Blessings on a Mountaintop

Today was PACKED with stuff.  I’ll do my best to summarize and shorten, but just settle in to your chairs cuz this might get lengthy.

Let me start by saying that mission trips rarely go as planned.  Today’s entire day went almost nothing as we planned it.  And while that may irritate type-A people like me, I know it’s totally God’s hand working.  Our morning got a slow start due to some translational communication issues.  We told our guide (Peter) that Jean Claude would be guiding us through the Genocide Memorial.  Well, Peter understood that to mean that he wasn’t needed as our guide today, and was just going to take today off.  We sat in the bus outside our hotel for about 40 minutes waiting for Peter (which in Africa, he would still be considered “on time”).  Then we got in touch with him and realized the communication error.  Whoops.  Oh well, we’ll just head to the Genocide Memorial and meet Jean Claude there.  Well, we show up (45 mins later than planned), and JC is not there.  So we wait another 30 minutes.  Finally, Emmanuel and Salomon, the other leaders of Best Family Rwanda, walked up and explained that Jean Claude was taking his mother to the hospital because she is not doing well.  Of course we understood and continued on as planned.

The Genocide Memorial is a very heavy place.  Our team visited last year, just as all VO teams to Rwanda do.  Since the majority of our team has been to Rwanda before, most already knew the terrible history of the genocide in 1994.  However, that didn’t make it any less powerful or sobering.  It’s incredible to see how far God has brought this country in 19 years.  It is truly a beautiful picture of Christ’s redemptive and restorative power.  I will never get over the love and joy found in these people, in spite of their bloody past.

Afterwards, we went to Jean Claude’s law office and the Best Family internet cafe.  It was cool to see it in person after hearing so much about it!  It’s on a very busy street, and our big group of mzungus (white people) got several raised eyebrows from the locals.  Then we enjoyed a buffet lunch together.  It was mostly rice, potatoes, fruit, and a meat.  There was also a tray covered with foil.  I peeked under to see what it was, and the worker there thought that meant I wanted a whole bunch of it.  He plopped a chunk on my plate and said “Maize…bread.”  I looked at this big square chunk of white stuff that strongly resembled soap and thought, “corn bread? Hmm”  Lemme tell ya, they have no idea what corn bread is. That junk tasted like eating uncooked grits.  Officially my first Rwandan food that I could not stand.

Then (finally, 2 1/2 hours later than planned), we went to the home of Best Family Rwanda.  I have been SO looking forward to this after Blake and I have been so involved in this ministry for a year now.  It was everything I expected and more.  We were greeted by many of the children (there were 50ish there today).  Instantly, I was reminded of the feeling I had last year–that we come here to love these children, but they teach us so much about love.  They don’t wait to know your name or your status or your similar interests.  They just simply love you for being there, and that’s it.  A lil girl of 10 years old named Belize grabbed my hand and didn’t let go.  I had my arm around her and she would pull it even further around her so that we could barely walk we were so entangled.  She didn’t care at all.  (Granted, she might have cared if I slipped on the very treacherous terrain and took her down with me, but luckily we didn’t have to find out).

At the BFR house, the room was electric with energy.  They sang and danced and did chants for us.  They presented us each with personalized cards (how thoughtful is that?).  They spoke many times of how we honor them with our presence and how much they love us.  Seriously y’all, my face was hurting from smiling so much.  I have never in my life been in a place that just bubbled with such overwhelming joy (ahem, American Church, take note).  If I had more time, this could definitely be a blog post in itself.  I cannot express just how much love was in that room.

In case you don’t know, Visiting Orphans’ motto is “Go. Be. Love.” and it reflects the emphasis they put on being relationship driven rather than task driven.  Jean Claude announced that when he came to America, he asked the staff at VO to explain more about their motto.  He decided that he wanted to implement something similar at BFR.  So, beginning this year, BFR instituted a program called “Come and Be Loved.”  On the first Saturday of every month, the BFR kids go to the house of someone in need and serves them however they can.  They collect firewood, clean houses, bathe children, cook food, donate money, build latrines, and more.  This floored me.  BFR is made up of the poorest and most vulnerable children, yet they are the ones going out into their community and serving others.  What a picture of Christ (ahem, American Church, take note), and a testimony to those in their community.

