Continuing

Wednesday August 13th

Today we got up and packed out from the guest house. (We being Mark, Jeremy, Steve, Matt and Me, Jules.) After a bumpy ride down the dirt road we unloaded and got to work building on a new house down the hill a bit. This site was beautiful, overlooking a valley. Instead of each worker running in their own direction, today we took a lesson from Henry Ford and made some assembly lines.


Or rather, mud passing lines. The Rwandan women were good at making little balls of mud out of the big pile, so we just stood to receive and pass along to the necessary spot.


After all the needed mud had been applied, our assembly line would pass bricks along, which was considerably more difficult. It was amazing to watch these 4 foot women tossing these 35 pound bricks along like champs.



We worked hard all morning and the walls rose more rapidly than yesterday. It was great to work alongside the people as a team.


Around one in the afternoon the rest of the team arrived, they had driven up from Kigali to see us and to meet the pygmies and the local church. They piled out of the vans all neat and clean. Our response? Grab handfuls of mud and run at them like dirty banshees.


John, Marie and Bob were quickly in the mudpit. Of their own volition, I might add.

Then we were welcomed into the church for an introductory service of the clean half of the team. This time the pygmy choir sang for us. They were amazing. Their harmony was the best I heard in all of Rwanda. Here we presented the clothing to the pastor to be distributed to the pygmies.

Then we presented the soccer balls as well.


By that time it was around 3:30 in the afternoon and we all needed to pile back into the vans to drive the 5 hours back to Kigali before dark. We did have a minor roadside detour because one of the vans had some trouble with gears. We stopped by a smoking truck that was being worked on by some maintenance men. The men helped us out and just as dark was falling, we pulled off and got back on the road.


This was an answer to prayer, because being stranded in backwoods Rwanda at night is not a safe situation.

After a very late dinner we all collapsed into bed.

Thursday August 14th

We had a nice breakfast together this morning. Around 9 we packed up and loaded all our bags into a van once again. We all headed to Remera to Esron's church to see the completed internet cafe! After much sweat, prayer and innovation, the cafe came together. When we arrived there were 5 Rwandans there working away online.

Marie was very relieved and thankful that God worked it all out in the end in His perfect timing.

We were able to have a nice team de-brief time in the sanctuary. Kevin Conklin and his wife met us in Remera that morning, so it was cool to meet with one of the EFCA leaders to share our trip with him. This was a nice time for everyone to talk about what God had shown them during our time in Rwanda.

Our translators were greatly appreciated and we thanked God daily for their selfless help. This is Vincent administering an eye exam on Terrance like so many they had translated for Dr. John:


Then we piled into vans once more to drive to the airport to catch a flight to Nairobi. We left Gary, Mark and Jeremy behind. Gary had another day of meetings with the Rwandan pastors. Jeremy and Mark were driving out to see a potential future location for work to be funded by Valley.

The flight went without any great incident and we had dinner in Nairobi and spent the night at the same Mennonite guest house we stayed in our first night in Africa.

Friday August 15th

Today was largely a play day as we had a red eye flight that night to catch out of Nairobi. We had a leisurely morning, eating breakfast and packing up for the trip home. Then we met again for devotions and another time to reflect on the trip. We talked about the characteristics of God we saw pour out during our time in Rwanda. Patience, Generosity and Thankfulness were mentioned several times.

We spent our day in a large mall in Nairobi bartering with merchants to buy traditional African souveniers: woodcarvings, beadwork, paintings and pottery.

By this time it was around 3 in the afternoon and we decided to try a walking safari the Richersons had mentioned would be worth our money. We arrived at the site and realized it was basically a glorified zoo. Our tour guide was named Elly and he strolled us past caged pygmy hippos, monkeys and hyenas. We were not particularly impressed.

Until we saw the white rhino.


Until Steve to Elly how much he had always wanted to touch a rhino.


Until one by one we hopped the fence and patted the Rhino. Then all of a sudden Africa has the coolest zoos ever.


Then we trotted over to the lion paddock to see the two lionesses and the male lion who had the most gorgeous dark mane I had ever seen.


