Second Home (Day 7)

This post was written by Megan Harvey

Sunday, May 19, 2013

It’s Sunday morning, and I have to be honest a little part of me wants to be in Greensboro picking up my Starbucks and meeting my high school friends in the Bur-mil parking lot. I would love to see faces of friends who have become family, jump in to help out where I see a need and know there are delicious treats waiting for us at hospitality. But, as you know, we are thousands of miles from this being possible, or so I thought.

We arrived at Karangazi Parish around 9:30 a.m. when the service was supposed to start at 9:00 a.m. (sound familiar?). We rode up in our 20-passenger van making us the only people who didn’t walk to church. As we walked in I was still feeling a little sad to be missing my Redeemer family. I sat down crowded by kids, a baby was quickly placed in my arms and I started receiving smiles and hugs from the most familiar faces in all of Africa. See, something I had forgotten this morning when I was moping around missing America, was that we have family here. We have brothers and sisters with wild kids running around. We have brothers and sisters bringing their friends, cooking hospitality food, and loving each other and us well because of our one common factor: the word of the Lord.

Along with the Rwandan version of worship, dancing, prayer and even announcements, we got to hear a message from Tripp. It was wonderful to hear him share with our Rwandan family the similar struggles of hurting hearts, sickness, doubt, broken relationships and drug abuse. We also get to share in their common joys: healing friendships, protection and care, the truth of God’s goodness and the uniting of family.

After the service we were ushered into a small room to fellowship and enjoy lunch with the leaders in the church. I am constantly blown away here by the way we can hardly communicate with the people using words, but laughter and smiles tell a story of their own.  So, although being home can never be replaced, a second home is always welcome and I have found mine here.

The Joy of Fellowship (Day 8)

This post was written by Kenny Roberts

Today is Monday, May 20, 2013.

Today was a truly enjoyable day. First of all, everyday get to wake up to the most beautiful view. Things like this always help me to take joy in the Lord because it makes me think about how gracious the Lord is in displaying his goodness through the things that we enjoy. For example, the food that we’ve eaten here for the most part has been so good and God could have made eating just for nourishment and not as pleasurable of an experience as it is. That one was free! Take it and put it in your pocket!

 We started by going to Kamate where we fellowshipped with the believers there. The night before I was asked to speak to the congregation there, greeting them and bringing the word! It was truly an honor. One of the things that we have been talking about often is how the Lord brings us together as family in the body of Christ. This is exactly what I spoke about. I talked about how in John 17 Jesus prayed that the believers who would believe based off the word of the apostles (all of us) would be one as he and the Father are one. And then went to Philippians 1:3-11 where Paul is talking about his genuine joy in praying for the Philippians. His prayer for them is that their love may abound more and more, with knowledge and discernment, so that they may be blameless for the day for Christ , filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. This is my prayer for the saints here and the saints in Greensboro.

It is so cool how we get to see scripture come to life. Before we came to Rwanda we continued to pray for the believers here and the people that we would meet here. With arriving here, even though we had never met them, I feel like the Lord gave me a genuine love for them and my heart is overjoyed every time we go to the church to see them.

After we left Kamate, and one group went to visit another church that we had not been to before while we went to Karangazi Parish where we got to see the kids that we have been hanging with all week. It was such a sweet time. We know them and they know us, and so we get a chance to just hang and continue to play and learn about them and their lives. Kevin shared with the Kids about being one body with many members and it was phenomenal!!!

 

Taylor Schor was among the group that went to the other church. One kid the head boy of the school in Karangazi waited until well after dark for that group to arrive back to Karangazi to pick us up, just so that he can see Taylor. He said “I will wait until after dark. I will wait until Midnight to see him is I have to.” When asked why he said, “Because he is my best friend!” That is the kind of love and friendship that we are building with our brothers and sisters here in Rwanda. We are all apart of one body, fellowshipping together, for the sake of showing the love of Jesus and the glory of the Father. I pray that this is our mission as we continue to meet people here, but even as we fellowship with other believers back in North Carolina. Amen.

Compassion (Day 6)

This post is written by Rebekah Hampton

We apologize for the clumps of blog posts, but we have to hike up a hill and hope the cable is working in order to get internet. :) Thank you for your patience, and thanks for tuning in!


Today we got to visit the compassion school at Karangazi Church. There were 7 kids that we got to meet that some people on our team sponsor. It was an awesome experience getting to see the smile on the kids’ faces when they got to meet their sponsor. We got to spend the whole day with them. They never stopped smiling the whole time!

After meeting the kids, we got to tour the Compassion International office there at the school. They showed us what a kid’s file looked like, which included their family records and history, current health, living conditions, and their exam scores. They keep track of all of those things for each kid! We also got to learn about a new project that they are currently raising funds and awareness for, which is providing water filters for each compassion child and their family to keep in their home. It is a new project, but they are moving quickly and hopefully will be getting them to the families soon! It is amazing how many people here are drinking dirty water, if they are even getting any at all. There is so much need here it is overwhelming.

Once we were done touring the Compassion office, we got to go around to the classrooms and visit all of the children involved in the Compassion Project at Karangazi.  The children were so excited to see us, and they greeted us with many songs! It’s amazing how many songs all of the children know and they want to sing all of them for us. It was so great to see Compassion International in action and to see the difference that it is making in Rwanda. It is so encouraging! God really is using this organization to make an impact on this country and on all of these children.

