God's Perfect Faithfulness

A beautiful sunrise early in the morning, on our way to Akagera Park

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

I don't think I've ever lived in a place that scares me as much as Rwanda. When I say this, I'm only referring to the moments when we're driving in a car, otherwise, I feel completely safe. We have seen a few bad accidents (mostly involving moto taxis) and heard of a few more tragic moto/car accidents, which continues to prevent us from jumping on the back of one to get across town.  Needless to say, I've been very shy about getting behind a wheel here. The driving is very different. But this aspect of life is only helping me to cling closer to our God, who does protect and promises His spirit to be with us as we trust in Him. I'm thankful for His protection and we continue to pray for this while in Rwanda. 

We have so much to be thankful for here and God has provided for us in many ways. I want to thank you for your prayer support of us. We have felt this comfort and know many are praying for us. Please continue to lift us up in prayer (for strength, endurance, protection, wisdom, discernment) as we're finding we need God's covering here in different ways than back in the U.S. 

Some of our praises include finding a wonderful house to rent! It's so peaceful, with a beautiful yard, in a quiet neighborhood, and perfect for us to come home to at the end of the day. We also got a sweet dog named Jumu (which was unexpected) but she's been nice company and a good guard dog. We have been meeting some great people here, a lot of Christian people as well, many of who I'm sure, will become good friends for us. We feel very settled at this point, physically and emotionally, which helps us feel very at peace in God's plan for us here. We got a great car that feels safe and reliable! We were gently reminded by the Lord (pretty soon after landing here) the importance of staying in prayer and in the Bible together daily, after experiencing some more difficult days in our marriage. But praise Him for that reminder! Though we should be doing this anywhere, it's especially hard when you're in a new country, overwhelmed often, frequently tired and easily stressed, giving you little patience and grace for one another. This lesson was reinforced by a Christian missionary (who we actually bought the car from) who told us he felt like God wanted him to share about our need for daily devotion/prayer here and encourage us in our marriage, discussing the reality of spiritual attack on your marriage when you serve together. We were so uplifted and this came in the perfect time.

  
I am also thankful for a couple of serving opportunities I've been able to be involved with for the past few weeks. One is the African Bagel Company (which Garrett mentioned in his previous post), which is a women's training center, aimed at helping vulnerable women in tough situations, gain practical cooking skills that they can later use to help sustain themselves and their families/children. Many of them are providing for multiple people in their family, some are single moms, some are orphans or have lost most people in their families and some were very sick when they came to ABC. They employ about 25 women for varying lengths of time (until they "graduate" from the program, learning all they can at ABC) and these women produce amazing food including pizzas, donuts, bagels, salsa, hummus, tortillas, cookies, cakes, etc. ABC is mostly frequented by expat customers including ourselves (as Garrett mentioned). These foods have provided comfort to us at home as the grocery selection in Rwanda is very limited.  The women do daily devotions and worship together in the mornings (which I've been able to be a part when I'm there) and although they speak all Kinyarwandan, one of the women who speaks English will kindly translate for me to be a part of it. :) They are taught other life skills by people who come through to teach classes to them, develop friendships with each other and seem to really gain a new sense of confidence in themselves in learning cooking and general life skills. The couple that started ABC just returned to the U.S (after living here for 7 years), but another couple has stepped in to run it. It's been a blessing to me, getting to know these awesome people who are a part of this and also getting to spend time and get to know the women who work there. They are wonderful and have been so warm to me. A couple of them sat me down and were so perplexed that Garrett and I have been married for two years but yet still don't have any children (and have planned not to have children yet), as they said when they get married, they want to have kids as soon as possible and if they aren't able to, people start talking about you, like you must be sick, be cursed by the devil or something is wrong with you that you aren't getting pregnant immediately. It's been very interesting to live in a new culture and learn aspects about the people that are just so different that ours. It's been teaching me a lot. 

