The Latest

Friends,
Two Months in a one more to go. I can not believe it has gone so quickly. Well It has been another good week. I am not sure what all I should write about. After School Clubs finished up this week as the kids are now on their semester ending break till mid April. Wednesday I went to the street kids ministry I have been involved with. While we were there Some of the kids are really good at doing acrobatics so they spent some time showing us their skills and helped to attract a crowd for us before we began to speak. There was probably a crowd of about 50 people waiting in anticipation for what I was going to say that day. As I began to talk, as soon as the name of Jesus came from my mouth over half the people gave a groan and walked away. By the end there was probably a solid group of 10- 15 kids who were willing and ready to admit to God that they were sinners and they wanted his forgiveness. Praise God and what a blessing that was. God does pretty amazing things. It is ever more amazing because I find myself only seeing how weak I am at standing up and sharing the gospel to a group of people. I just don't see it as a natural strength of mine and He still carries me and works through that weakness. It amazes me that in my inability to share the Gospel, God Still shares the gospel and brings people to his kingdom. That is the power of God and the power that we can have through Him. He still shows His love and he still shows His grace and this is the life that we live through Him. In what we can not do, God can do and this is the Power of God through us to live a life that is beyond ourselves.
I have been helping Luke, The husband of the family that I have been living with, who is also the facilities manager of Rwanda YFC write a business plan for the center that we have here. They have two large multi purpose halls here and a dormitory, they are in the process of building a new office building, and they have plans for a new guest house and restaurant that will all be able to be used to generate income as people can come and use them and stay here. So he has been trying to write a business plan for the center and I have been spending some time working with him and using the little bit of knowledge that I have to help him. Although It was been some long hours of work it has been good and I have enjoyed being able to help out and be a part of it.
Last weekend I spent a day and went with some friends to a game park near the border of Tanzania to go on a safari. We got to see a lot of animals including Giraffe, Zebra, Impala, Hippos, water buffalo, monkeys, and baboons. It was a lot of fun and we were driving around and we came up to this group of Baboons chillin on the side of the road. We stopped to take some pictures, hang out and watch them. They were pretty friendly as they jumped around on the car and everything. So we decided to take some pictures with them. As one was sitting on the hood of the car I went to stand next to it to get a picture...(As soon as I get the picture it will be added to this page) Anyways I was standing there and I looked back at it and As soon as I did I saw its long arms stretched out as if it was going to give me a hug or probably something a little less friendly so I quickly moved and it just kept chasing me so I decided to throw my water bottle in its direction to divert its attention and thankfully it worked and I was safe. I would have not enjoyed wrestling with a baboon and it would not have enjoyed losing to me. So after that fiasco ended we were all outside the truck and we happened to leave one of the doors open and all of a sudden another baboon was running towards the truck and jumped in the door. He was in the truck for no more then like 10 seconds and as quickly as he jumped in there he was out with a full loaf of bread that we were saving to eat for lunch. He just sat their on the side the road taunting us as he snacked on OUR loaf of bread. What a joke. Well he better have enjoyed it. It was a fun day and that was for sure a highlight.
I hope that everyone is doing well. Life here has been great with many blessings and challenges. It has been amazing to see God at work in Rwanda and to be a small part of it. I am in the office right now with some of our Rwandan staff on a Saturday because parents are coming to get report cards and they are listen to music that is on the office computer and we are all jamming to Jack Johnson. They have no idea what it is but they love it. This is life at the moment.

Street Kids Ministries

Okay, Let me tell you an update on a couple ministries that I have had the opportunity to get involved with while I have been here. Saturdays I have been going to this soccer camp that gives street kids the opportunity to learn learn and play soccer as well as receive the opportunity to learn the word of God and hear the Gospel. I have really enjoyed it and it is an activity that I really look forward too. It is run by my friend Kent and my Friend Jenny also helps out a lot. He has like a hand full of Rwandan coaches who work to teach the kids. These guys are all really fun hang out with and play soccer with. We work with the kids all morning and then in the afternoon the coaches play against each other and then we eat lunch and have a time of fellowship and devotion with ourselves. This last week I started using some of my soccer knowledge to help with training some of the kids that want to be goal keepers and it was a lot of fun getting back into the keeper mindset and I loved teaching them some drills and not having to do any of it myself. This ministry that Kent is doing is a great one as he works with a limit of around 100 kids from age 7 or 8 to around 16 each Saturday.

On Wednesdays I usually go to hang out and speak to another group of street kids with a guy from Youth For Christ. When I say kids I mean their age range is from like 9 or 10 to almost 25. So it is a very diverse age group. This past week we used some of your money that was graciously given to buy some food for each one of the kids. As all of them live on the streets, a couple attend school, a few have parents, but non of them have stable shelter to live in or daily food to eat. They spend their days begging or stealing money so that they can eat or buy drugs and alchohol to ease the life that they live. This past Wednesday was an untraditional day as there was a small group of guys so we just decided to sit and listen to them. So prompted by some questions from us we just sat and listened to their needs, physical and spiritual. Most of them were physical like food, money, or a place to live but some were spiritual. We just let them open up about their lives and we just listened. Then we talked about ways that we could better help them and meet their needs and how the guys who work with them on a daily basis care and love them and want to encourage them to want to go back to school or try and make money from a job instead of trying to steal it. It is the men who are like 18-25 who are the hardest to know how to help. Next week we will share another meal with them.

