"Snapshots"

After trying for some time, I have decided that my internet connection is simply not fast enough to upload pictures right now. So, instead I will just give you a few "snapshots" of living in Rwanda.

- I visited a church members home and they gave me a gift of a rabbit. Well, I don't actually have it yet. They want it to continue to grow for awhile, then they will invite me back and cook it for me! It was quite an experience for them to grab this rabbit running around their home, pick it up by the ears, hold it out in front of me and have them explain that this was a gift for me. In the midst of translation I actually thought they wanted me to take it from them right then, but we quickly got that detail worked out!

- Riding the motorbikes is one of my new favorite things to do in Rwanda!! Don't worry, I am trying to only ride them in places where there is not as much traffic. There have been times where all I can think of is the song that says "my life is in Your hands!"

- The children I am living with are still very cute and full of energy. One of the only English phrases they know is "Bad Manners!" So, they are constantly running up to me and saying "Bad Manners, Alyssa! Bad Manners!" It makes me laugh every time.

- I am still enjoying the food. For those of you who like the details: Every morning we have bread (with peanut butter or honey etc etc) and tea. Most lunches we have rice, vegetables, and beans or some sort of sauce for the rice. And most dinners (which, by the way, are at around 9:30pm) are fairly similar to lunch often with some kind of cooking banana. A couple times a week we have salad (cabbage, carrots, avocados, cucumbers). The fact that avocados are common here is simply wonderful!! Then we usually have African Tea, which is one of my new favorite things. It is just tea boiled in milk and other spices, but I love it. We also have the treat of FRESH juice a couple times a week!!

- And things are still going well at the church. I have been helping them input a bunch of information that they don't have on the computer yet. (For example, I have started with trying to create a good system for recording all the information for the children who are being sponsored.) This Saturday I will be teaching CLASS 301 (a class about discovering your ministry)! They have done CLASS 101 and 201, but this will be their first 301. So we will see how a four hour class being translated goes!!

Child Sponsorship

Today I met the 32 children who are sponsored to go to school through my church. Joel had some connection with a pastor of a small church in Scotland. So now the members of that church are sponsoring children in the community of my church. They all come to the church once a month and bring their school reports and write letters to their sponsors. It was a very impacting moment to watch them write letters to these people in Scotland. I have become so familiar with child sponsorship on the other side of things, but to see these kids and spend even a few minutes with them really affected me. It was so cool to see it working from one church to another! Half of me wanted to gather all the money and sponsors as fast as possible to send more kids to school, and the other half of me was a bit overwhelmed thinking about the magnitude of children who would love to have a sponsor. My mind raced as I tried to figure out how this could be most effective and how I could help this program to grow. My heart really was affected by these kids...so now I will continue to process and see how I can be helpful to this church that is reaching out to their community in such great ways!!

A Great Birthday in Rwanda!

I am now 21! Thank you to SO many of you who sent me emails or other forms of birthday wishes yesterday. I had a wonderful birthday here. As soon as I woke up the kids started singing happy birthday and saying "Happy Birthday, Alyssa" over and over in their cute Rwandan accents. Later in the morning (after making up some story about why I needed to put on some clothes that could get dirty) one of the girls from the church came in and started marking me with charcoal and saying all sorts of weird things to me. I obviously knew it was a joke, so I was laughing as she was pulling me towards the outside door. Well, as soon as I reached the door, some of the people from the family I am living with jumped out from around the corner, shouted happy birthday, and dumped two HUGE buckets of water on me!! It was very funny, but I don't think the Daniella and Nathan (the kids I am living with) thought so because they got soaked as well! According to them, that is a traditional thing to do on someone's birthday!
So I quickly changed back into dry clothes and left to go to town to pick up a card from my family that I thought someone had left at the front desk of a hotel. So one of the guys from the church went with me to help me find the place. After riding the public taxi for awhile, we got out and walked for quite some time. I thought either it was just really far away, or he was lost. However, when I arrived home I found out that he was just trying to keep me away from the house because they were planning a surprise party for me! I walked in my room and all the people who live in my house and the Wheeler family all surprised me and sang happy birthday! They even had a cake that said "Happy Birthday, Alyssa" on it. So I blew out the candles and we then had an huge Rwandan lunch. It was so fun to celebrate with them.
I decided to go back with the Wheelers and we went to the Bourbon Cafe (almost like a Starbucks) where we relaxed and got on the internet. I ended up just spending the night at the Wheelers last night instead of trying to figure out transportation at night. And now I am sitting at a hotel using their free internet!
Pastor Joel joked the other day that since I am now 21 I am mature enough to start more of my ministry here. He has been very busy with a team that is here through Hope Rwanda (he is the country coordinator) but will be more available to meet and plan in this next week. It has actually been neat to be able to observe what it is like on the other side when a team from America is here for a week or so. It has also been good for me to simply continue to get to know his family and settle into Kigali. Of course, my nature is usually to always be doing something, but I am learning a lot about the value of slowing down!

