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...