He came right up to the glass so we could take photos with him. So kind.



By now it was closing time at the zoo and we were really the only people around. The zoo keepers asked if we would like to see the lions be fed. We said "Heck yes" and proceeded into a side paddock beside three feeding cages and the lions entered to their dinner which was a huge slab of raw meat. The zoo keepers banged on the cages and lunged at the bars to get the lions excited and they started to roar. Let's talk about an adrenaline rush, I had never heard anything like the roar of a lion two feet from my face.

Our group:


Our group after seeing the lions feed:


We left the lion area walking on air. After this we saw some antelope.


Then made our way to see Milo, the cheetah. Elly informed us that she was quite nice and that we could pet her if we tipped the zoo keepers. Our response? "How much do they want?"


Kneeling eye to eye with a cheetah was a mixture of fear and wonder. I was thinking how amazing she was and marvelling at her huge yellow eyes all the while knowing she could snap my jugular in two seconds flat.



The walking safari was the perfect farewell to Africa and we entered the Nairobi Airport with some spring in our step. Unfortunately 27.5 hours of flight will take some spring out of one's step fairly quickly.

But God was faithful and brought us home safely. Mark Nelson still hasn't gotten his luggage, so you can pray about that for him.


Last words:

We all agree this was an excellent but exhausting trip. It was great to be part of the global church. I loved standing beside my brothers and sisters in Christ and singing and praying for each other. I was blessed to meet the Rwandan pastors and see their passion for ministry.


One of the best moments in the trip was in a dark mud walled church. We were being introduced to the congregation and one by one we got up and said our names and a quick blessing. Then Gary, through a translator, told the congregation that we wanted to send blessings from one final group. He told them how a big group of people at home in Valley Church had sacrificed to send us here to Rwanda. Gary said that the people who sent us were praying for the Rwandan people and we were only there because of them. This got the biggest cheer by far. The Rwandans were on their feet clapping for our senders. Rightfully so. Praise God for his church.


The Rwanda team thanks our senders, I have never felt so well covered in prayer as my two weeks in Rwanda. Thank you for that.

Catch up

Sorry the blog just dropped off after day three. I got to go with the construction team into the backwoods of Rwanda where there is no internet connection. I am sorry to leave you hanging while we were gone. But now that we are home safe, I have great images and stories to tell so keep checking back and I will keep up with the story of our trip.

Saturday August 9th

Today Gary and I drove out to hook up with the construction team and see their progress putting a roof on a church. The construction site was up in the mountains near a few volcanoes. The road was covered with chunks of volcanic rock. We had to abandon the car and walk the last ten minutes to the site.


We arrived at the church to find the local children singing to our team. Their vocal strength and harmony is amazing. The Rwandan's singing and dancing became one of the highlights of my trip.

The drummer is the only background to the singing:



The initial goal of the construction team was to finish putting a roof on the church, but that was deemed unsafe. The wood used to make the trusses was too heavy to be safe for us to put them up. This was no huge problem, because we got a call two days later telling us that the Rwandan's successfully put the trusses up themselves. We are hoping that they put up support poles from the floor, so that the trusses don't fall.

Here's a shot of Mark with the local pastor Jean Baptiste at the worksite.

The team built scaffolding out of eucalyptus trees:

The church building was made of mud bricks and the children peeked in the doors and windows to watch the work being done on the trusses inside.



Before leaving we presented some of the soccer balls to the pastor for his congregation!


Apparently this old woman with the stick was into hitting people until they paid her off to leave us alone.


An example of the crazy things they balance on their heads. This woman had a huge bundle of sticks was just walking down the highway.



Sunday August 10th

The entire team drove way out into the mountains, past the volcanoes to an outdoor church service. The service was huge, with probably 300 people in attendance. It was the annual gathering of all the congregations in the region. The service was scheduled to start at 9:30 but we didn’t actually arrive at the site until 11:00. The service didn’t start until we arrived and we were the guests of honor.

We were swarmed when we arrived.



Pastor Jacob was presiding as the head pastor.



