CommUnity

OK so I got called out by Nate Miller the other day on skype that although he really enjoyed reading my blogs I think he said I was trying to hard to make them sound good. Well I guess I am going to keep trying at least for your (the reader's) benefit. I mean, I know some people who can write really well and you hang on every word that they are saying. I am not one of those people. So thank you again for hang'n in there with these blogs. I have learned a lot this week of the blessing and necessity of community. There is so much that I am learning and so many ways that I am being challenged here but I have realized the importance of being in community with others as a crucial aspect in our spiritual walk. I have been exposed to the blessings of being a part of a community with friends and family whom support each other, challenge each other, and encourage each other to better followers of Jesus Christ. I think community is a necessity and a crucial aspect of our faith. It has been great hanging on to that through this blog. For those who read this and leave comments, use it to support each other as well. Friends keep encouraging, challenging, and most importantly loving each other. (Community)
This week has been good. Along with the on going work here at ECK, Tuesday I was supposed to speak at a school in the afternoon but we could not get to the school because the roads where closed by President Bush. Oh, whom I did not get to meet. I guess I should have tried to get a job at the U.S. Embassy. Any ways back to more important things. I went to one of the local colleges of education and met with a YFC group. I got to meet, spend time with, and talk to some college students about ways that they can be active in their faith there at their school and with their freinds. On Wednesday I spent the afternoon working with another street kids ministry. It is to describe feeling that you have when you meet kids from the age of 8 or 9 to young men in their late teens who sleep in streets, under bridges, and abandoned buildings. who do not have parents, spending the night trying to get drunk or high off of drugs or drinking glue so that they can get sleep at night, spending the days begging and stealing food and money for their drugs. (that might not be a sentence) We are working to get them into school, get them food, and share the love of Christ.
After a great week of work I realized Thursday night as I was going to bed that I had lost my camera somewhere that day. This is was definantly a very disappointing realization and I am not sure what I am going to do. Hopefully some how I can get a hold of another camera for the next 2 1/2 months. Pray that I can get another camera. So for now there will not be anymore pictures to upload on this blog.
Please say a prayer for a container that we need to get with some computers in it to start a computer lab here at the school. It has been delayed a long time and It would be really helpful if I can help to get things set up while I am here. Thank you Thank you again for taking the time to read this blog and for your continual prayers.
PEACE

Moving Mountains and More

I moved mountains on Thursday and when I say this I mean I literally moved to a different mountain. It is the next one over from where I was living. I moved from Kibagabaga to Kininya. I now live with a Rwandan family, Rongin works at the school and he has a wife and little baby girl. I am a little more outside of town and It has more of rural setting. The living arrangements are different as well and a little more realistic to how some people are living here. There is no running water. They get their water a quater mile from their house and it must be boiled to drink. The bathroom is a whole in the ground outside,They do not have a kitchen and they cook over a little coal stove. You get clean from taking some water from a bucket and splashing it on your self and this will be life for at least the next 3 weeks. The two biggest frustrations right now are trying to get around town and to work everyday because I have to walk to the main road and try to get a motorcycle taxi and communication is difficult. Communication is tough with my family that I am living with and all I can do at night is read. So I do a lot of it, which has been a challenge because I love spending time with people and I do not love to read. This is just life here and the family that I live with seems to be very content and living comfortably although it only makes me realize the many blessings that I have.
It was a really good weekend.
On Saturday I went and worked with this ministry that spends time with a community of homeless boys. They get together and teach them soccer, try and meet some of their physical needs like food and water, as well as share the love and gospel of Jesus with them. This is a ministry that I will be able to get involved with on a regular basis while I am here. It was a great experience as I watched and learned how they reach out to these boys and how I will be able to help and get involved. Saturday evening I was able to attend part of an African wedding reception with the Brad and Kiki and then I went to Jenny's house. Jenny is an American who teaches at a school here whom I met here through soccer and I was able to meet and hang out with some of her friends who are living and working here in Kigali. Sunday I attended my host family's church and we were there from 8-12...really long service. After we got home from church I decided to take a walk and after 3 hrs of walking I made it to the center of the city and decide it would be best to take a moto taxi back home. It was a fun adventure but I do not think I will be doing that again. So work at the school is going well. My primary work for the next two weeks will be getting some after school programs up and running so that they can begin in early March. God is doing amazing things and using people to reach out to the needs in Rwanda and I pumped just to be a small part of that for the next three months. Continue to pray for the school and its growth, The people and children here in Rwanda and for those in the south who are still recovering from the recent earthquakes.

Our President, G.W. Bush is coming on Tuesday. This is pretty exciting and has been the talk as of lately. He will be here to dedicate the new U.S. Embassy along with visit the Genocide museum... etc. I am trying my best to meet him...I mean he should want to meet every U.S. citizen that is living and working in Rwanda, Right? It will not happen but I can try.
Ephesians 5:15
Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