Anyways, tomorrow is actually the first Saturday of July, but because we are here visiting, they decided to have “Come and Be Loved” today instead.  This is where things went even more off-book from the itinerary.  Jean Claude said we would all be serving a family that lives in the forest and survives on very, very little.  It’s a woman who has 5 children (3 of whom are in BFR), and her husband has a drinking problem and is often gone.  Jean Claude said it would take about 15 minutes to walk there.  Um…FALSE!  Y’all…WE CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN.  I am not kidding you.  We just started following the BFR kids, having no idea where we were going, and the terrain got more and more rugged and steep.  We straight up hiked at least 2 miles on a very steep incline on soft dirt that kept sliding out from under our shoes (there were a few falls, but no injuries).  It took us over an hour to reach our destination (apparently we need to teach Jean Claude how to tell time, cuz no one could’ve made that in 15 minutes).  The views on the way up were stunning.  I can’t wait for y’all to see our pictures!  The BFR kids are all apparently part mountain goat because they had no trouble at all traversing the mountain in flip flops.

When we reached the house, I paused to think about 5 young children, all under the age of 12, making that trek each day to get clean water in heavy jerry cans or to collect firewood.  Then I imagined them making that journey with their infant little sister strapped to their backs.  It’s nearly impossible to imagine, but they do it every day.  The house itself is just a mud hut with no electricity.  The leaders of BFR had given us all a small item of food to donate (like flour, sugar, etc.).  They also bought a mattress so the family would no longer have to sleep on the dirt floor.  Inside the house, we found Sahda, the mother, holding her infant child.  We prayed over her and her children, and she prayed for us.

The house could only hold a few of us, so the rest of the BFR children stood outside.  And once again, that bubbling, uncontainable joy could be heard.  They were singing, shouting, jumping, hugging, and more.  In fact, they had been singing and shouting all the way up the mountain (while the mzungus gasped for air).  It’s so beautiful to see them all so happy together.  They are a picture of “Confident Hope” that is BFR’s motto.  We joined in and sang, danced, and laughed together.  Unfortunately, the sun was going down, and we definitely did not want to climb down the mountain in total darkness, so we had to cut our visit short.  Before we left, we prayed again for Sahda.  We put her in the center of the circle and laid our hands, both white and black, on her.  We all prayed together at one time for her in whispers, and y’all that was a GOD MOMENT.  When there are about 60 people all praying to God Almighty, in multiple languages, all at once, on a mountain overlooking a city that has been restored to beauty after horrific tragedy, God. Is. There.  It was powerful stuff.

We climbed down the mountain and returned to our bus.  Then returned to our hotel for dinner, worship, and team debrief.  It was an incredible, unplanned, beautiful joy filled day.  I can’t wait to go tomorrow to spend the whole day with BFR!  I’ll let you know how it goes 🙂

P.S. Thanks for the concern about yesterday’s hair dryer fiasco.  My hand has been trembling all day, but the fireman on our team says as long as I can still feel it and move my fingers then I’m good.

Summertime

Hello all!  I just wanted to give you a quick little update about our lives.  There’s not really anything new or important to reveal about our Africa trip.  But now that school is ending, it feels like it’s getting so close!  This coming week is the last week of classes at the school where I teach.  Of course the students are rowdy (and sweaty and smelly) and the teachers are basically letting anything slide because we are SO CLOSE to being done for the year.  It’s a great feeling (way better than getting out for summer as a student, just FYI).   Summertime means it’s just about time to start creating activities for kids, buying supplies, buying clothes, and making all the necessary arrangements for our trip!  If you’ve ever been to Africa (especially Ethiopia and/or Rwanda) please let me know if you have any advice as we start preparing!

There is one thing I wanted to share with you this week.  As I’ve mentioned before, we are trying to research these places we will be visiting to have a better understanding of their history and culture.  The genocide in Rwanda has become a central focus for me.  It’s still just so unbelievable that these terrible killings occurred not too long ago and with such little worldwide concern (or even awareness).  To me, that’s a form of racism and self-glorification in itself, to just not care that there were thousands of people in Africa being killed.  As if our lives in America are so busy and so important, that when we heard on the news that the death toll was rising, we just said “oh that’s awful” and continued on our merry way.  Granted, I was 7 at the time of the genocide, so it’s not like I was going to do a whole lot about it.  But still, the majority of the civilized world in 1994 did little more than just shake their heads at this incredible evil.