The other awesome opportunity that I came across was an OB clinic that meets in a small mud-brick building in one of the slum neighborhoods, twice weekly. It is funded in part by the church that we have visited a few times since being here. On Tuesdays, women come for prenatal visits and Thursdays they come for postpartum checks for themselves and their newborn babies. It's been so interesting learning about the many challenges these pregnant women face here and learning new aspects of the culture through the women who come to the clinic. The newborn babies (on Thursdays) are of course SO BEAUTIFUL and I have loved helping with any teaching we can provide them on breastfeeding, nutritional needs for mom and baby and other general health things to watch for. This clinic was started by a Canadian midwife who lives here with her family, a wonderful Christian woman, who felt like an instant friend to me as she has a passion for women and OB and has such a warm, kind heart. There are a few other wonderful women who also help with this. Jocelyn (the midwife) has such a gift in working with these women. I feel so blessed by this already and have enjoyed the fellowship with the women who are working here. It's also such a praise because I was praying for an opportunity to do something in OB nursing here in Rwanda, and I've already been helping out at this clinic for the past few weeks!  Again, only Kinyarwandan is spoken with the women at the clinic and I'm hoping that this will help reinforce me learning the language faster. Jocelyn told me the other day, that she is helping the church with the building of a new women's hospital in town that will have delivery rooms as well and it should be opening next year. She said I could definitely come work there/volunteer when it's finished! So I'm excited about that possibility as I would absolutely LOVE a chance to start helping with deliveries and learning that side of OB. 


We were able to see some beautiful animals at Akagera National Park, this last weekend. It's so amazing to see these animals up close. It was so much fun to see giraffes, zebras, hippos and real African wildlife in their natural habitat. We have loved being in Rwanda so far and look forward to seeing more.


We feel so sure that God has us here right now and know that God is using us to bless others with his love. Please pray that we are consistent in shining a light for Him. Pray that we can continue to let God work in the places of our life that need working.

We are so thankful to Jesus for two wonderful years of marriage, that we just celebrated last week! We were able to go out for a nice dinner together to celebrate. I feel like we've been married for longer than two years, as so much has happened already. We feel blessed to have had such a fun first two years of marriage, learning some good lessons in communication and the importance of always seeking Him together. God has been so good to us. And we look forward to many more together! 


Love and blessings to you all. We are thankful for your support of us!

Our anniversary dinner at "Republika" restaurant

Our first 2 1/2 Weeks in Kigali

Wow, what is the date? These past two weeks have just absolutely flown by. I’ve been meaning to get a new post up, but as with everything in Africa, this process has taken a lot longer than expected. Yes, we have arrived in Rwanda safe and sound. Our 28 hour journey to get here went about as good as one could’ve hoped. This trip included a car ride from Lancaster to Washington D.C., a flight from Washington D.C. to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, another flight from Addis Ababa to Kigali, Rwanda, which included a short stop in Entebbe, Uganda. Somehow through all this, our bodies, spirits, and luggage arrived complete and intact. While some people would take some time to lay low, let the jetlag pass, and get adjusted, we decided to do the opposite. We jumped right into getting a feel for our surroundings and meeting people. This included meeting and speaking with Erisa, the HOPE Rwanda Country Director for the first time ever. It probably would’ve been prudent to at least have a brief conversation with my supervisor for the next two years; minor oversight. Fortunately, getting to know Erisa even just in a brief period, has assured me that all the great things I had been told about him are true.

The first full week here included two major events for HOPE as an organization. The first was hosting a trip of HOPE supporters. I guess this is the first time a trip like this has been made to Africa. The other was hosting a spiritual retreat for the Savings and Credit Associations (SCA) program and field coordinators. Included with these two events was meeting and interacting with other HOPE staff members, all of whom were great to work with. Most of the legwork for these two events was completed months in advance and so I was not really able to make much of a contribution. Yet, getting to participate with both served as a nice introduction to HOPE Rwanda and got me really excited for the work that I will be doing during my time here. Everything seemed to go incredibly smooth and everyone involved felt blessed by everything was saw and heard, evidence that God is certainly at work here.

Chris Horst - HOPE Director of Development

Chris Ordway, Matthew Rohrs, Christie Wilson (HOPE); SCA program and field coordinators

Here are some highlights from our time thus far:

We had the opportunity to visit Cards from Africa, which manufactures greeting cards. There are three wonderful things about CFA. The first is that they manufacture their cards by recycling paper and other materials. The seconds is that though sales of the cards, it is a sustainable model. The other great thing is that everyone working for CFA is a head of an orphan household (meaning these are orphans caring for their siblings). The workers have even started their own savings group! Check them out here.