Jacob is Esron’s father, and Esron is the pastor of the church where we are assembling the internet café. There was much singing and dancing from several choirs. We were all individually introduced and we each had to come up with something to say to the congregation. Then Jeremy preached an awesome sermon on Nehemiah 1. Esron acted as translator.



The service was probably two hours long, so not bad. We were worried about rain, as you can see by the clouds over the crowd:



The singing and dancing was amazing.
Esron's church choir from Remera:




A local college choir:


We got rained on toward the end and the wind was pretty cold. The solution? Grab a kid!



After the service we were served lunch with all the pastors and their wives. We had rice, plantains, potatoes, goat meat, bananas, rolls and the ever present Fanta Citron.

It was a very cool day getting to meet new people and experience a Rwandan church service.

Monday August 11th

I joined up with the construction team and we took a five hour drive across the country to the site where Valley has funded 5 houses for the Pygmy people. This day was mostly spent driving but we did meet the pastor of the local church and he showed us around the village.

One of the unfinished houses Valley has funded:



We were warmly welcomed by the congregation and ushered into the church for a short service. There were introductions and singing and a challenge to help build the houses in the coming days.

We left the village around five and made our way to a Presbyterian guest house on Lake Kivu.



This guest house was so nice and so ideally located that it felt criminal to be staying there on a missions trip. My balcony overlooked the lake. It was quite idyllic.



Tuesday August 12

Down to business. We got an early breakfast and made it to the village around 8 AM. The drive from our guest house to the village is just over an hour on a very bumpy dirt road. It was always a relief to get out of the van.

Our work was a totally new experience for all the members of the team: building mud houses. Mud bricks had been made the previous week and had dried sufficiently to be used. The first step in building the house is making the foundation, which is essentially a rock and mud grid where the walls will be placed. The floor of the rooms is left as dirt. A thick layer of mud is used for mortar. This mud is made in a pit by the side of the house and is presided over with hoes and water buckets by a few workers.



People run back and fourth with bricks and handfuls of mud. Skilled bricklayers arrange the bricks and level them along a string guide.

This man was one of the skilled bricklayers:




The foundation and some random bricks waiting to be laid.


The bricks were pretty dang heavy and we all felt accomplished to work so hard. But then Jeremy made a good observation: "Man I don't feel so strong because all these women are doing this same work barefoot with a baby strapped to their back."


Too true, this women were the strongest I have ever met.



The team’s work mostly consisted of running back and fourth with mud or bricks. It was awesome to see the walls rise around us.


The drying bricks:


A machete was used to shape the bricks:



There were some mud fights and at the end of the day, I taught some of the kids how to make clay frogs.



One of the pygmy men helping build:



The houses are being made for the pygmies, who are currently living in stick shelters up in the mountain. The houses that are being made for them are down in the village, interspersed among the Rwandan villagers. The government wants to end the segregation between the people groups, hence the mixing of communities.

The hardest question the houses raise, is who will live in them? There are 14 pygmy families, but only 5 houses are being built. Their question to us was, “How do we decide who lives in the new houses?” This was something we could not answer.



Check back soon for the continuing story...

Day 3

August 8

Today was our first day of ministry. This account will be about the Cyber Café and medical teams. Tomorrows post will be about the construction team.

We got up at 6 to have group devotional time at 6:30. Our passage was Colossians 1: 1-12 talking about Paul’s affection for the church and how he prays for them. We all marveled at his ability to pray for the whole body of Christ, even those he had not yet met. Katie pointed out how important it is for the Church body to pray for each other, even if we have never met.

Breakfast was toast, eggs, tea or coffee, and Rwandan tomatoes. After eating we loaded up into the van and made the ten minute drive to Remera, clutching the seat in front of us for dear life as we plunged down the bumpy hill.

Michelle spent her day fellowshipping with "her people." She always has an entourage wherever she goes. She taught the children some english songs and spent time in homes in the village.



The medical team had an excellent day, they were able to see 68 patients and dispense care to practically everyone he saw.