African Baby Showers and Football

So the other day I was invited to a party in celebration of a families baby who is the director of Y.F.C in Rwanda, Jean Babtiste, and as the party was supposed to start at 2:30 and I arrived late which in one circle might be considered normal for me and a fault of mine. I showed up at almost 3 and found myself to be the first arrived guest. So after about 15 minutes of chatting with the director the rest of the party showed up. I did feel pretty out of place being the only non African person their and not understanding any of the Kinyarwandan language they were speaking. It was time to eat so I grabbed my small plate of rice, potatoes, vegetables, and bit a meat which turned out to be goat and began eating. As I was finished J.B. told me that I needed to try another kind of meat that he said would be more tender and enjoyable. As I looked at it I knew that this did not look like normal meat and when asking him what it was he said, "It is good, just try it". So I put a piece in my mouth and began chewing. It was tender and chewy and kinda had a burnt taste. It was not the worst thing in the world but something I did not feel like eating more of. After many attempts at persuading him to tell me what it was he finally said, "Oh, the meat, It is just goat intestines". And I said "Oh, Ok, Its pretty good". He then went on to explain the delicacy that goat meat is and I did not eat another mostly because I was so full. The party went on with speeches from some guests and the hosts and then we finished up with singing and dancing which I for the most part awkwardly watched in amazement as people sang songs and dance. It was very entertaining.
I also had the opportunity last week to play soccer with some guys who work for different NGO'S or Embassies in Kigali. They called themselves Muzungu United which stands for white man because everyone on the team was white. There were guys from all over including Russia, Germany, France, and America. We played a Rwandan team on this field that was all dirt except for one side had a skinny 40 ft patch of grass that had not been cut in a long time and was about 2ft tall with mounds of ant hills situated in it. It was a different experience from the pitch I was used too playing on in the states but it was a very fun time even in a 4-3 loss.

Happy Valentines Day to all.

Broken

"You hear O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; You encourage them, and you listen to their cry. Defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more". Psalm 10:17-18
I had the opportunity to visit the Genocide Museum in Kigali last week. It was quite an experience that I find hard to put into words. I was able to get a much better understanding of the history of this country though and the events that taken place. When we first started the museum they showed us a bunch of mass graves that held over 250,000 thousand people that were part of the million that died as a result of the Genocide. It is really hard to comprehend that many deaths in such a short period of time. As you begin to get a glimpse into what happened back in 94, the injustice, and how people have dealt with it since, or lack there of, it does make it easier to put together the pieces of where the state of this country is at. As I have learned about what has happened in Rwanda and what has happened and is happening in other countries in Africa, I realize more and more just how Broken a world it is that we live in. It his hard to comprehend and relate to the possibility that anyone I see over the age of maybe 25 or 30 has seen their family or friends killed or has killed someone. It has been interesting to slowly hear stories of how people had to watch their brothers, sisters, parents, husbands, and wives get killed. There is still so much to learn about the needs of this country. It is poor just like most of Africa and I live in the city which is supposed to be developed and have not even reached the villages yet. The effects of Genocide play a huge part in its development. People are not educated and there are not enough jobs. My gatekeeper or watchman at the house leaves his wife and kids from the village in Northern Rwanda so that he can get a job here earning a couple bucks a day to provide for his family.Everyone comes from the villages to try and find a job. Orphans, widows, and poverty are a part of life and it only gets worse. Children need educated for change and that is the true blessing of this school and the kids that get to go to it.

Bonjour!

I have arrived. It was a long trip but I finally made it to Kigali International airport around 9 Saturday night Rwandan time. It began at Dullus International Airport outside of Washington DC from there it was almost an 8 hour flight to Brussels Belgium and after a 3 hour lay over another 7 hour flight straight to Kigali. After saying Goodbye to Dad at the entrance to the security check point I found myself racing though many emotions. I felt excited and nervous, confident but a little scared, unsure of what in the world I was doing, yet sure that I was where God wanted me. I was headed to Africa. I stepped out of the plane to feel the rush of warm air hit my skin. I smelled chocolate in the air and thought this place smells really good but quickly realized it was probably the dessert from my airplane dinner that decided to jump of the spoon and rest itself on my shirt. After walking down the stairs and across the open pavement to the airport, I waited in a long customs line, grabbed my baggage, and met Brad and Kiki Burnfield. Here were my missionaries that I had talked to once on the phone and several emails and finally got to meet them in person. They are great. Oh and they are Taylor grads...what are the chances?? So after getting to their home we sat and shared our favorite stories from college. We talked about old Taylor traditions, friends, people we knew, and everything we loved about going to TU. I was tired and it was time for bed. The next morning came very quickly as we woke up at 7 a.m. to head over to Kigali Christian School where Y.F.C. was having the last day of a leadership conference for all the ministry leaders through out Rwanda. After being introduced to the director of Rwanda Youth For Christ, Jean Baptiste, He introduced me to the whole group of about 50 ministry leaders and had me share what I was going to be doing for the next 3 months. As I spoke in English he translated it to the language of Kinyarawanda which I found was the dialect that most people speak along with French. I can not understand what anyone says here. Even people that I meet that can speak broken English are hard to understand. I sat and listened to a man named David Kidalli from south Africa speak about leadership in ministry which was great because he spoke English and it was in a very pleasant British Accent. Then we had a Church which included communion and then it was time for a group picture and Lunch. Lunch was great. It consisted of the usual Rwandan food of rice beans and potatoes, but we also had peas and chicken liver, washed down with a coke. After lunch we had the normal Sunday afternoon of rest and relaxation which was much needed and highly anticipated. That night we went out to dinner and it was the Burnfields and I along with David Kidalli and this wonderful family named the Changs that I met which I have to take a few sentences to talk about. The Changs were staying in Rwanda for about two weeks and arrived a few days before I did. They were 1 month in on an 8 month educational adventure that will take their 3 boys through pretty much half the world including parts of Africa, eastern, and western Europe. They are great. It has been a joy getting to know them. We were blessed to have them take us all out to dinner for Indian food in downtown Kigali. It was fantastic as we ate food and talked about life in Rwanda along with the boys favorite activities and food that they missed back home. I was tired and day 1 was over. Do not worry I will not make every blog this detailed but I just started writing and kept going. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. It is such a blessing to have. You are missed.