Week 3

It is wonderful to be here in Rwanda and experience something new and exciting each and every day!

This week was jam pack full of stuff like English classes, Orphanage visits, Children's home, construction at a local church, VBS, card projects and sickness!

So where to begin....English classes will be finished this week and then we begin traveling to different areas here in Africa! It should be loads of fun! Every day for English class we have a fun time trying to explain the different words that individuals come up with or that we try and teach them. At times it can be very slow going but always rewarding when you see the recognition on their faces...it is so wonderful!

Children's Home
The children homes here in Rwanda are different than in the states because hundreds of kids can be in an out in a matter of months. Each child is more than likely an orphan due to AIDs or the genocide. Everyone here has a family member or several family members who lost their lives in the genocide. While we were at the children's home we just loved on kids and played games with them...we brought a parachute from YIM and the kids LOVED it! I never saw so many kids, so very happy to see a parachute and the games they could come up with were amazing!

Kicukiro Church
This was our first construction project at a local church. Most of the time we travel to rural churches for projects but this week we staying in the area where we worked in the city. The church wanted to build a school/orphanage for the local children but they had HUGE holes in the back near the church so we filled the holes for them! It was hard going cause the tools weren't the greatest but we got the job done!

VBS @ Remera
This is the local church near our compound! It is actually right in our back yard! So we held a VBS for about 20 kids on Saturday in the afternoon! Kids are so wonderful! They all made me smile! Our team told the story of Zacheous...I know my spelling is off, so I will blame the keyboard! :)

My favorite story from the whole week came at such an unexpected time...We are hitting the half way point and I am getting hit with many terrors! It happens every time I travel but it was really hitting me hard yesterday! To the point where I almost had a panic attack...There were so many thoughts going through my head....so i will try to describe all of the things i was going through...

My heart has always been drawn to international work and yet at times...I am very unsure of what God really wants me to do! Always though I have felt comfortable in foreign countries and with the people...I always seem to fall in love with the people and culture of wherever I may be! This time it was really hitting me hard though...I never felt anxiety or depression by being here...although several thoughts kept coming in about the future and things in my life...It terrifies me to think that I will be a senior this next year and the idea of having to make a decision about what I will do in my life scares me.

I want so very much to live out of a backpack and travel the world serving God's people! But to do that I need money and right now I also need to graduate from college! Also, I have an amazing boyfriend whom I care about deeply! He is wonderful! So the devil was really hitting me hard with worries about home and things here as well! There is such a need for the people of Rwanda and yet, I can't do anything for any of them! I can only pray but it seems so small and little in my mind!

This all happened Sunday, I was trying to ask God to give me some sign in my being here and the things I am doing! But nothing came...we left for church and i was still really unsettled by everything that was going on in my mind...but i could do nothing about it. I was just really uneasy about a lot of things...

then during the service a little girl was sitting in front of me and i wanted to so badly to get her to smile because she had the saddest look on her face...I love kids and my heart is so open to kids and when they hurt, I hurt as well...it did not seem to be going anywhere with this little girl but all of a sudden she looked back at me with the biggest smile on her face...it melted my heart....I was so excited that she had actually smiled at me! Then our group had to go up and introduce ourselves to the whole congregation at the church...it is pretty standard for us now! When I was going back to my seat the little girl was waiting for me at my row...she wanted to come and sit with me...it made me want to cry and I had this overwhelming sense of calm when I saw her...she came to sit on my lap and our interpreter who was sitting next to me asked what the little girls name was and she said...Peace. Once I heard her name...I knew GOD had given me a sign...he sent me a little angel in the form of a little African girl. He knows exactly what I needed and I was so calm after that moment that I am reassured of what God is doing in my life!

So I may not know what the future holds but I know who holds the future and that is ALL that matters!