This is Africa New Life...

So before we go on safari...we have a few more things to share about my time in Rwanda. Since every minute of this trip, from planning, preparation, and participation served as an education for me I thought I'd pass on some of the important things. I mean, if anyone is actually reading along. Are you? I've never blogged before and have decided it's a strange world that I'm not sure I belong in!! There's all this quick scrolling and clicking around and scanning (I'm so guilty of all of this!). Being on this end of it makes me appreciate the people putting their hearts out there and wondering if anyone is paying attention. Well, if you are...leave me a comment! Let's start a conversation and see if we can begin a little revolution of community and love and support for my new found circle of precious Rwandan friends. Their heart wrenching stories, precious smiles, sweet laughter, contagious joy, fearless devotion, and tender voices have changed everything about how I see the world and what I think about purpose, identity and unity. It's a wonderful disruption of the flow of nonsense that's kept me distracted for so long and I'm kind of giddy with expectation for the transformation on the horizon. There is so much more out there than what occupies most of our lives here in the States.
Let me show what a little of it looks like.

This is a snapshot of the ministries of http://www.africanewlife.org , you can click on the link and read all about each branch of outreach in detail. I could fill the rest of this post with specifics about the ministries, but I'm hoping after seeing some of these faces and hearing some of their stories, you will be compelled to do your own research and pray about how you can be a part of the empowerment and transformation happening all over Rwanda.

DREAM BEAUTY ACADEMY

 We got to visit with these beauties for just a short time and hear about how the school began from Pastor Florence. Just like any amazing story, it all began with a YES to God, there was an overwhelming need, too big for just one couple. But with God, one step of obedience leads to divine provision and little by little, dreams are born and realized.

AFRICA COLLEGE OF THEOLOGY

In Rwanda, Pastors are seen as more than just preachers of the Word, they are counselors, examples of Christian living and a place to go for advice and direction. Recently, the government has shut down many churches in Rwanda. Not because of persecution or hostility to the Gospel, but because there wasn't oversight, accountability of resources and proper facilities. ANL has over 500 students in the different areas of study in the College of Theology so they can be ministers of the gospel effectively and with excellence. We toured the library and offices and had a quick visit with the staff to ask questions and hear about the development of the future leaders of the church in Rwanda!

INSIDE THE COLLEGE

DREAM MEDICAL CENTER

 Such a huge project for ANL and a beautiful one at that. We felt so honored to walk these shiny new halls and surgical suites and pray for the people that will be treated here. Soon after our team left Rwanda, there was a gala ribbon cutting ceremony and the Labor and Delivery wing officially opened! What a testimony.
We were shown the new ambulance. Because an ambulance is a big deal in Rwanda. Things we don't even think about here.

SOLANGE (on left), WHO SHARED HER STORY OF HOW SHE CAME
TO THE SEWING PROGRAM

 At first we smiled and nodded as Solange talked about what a blessing the sewing school was to her, enabling her to provide for her family and live a better life. Yes, amen to that. But then she went on...
here is a quote from my friend Michelle Biggs from http://www.yesministries.net that beautifully tells the short version of Solange's story:

Solange was a prostitute and alcoholic up until 2016 when she entered the Fresh Start training program. She has learned to sew and tailor as a trade and has accepted the love of Jesus in the process. She no longer sells her body to survive and has been sober for almost 2 years. While victories in themselves, the part of her story that truly shook me was her matter of fact account of how as an unmarried, recovering alcoholic and prostitute...she went back to the brothel to tell the man she loved (also a prostitute) that she had come to know Jesus, cleaned herself up and “was he going to do the same and marry her?” Solange didn’t stop there...one of her previous jobs was to manage a group of prostitutes. You guessed it - those ladies have also now heard of a Savior that died for them, loves them and wants good things for them. Solange oozes God’s grace, love, mercy...Solange is the perfect picture of Rwanda!

THIS IS BEATRICE, WHO IS PART OF THE SEWING PROGRAM, AND BABY ESTHER, WHO ATTENDS THE DREAM DAY CARE. WE HAD A REALLY QUICK HOME VISIT WITH
HER AND NOW WE PARTICIPATE IN HER SCHOLARSHIP AT THE SEWING SCHOOL. SHE WILL GET HER
OWN SEWING MACHINE WHEN SHE GRADUATES AT THE END OF THE YEAR.  

I WAS HONORED TO SHARE SOME OF MY STORY WITH THE WOMEN IN BOTH VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMS. WE SHARED TEARS AND QUESTIONS AND HUGS AS WELL.
ONE FAMILY. 