My first few days in Rwanda

Kigali is treating me well! I just finished my first day at church, and it was simply wonderful. It was SO good to be back in this church that I love so much. I truly do feel at home. During the morning service I stayed during the singing time, then I shared a few words with the church, and then I went into the children's service. There were almost 100 kids in one room of all different ages! So you can pray that we can figure out a way to be able to split up the kids into smaller groups according to their ages. My primary ministry will be in the children's ministry and I am VERY excited about that. They just started a Sunday school about 3 months ago (it is not that common in Rwanda), but they really believe in investing in it. So, it is a wonderful situation to step into! The morning service was about 3-4 hours long, so after coming back to the home to eat lunch, it was about time to go back for the evening service! Their evening service is in both English and Kinyarwanda. So I am really looking forward to being involved in the Sunday school in the mornings and then being able to go to church for myself in the evenings! God really has continued to confirm that this is where he wants me for this year. It is so wonderful to be able to tell people that I am not leaving in a few weeks, but that I am able to stay for a year! They always look shocked. Thank you all for your continued prayers and encouragement. It truly means a lot. I wrote an update on July 4th, but I wasn't able to post it...so I will post that below.

Friday July 4^th

I arrived safely in Kigali!! Around 4:30pm on July 2^nd, I arrived in Kigali and Pastor Joel picked me up at the airport. We went to his home (which is now also my home for these next few weeks!) and ate a meal with his family. His children (Daniella: age 3, Nathan: age 2, and Joella: 8 months) were very excited to see me and immediately began telling me all sorts of things in Kinyarwanda! Daniella and Nathan are always wanting to play, sit in my lap, play with my hair, look at my things, etc etc etc. They really are very cute and it is fun to feel so loved by them.

My room is very nice…with a very comfortable bed, and even mu own outlet to plug things into! I feel very blessed. For these first few days they want for me to just be able to rest and adjust to being in Rwanda. On Monday we will begin to move forward with my time here this year. I really do feel like they have made their home my home. Of course it can still be a little difficult to figure out how I fit into their family routine, but so far it really is going well.

Yesterday I went to the church with Queen (Joel’s sister-in-law who also lives in this house) for worship band practice. It was SO wonderful to just sit in the church and listen to them practice. I just love worshiping God in other countries!!

So…I am looking forward to continuing to get settled in and learn as much of the language as possible! Right now I have to use Joel’s computer any time I want to use the internet, so I am not sure when I will be able to post this…but I thought I could at least write it and then post it once I am able to get connected!

Waiting in London

Well, I have now been in the London airport for nine hours...and counting! My flight continues to be delayed, but honestly it doesn't feel like I have been here that long. I sprung for the internet and have found a wonderful nook that amazingly continues to be open every time I get up and come back again!

Taking off from LAX was a strange experience. In many ways it felt totally normal as I have flown quite a bit back and forth to college. On the other hand, it began to hit me that I was actually leaving to go live in Rwanda for a year. I like saying that--live in Rwanda. I know it is only a year, but it is comforting and exciting to think about attempting to live there instead of just visit. We'll see if I am still saying that a few months from now!

So, I am not entirely sure when I will be arriving in Kigali...but I will get there eventually! I talked to Pastor Joel about my delays and since the church is just across the street from the airport he said he will just watch out his window for the plane to come into Kigali. I'm not sure how he is going to tell from the sky if it is MY plane or not! But, considering the fact that there are only a few flights into Kigali per day, I think it will all work out just fine :-).

I am very new to "blogging," but my cousins told me I should be funny. Unfortunately I don't think I have lived up to their recommendations, but maybe I can blame that on the fact that I haven't slept much! (Although, it seems like if there was anytime I might have something really hilarious to say while blogging it would be in this semi-incoherent state...Oh well.) Anyway, we'll just have to see how it goes. Feel free to check back for updates. I am not sure how often I will be blogging, but I'm sure I will get into a rhythm after awhile.