Joella is 2!!

Yes! Lots of birthdays in our family recently!! Jonathan is now 1 month old, Daniella is 5, an Joella just turned 2 yesterday! We had a little celebration with everyone at home and she was very happy!

Daniella is Five!!

Daniella turned five today and we had quite the celebration with her classmates at school! Joel and I made quite the scene of rushing around town WITH Nathan and Joella trying to get all the necessary things for a wonderful school birthday. Annie kept checking in with us by phone to make sure we were getting teh proper things, since she had to be home with Jonathan. Daniella has been talking about having her birthday at school pretty much since the day she started school and realized this was a possibility--and I think she was one pretty happy five year old!

Visitors

This morning a few American friends visted my church! It is always fun to have people visiting because it makes it even more clear to me how at home I feel at church. It is great because anyone who shows up who is white is automatically "Alyssa's Visitor"--whether I know them or not!

I decided to sit with them in the service nstead of going to be with the kids and I realized how much I do love being with the kids every week! I missed them!!

The little things in life

It's the little things in life that just make me very happy sometimes.

I love the way Rwanda smells when it rains.

They are fixing the road to our house which means I no longer have to drive in HUGE ditches anytime I go anywhere!

Yep. Just the little things. :-)

Jonathan Ryan Sengoga!!

He has arrived safely! My house now contains 4 children 4 and under!! We are having a blast...it was a joy to be here for the birth of Annie and Joel's fourth child. The chose Ryan as the middle name because Joel has been looking and looking for a name that has some meaning like "child of the King." So, contrary to what I'm sure my brother will think...it wasn't Ryan's incredible influence on their lives that led them to name him Jonathan Ryan :-).

Anyway, life in Kigali is wonderful...normal, for me at least! I am enjoying settling into a routine here and learning more every day about different ways I can help the church.

My mind and heart are already thinking a lot about what will come after this year...which may be too soon...but I would appreciate your prayers for guidance for me even now as I start to plan towards what will be my next step and how I can pursue that!

Now...pictures of Jonathan!

Snapshots of my day

Yesterday was one of those days when I wished I hadn’t forgotten my camera at home. But even if I had taken pictures, I don’t think it quite would have captured what I wanted it to. So, these were some “pictures” I took yesterday…hopefully if I write them down then it will remember them!

- A picture of me, waking up VERY alert at 5am in the morning because I heard Joel and Annie talking and the lights going on and off…hearing them be up and down again…I was sure Annie was going to give birth! But, after I heard them really go back to sleep at around 5:30 I knew I must have been wrong. At that point I was wide awake, so I got up a bit earlier than expected! (Later I found out that Joella was sick and they were trying to decide what to do J)

- Pictures of the children’s ministry! Oh my, yesterday was a great day!!

o A picture of Queen, me, and 3 other volunteers going over what the program would be for that day. Trying to explain this crazy game called “rock, paper, scissors”…except it was even crazier because it had been modified to play as “pinky, knee, toe.” Yes, we successfully finally communicated how to play not only “pinky, knee, toe” but also thumb wrestling! (It is really easy to beat someone in thumb wrestling when they don’t know how to play!!)

o A picture of the 100 some odd kids trying to all fit in this little room to hear the Bible story…and a picture of the flannelgraph we were trying to use. One of the rocks we were trying to use to make land was up in the sky, part of Lazarus’ tomb kept falling off…but hey, it was still a visual!!

o A picture of trying to split these kids into three groups and then me trying to communicate with everyone to rotate every 20 minutes to their new station.

§ A picture of these kids all trying to move at the same time to a different room, because one of our normal rooms was full of the sewing ministry things so we had to use outside as our third space…which meant the KIDS had to rotate instead of the teachers rotating like our original plan!

o A picture of these darling little children sitting so nicely against a wall, coloring to their hearts content…THESE were masterpieces!

o A picture of me standing at that back of the church, trying to see if Joel was really still preaching even though church was supposed to be over half an hour ago…and seeing him catch my eye while I was standing there and just smile knowingly! It was quite funny.

o A picture of the children’s ministry volunteers and Queen and me sitting in the room after all the kids left debriefing about how it went. Queen talking to them in Kinyarwanda and me trying to understand. Then me asking for a summary in English…then me talking to Queen in English and Queen giving a summary to them of what I was saying/asking in Kinyarwanda.

Truly, some of these pictures are things I have been envisioning for the children’s ministry for a year now! We have a long way to go, but yesterday was a step!

