week 2

\]It’s so difficult to decide what to write about when each day here is so eventful.. Hilliary and I will be trying to come to the internet café on Monday afternoons and Thursday mornings. We are nine hours ahead here but if you’re around at any of those times, get on Skype! Also, pastor’s address here is BS 2815 Kigali, Rwanda.  If you have something to send, do it through Fed Ex or DHL and they can most likely ship it to the house.

Hilliary and I got pretty discouraged this week after another church service. It’s been difficult to connect to God when everybody here does so through different means. All the services we went to were so full of emotion, dancing, crying, prophesying.. things that are very foreign to our way of connecting with God. Then, the messages of miracles we kept hearing from the Kenyan pastors were hitting us both the wrong way and we had a day of seriously doubting the ministry, God, and us being in Africa. Despite not feeling like praying, we spent some time doing so together and every day since then, everything has been SO SO much better!! We were also discouraged because we felt that no one was really investing in us relationally but this has changed immensely as well and we thank God for it. The transformation is huge J

We’ve gotten to hear a few more stories from some of the people in our church who are also our students and I appreciated this even though it was hard to hear. One of my students has no parents and from a young age lived with a family who took her in to look after their children. However, she was raped and beaten so badly that she was unable to walk or get out of bed for 2 years. She was rescued and is still working through trusting others and having faith in God but she is improving significantly.

One of my other students used to be a soldier and was having a hard time for many years getting a job. He got so discouraged that he decided he wanted to shoot himself, but when the time came, he couldn’t do it. He decided to try one more time getting a job as a cab driver after praying and he got it and has committed his life to pursuing God ever since.

People here find so much to thank God for…

Hill and I also had the opportunity to cook here last Thursday night, and we will continue to do so every week despite the DISASTER we created! We tried to make tortillas and fajitas and everything would have been fine.. but there were quite a few important things that went wrong. First of all, we got the wrong kind of flour at the market (what a crazy experience).. we then went to another market and bought flour, but this too was the wrong kind. Thus, our tortillas didn’t work at all. Then, we made the fajitas but it wasn’t very tasty so Auntie gave us a few peppers to put in. Hilliary cut it, smelled it and concluded that it smelled like a mandarin.. so we put in a lot and the dish was so hot it was hard to eat!

Yesterday at church and Saturday at an outreach event, the Kenyan pastors were there again and we continued to feel anxious as they talked. I talked to Pastor Beatrice again yesterday after they left, explaining to her my discomfort at their message of miracles happening if you have enough faith and how it is hindering me from growing during church. We talked for an hour about it, which is pretty ironic for me as I greatly hate confrontation. Basically, she agrees with me but is in a sort of bind that I won’t explain. I feel very convicted about this and asked if I could talk with the three pastors sometime (which again is very unusual for me! God is giving me such boldness here). So, please pray for this! Part of me feels so nervous at dialoging about theology with three grown pastors who have been preaching for years, yet I feel like God is really with me. It’s interesting to see where He’s taking me while I’m here.. I never thought I’d be challenging “prosperity doctrine” in Africa! Hilliary and I are also speaking to the youth on Tuesday and will need to prepare messages so pray that God would give us words then also.

Missing you all,

Megan