I am just three weeks away from the experience of a lifetime! This trip is gonna be so cool because it's not your typical mission trip with a specific agenda and schedule all planned out. I get to live like part of this family for five weeks and do whatever they do! It's very open-ended.... gives God plenty of room to work. They tell me they lead a low-stress lifesyle, which is something I definitely need to experience. I get the picture that things will be flexible and we will do whatever God puts before us each day. So, I don't know a lot of what to expect, but I know some things we'll be doing as God allows. We'll spend time at a home for street boys that is run by a Rwandan man. These boys just love having people come in to spend time with them. We will teach them simple skills and basic hygiene, bring them gifts and treats, and just spend time playing and loving on them. There are several other orphanages in Kigali that we can visit also. There is a women's center where they learn skills and make things to earn some income. Chuck and Debbie, the missionaries I'm staying with, helped a young woman get off the streets several months ago and got her into this center. They also helped her get living accomodations and medical care. Sadly, she is HIV positive and has been very ill. She has a young daughter who lives with someone else because she is unable to care for her. I don't know the stories of the other women, but we will be visiting the center, checking on this girl, Elizabeth, and maybe taking time to talk with some of the women and learn their stories. I have no idea how much I'll be able to communicate directly with the people. English and French are the official languages of Rwanda, but many of the people, especially children, do not speak much if any English. Chuck and Debby speak French but not Kinyarwanda, which is the native language. So they have a lot of difficulties with communication themselves. But love communicates in any language and that is what I pray God will speak through me.
I will get to know the workers at Chuck and Debbie's house. They are part of the family, too. It is part of the culture to have people work for you when you can afford to pay, and it really helps them out. They have a Bible study with the workers twice a week, done in French and translated into Kinyarwanda. They do all sorts of fun things as a household and everyone is included. I think I'm going to have a blast! I may also get to do some fun stuff like learning to play tennis, which is a popular sport in Africa, visiting a game park, and going on a retreat to the beautiful country by lake Kivu in the west.
This is going to be an amazing cultural and spiritual experience and I'm praying I will come home changed! I'm not doing this to achieve a specific goal or see results; I am going to seek God's heart in a deeper realm, to be broken and changed by the needs I see, and to learn to love people with God's perfect love that casts out fear. Fear of people is a big problem in my life: fear of those who are very different from me, fear of what everybody thinks and how they see me. If I can be set free of fear I will be free to love and give without reserve and compelled to share the life of Jesus with everyone in my path. This is my desire above all else, that God will use this trip and everything else in my life to bring me deeper in love with Him and teach me to love people. Love is all that really matters! I don't care how He does it, I just want God to deep changing me and bring me closer to Himself. So these are some great things if you want to know how to pray for me.
Thanks for reading and for truly caring about this journey that God is taking me on!
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