A couple of months ago, my friend found an ad in my church bulletin and thought of me. She showed it to me and I looked at the website. It is an orphanage in South Africa that works with children suffering/affected by HIV/Aids. It was started a few decades ago, initially to bring children who were dying off the street and give them a safe, loving place to have their final days. Over the years, the children have become more healthy and now the focus is not on helping them face death, but on helping them face life. They have all sorts of different programs, to build their education and spiritual and emotional wellbeing. Deep down I felt an unusual and peaceful excitement as I read what they wanted to do in the lives of these children.
After a lot of prayer and a lot of words of encouragement from pretty much EVERYONE in my life, I have decided to go there for 6 months.

Lately, God has been bringing up a verse to me again and again. And it is on their website too (for obvious reasons!). It is this: James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Unfortunately, people in this world either do one or the other, but usually not both (especially the latter without judgment). This I want to do well this year.

So, starting in February, I am off to South Africa to work in their clinic and be whatever they need: social worker, tutor, mentor/discipler... I will LEARN a LOT. I will need to depend on Jesus every day, as I am out of my comfortable life and in a world that is full of brokenness and sorrow. But I am excited!

Where will I go next? Perhaps another African country? What might God have next for me?

At the close of our construction project, we headed back to Kigali and visited some different ministries. One was a jewelry company where women, who used to be prostitutes, came to work and earn a good decent living, instead of prostitution.  They made beautiful necklaces and sold them around the world.  We also visited an orphanage and spent the day with the children.  There were so many amazing experiences in all that as well.   The trip was also a great bonding time with my teammates. 

There were some themes that God taught me, verses that ran through my mind on my trip. 

1. Christ's love compels us.  (2 Cor 5:14).  While flying into Africa on one of the flights, we were surrounded by all sorts of doctors, mission teams, community service teams, etc. All trying to make a difference.  And the difference for us, God's people, is that Christ's love compels us.  That is the driving force behind our efforts. It should not be guilt, or coolness (hey, its cool to go to Africa!), or pride or anything else.  I really learned that.  And so going back to my "normal life" my desire is to have Christ's love compel me.

2. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus, yet though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9).  To really love God it takes showing this theme to the world, living it out, demonstrating it.  We really were able to see our richness and see so much poorness and try to live this out.  And my desire is that I can make this a theme of my life more often, to demonstrate that in small and large ways. 

Thanks for reading my blog! 

KIDS

Ok, sorry, I just had to add a couple of cute kid photos in. Boys will be boys. 

And a sticker obsession.  Kids crowded around us to get a sticker put on their forehead, as if we were giving away food to the starving! This guy was one of the serious sticker guys!  

CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

During our working days the children would gather from literally miles around to watch us work.  Some of us would step away from working on the house to spend time with the children (we had plenty of manpower on the house).  This was our opportunity to do a little children's ministry, a vacation bible school sort of thing.  There were a good 20-30 children who would come to us each morning and would spend the day with us until we left.  Slowly their shyness melted away and we would have fun with them and they would gather.  

Our church had made hundreds of little paper heart necklaces for the children with bible verses on them in English and in their own language.  We shared bible stories (with a translator), played games, and gave gifts to them while they were with us.  

This little guy is showcasing the necklaces our church sent us to give.  One day while driving, we spotted a little boy with one of our necklaces on about 4 or 5 miles from the work site! That was so special to see how far we had reached! 

 

We played many games with the kids and they laughed and played as if they had no cares in the world.  

Someone brought a children's bible and with the help of a translator and some great illustrations we told stories as the children gathered around. 

THE PRISONERS

Okay, so I was wrong. The day after the genocide memorial was the topper of the topper.  The next day we went back to our work site and learned just how deep the love and forgiveness of the Lord is. It was our final day with the men and women prisoners that we worked along side. Coming from the genocide memorial the day before, we could feel the seriousness of what the prisoners had done far more deeply.  In essence, they were the ones who put all those bodies in the memorial.  At the close of our work, a couple of them were asked to share their stories, what they did during the genocide.  This man, we called Boss, because he was so hard working and kept everything running smoothly, shared his story of his killing. He was so overwhelmed with the burden of his sin and such deep sorrow over what he had done. He asked us to do everything we could to continue to help Rwanda.  He also said that he loved building houses because it was in some way putting back together what he had destroyed.  

And that is when we got to share specifically, the love of Jesus. We shared the gospel with them and then surrounded them all and prayed for them. And we asked that the Lord would take their burdens and give them new lives of hope and release them from their past.  We also gave them all clothing as well.   But when do we ever have to face forgiveness like that?  "Love keeps no record of wrong, it does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." A perfect God does that for us crazy humans?  Amazing.  

GENOCIDE MEMORIAL

Well, if our emotions weren't all over the place enough, this was the topper.  We visited a site of a mass killing, where 50 thousand people were massacred and thrown into huge pits, some still alive-simply because of the tribe they were born into.  No other reason.  Now, the site is a memorial to remember what happened.  This man was one of the 4 survivors, whose bullet hole is still visible in his scull.  He miraculously escaped and walked to the nearby country, about 20 miles away for medical care. He now works on the site and helps to share his story with visitors in hopes that awareness will prevent this from ever happening again.  His entire family and all his friends were killed on this site and I am sure the sorrow of that is there everyday of his life.  But the most amazing thing, is the forgiveness he shows towards all the convicts.  One can see them everywhere, doing their service projects.  He said that he would probably have done the same thing if he were in their shoes, so he has compassion on them. WOW. 

Basically, about 50 thousand people were told to come to a school, where they were safe. But it turned out to be a lie and while there they were starved for 2 weeks and then attacked with all sorts of brutal weapons, and they were weak and defenseless.  Now, what makes up the memorial exhibit are simply the bodies put out on display, contorted and broken. Adults and children.  It is a very intense reminder of some of the amazingly huge things that the sin of man can do.  And the amazingly huge need of Jesus in our lives.  And the amazingly huge things some people must live through.  How can people suffer so much? How can people inflict so much suffering for such a petty reason? Wow, Lord, we need you. 

This was the school. Now a display of bodies.  Not a civilized American memorial, that's for sure.