Registration:



The line:


Katie and Jess worked in one room, fitting people with reading glasses. Their favorite part was picking out frames that matched personalities. After a few tries, one woman picked out some sassy purple frames that absolutely fit her personality.

Looking out at the line:



John and Bob worked in another room administering more extensive eye exams. The room had to be light tight for some of John’s tests, so the team hung black plastic over the windows.

The glasses dispensed here were largely for nearsighted people. Some patients John saw suffered from more allergy induced eye problems. Care for these people meant giving them some antihistamines to ease the troubles.



Bagged glasses arranged by prescription to be handed out:



One of the best part of the medical team’s day was when a load of people from Bugesera came to be fitted with glasses. This is Gary and Marie greeting the group.



We first met the church members of Bugesera a year ago when Jeremy, Gary and Katie Rodgers made the trip to Rwanda and visited the church. They discovered that the church only had one bible for the entire congregation. In February, Gary, Pastor Dan, Marie and her husband distributed bibles to the church, which were gratefully welcomed. The problem arose that some of the congregation couldn’t read their new bibles because of poor eyesight. Today, a dozen people from Bugasera came to see Dr. Rosten and be fitted with reading glasses. It was such a blessing to see how our connection with the Bugasera church has developed.



Gertrude was a woman from Bugasera:

When Gertrude was fitted with her reading glasses, her first reaction was to throw aside the eye chart and pick up her bible to check her vision. She left the exam room and went to find Marie. She told Marie, “You gave me my bible, and now I am able to read it!” This was quite a moving moment for all of us and will become a trip highlight.

The children are all so beautiful:



The cyber café team encountered some roadblocks and their first day was a bit frustrating. The network itself worked perfectly. Marie and Brian laid out the laptops and each wireless printed to a remote printer. Everything communicated well.

The network itself was a total success.



The command center:



The problems arose with the electricity itself. The power flow into the cyber café room is not a steady flow, and this is dangerous to the equipment. We are working with an electrician to try to iron out this problem.

Another problem was the internet connection. We were able to connect for a minute, but then the internet failed. After a few hours, many phone calls and some gnashing of teeth, the internet provider sent out a technician to diagnose our problem. I will spare you the technical details, but in the end of the day the internet is working.

Katie got a new hairdo:


Jess taking photos:


The teams headed back to our lodging at ALARM for a nice dinner of rice, potatoes, fish which we mistook for chicken, and bananas. We spent a nice evening chatting around the table and went to bed early.

Most of our jet lag is gone, praise the Lord. John is suffering from lingering bronchitis and he coughs a lot in the morning and evening. Please pray for healing for him. Pray for smoothing of details for the construction team, who is finding their site to be difficult and ultimately will not be able to complete the roof. This is tough to walk away “unfinished.” Pray for joy and patience, as things move slowly in Africa.

Lastly, Bob would like to send a shout out to his family. We are now calling him Dr. Bob and he is our “visual acuity engineer.”



Much love from us all!

More pictures

I wanted to post more photos on day 1, but my internet connection was very slow and I had to cut my time short to get on the plane. So here are more photos from Day 1 in Nairobi.

Around the Mennonite guest house compound where we spent our first night:




Tristan almost broke the playground:


Driving through Nairobi:


Giraffe Park!



Apparently their saliva has sanitizing properties.





At RVA on the Richerson's front lawn.


Kids at RVA hitching a ride across campus:

Day 2

Day 2
August 7

This morning we got up at the crack of dawn, largely because we are jet-lagged, but also to catch an 8 o’clock plane to Rwanda. The airport in Nairobi was insanely busy, there was a huge line out the door and down the block for Kenya Airways. We were 45 minutes late for our flight by the time we got through immigration but thankfully the plane waited for us.

We were greeted in the Rwanda airport by at least 8 church members. It was a very warm welcome, lots of hugs. We loaded all our bags into some cars and drove into Kigali and our first stop was a hardware store. The construction team needed around 112 bolts and we were able to find 12. We decided they would have to place them very strategically.

Lunch was a buffet of typical Rwandan fare. Tristan and Matt were the eating champs by far, stuffing down more food that should be humanly possible. The pineapple was perfection.