We were also introduced to the African Bagel Company, which is a favorite locale of the Rwanda expat community. ABC was founded to provide practical skills to Rwandese women in need. In addition to the vocational training they receive as part of a program, they also receive spiritual discipleship. You would not believe what a blessing it is to have access to freshly made bagels, doughnuts, tortillas, salsa, etc. Regardless to the location of the world, the food there is delicious. We look forward to frequenting this spot in the future. If you ever come to Rwanda, be sure to have someone take you!

On a more somber note, we also took a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. I have been to holocaust memorials, but there was just something about this memorial, that made it so much more poignant. Having transpired relatively recently and living in Rwanda, there is no way to distance myself from what happened. Despite mentally and emotionally wrestling with the genocide, I am still having trouble wrapping my mind around it or even coming to believe that such an atrocity actually occurred. The memorial helped remind me what real and intense pain exists in this country. That people can even tolerate living together here is nothing short of a miracle.

(Development) Celebrity Sighting! Prior to coming to Rwanda, one of my Willamette classmates, Sophia, gave me a book to read. The book was The Blue Sweater, written by the CEO and founder of Acumen Fund, Jacqueline Novogratz. I finished reading the book on the flight to Rwanda. On the back cover is a picture of the author, which I quickly glanced at prior to packing it away. I didn’t really give it a second thought until I was eating lunch at a restaurant and saw someone who looked very familiar. It then dawned on me that the woman sitting two tables away had to be Ms. Novogratz. If it weren’t for the encouragement of Rachael, I probably would have been too embarrassed to say anything. With a little prompting, I introduced myself and had the fortune of meeting the author of the book I had just finished reading. In the very place which most of the book is about no less. Yeah, it is a small world. 

If meeting Jacqueline wasn’t enough excitement for one week, we also were witness to what could’ve been construed as a presidential assassination attempt. Lack of internet access and fear of motorcycle taxis prompted Rachael and I to walk to a coffeeshop to try and connect to the worldwide web. On our way there, we were faced with a choice, walk on the sidewalk by the road or in the garden path far away from the road (ok it really wasn’t that tough a decision). No sooner had we started down the garden path then did two brand new, unmarked, but with flashing red and blue lights, Toyota Landcrusiers come thundering down the road toward us. Following these two vehicles was a black Mercedes S Class with flags on the hood. As this car was passing us, we heard honking and then a boom as a massive dump truck driving in our direction, hit the median, crushed two small trees, crossed onto the other side of the street (narrowly missing the Mercedes), careened into a pole and then crossed back onto the correct side road. The truck then stopped and was immediately surrounded by men in suits with machine guns. They seized the driver, threw him into the back of a trailing Landcruiser and drove off.  A young Rwandese man who was standing next to us with jaw dropped, explained that the black Mercedes was President Paul Kagame’s car. End of story, no big deal. What?! If it was indeed an assassination attempt it was very poorly executed, but the timing of the whole thing was very coincidental. The moral of the story for us was watch out for dump trucks (we would later see another one cross another median; different story) and always take the garden path when available.

I know this post has already gotten out-of-control long, but one more thing. Yesterday we had the privilege of attending a Rwandan wedding. It was a very interesting cultural experience, albeit a very time consuming one. Overall, the basic format was very much like an American wedding. However, the dancing performances were unique and incredible (see video). All in all, I feel very honored to have been invited and I just hope the happy couple were honored by our presence (we were the only “muzungus” there).

My First Encounter With Wild Cats

6.11.12

I haven't even reached Africa yet and I've already had a harrowing encounter with some aggressive felines. After traveling most of the day, I arrived in Lancaster, PA, late Wednesday night. Thank you Sylvie and Catherine for coming to pick me up from the airport! For my time in Lancaster (which I'm still trying to pronounce correctly, I think it’s Lanekister, or something like that...), I have been graciously hosted by Adam, Elspeth and Jackson Naramore. While they have been wonderful hosts (thank you so much for providing the home away from home), their cats, Porter and George, were a little more wary of my presence. My attempt to get washed up for bed was deterred for about 15 minutes while the Porter and George slowly retreated away from my door. Porter even felt threatened enough to take a swipe at my leg. Needless to say, this was a mildly terrifying experience, perhaps heighted by jet lag and a warning from Adam to be cautious around the cats. This experience quickly formed a metaphor in my mind. As Rachael and I have been steadily making our way towards Rwanda, we have faced other bigger obstacles: fear, anxiety, doubt and uncertainty.