Well this is a very big weekend. I want to wish everyone a happy Easter as we take a special time to think and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we enjoy our Easter basket for those who get one and our Easter egg hunt lets look beyond that to the saving Grace of Christ through his death and resurrection. It takes me back to the church musical we would have every year that I was in a couple times playing a crippled boy or something...maybe my mom can remember, who was also a wonderful singer in the choir. Anyways has they would all stand and sing "HE'S ALIVE, HE'S ALIVE". Lets praise God, He's Alive.

This is also the first weekend of the national tourney and I want to say that this is one of my favorite times of the year, though I am disappointed because I will probably not be able to watch any of the games being I have not seen any tv in over a month and the games will mostly be in the middle of the night here, but if anyone wants to tivo the games for me it would be very appreciated upon my return. Go Heels.

UNC updates

Incase you did not know what was going on with the heels these days...

Rwandese Slumber Party and Youth Conference

This week in Rwanda was a busy one. On Tuesday we started our after school clubs which I had been working on getting together for the last couple weeks. Then on Thursday I joined two YFC workers and a pastor and headed north to a village where they were going to have an evangelism training weekend. It turned out to be basically a small youth conference with high school aged kids from some of the surrounding villages. Each day they had a morning session and an afternoon session. It was hard for me to understand much of what they were talking about because it was not in English but I was able to have some of It translated to me. They would talk for about 2 hours at a time and I was amazed that the kids could even sit there for that long. I was the only "Muzungu" as we are called or English speaking "white person" there so I could not understand much of anything unless one of the YFC workers would translate it for me.
So, Whats this slumber party thing about? Well, I think this was really funny, but Thursday night it came time for us to go to bed and one of the local pastors was taking us to the place where we would rest our heads for the night. I had been told about all of the possibly sleeping situations before I had left but as we walked into the little house there was a mattress on the floor in the one corner of the room. It was probably a little smaller then a double and there were 5 of us that were looking for a place to sleep. The pastor then said that I was going to sleep in another room. this room was very small and had just enough room for a single mattress and a small table. This is great!, I thought, as I get to have a room and mattress all to myself, but then quickly realized that one of my the other Rwandan YFC workers was going to join me. As I looked at the mattress and the both of us I realized that this was going to be a very cozy night sharing a single mattress with another man. As he quickly got ready for bed and hopped under the covers I contemplated my option of sleeping on the dirt covered cement floor and decided that I would get more sleep spooning with another man on a single mattess then sleeping on the floor. As I began getting into the bed he asked me a somewhat akward question in his broken English. "Have you ever done this before?" he asked. As I hesitated for a second making sure I fully understood what he meant by the question, I chuckled and replied "no, This is my first time for something quite like this". I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I tried to fall asleep, feeling is body snuggled up next to mine.
The next day after a pretty restless night, It was time for another session. This mornings topic happened to be entitled in English, "Worth the Wait". And let me tell you it was quite an interesting one. As they kept talking, from what I can understand, It basically turned into a sex education/ HIV prevention course as kids here do not get any education on these topics and their are so many things that they do not understand about their bodies and their feelings and what exactly is right and wrong with how to handle it. Students had so many questions and probably could have asked questions all day. It was then my turn to speak and I spent my time encouraging them with the things we had talked about all morning, sharing my testimony, and encouraging them to share the gospel and love of Christ by developing deep, loving relationships with their peers.
That afternoon the two YFC workers and I spent our time visiting an S.O.S. Orphanage and then drove through a Congo refugee camp. They were both very interesting experiences especially getting the chance to drive through a Congo refugee camp. After that I put myself on a bus and made the trip back to Kigali.
The week was finished by a wonderful Saturday at a soccer ministry working with street kids that I have been involved with. We spent the day teaching kids soccer skills, doing drills, playing games as well as sharing the gospel with them. That has been the last week in Africa for me. It has turned out to be one of my favorites even if it did mean sharing a single bed with another man. Thank you for reading, praying, and caring. Thank you for the work that you are helping to do while I am here.

UNC defeats Duke 76-68

Pumped about this
I wish I could have watched it

Whats UP

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted a new blog but the last week has been flying by. In this post I just wanted to give you little visual to a small part of what has been going on here in Rwanda.

This is a just a great view of the country side.
I have been working with a street kids ministry and this is me speaking to some of the kids that we work with. It is a great ministry that I really enjoy being a part of look forward to How God is going to use me when spending time with them.
Along with this ministry I have continued to visit YFC clubs in different schools in the area and speak to high school kids.Work at ECK is going well. I have been doing a lot of work to get after school programs started. They will start Tuesday of this week.
Here is another picture of some of the street kids in our ministry.
Village Kids

I am over 1 month in and for the most part it has been flying by. It is hard to process everything that I have been experiencing sometimes, but it is a blessing to know that He is using me here right now and for the next couple months here in Africa.