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