The majority of the PA stay has been quite pleasant and enlightening. I got to experience Central Market, the oldest continually run indoor market in America. I went to Hershey ("The sweetest place on earth") and saw where most of the country’s candy was and is produced. Then went to Philadelphia (with Nick, big thanks to him) to pick up Rachael and stopped and got a Geno’s cheesesteak, visited Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell! All and all a rushed but nice time, thanks PA.

The goodbyes began about a month ago and continued to occur regularly up until this point. The funny thing about goodbyes is they don't get any easier. In fact, they just get harder (usually because family and the people that have known you the longest come last). Another thing I find interesting about this process is that for some of us, the fact that Rach and I are going to Rwanda will actually mean more correspondence than if we were living in another state or even city. However, I know that the time that we will be away and the physical distance magnifies the level of emotion involved and thus makes the goodbyes so hard. It has been in this time of leaving loved ones that I feel the thoughts of: Was this the right life choice? Did we have to go so far away? What is going to happen while we are gone? And so on...Fortunately, these questions disappear quickly as we have received so much encouragement during this time. Praise the Lord for reminding us that this is in His will and that He has gone before us and is with us now.

During our time in Santa Barbara, we were asked a great question (thanks Carolyn) which I feel was pretty inadequately answered at the time. The question was: "Do we feel that we are embracing life, or putting life on hold?" The short and highly confusing answer to that question is both. After taking some time to ponder it, the better answer to the question would have to be that this time is a fast. Isaiah 58 helps to explain what I mean by fasting.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?"

Isaiah 58:6

Fasting is consciously choosing to forego something, even something that is necessary for our very existence (i.e. food), in an effort to be drawn closer to the Lord. So really, fasting is embracing and letting go or putting on hold. We have been very blessed to have been raised and live in America. This is where family and friends are, this is home. Right now, Rachael and I have every intention of returning to the U.S. Yet for me, living in the U.S., I haven't had to trust God in the way that I want to be able to trust God. Right now I put too much trust is wealth, comfort, technology, the American way of life. Chains of injustice exist everywhere, so blessings on those who choose to break them wherever they feel they need to be broken. Rachael and I feel called to set the oppressed free in Rwanda. This is why we are going. This is our fast.

Wow, what a crazy last week/last month. Graduation from Willamette, a Texas wedding, some fond farewells, packing and moving. Phew. I'm exhausted and I haven't even reached the final destination. It was sad saying goodbye to a whole group of wonderful people back in Salem. We will miss you all so much. We're glad that you are going to stay in touch with us through this blog. Congratulations to Amy and Brian, your wedding was beautiful and Rachael and I are so glad that we were able to be there for it. Special thanks to my brother-in-law Dave, who superhumanly helped us move. Seriously, would have never been able to leave town without your help. Also, special thanks to my parents who graciously let us store our belongings at the house. I also have to thank my wife, who has been such a blessing in my life and has agreed to allow me to pursue my dreams. Of course, going to Africa has also been on her heart and I know that she is going to do some amazing things while we are there. She also made this blog visually appealing, thus making people actually want to look at it. Thanks my love. Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, wisdom and advice, and financial support. Without all of you reading this blog, our journey would not be possible. We are taking your love in our hearts over there with us and hope to share it with all we encounter.

A quick look at the upcoming timeline:
May 29th-31st in Santa Barbara
June 1st-2nd in Bellingham
June 3rd-5th in Seattle
June 6th Garrett departs for Lancaster for training and orientation
June 10th Rachael comes to Lancaster
June 12th depart the U.S. for Rwanda

If you would like to financially support our cause, please visit the HOPE International website. There you will see a green "Donate Now" link in the upper right-hand corner. Be sure to put in the comments that your gift is going to support Rachael and me in Rwanda.

We are moving to Rwanda!

We feel so excited about this opportunity and are confident that God has opened this door for wonderful reasons. We hope to use this blog as a way to connect with loved ones from home, keep you informed on the work we're doing there, how God is growing us, the fun adventures we'll have and ways that you can be praying for and supporting us from afar. Please pray for us as we prepare for this big journey, for the many details involved in moving to another country (getting visas, learning the language(s), meeting new people, finding the right home), for the right nursing opportunities for Rachael and that we keep God at the center of our lives. Thank you for your love and support. We will definitely be sad to leave, but are so thankful for this chance to go serve together.