In the afternoon, I went with a group to four different homes in the community where we visited with the families that live there. The first home we went to was a home of a compassion child, named Ruth, and it was at least 2-3 miles away from the school. It was definitely farther than I’ve ever walked ANYWHERE. Ruth is the child that “Church of the Redeemer Youth” sponsors!  This girl walks to and from school every single day!! She didn’t complain one time about how far or how hot of a walk it is. We got to meet and pray with her family. We learned that her family grows Sorghum, peanuts, beans, and corn. They have a beautiful home out in the country. It was a great experience to hear all about the way they live their life and trust God with everything they do. We could only hope and pray for the kind of faith that they have.

Samantha’s sponsor child, Jackline (pronounced Jacqueline), rode with us in our bus on the way to Ruth’s home, and she was so excited. The smile never left her face the whole time we were riding. We didn’t know why she had lit up so much once we got on the bus, but once the translator told us what she was saying, we learned that it was her first time riding on a motorized vehicle!! She is 7 years old and has never ridden in a car. It was awesome to get to see her joy with such a simple thing. It is so easy for us, as Americans, to forget the things that God has blessed us with. We take so many things for granted. God is blessing me with reminders like these this week.

Since being in Rwanda, I have remembered so much of what I learned when I spent a couple months in Kenya two years ago. These people have so much faith, and I can only ask God to give me that same faith. With having so much at my fingertips in America, it is hard to rely on God with every aspect of my life. That is the only option for these people. I hope that some day I can understand.

Dreams for Rwanda (Day 5)

This post is written by Chris Meriwether

My day started out a little different than normal. Since my bag was lost during our flight into Rwanda I had to go on a special trip by myself to Kigali to retrieve it. I was a bit anxious about leaving the rest of the group and venturing into the capital city on my own but as it turns out this was an incredible blessing in disguise.

Our guide and interpreter this week, Joseph, coordinated my ride into Kigali in the same car as Bishop Alexis Olindabagabo. So for over an hour I got to talk one on one with the Bishop. What a privilege! He told me all about his experience being a bishop in Rwanda and how God is pouring out his blessing all over this gorgeous country. He explained how the conference center where we are staying nearly closed down if not for the direct intervention of God through key relationships, Alan Hawkins being one of them. Now this center is a magnificent and profitable ministry to people from all over the world. Bishop Alexis also shared with me his dream about furthering the relationship that we have with Rwanda. He has such a huge heart for this country and its people.

Afternoon dancing at Musenyi

After the car ride myself and Joseph got my bag from the airport (Thank God. My one pair of clothes was getting very smelly) and proceeded to take a public bus back to meet the rest of the group. This was quite an experience. Up to this point everywhere I’d gone had been with a large group of 18 mizungus (their word for “white people”) and we attracted all kinds of attention and caused a big ruckus.  But what this solo trip afforded me was a chance to see life the way it actually occurs in Rwanda and not attract as much attention. With Joseph as my guide (and very dear friend) we made several errands and used the pretty hectic and chaotic bus system to get back successfully.

Musenyi

What I learned while I was on this 5 hour side trip was something very profound. Rwandans, although they look and speak different than us and are surrounded by very different circumstances, are exactly the same as you and me. They get through the day just like the rest of us. They share the same joys and the same struggles. They go to the bank just like we do and they grind through a workday just like we do. They smile and greet their friends and neighbors just like we do.  We are cut from the same cloth even though we think them to be so different than us.

Musenyi

God made us all in his image. We all resemble the same God. At a human level we are all the same. And through the cross of Jesus we are united in the same Christian family even though we are half a world apart. Whether in this life or then next, one day we will all worship God together in beautiful harmony. I can’t wait for that day.

Family (Day 4)

This post was written by Tripp Graziano

“Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast,

it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does

not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects

always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”

- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

Our first few days in Rwanda have been eye-opening.  The first time I came to Africa, I left ready to be back in the States.  A few days into this trip, I’m already ready to come back.  The more I pray about our time here, the more I feel the Lord saying that our time in Rwanda is a gift.    

Yesterday we visited our sister church in Karangazi.  Karangazi is a community made up of houses, a Compassion International school, and the church.  There are cattle roaming everywhere (we had to dodge the patties on the field the kids play on…Eric not so successfully), people going about their daily business, kids attending school, and the occasional man or woman on a bike stopping to see what these foreigners are doing.  Rwanda is “The Land of a Thousand Hills”, and Karangazi is located at the top of one hill that is quite beautiful. 

As we arrived yesterday, we ate lunch in the church and then spoke with a few of the community leaders.  Once lunch was over we split into two teams.   Some stayed with Alan to meet with the leaders, share testimonies, and talk about the future of our partnership.   The rest of us went outside and spent time with around 100 of the children of Karangazi.  To be honest, it was one of the best days of my life.  We sat and talked with the kids for a short time and then played with them for hours in the field they use as a playground.  We played soccer, volleyball, tag, Frisbee, sang songs, wrestled, and even shared some new dance moves with each other.  After about two hours of playing we grabbed the interpreter, sat with the kids, and shared why we were with them.

1 Peter 2:4 says, “As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him – you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Ultimately, the reason we are here is because Jesus has loved us.  He has placed us in his body and we have been born into a new family.  Our fellow believers here in Rwanda are just as much our brothers and sisters as those at home America.  This trip I have seen first-hand how he builds us into a spiritual house.  We have been here and we have loved each other.  Yes, it’s been American to Rwandan.  Yes, it’s been friend to friend.  But even more than that, it’s been family.  I can’t explain to you why I love someone across the world or even why they seem to love me so much.  I can tell you that I’ve felt Paul’s heart (and ultimately the Lord’s) when he was writing 1 Corinthians 13.  I can also tell you that I know where this love comes from.  And I give thanks to the living Stone, rejected by humans but chosen by God, who gave this gift of love to us.