Basketball Game!!

I just got home from my watching my very first international professional basketball game! It was SO much fun!! It was the Rwandan national team against the Kenyan national team and RWANDA won!! Woohoo! Anyway, it was quite the experience getting into the game as the soccer game was just getting out...so crazy crowds were all around my car that was stuck in traffic that could only go one way because the President's wife was coming to the basketball game! Once I finally got in I had to push my way through a crowd to get in, get a ticket and meet the Wheeler family at the seats down on the floor (which costs 10 dollars, by the way :-). It was so fun to cheer on Rwanda and to just be at a basketball game!!

There's No Place Like Home!

And right now that is Joel and Annie's house in Kigali, Rwanda!!

We moved back into our house a few days ago...and it really is so good to be home. It is raining quite a bit here, so they could not start on our roof. But we are just glad to be home!

In other news...I took my students on their first field trip!! We went with the first graders to Living Water International, a Christian organization helping to build wells for people. It was quite the site to see all my little ones trying to pump water for the first time! It was neat to talk to them about the fact that some kids even their age spend their days carrying water back and forth instead of going to school. It was fun and a good experience for all.

One of my students came in yesterday and just exclaimed, "But, Miss Holladay, I KNOW how to Read!!" He was so excited and it did my heart good.

My internet card is still broken...soo I am just waiting for new cards to come into the country! Who knows when that will be :-(

I am still loving being at the church. We talk about fairly consistently now about how next year it will be exciting for me to be there and not have to give so much time to teaching...you can still be praying for the children's ministry, for volunteers, and for the church building that is in the works (we have just finished paying off the land! Now we are looking at the next steps...)

Hope you are all well :-)

I MOVED!

Well, kind of. My entire family has shifted temporarily because the roof on our house needs to be fixed. Annie's mom loving took us all into our home, so we are now all living a few minutes down the road!

Also, a few bits and pieces of life that I don't think I have ever written about:
- I get to drive Daniella to school every morning and I absolutely love it. We listen to Jana Alayra and enjoy the morning together!
- I just started Kinyarwanda lessons with other teachers from my school...so I am hopeful about that. I want to know the language so badly. Seriously, you could pray that God miraculously speeds up that process!
- My internet card is broken so communication may be a little slower for awhile. (I am currently sitting in the airport using their free internet!)
- We are really going to try to implement more structure into the Sunday School soon, so you could be praying that God will really provide people who are willing to volunteer--this is a big need!
-My Kindergartens did a chapel on Jonah and Rom. 8:38-39 yesterday and they were pretty cute. I had them draw anything they wanted about Rom. 8:38-39 the other day and one of them immediately said, "But Miss Holladay, I don't know about the lips!" I asked her, "of what." She replied, "Of God!" So so funny...they always have great things to say!

Excuses :-)

Ok, so I know it hasn't been every day...but here are my excuses/ an update on the last few days:
- two days actually merged into one for me as I spent all of Friday night finishing the church finances with Andrew and Sunday cheering us on--I felt like I was in college again trying to finish a last minute project! We presented it to the church Saturday morning and I have never seen a church laugh so much through a financial report, but I guess that is what you get when the people presenting hadn't slept at all!

- Other than that I have been fairly sick and so have spent some days just at home trying to get better. I went to the doctor and had tests done and today when I went back he told me everything looked fine...but the great thing is that I got to talk to the doctor for like 20 minutes about the Lord and how much he means to me and how much He loves him...he just kept asking me questions--it was awesome!

I almost forgot

But I didn't! I really hope to get into more of a routine of updating. Today was a fairly normal day of teaching, going to the market with Queen to get food for the family, stopping by the church office (for shorter than I usually do), and then coming home and helping feed the kids and send them towards bed.

Be praying for my church right now as we are in the final stages of trying to set the schedule and budget for this year. I know God is going to continue to do some amazing things in and through this church...but please continue to pray for wisdom as things are planned and then presented to the church on Saturday.

A Beginning of an Attempt

I am just going to try to update my blog more. Period. You may laugh, but I am going to try to update every day. I figure that if I do that I will be able to just write about that day and not have to write long novels where I try to remember what I should tell you. And then anytime you want to check, you can always expect to be able to see some new information about one of my days!
So today is about…the inauguration! (Yes, that was technically yesterday, but give me a little grace as I get going here.) I will never forget sitting in my house in Rwanda, holding Nathan on my lap, watching Uncle Rick pray for the inauguration of our 44th president—and our first African American President. It felt like I was a part of history. The Rwanda Television station showed the CNN coverage live…and I discovered when I talked to my mom and dad on the phone that there was no delay at all! Technology is amazing.
In honor of the inauguration I also enjoyed having my kindergarten class write about what they would do if they were being inaugurated as president today. Here were some of their responses:
“I would eat cake. I would cook it first, then I would eat it. I would speak to the people about what they want. “
“I was starting to say things. Then they cheered. Then they sat down. Then I went on the stage.”
“I would write a law. I would turn the lights on with my generator and the fire on with my other generator and someone would work on my chimney. I would have a car—a speedship car. I was copying things on my computer and my computer put it on the wall so I could write down the law.”
“I was eating cake and shared with the people. We have only one cup, but we shared with all the people.”
“I can eat breakfast for cake and I would go to help people. I help people every time and every time I eat breakfast for cake.”
“If there wasn’t enough food I would give the people food. And the people would cheer.”
“My dad would let me play on his computer”
Ok…more tomorrow!

"God is alive and God is Real!"

Every day in my class we start with prayer. We share prayer requests and pray together in various ways, and on this day nothing was really unusual. I asked for them to raise their hand if they had a prayer request and each of them shared their various problems one by one. "I have a headache." (Everyone has had a headache for at least a few weeks now :-)!) "My mom is sick...My grandma is sick...I have a mosquito bite (another common one)..etc etc etc." One little boy raised his hand and shared with the class that he had a stomach ache. Again, this is a fairly normal prayer request for a bunch of 5 and six year olds living in Africa! Well, as soon as the prayer was over, this little boy shouts out--"I have something very exciting to share! I have been healed! My stomach feels better! God has healed my stomach."

This in and of itself was a pretty amazing moment, but later at lunch the story continued. I was on lunch duty so I was sitting under the one tree where I could see the majority of the playground. This little boy comes over and sits near me and quietly says, "My stomach is starting to hurt again..." We talked for a few minutes about what we could do about that...he quickly suggested that he could of course pray and that he was sure God would heal him again.

(You should know that every day in class we also read a Bible story and then I just let them ask questions. A few weeks ago we had been specifically talking about the fact that God was alive.)

So after a few more minutes of quietly playing by me, he just looks up at me and declares, "But Miss Holladay, I just realized, God is real and God is alive! The class was right--God is real and God is alive!"

I was fairly stunned, but I just looked at him and asked him when he realized that. He quickly replied, "I realized it today. I realized it when God healed me today!"

It was a fairly incredible moment of remembering what child like faith really does look like.

Oh, and if you happen to be reading this when it is still Thanksgiving--Happy Thanksgiving. I am thanking God right now for the faith of this little boy and the way it pointed me to God!!