Two Weeks

Yep. I leave two weeks from today. My heart is starting to beat a bit faster as I think more and more about the excitement of coming home, the difficulty of leaving here, and all the things that need to happen in those two weeks in between! But even as I type this I am convicted that I must not get wrapped up in the urgency of leaving. That I must thank God that I get to come back here. That I must spend even more time dwelling in Him. Hmm, that being said I think i am going to stop trying to frantically decide what needs to be done in the church office right now and just go to the church service that is happening right now! Bye!

Annoucements and Graduations

This weekend at church I enjoyed giving an announcement about the children's ministry in Kinyarwanda! I tried to memorize it in one night, but I ended up having to sort of read part of it. However, I still have parts of it running through my head. "yesu Ashimwe! Mfite intangzo nshaka kubagezaho ryere keranye na ministeri y'abana." That pharse will probably be stuck with me for the rest of my life! It was really fun to be in front of the church and try to communicate in Kinyarwanda.

Also, yesterday we had a little graduation for the Kindergartners! It was fun to ahev them sing Our God is an Awesome God, in both English and Kinyarwanda, and I am a Promise. Then I read Oh the Places You'll Go (which, it is fun to think about all teh places these little ones will go!! They have already been and come from ALL over the world and I know they will continue to spread out all over the world.) and they threw their little graduation caps made of paper bowls and construction paper...and everyone was happy. We have two more weeks of school, but I have one that will be leaving to go back to Japan tomorrow...so we wanted to have our celebration early!

There's a few happenings from the life of Alyssa!

Home

Yes, in some ways a part of home will always be in Southern California. But, as I move and invest my life in different parts of the world I am finding new temporary homes. (Of course my HOME is in heaven...something that becomes more and more real as home becomes a more relative term.)

Yesterday, after the evening service, I was standing with a group of people and then was introducing myself to the guest speaker we had. After explaining to him where I was from and how long I had been here he said, "Well, welcome to Rwanda. I hope you like our country." I just sort of smiled, but someone else immediately chimed in and said, "No, she has been here for some time. This is her home."

And it is true. As I drove down the roads today I realized that in about a month I will no longer be seeing pretty much everything that I see on a daily basis now. And I will miss these things, even for a few months.

If I haven't learned or accomplished anything else in this year, the whole year would be worthwhile just to say that I can call this place, Kigali, Rwanda, home.

Ramblings

I am going to try to blog more often, even if I don't feel like I have something really important to say. For many different reasons...partly because I just want to, partly because I think it is a good idea, and partly because I want to keep blogging more even while I am in the States for those in Rwanda that won't be with me! While I am definitely looking forward to being home this summer (a wedding to be in, a niece to be born, many exciting things!!), it is already feeling weird that I will be leaving this place in a month. I cannot imagine if I was leaving and not coming back. I am so grateful for God's clear leading that he still wants me here next year. Of course, the details of next year are slightly fuzzy, but that really doesn't worry me. Each day that passes just makes me more certain that I am supposed to be here next year.

The Kindergarteners and First Graders all went on a Field Trip today! We went to Cards from Africa and saw orphans who were being employed to design and make cards from recycled paper. The kids enjoyed touching the pulp and seeing how these people make the cards! (Well, they also enjoyed BUYING the cards quite a bit :-)

Other than that, life has been pretty normal...I am still working on my Kinyarwanda although sometimes it is pretty slow...It is helpful being in a house with a baby who is just learning to speak! Sometimes I feel like every word she is learning, I am too!!

Well, hopefully more frequent blogging will not always lead to just ramblings that aren't that enjoyable to read!

Two Families!

Last night was very fun for me because I got to be with my two families here in Rwanda! All of my family (Annie, Joel, Daniella, Nathan, Joella, Queen, and Andrew) all went over to the Wheelers (Tom, Lori, Hannah, and Zack) for dinner. It really was cool for me to be able to mix the two worlds that exist for me even here in Rwanda. We had fun eating slightly more American food, introducing the kids to legos and trying to convince everyone that the dogs weren't going to hurt them. It just reminded me once again how grateful I am to the Lord for providing me with such wonderful relationships here in Rwanda in such a short period of time...that is something I will never cease to be grateful for!!