During the genocide, churches became a refuge for many people trying to escape the killing.  In the city of Nyange, a priest welcomed hundreds of people into his church.  He even went into the village and sought out those who had not left their homes, encouraging them to seek the safety of the church.  Soon there were about 2000 people huddled together in what they thought was a place of refuge, the house of God.  Then that same priest, along with the mayor, and about a dozen other men, locked them inside.  They waited a few days to let them weaken from hunger and thirst.  Then they drove a bulldozer over the church, killing all 2000 people inside.  Two Thousand People.  Just as a point of reference, there were approximately 2600 people who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.  Isn’t that insane?  How could we have not known about that?  I bet there are few people in the world who were alive on 9/11 and don’t know about what happened in New York on that day.

How agonizing must it have  been for God to see his church used as a trap to murder his children?  It’s easy to see that Satan had a very tight grip on the country of Rwanda.  I’ve learned that there is a great deal of healing (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) going on there now, but we still want to be spiritually ready as we enter the mission field.  I pray that we will see God working in great ways to counteract what evil has done to the people of Rwanda.

Who has 4 thumbs and just raised $7400? BLAKE AND ME!

Hello Dear Readers!

We have some big news for you!  WE ARE FULLY FUNDED!  That’s right, we have met our goal of $7400!  This is truly a miracle.  Especially since we just started fundraising a little over a month ago.  We just want to say that we are so overwhelmed by the support and love from our friends and family!  Thank you to everyone who gave so willingly.  You people are the best.  We pray that God will bless you through your gift!

Now if you’re thinking, “Aww man!  I really wanted to support Blake and Lindsay, but I guess now they don’t need it.”  (insert womp womp sound here).  Have no fear!  You can still give!  Additional money raised will still go directly to our trip.  It will be used to purchase baby formula, toys, craft/game supplies, etc.  These are items that the team members would be responsible for buying if there were no “overflow” money.  So please continue to donate if you feel led to do so!

In other news, we had our first team “meeting” yesterday.  Ok so it was a conference call, but whatevs.  The purpose of this call was to introduce ourselves and get some very, very basic info about the trip.  Our team is made up of 30 people from around the country.  This is apparently a very large team.  Needless to say, it will take a while to get to know everyone, but we are stoked about getting to meet such amazing people!  It’s especially difficult to match names to faces, since ya know, you’re on a phone call.  But we have finally discovered the real purpose of FACEBOOK.

Since our team is so large, we will eventually be broken down into smaller teams which focus on different ministry areas (e.g. sports, crafts, music, etc.) for when we are at the orphanages doing VBS-style activities.  Other than working at the orphanages, we will be doing outreach to street kids, people who live in the Korah city dump in Ethiopia, and lots of home visits.

While in Rwanda, we will also be visiting the Genocide Memorial, which quite honestly will make me just dissolve into a puddle.  I’ve been learning so much about the unspeakable atrocities that went on there.  I can’t imagine speaking to survivors and even perpetrators of these horrible killings.  The genocide was so widespread, that almost everyone has a story to tell about how they survived or who they lost.

Please continue to pray for us as our departure date gets closer!  Pray that we will bond together as a group and that God will use us in amazing ways.  Pray that we will be ready and willing to do whatever He asks, even if it means getting out of our comfort zones!  To be honest, Africa is pretty far out of my comfort zone already, but you know what I mean.  Thank you again for all of your financial and spiritual support!

Murderers in the neighborhood

How would you feel if a recently released murderer moved into your town?  Now what if he was the same murderer responsible for killing your entire family in front of your eyes?  What if he’s deeply sorrowful about his former actions and has repented before God?   What if he seeks your forgiveness as well?  Could you do it?  Could you forgive this man who killed your entire family and many others?  Could you live and work within a few miles of him and look past his terrible sin?

This is the real life story of thousands of people living in Rwanda today.  In my last post, I gave you a timeline of events during Rwanda’s bloody history.  (If you haven’t read it yet, you should check it out and educate yo’self!)  In 2003, the Rwandan president released 60,000 murderers to alleviate the dangerously overcrowded prisons.  Prisons were holding 4 times the number of inmates they were designed to hold, and conditions were growing inhumane.  So he made a tough choice – the choice to set murderers free.

One of the people in the book As We Forgive is a pastor.  He had always preached a message of love, saying that the hatred between the Tutsis and the Hutus had to stop.  Then his family, friends, and neighbors were murdered.  They (about 45 people in all) were captured and driven out to a field.  Several men with machetes were waiting.  While some of the men dragged the women into the brush to rape them, others began the task of slaughtering the Tutsis.  The pastor watched his wife, siblings, nieces, and nephews die a horrible death.  He watched a man cut the arm of off his 5 year old son.  Then suddenly a group of them tried to escape.  The pastor scooped up his bleeding son and ran.  His son died in the woods due to blood loss.