- A picture of Mushi telling me that he had bad news—two of the people from our church were stuck in Karenge (and hour and a half away) where we just planted a new church. They went there to preach etc, but had no transport to get back. Which means, yep, I would go and pick them up!

- A picture of my car having a small problem and stopping on the side of the road in this beautiful village. And being so excited that the same place we happened to stop, there was a woman who was selling bananas!! YAY!

- A picture of seeing this house that we are renting for this new church in the village to be meeting in…a picture of greeting this people and having them proudly show me where they are worshipping…and explaining that they already need more room!

- A picture of them giving us a plate of Pineapple to eat and me trying to stab this pineapple and try to eat it without getting juice absolutely EVERYWHERE!

So…I know this is a bit longer…but I wanted to write these things down anyway and thought some of you might enjoy some of these “pictures.”

Back in Rwanda!!

Hi everyone!

I'm now BACK in Rwanda! I couldn't feel more at home and more welcomed. I didn't even make it out of security before someone was greeting me! A guy from our church works at the airport and as I was struggling at the top of some stairs I just heard him say, "Wait! Let me help you!" And from then on it has been a constant welcoming. I'll never forget coming out of security and feeling like there were just too many people to hug and greet and keep walking at the same time. Daniella and Nathan ran underneath the divider to make sure they were the first ones to greet me!!

And now I am back into the swing of things! On Saturday I taught CLASS 201, which was a true privilege. How fun to talk about these principles of growing in God that are the same no matter what country you are in. (If you thought that class was long in the States, think about trying to translate the whole thing! I just moved quickly :-)

Then of course on Sunday I enjoyed being back at church. Above all it is exciting to see people doing some of the things I did before I left to come to the States. There is a guy who is committed to being there every week to do the powerpoint. The children's ministry is growing in volunteers...How exciting to see our church members starting to do ministry!! The children have shifted to a new place and we now have more than one room so I am very excited about helping plan a schedule and ongoing curriculum!

So, once again, God has blessed me. I feel like I have returned to right where He wants me and am confident He will continue to grow me and use me in this year.

The wedding and the baby!! (Gratefully not on the same day!)

I thought you all might like to see some pictures of Leah and Matt's wedding and some pictures of the new baby in my family! I thoroughly enjoyed being able to be here to support Leah and Matt as they got married and then to sit in the hospital and see baby Reese a few minutes after she was born!
















Reese just a few minutes after she was born. (Thanks to Mary Rosenbaum for this amazing picture!)














Ryan, Britt, and Reese! (Again, thanks to Mary for the picture!)




















"Gramma," "Grandpa," Ryan, and Reese















Aunt Alyssa, Uncle Luke, Ryan and Reese!














Me trying to calm her down!














Luke carrying all the bags like a good man!













Ryan rolling his baby down to her new room at the hospital!




















Yay! Baby Reese!














Brittany and I before she had Reese!













Aunt Kay and I in the waiting room at the hospital! Anxiously awaiting the birth of that sweet little baby...














Enjoying the cafeteria food in the hospital...there were many good restaurants in the area, but Ryan wanted the experience of eating in the hospital! I don't think I have ever seen him eat so fast as he was going back upstairs to be in the room with Brittany in labor and try to finish his law applicataion all at the same time!














Luke and I in the waiting room!













NOW into the WEDDING pictures!!!



The best man, Justin, and I decorating the car for Leah and Matt to drive away in!















Leah and Matt driving away!













Leah getting ready to toss her bouquet to the girls.














Leah and her dad during the Father/ Daughter dance.














Mat and Leah!














Daddy making me laugh!













Me giving my toast at the wedding.














The bridal party watching Leah and Matt's first dance.














Leah and Matt walking into the reception













The best man and I walking into the reception.















The CAKE!















The bride and groom and best man and maid of honor!













The ceremony! Matt is excitedly waiting to see Leah for the first time in her wedding dress!













My dad and Leah before the wedding













Praying together as girls before the wedding.














Helping Leah get from place to place! It's a big dress!!














Leah and I! I'm so happy I really got to stand next to her on her wedding day--something we had dreamed about and planned on for so many years!!














Leah Christine Whittaker!! (well, she was Milazzo when this picture was taken :-)















Matt and Leah at the rehearsal dinner in my backyard.




















Stephanie (Leah's sister) and I at the rehearsal dinner















A picture from above of the rehearsal dinner!! It was so cool to have it in our backyard...where Leah and I had played and played for years.














Leah and I at her bridal shower tea!