On a personal note, not just my observations and soap box opinions about life in general, this trip has been the culmination (so far) of the work God has been doing as I say YES to him. In my first post I talked about it a little, the whole idea of finally saying YES. It's not that I spent my life saying NO, I just never felt qualified, or 'ready,' smart enough, mature enough, knowledgeable enough. Fill in the blanks, because we all have them. I didn't get it all together and say YES, I didn't conjure up the courage or affirm myself and say NOW. It was just a YES that came to me so I said it. I had no idea, and still don't because the story is just starting to be written, where that yes would take me and how it would change my heart.
It's so exciting to serve God, to walk into trusting Him and tremble into the things He calls me to do. Sharing my story in front of a camera with Amy's gentle smile encouraging me was the start. Of course seeing that video on a big screen with 500 women watching was another story, but....it was how I started to grow, in that uncomfortable place but surrounded by love. Then I held that microphone and did it again, with my women at Wanaque. More love. And now this, so unexpected, women I thought I had nothing to offer but maybe money and prayer. That's the truth. I went on this trip not understanding much about vision and ministry and sisterhood as it's expressed in a culture so foreign and halfway around the world. We think we know a thing. But we don't.
One thing that happens as you say yes is God meets and empowers you in the moment and what was terrifying starts to become a joy.  So instead of thinking about what I could or couldn't do in myself, I just said yes and let Him pour that wonderful grace all over me. That morning in Rwanda?? He did not let me down, not that He could!! If you look closely, you can even see a smile on my face!
Their response? The women whose lives are so different than mine? It was love again. We read the Word together, when I cried, they sighed and ummmed the cutest Rwandan version of a nonverbal assent (eyebrows raised, head nods, it's precious, even if I haven't actually mastered it yet). They asked me questions, they hugged me hard. And then a small girl asked to share her story and our interpreter, the beautiful and powerful Gogo (xoxo), told us that it was unusual for these gentle and demure women to get up and share deep and personal things like that. But she did, another powerful story of redemption, of pain, abuse and God in the middle of it all. You see why I'm undone???

VOCATIONAL SEWING PROGRAM...WHERE THEY DANCE AND WORSHIP TOGETHER EVERY DAY 

For many of these women, their commute to school is over 2 hours, walking, each way, every day. Not one of them walks less than 30 minutes to get there and many of them are carrying babies on their backs and bringing them to the daycare first. And then they dance.

We should let that sink in a bit, I think.

HIGH SCHOOL IN KAYONZA

DANCING AND SINGING WITH THE PRECIOUS ONES AT THE DREAM DAY CARE

THE ONE AND ONLY ALICE OUTSIDE THE DREAM DAY CARE

We are all madly in love with Miss Alice. She's everything. Beautiful. Smart. Kind. Formidable. Funny. Real. Worships with a pure heart and a voice like an angel.
She's a graduate of the sponsorship program, college student on her way to changing the world!! She might be mad at me if she reads this.
Last note for today...a little story about Alice and maybe my favorite moment, by a hair, of the whole trip.
We were waiting on the "coaster" while some went for a home visit with Varantine from the sewing school. She is scholarshipped by our previously quoted spunky friend, Michelle. Read about Varantine at https://www.facebook.com/Yes.ministrieswithLauraSeifert/ . Another amazing story.
This particular visit was a little hurried since we were bringing Varantine back to the city so she could bring her baby home after receiving the gift of food from her ANL scholarship.
We sat on the bus and for the first time felt a little uneasy. It wasn't everyone staring, we were used to that, they always waved vigorously and the kids ran after the bus yelling "Muzungu!!" which means, basically "white people!!" This time there was a man, acting odd and lifting his shirt by the window at one of our younger girls. Alice bolted out of her seat and made for the door, which John (our fearless driver) obligingly opened. The man ran off around the corner of a building, laughing. There were kids everywhere, all around the bus, some in school uniforms, some just hanging around. Moms, teenagers, people who had just come from the storefronts selling beer, supplies, food.
Within moments, we watched over a dozen little and not so little unruly kids start standing up straighter, tucking in their shirts and buttoning them and paying seriously close attention to whatever it was Alice was saying. Or maybe scolding is a better word. She picked up a little switch of wood and tapped it on her palm. She found out the man was drunk and and not quite all in his right mind but harmless. And a few minutes later, the now orderly bunch of schoolchildren asked her to ask us about our country and sing our national anthem for them. Which we did. Badly, but still. And then they reciprocated. Every.Single.Person. Young and old. Singing their hearts out about beautiful Rwanda. Rwanda Nzizi. Undone, yet again.
Next time, safari!!! And some fun about God speaking through the "roads" of Rwanda.
xoxo