That pastor had to face the reality of forgiveness like neither you nor I have ever had to encounter.  If he truly believed the Bible and all it had to say about God’s grace, then he knew he had to forgive these men.  So he did.  He started a ministry to the prisons.  He visited those in jail and told them about Jesus, and that no matter how terrible their sins, God could and would forgive them, if only they seek Him.  He even visited the same man who killed his family.  He shook his hand, and right then and there, forgave him.  Just like that.  Isn’t that incredible?  This man, as well as dozens of others, came to know the unending love of Jesus through this pastor’s efforts.

Once the prisoners were released (about 10 years after they had first been imprisoned), this pastor made it his duty to help them re-enter society.  He helped them get jobs and helped them seek out those whom they had wronged and ask for forgiveness.  He became a bridge between the victims and the killers.  Thousands of people in Rwanda are affronted every day with killers.  But in order to progress and to not devolve again into violence, they must forgive.  They don’t have much choice.

Doesn’t that put things in perspective?  I mean if people can forgive these atrocities, can’t we forgive the rude co-worker?  The inconsiderate boss?  The selfish spouse?  I hope we can.  I hope we do.

100 Days of Slaughter

Greetings Everyone!  In preparation for our trip, Blake and I are trying to do some research and gather information about the countries we will be visiting.  Rwanda has completely captured my interest.  I knew that Rwanda had a long history of violence and even genocide.  But that was pretty much all I knew.

One of the first things we did was watch Hotel Rwanda.  I highly recommend this movie.  It is based on the true story of a man who sheltered nearly 8,000 people during the killings. It’s a very well-done, well-written movie that portrays the horrific events of the Rwandan genocide.  Through this movie, Blake and I first learned the basic events that took place during that time and first came to realize the racial divide in Rwanda.

Now we are currently reading As We Forgive.  This book is an incredible collection of stories from survivors and even perpetrators of the genocide.  There’s also a film documentary which we haven’t seen yet, but plan to.  I’ve only read the first couple chapters, and oh my goodness…this book is so unbelievably moving.  The pain described in these pages is so intense, it is beyond imagination.  It’s so surreal to think that these mass murders occurred less than 2 decades ago and that there is still so much healing and rebuilding happening in this country right now.  I know this book is going to be a source of many blog posts to come, but we’ll start today with a few things I’ve learned and/or found inspiring.

First, since I know most of you probably don’t know much about this dark chapter in Rwandan history, here are a few events:

• 1933 – Rwanda was a colony of Belgium.  The Belgians required all people to carry identification cards specifying whether one is Hutu or Tutsi.
• 1959 – Hutus supported by the Belgians killed the Tutsi king.  Rwanda gained independence and thousands of Tutsis fled the country.
• 1986 – Exiled Tutsis formed the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) to attack the Hutus in power
• 1991 – The Rwandan military began to equip civilians to fight back against the rebel RPF
• 1993 – a radio station was launched and used as government propaganda.  It encouraged Hutus to slaughter Tutsi “cockroaches”
• April 6, 1994 – A plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was shot down.  Today many believe that Hutu extremists shot down the plane for fear that the president would enact peace agreements.  At the time, the Hutu militia claimed that the Tutsi rebels had shot it down.  This was the catalyst for the “100 days of slaughter”
• April 8, 1994 -A Hutu was appointed in an interim government after the president’s assassination.  He called for the abuse and murder of all Tutsis.
• April 11 – May 16, 1994 – UN Soldiers protecting 2000 Tutsis at a school were ordered to leave.  Most of the Tutsis there were then killed.  500 Tutsis were locked in a church and then burned alive by a priest and a nun.  About 12,000 Tutsis were gathered together and then murdered in churches, stadiums, and along the countryside.  Most of the murders were carried out by civilians with machetes, hunting down their own neighbors.
• May 17, 1994 – The Red Cross estimated 500,000 Rwandans dead.  Meanwhile the US and the UN could not agree on how to fund the relief efforts and the death toll continued to rise.
• July 4, 1994 – The RPF took control of the capitol and said they would form a government based on the Arusha Peace Agreements.
• July 18, 1994 – The RPF declared that the war was over and declared a cease-fire.  An estimated 900,000 to 1 million Rwandans were killed in only 100 days (a rate 5 times faster than the Nazi gas chambers).  300,000 of the dead were children and another 95,000 children were left without parents.
• January 2003 – The Rwandan president decreed to release 60,000 prisoners in order to alleviate the egregiously overcrowded prisons and foster reconciliation among the people.