Jess and Maddie, we miss you and are living vicariously through your blogs. We continue to pray for you and your safe return. We wish we could have seen the Americanas gone Africana! We are sure you were both BEAutiful!
Donata’s new home under construction
We are back home! Thanks for all of your prayers and comments. They really kept us going while we were in Rwanda. I’m sure most of us are still a little jet-lagged but none the worse for wear. I wanted to post one more time to let everyone know that we are safe and sound on US soil. I am trying to download pictures and will continue to post them. But for now, just know that there are some new friends in Nyaruguru and Huye th
at are grateful to soon move into a home of their own. We praise God for the chance to meet them and to share in a small part of their lives. We pray for Donata, Angelique, Bosko, Claude, Janvier, Jean, Bernard and so many more orphans….too many to mention. We are extremely grateful to Epiphane, Jean Pierre, Alice and Albertine for all of their hard work and committment to these children. To the lost and the least, they give their all. We are blessed to have crossed paths with these angels. Blessings to all!
Here we are in Kigali on our last day. We had an awesome day yesterday at the coffee fields with some of our giving hope friends. We heard more heart-wrenching stories of being alone and neglected and unloved BUT we also heard stories of hope and thankfullness. We met Jean who in just a few months has gone from living on the street to having a farm with a cow and his siblings are reunited. We are off to the genocide museum then to the airport. We love you all and are thankful for your prayers. We feel them every day!!!! See you soon, the team.
Today was our last day in Butare. We went to church at a local “Baptist” church. Lost of music, singing and dancing. Many of the children in the congregation came and sat with us. Next, we had lunch followed by a trip to the National Museum where we were entertained by native dancers with incredible drummers. Much to our surprise we were invited up to dance with them. What a sight!
We ended our day at one of the home sites that was completed earlier this year. The children had gathered to show us their homes and then, because ZOE had given them seeds for their crops, they cooked their first harvest to share with us. As their group leader said, it is their tradition that the first harvest is celebrated with their parents. Since they have no parents, for today….we were their parents. It was quite a celebration with beans and rice and cassava root. What a nice way to end our stay in this town. Tomorrow, we will travel to Kigali and tour the Genocide Museum. We plan to spend most of the day there I think. But we have learned here in Rwanda that plans are always subject to change. Please continue to pray, for the children and for the team. Wish we could send pictures but internet in Rwanda is slow. Keep watching and we’ll post lots of pictures when we get back. Blessings from the TEAM!
PS The second group made it back from the Gorilla Trip last night (Sandy, Rhonda, Don, Cristy and Scott) WE MADE IT!
More from Kigali………………………
Thanks to everyone who sent comments on the blog. We read a bunch of them as a group today before setting out to the work sites. They meant so much! Sandy really enjoyed her comment from her family she ran down the stairs to read it. Thank you!
We have been working on 2 work sites outside of Butare in the countryside. The drive out each day is beautiful, and the children are so precious. We have been touched by them all and can’t wait to get back to tell their stories. They run by the vans each time we come, yelling “muzungu”, which means white person. They get so excited to see us coming. And the foundations for the houses are in place. We started bricks on them today. Keep praying and watching……more to come later in the week.
Blessings from the ZOE team in Rwanda!
We touched down in KIGALI around noon today. We are now at the Hotel Iris in Kigali. I wanted to post a picture but the computer has no USB port. And I am typing on a French keyboard, so I am struggling just a bit. We met with Epiphane over lunch and she has our schedule for the week. We will start with visits with the children tomorrow. The country is gorgeous and the weather is beautiful….no humidity, go figure. The taxi ride from the airport was interesting to say the least. Please continue to pray for our children that we will meet tomorrow. For now we are going to rest up, because as the lady says, we will be working hard. Pray also for 4 members of our group who have gone to find gorillas. We hope they have a safe journey and return tomorrow as we head to Butare. 20 plus hours on a plane is a looooooong time. So we will get some rest and write more when we can. More from Butare….
Well, here we are the night before. Only a few hours left before we leave for Rwanda. All the bags are packed, we’ve checked them twice, hoping they don’t exceed the weight limit. Once again we put our trust in the One who is sending us. Tonight we pray especially for Angelique and Donata, the two young girls we will soon have the privilege of meeting. Equipped with hope, we will arrive , giving them a home and lots of love. The next you hear from us, we will be in Africa. If we can secure an internet connection we will make a post soon. Good-night North Carolina, Georgia, San Francisco……..Thanks for your prayers and support. ♥
I will continue to post until we leave on Sunday. That’s Sunday, a bit more than 3 days away! Please continue to pray for the team and for those we are about to meet. We really do need your support, so that we can be open to what God has planned.
If you would like to know the current time in Rwanda (without doing the math) or the weather, you can click on the LINKS tab.
Also on the LINKS tab, check out the film trailer for “Back Home” a movie about Rwanda- by a Rwandan.
Forgiveness, reconciliation…..these are powerful things.
