. It is changing the lives of these precious children in a very practical way.

After visiting the school, we headed back to the church and were humbled by the heartfelt speeches from two of the wives, the Arch-Deacon, and Chantal. Each of them spoke of how needed these Bible studies were and that the lessons learned would be repeated to others as the pastors' wives go back to their villages. The wives and the Arch-Deacon even recounted some of the Bible lessons we had taught. We give all the glory to God. We served lunch and also ate lunch with the women before saying "goodbye" to the pastors' wives and "see you tomorrow" to the single mothers. Pray we can be an encouragement to them tomorrow as we discuss that they are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made and as we teach them knitting.

We picked up the boys at Sonrise, where they had been repairing more windows. We headed to the hospital in Musanze to serve lunch. This was a very heartbreaking experience. We were a little worried that there would not be enough food. We started praying that God would provide a "fishes and loaves" experience. He did. There was enough food to give extra people lunch. Please pray for these people.

Dinner tonight was at Lake Kivu - so beautiful! We stopped for a little souvenir shopping on our way and Wanda got to try carrying a basket like African women do! (Everyone needs to take a trip with Wanda!!!)

We see such gorgeous scenery on our drives here. This evening we passed several tea plantations. We also see many crazy things, like bicyclists hanging on to the back of a truck and a cow in a moving truck knocking over a man on the street! Rwanda is an amazing country!

Extra pictures from Monday and Tuesday

Pictures:
Two of our interpreters, Asha and Martha
IPC ladies with Millie
Teaching
Beautiful Rwandan dresses
Arch-Deacon Jean Baptiste and his wife Jacqueline

Tuesday, continued

Below...

Jesus Loves Me in Kinyarwandan
The ladies looking up versed in their Bibles
Volcano with sorghum field
Our group at Volcano Lounge for dinner

Tuesday, May 31

We had another incredible day here in Rwanda. We are connecting and engaging more with the women.

Today we had Bible lessons about Hannah and Esther. We also had some really great discussions about Godly marriage and prayer and trusting God in tough situations. I hope it was comforting to them to see that we have many of the same struggles.

We have been enjoying their singing and today they asked us to sing for them! As faithful members of the IPC choir, Wanda and I were thrilled. We started with Amazing Grace, which they did not know. Them we started singing Jesus Loves Me, which they did know! I cannot put into words how glorious and worshipful the next few minutes were. Singing the same words of truth and praise and adoration to our Savior in our respective languages is something I will never forget. It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. We don't share two words in common, but the name of Jesus is all we need to know we are connected with Christians all around the world.

The guys fixed window panes at Sonrise. I don't have any pictures from their day yet. I'll post them when I do.

I will also post pictures of our very fun fellowship dinner soon!

Please pray for rest/sleep, continued health, travel mercies as we venture out a little father tomorrow, safety for the men, the Holy Spirit to guide our words in teaching, and relationships to continue to grow both in our group and with those we encounter.

Monday, May 30

Happy Memorial Day! We are so thankful for all the men and women who have served and do serve America.

I look around at this beautiful country, full of volcanoes and banana trees and eucalyptus trees and big smiles and monkeys and bright fabric, and it's hard for me to believe I'm actually here! 

We've had a full day here in Rwanda. After breakfast, we headed to the village of Cyankia. We met with the Arch-Deacon, Jean Baptiste, and his wife, Jacqueline. His words humbled me. He spoke of how he knew God had brought us there and was going to do wonderful things through us. He told us that he is responsible for ministering to almost 40,000 Christians in all of his districts. One of his main priorities has been starting an education program for preschool-aged children (ages 3-5). Prior to this program, these children were left to fend for themselves while their mothers went to work, which left them in a position for any number of abuses from both nature and other people. Now that there is preschool, the mothers can go to work without worrying about their children.

After our meeting with the Arch-Deacon, the men left to go to Sonrise School and we women began our Bible studies.

The Arch-Deacon explained to us that these women are pastors' wives and in charge of leading small group Bible studies. His hope was that our words would be encouraging to them and they could use those words to encourage women in their villages. Things were a little quiet at the beginning, but the ladies began to earn up to us by the end of the day. We did lessons on Sarah and Hagar, Rachel, and Rahab today. We also had a time of sharing personal testimonies - a few of ours and a few of theirs. The women loved inviting us to dance with them while they sang. It is inspiring to see their joyous, full-bodied, full-voiced worship.

The men got their bearings at the school and got supplies ready to begin doing some repairs and painting tomorrow. They got to spend some time entertaining the children at the primary school. Apparently, Kelly has an amazing coin trick!

Our driver, Mambo, thought it was so funny that Phillip wanted to drive home from Sonrise!

We shared stories of our days over a fantastic meal here at our hotel. Now we're settled in, ready for a good night's rest.

Pray for our health, that more relationships would be formed, and that God would use each of us to his glory.

We're here!

We made it to Rwanda around 12:30pm. While we are sad that we had to miss worship this morning and our afternoon activities, we are thrilled to finally be here!

Our friend Emmanuel met us at the airport. He helped load our luggage into the pickup truck. I was very amused at the packing method, which consisted of many yards of type and a tarp. Huge praise - all of our bags arrived!

We rode about 2 hours to the Cathedral grounds in Musanze, where we were able to eat some delicious pizza and catch up with the Bishop. We loaded back up and rode another 30 minutes to Cyanika. We were greeted very warmly at our hotel (The Montana Vista). We've settled in, had showers, and are ready for a good night's rest.

Pray for our day tomorrow...that our women's Bible study/retreat would go well, that the Holy Spirit will guide us and use us, that our lessons would be well-received, and that our men stay safe while doing work at Sonrise School.

Thankful that His mercies are new every morning!

Addis Ababa

We made it safely to Ethiopia! It was a long flight (14-ish hours), but we thankfully had extra room and everyone got some rest. Everyone is in good spirits this morning.

The plane was the biggest I have ever seen!

We have one more short flight from Addis Ababa to Kigali. Pray that our luggage arrives and that we will have transportation when we get there.