Glimpses of life..

The past week has been filled with playing soccer and volleyball on the lush, green, rolling hills of Rwanda, teaching English to 19 very eager boys, being part of facilitating reconciliation, making babies cry when they see a white person for the first time (thus far, the count is 4 babies and making 2 adults trip because they were staring at me), preparing for 11 boys to get baptized on Christmas day, and going on a 6 hour hiking trek through the jungle to a mountain to pray through the night. I wish all my stories would fit here.

A few glimpses of this past week:

I went to the Kimironko market a few days ago with Josiane (this is the market where Hilliary and I met the boys last year) in search of Dakundimana and Pascal, the 2 boys who left Hope For Life. In talking to Dakundimana’s mom, we were saddened to find out that Pascal is once again in prison. While we stood there speaking with her, I felt juxtaposing waves of rage and compassion building within me as the alcohol on her breath and the stench of the sewer next to the ground where her children sleep reached my nostrils.

I took a 2 hour bus ride to the Southern province of Rwanda with Josiane to visit a mountain where many generations of Christians have gone to pray. Getting of the bus, I was saddened to see clusters of numerous street boys huddled together everywhere in the dark night. My mind can’t fathom how many children whose reality is the streets. We walked through the town and entered the bush, the brightness of the plethora of glowing stars as our only light. I would stop every once and a while, not believing that I was hiking through the Rwandan bush in the dead middle of the night. Who would have thought. Our 3 hour hike through the night ended on top of a mountain, the wind whisking through the trees. We settled on a group of rocks and began praying. It was very different than anything I’ve ever experienced. I was a bit scared at first by the passion and charisma in which my friends prayed, but I soon got used to it as God began to meet with us. One of the men had the gift of prophesy and spoke many words to each of us. It was incredible. I’ve only experienced prophecy a few times in my life and there is nothing like what happened on that mountaintop in the middle of the night. The man spoke prophetic words that would soon be repeated to me again by 2 completely separate pastors in two different places in the next few days. Wow. I am convinced that the powerful words spoken through these different men are not coincidental and that they’re from God Himself. I came away from the mountain humbled, encouraged, and wanting more of Jesus. I can feel something deep inside me is being awakened being here, as I desire more and more…

I am loving life and am falling in love more and more each day with 19 children and the God who has saved them and me.

Pictures to come in the next few days…