glimpses of the kingdom.

this post is full of quite random and unrelated events, but things that have made an impression on me in the past few weeks and shown me glimpses of jesus in kigali..



in the past month, i have been walking in kigali and have came across 2 individuals who were literally nearly dead, sprawled out on the side of the road. it's the craziest thing. the first experience the individual was a very young orphaned girl around the age of 15 who had collapsed because she was literally starving. we took her to the hospital and got her some food that would last for about a week, but i can't help but wonder how she is now nearly 4 weeks later...

then, a week later, i was out jogging and stumbled across an older man who had also collapsed on the side of the road. there were lots of people walking past him but none of them stopped to see if he was okay or anything. i was flabbergasted and stopped to wake him up and see what was wrong. it turns out the man was named Musafa and he had come to Kigali from the village to search for work. however, while he was in the city, he had contracted malaria and didn't have the $10 to buy the meds to treat it. Thus, it grew worse and worse, and combined with a cold and not having food, Musafa collapsed, shivering with feverish chills in the heat of the day in the middle of some bushes. it blows my mind.

my new friend Musafa spent the next week in the hospital recovering. visiting him everyday, i made quite a number of friends at the hospital and learned significant amounts about the healthcare system here. Sometimes I get so engulfed in the business and administrative tasks that are right in front of me that I momentarily forget the bigger picture of why I'm here - I was grateful to be reminded.



The boy's got their Term 1 report cards back and they did SPECTACULAR. We seriously think one of the boys will end of being the next President of Rwanda. They are SO smart! 15 out of 20 of the boys scored in the top 10 students in their class - with their class sizes ranging between 42 and 51 kids. After being out of school, some for the past 4 years, their performance and diligent effort in school is remarkable and is consistently stunning their teachers. In third grade, HFL boys took the first, second, third, and fourth places in their class. It blows my mind and warms my heart.



A few weeks ago, Caroline went to the store to buy meat. As the man working at the deli stood slicing her meat, he looked up at her randomly and cheerfully excalimed, "I made a choice today.. I choose every morning to be happy." His simple and joyful sentence has been floating through my mind challenging me the past few weeks..



The other night, I went to a restaurant/bar with a few friends. The scene that unfolded before my eyes was one of those times that you can feel being etched into you as it's happening. In the middle of a club filled with dancing people who had had too much to drink, our friend Fila from Uganda got up on stage and filled the room with powerful, unashamed, humble, selfless worship, words of truth and declaration of the love of Jesus to bumpin reggae beats.. it was beautiful. i felt deeply moved at the power of the situation and the humility of this guy. it was such a powerful picture to me that this - bold words of jesus' love regardless of anything in the middle of a bar - is the growing kingdom of our jesus.



http://bbedit.sx.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100501/NEWS0107/5010366/1159&nav_category=
This article was posted in major newspapers all across the world a few days ago. This situation of Iwawu Island is personal for us at HFL as one of the children that we served through our drop-in services was arrested and is now at Iwawa Island, a supposed "Rehabilitation Center" for those who have committed petty crimes ranging from living on the streets, not wearing shoes, or not having an identity card. Although the government denies that children are here, we know for a fact that our 15 year old friend is stuck on this island for the next 3 years of his life simply because he is poor. It's absurd to me. Although I respect that the Rwandan government is doing something to address the problem of poverty, I think they have it all wrong in the way they are handling it. There have been rumors of human rights abuses, and of forced labor, of trapping children on a remote island where they have no way to contact their family members and tell them of their whereabouts. My heart is so sad.



We have a new roommate as of this week. Our friend Jo went back to the UK and was replaced with Pippa, our new 23 year old friend full of energy and spunk. She has been a delight to get to know and constantly cracks us up. I'm grateful for her joy and energy, and for having another new friend here.



Personally, I've been on a bit of an emotional, spiritual, and relational roller coaster the past few weeks sometimes being completely satisfied, and at other times wanting to run away as quickly as possible. Through this, I think God has been teaching me in a very tangible way that in his kingdom, weakness is the new strength.. that collapsing, resting, acknowledging the pain in my heart and my overall brokennes, and letting self dependency end are what he seeks to bring glory to himself (Psalm 51). It's funny how opposite His ways are - how resting in the fact that I am weak instead of fighting it has slowly led to more peace, how liberation shines when we realize that Jesus doesn't demand perfection from us. Despite the aches that my heart sometimes feels, I feel on the verge of learning something very important..


...come, jesus.