After lunch it was farewell time and the construction team gathered their luggage for their two hour drive to Ruengherytown where they will be putting a roof on a church. The cyber-café and medical teams drove about 15 minutes to Remera, to see the compound where they will be working. The hill down to the church was steep enough to make San Francisco proud, riddled with potholes and comprised of red dirt. The vans that cart us around are like trusty burros as they grind us up the hill. I had visions of losing traction and plummeting down the long hill. These proved to be unfounded worries.

Remera Compound looking toward where the optical team works:


The kids love to have their photos taken and then swarm the camera to look at the photo:


Looking out across the valley:


This was a wonderful time to meet some of the church members and see the area.

The compound where we will be working has several buildings: a pharmacy where the medical team will see optometry patients, a sanctuary, a large primary school building and the cyber café. Thy cyber café was rather barren except for twelve beautiful desks and chairs which will soon become workstations.

Some of the children in Remera:


This is Gary talking with Vincent, who acts as part translator, part planner, part organizer and all around good guy.



After spending a few hours in Remera, the cyber café and medical teams went for tea at a nice hotel in Kigali. We are staying at a large facility named ALARM. The rooms are large and clean and the showers are warm.

We are all very tired and are struggling to catch up with Rwanda time. Please pray that we can get good sleep and be refreshed and ready to work tomorrow.

Jess summed things up pretty well this evening when she exclaimed, “I love Africa!”

Day 1

We made it!
After 19 hours of plane rides, 3 hours in vans, a breeze through customs and one minor incident with a baggage official…we made it onto the ground in AFRICA!

The first thing we did? Went to bed. And Showered.

Day one began in a Mennonite Guest house in Nairobi, Kenya. We hade a lovely breakfast of toast, baked oatmeal, tea and some fruit that I couldn’t actually identify. (Papaya I am informed.) A few of us suffered from some vertigo and so breakfast wasn’t a success but we did enjoy the scenery on the compound. And we enjoyed the play equipment.

At nine we were picked up by Brian Richerson and his lovely family and taken on a driving tour of Nairobi. We saw nice houses, slums, roadside fruit markets, and an occasional cattle crossing.

Our first stop was at a Giraffe Center where we heard an informational talk about the Giraffe population in Kenya. The center was home to ten Rothchild giraffes which are characterized by their “white socks” up to their knees and a darker and well defined spot.

We got to feed the giraffes from below and from a raised platform, so we could see each other eye to eye.

Oh yeah, and we got to kiss them.

After a good tooth brushing and sanitizing session, we hopped back into the van and toured a bead factory nearby. Some souvenirs were purchased and then it was back to the vans to get lunch at the Junction, which was a mall. Personally, I had a chicken sandwich and fries. Unadventurous, I know.

Then after an hour drive we made it to Rift Valley Academy where we were given a fabulous tour by Brian himself. Dinner was at Mama Chicu’s, a building about the size of standard American bedroom. We crowded around tables and ate some of the most amazing food I have ever tasted. There were samosas, cooked greens, goat stew, brown rice, irio-a bean paste, and plenty of chipatis to hold it all up. I ate too much, I admit it.

We burned off the food hangover with a drive around Kijabe and then had an early bed time. All in all it was an excellent first day…except for the sleeping. That hasn’t been going so well for me.

It is now 5 am on Thursday and we are driving to the airport to catch a plane to Rwanda. More photos soon!

And We're Off!

In approximately 12 hours the Rwanda team will be in vans, steaming toward San Francisco International Airport. We fly from San Francisco to Chicago to London to Kenya. At that point, Jeremy and Mark will head straight to Rwanda to get ready for construction while the rest of the team will spend a day in Kenya before continuing to Rwanda.

We are all very excited for the trip and very much dreading meeting at 4:45 tomorrow morning at the church. We would be happy to see all your shining faces there to send us off!

(Yeah right)

Please pray for travel safety and that our luggage will arrive when we do.

We are very thankful for all your love and support.
My next post will be from Africa, so check back soon!