It is 10 pm here on 7/7 as I begin this blog. I can barely keep my eyes open. If you know me at all you know I am a girl who loves to sleep. 8 hours a night minimum on "school nights." When daylight savings comes around I'm messed up for a month, so imagine flying to the other side of the world. We've stayed awake late and got up early because we don't want to miss a thing! For all of you who gave your money to help us go or help us give while we are here, thank you just isn't enough.
There have been so many amazing moments on this trip so far, I don't even know what to tell. I'm so scared I will forget something. I treasure these memories so dearly. I don't know which stories to share and which to keep locked in my heart. Some stories aren't my stories to tell or put on the computer for the world to see, but I will tell you God is doing mighty things in the lives of so many here in Rwanda.
Gretchen posted about our first day with the Best Family. I will not retell the details of this time, but I will share with you what left the biggest impression. It was the fact that we went to love on "the least of these".. orphans, and we had this idea that we were going to bring them joy and love, as if they don't have it or in some way we will give them more. It was the complete opposite. They were oozing of joy, love, peace, and hope. It was contagious. We were welcomed as part of the family and these weren't just words.
We found out when Jean Claude came to America he was able to visit the Visiting Orphans office in Nashville. The mission of VO is to "Go.Be.Love." Jean Claude loved this and decided to implement this with his kids. So we were able to be a part of this experience. They chose a family who was living in "the forest." We were going to "go be love" to her and her children. We were told they were sleeping on the ground and had no food. The dad is an alcoholic, so he works, but spends the money on his addiction. So we were all given food to carry to her house and share. We all just imagined we were going on this little walk. WRONG. Rumor has it Jean Claude fibbed about the time and distance- skipped the part about it being straight up a mountain, so that we would go :).
So we walked (clinged to life) up a mountain (it was really cool!) to the home. (I am just realizing I'm going into a story I said Gretchen told). OK.. trying to abbreviate. I am hoping some of my pictures turned out so I can show you what the house looked like. But my point to this story is that these kids who have so little were giving to others in need. They didn't want from us. They had no expectations. We weren't there to serve them. They were serving God, and we were honored to accompany them on that journey to love on this family.
The next day was amazing, as we got to meet our sponsor child. I am going to do a separate post about this... so stay tuned. But I want to tie meeting this family with something that happened today.
So today we were invited to church with Jean Claude and the Best Kids. We were told to be prepared for a long visit. They were already singing (the few there) as we got there at 8:30 a.m. The party (literally... wait til you see my videos!) continued until 12 p.m. They were taking a quick lunch break to return at 3 p.m. The other part of the invitation was that they asked us to be a part of the service. They asked if someone would preach and that we would all sing and some would share testimony. We were told this last night, but I didn't think much about it at the time. We stayed up so late and I didn't prepare, but as we went to bed I felt very convicted by the Holy Spirit that I was supposed to share. For my non-Christian friends, to translate: I went to bed completely exhausted. And this idea came into my head. And it is as if your whole body is awake. It is a very strong feeling.
This is not something I am comfortable with (I hear God laughing now.. jk) or anything I really wanted to do, so I tried to go to sleep and ignore it. That didn't go so well. So I told Joe in the morning (to try to hold myself accountable) that I felt as if I was supposed to share and encourage the Best Family kids. I felt God leading me to talk about the importance of education and "my story." I wanted to tie this in with why we support kids through sponsorships, etc. Why are we in Rwanda, Uganda, etc. paying for kids (sometimes strangers) to have an education. Tying this all back into God's plan and love for us (Ephesians 2:10). Joe said he may share to, he would see. He said seeing that family in the hut (with the alcoholic father) made him want to share words of encouragement for others who may be going through that situation.
So we had an amazing morning of worship. I thought the preacher may forget and skip over this part. NEGATIVE. So when it came time for us to share our testimonies, Blake and then Lindsay spoke first (another married couple from our trip). Was already teary after Lindsay. Then Joe pops up out of his seat. Snap.. wish I had gone first. I was close to an audible cry (the one right past the tears in a continuous stream) when he was finished. He did share about how for so long he let poor choices control his life. *I will not tell all these details as maybe Joe will share his own story in a blog. It's his story to tell, not mine.
Ok, so I got up next. SCARY. I would like to say I said something beautiful and glorifying to God. I really have no idea. After each sentence we had to be translated. I was fighting back tears (well.. most of the time). When I was finished I was just thankful I said yes. I wanted to ignore that calling. Wait for someone else to jump up and take my turn. But I did it.
So when the service finished some folks came up to speak to us. One guy was Eric. He was so moved by our testimonies. He is running a ministry that supports people recovering from addiction. He was interested in partnering with Joe to get ideas on how to help his men, etc. He wants Joe to be able to talk with some of the guys, etc. *I am going to leave out a lot of details here, but it was just awesome. So Eric hung out with our group the rest of the day. He was the one translating everything into English during the service. He said it is by chance he was at the church. The pastor called for his help translating, because he does not go to that church now. But this was no coincidence. After spending that day together and talking and sharing, we see how God orchestrated this plan. He connected us together and I look forward to seeing how that friendship/partnership will grow. After dinner the 3 of us held hands and prayed together. I found out he did not have a Bible in his language, so I gave him one. It was just a cool ending to the day.
It was awesome to see how God weaves these plans together. If we hadn't seen the woman in the forest and learned her husband was an alcoholic, would Joe have given his testimony? Without giving his testimony, Eric would have never talked to him.
Ok.. friends stopped by. Almost 12. We still have to prepare for tomorrow. I will write more when I can. Again, thank you for loving us, reading this, praying for us, blessing us, praying for Mimi and the kids, etc. God is good.
PS- I apologize if I am writing in short, choppy sentences. We are all talking like Africans- skipping lots of prepositions, etc.
tears....praying for ya'll!
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