Topical Whiplash

These passed few days have been exhausting and exciting. Yesterday we had Champions Day, which was a day to hang out with the kids, play games, worship, and just have fun. By the end of the day we were all exhausted, but it was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed it. I discovered that when organizing events in Rwanda be prepared to run late. People are never on time, and when the event finally starts any local leaders that are there will want to speak, but all in all it was really fun. The talent show and chubby bunny were definitely the highlights. Everyone loved it. But with the coming of Champions Day also comes the end of or time here. We’ve been planning Champions Day since the day we arrived and it’s weird to see it finally happen. I thought 1 month would go so slowly, but in reality it’s gone too quickly.

Today in church our supervisor, Carrie, came up at the end and talked about Ezekiel 37: 1-14. If you’ve never read it I recommend you do. It’s called the Valley of Dry Bones and it’s a vision God gave Ezekiel. It talks about how Israel was like dry bones with no life and no hope, but God tells Ezekiel to prophecy that He will breathe into the bones and they will come to life again. This is true in all of our lives. We all have things that we struggle with, and we feel hopeless and dried up, but all we have to do is ask for God to breathe life into us. We have to take action and God will “open your graves and bring you up from them”. That is a very powerful image. The grave is so final so absolute, but God conquered the grave and he can bring us up out of even the most hopeless situations.

At the camp I work at we have shirts that say “God is good, all the time” and the back says, “All the time, God is good” well they say that here too. The first time I heard them say it, it blew my mind. I thought people only said that at my camp, but God is so huge that people around the world talk about His goodness. Well now that I’ve essentially preached, I’ll talk more about what I’ve been doing at the center.

Besides getting ready for Champions Day, I’ve still been corresponding with the people from Orphans to Ambassadors and it’s been really good! They have offered to pay $1,500 to help with purchase of the 4 water tanks and they are going to install them. While this money is great and very helpful, that leaves us to raise the other $4,260 to finish paying for the tanks as well as to purchase stands. We also hope to have our stoves upgraded to rocket stoves which are much more efficient. This means we need to raise another $1,000 bringing the total amount we need to raise to $5,260 by May. So here’s where I ask for your help. Center for Champions has done so much for these boys (and for me in the short month I’ve been here) and they currently don’t have enough water for everyday activities. They are in great need of these tanks, but unfortunately the center hasn’t had the funds to install new ones. So if God is putting it on your heart to donate, please go to www.africanenterprise.org and click on “give now” then write a note in the comment box that says “Center for Champions water project, Rwamagana, Rwanda” that will ensure that the money goes toward the tanks. If you can’t donate, that’s fine, I ask that you will still pray for the project to be a success.

Well I’m sorry for the headache you probably have now because of trying to follow my train of thought during this post. In the words of one of the boys at the center, Leonard, “this is madness”. (check my facebook for pictures of my time here on Wednesday when I have better internet)

Ndishimye

It’s been over two weeks since my last blog post. Man how time flies, and we have about 10 days left here at the Center. 10 days before we have to say goodbye to the kids we’ve been building relationships with and learning about for the past 3 weeks. I’m not really looking forward to leaving. These kids have had such an impact on me. They’ve taught me patience (thank you annoying primary school kids), determination, hard work. They’ve taught me that even in the worst circumstances God is good and has a plan, I’ve really seen His love since I’ve been here and it’s been amazing.

One night after Bible study I was talking with one of the boys about how God has a plan for each of us if we choose to follow Him. I told him that I know for sure if I wasn’t a Christian trying to follow God I wouldn’t be in Africa right now. That got me looking back on all the things I’ve seen and learned since coming here, there’s so much. It got me thinking about little things that have happened that I didn’t even acknowledge was God working. My walk with God isn’t perfect, it never has been, but I think that God’s teaching me a lot about Himself and myself that is helping to bring me closer to Him.

Now some of you (however many that is that still reads this) are probably wondering what the title of this blog post means. It means, “I am happy”, and really I am happy. I love being at the Center and I love being in Rwanda (pronounced Gwanda by Rwandans). So while the idea of leaving the Center makes me want to say Si shimye (I’m not happy), I am happy that I even had this opportunity and I will never forget about my time here.

So now you’re probably wondering what have I actually been doing with my time here. In my last blog post I talked about a typical day here, well that has changed. After the first week we individually met with Carrie and talked about our job titles and the things we wanted to do here. For me that meant giving nutrition presentations to all the catch-up students, as well as corresponding with an NGO called Orphans to Ambassadors on them starting a project here in May. When I first started emailing with O2A we weren’t sure if they would be able to do a project at all because their budget was already set for this year, but now they seem pretty confident they’ll be able to. This is so exciting because the Center really needs it. God put an opportunity in front of us and we jumped on it and it’s really working out to our benefit. This passed week was very busy. Rae joined us as a new intern and she’s going to be doing gardening so the boarders can have vegetables in their diet. So Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to getting the garden ready so we wouldn’t miss the season. We frantically hoed, weeded, and planted, and by Friday the garden was looking good. Again it was evident that I am not cut out to be a farmer, but it was really great to be a part of something that would benefit the Center so much. Now all we have to do is pray that it will grow (since I’ve worked on it it will really take a miracle for those plants to grow) and wait. Unfortunately we won’t be around to see the fruits of our labor but I’m excited to hear about it and see pictures and come back and visit one day.