July 29th 2010

July 29^th 2010

Hi!!!!!!! It has been awhile. I’m sorry. It has been along two weeks. This week I have been trying to get rested because the high school team that was here last week WORE me out. I can’t remember being so tired before. I slept almost the entire day yesterday.

It was so good to have the FPCB high school team here. It was like I was playing parent last week making sure that all my children were taken care. I had not anticipated how much work I was going to have to put into taking care of them. Never the less it was a great week not only for the Americans but also for the Rwanda’s and especially the students at the Center. I was fun for me to just sit back and watch our students from FPCB love on the students at the Center and then also for the students at the Center to love on the FPCB students. We got our library painted and the entire library moved to our new permanent location. Speaking of the library, I got word this week that our books will be arriving here in Kigali on August 3^rd which is next week from the states. So for the next two weeks I and the other two young ladies that I work with will be sorting through close to 1500 books and actually making this library thing happen. We have also been giving another class room to start and art room in, so we are very excited about that too. The students at the Center are on vacation until August 18^th so it will be quite at the Center for the next couple of weeks. Today was my first day back out to the Center since the FPCB team left. It was strange being out there all by myself. I was able to continue the basketball project I have been working on. I am trying to get all the lines on the court re-painted. The FPCB team was very helpful painting most of the lines, until we ran out of paint.

I have been enjoying my time here, but…I am missing home quite a bit. It is a strange feeling. I see so much need and so many people ask me for stuff and it is super hard for me to not be able to help EVERYONE. I know God is not asking me to but I is so hard for me to tell people no. The only thing that I have been able to give everyone is a smile and a hello greeting. The other day I was told by a friend here that I need to stop trying to figure out what is happening here because you never will. I am practicing perseverance right now and probably will need to the rest of the way. It seems like I keep stumbling across new problems at the Center every day and it is hard because they keep piling up and I feel like NOBODY cares besides me and Melissa. But here is the kicker. J God is in control of this not ME. He is asking me to be faithful not efficient. I have heard that Africa stretches and pushes a person. I am starting to understand that.

Oh yeah!!! Last week while the FPCB team was here we were able to go visit a hospital and an orphanage. When we pulled up to the orphanage we got out and meet the girl who was going to show us around. She saw my Eastern Washington University t-shirt that I was wearing. Long story short she too is an Eastern grad and is from Spokane. I didn’t know her but that was kind of cool. I have met so many people from Washington in general and the Pacific Northwest. Super fun!!! Ok that it.

Prayer request:

AEE Leadership
The students while they are on brake. Some of them are back on the streets because they don’t have families to go home to and the Center closed the dorms for security reasons. That’s a tough one for me.
The elections in a week.
Taxi rides

Pictures From the New Library

July 12th

Hello Hello,

Again I am sorry these entries are becoming once a week. It has been a good week this week. I have talked about us trying to get some bookshelves made in my past post. They are finished and they are installed. They actually were finished over the weekend but we had no way of transporting them. So we had been talking to AEE to see if they could help us get them out to the Center since we had them built here in Kigali. They said sure we can help you. So Tuesday we got the word that they were going to be delivered, but sure enough African timing came into play and they didn’t get delivered, but that’s ok because I am learning patience. ;) So Wednesday they tell us that they will be delivered. So I spend my day at the Center and then get a call saying that they aren’t going to make it again. Surprise Surprise!!! So they are made and just sitting in this workshop and they guy who built them wanted them gone. So Wednesday I take my normal taxi ride home and then stopped in at AEE Kigali on my way home and they have our bookshelves loaded up in the big AEE dump truck. I was like what the heck is going on. So I asked if I could go with them to deliver the book shelves and they said yes. So I ride BACK out to Rwamagana where I had just come from. We had to drop some other stuff off at a different place but we ended up getting to the Center and I think all 150 students came out to help us unload this things. IT WAS AMAZING!!! We got them but in the library and there was just this buzz of excitement in the room. It was a special moment. More than words. Then we went back home so I spent a good amount of time driving back and forth to Rwamagana. I was tired by the end of the day but I didn’t care because it felt like such a victory!!!

Then on Thursday when Melissa and I got to the Center we had a few students waiting by the library door waiting for us to get there. We opened it up and started re-arranging the whole library. It has a great feel to it. We have two different tables that are for drawing and then we have desks around the outside of the room that students can sit around and read at or do homework. Our 1400 book will be arriving in early August and we are very excited about it. In the afternoon on Thursday we had two students come in and tell us that they wanted to clean the library. We said ok and in a matter of minutes they had all the tables and desk out of the room and had soapy water to clean the floors, they also started clean the bookshelves. It was awesome to see these students start to take ownership of this library. I am having a great time just watching them. I want to thank all of the people who have been supporting me through prayer and also supporting me with money. Some of the money that I raised for support went to pay for these new book shelves. THANK YOU!!! This library I think is going to be something special for these students and YOU made it possible by supporting me. I haven’t taken pictures of the space or the book shelves yet but I will get them up next week.

Speaking of next week, we have a small group of 10 people representing the FPCB youth department coming out to serve the students and staff at the Center for Champions. I am very excited to be sharing this experience with these young students. I think that I know all of them and have seen many of them grow up at FPCB. It is going to be a great week serving next to them and to see what God is going to show them while they are here. So if you will be praying for that team that would be great.

I forgot to mention that I have also been hanging out with a short term mission team from Australia. They have been great to work alongside with because they too are out at the Center for Champions.

Prayer requests:

FPCB high school short term mission team

Claude at AEE who is fighting Malaria right now

AEE leadership

AEE staff and volunteers

Jodi a missionary from Iowa

Students at the Center

My Taxi rides

July 1

Hey Hey,

Sorry it has been so long since I have sent an update. My days have been full this week and have been tired and night. Last Saturday I had the day off and Jean asked me if I would like to visit an orphanage with her and another woman from our bible study. I said absolutely since I don’t really have anything else to do when I am not out at the Center. So we drove out to where this orphanage was. Jean knows a woman who works out there, her name is Bev. When we arrived Bev greeted us and we ended up sitting around her living room for about an hour. She shared with us about the orphanage and her time in Rwanda. She shared frustrations about when she first arrived and not having anything to do. I was able to relate with that. She then said but what she quickly came to realize was the God was sufficient enough for her time. So she spent a lot of time in prayer. That was so good for me to hear. I keep getting frustrated that I can’t do anything. But here is the thing God doesn’t need to DO stuff. I am being stretched. I don’t like it. J I am learning a lot about myself and how to be patient. This patience’s thing is so hard. SO back to the orphanage we got a tour of the facility and Bev explained that the kids they have there are all kids whose parents have died of aids I believe. The kids right now are between the ages of 18 months and 4 years old I believe. They have these like mothers who take care of them like they were their own. It is a pretty cool system they have.

Sunday I hung out with the SPU students. We walked to a market so they could shop for Rwandan crafts to take home and then have coffee at a coffee shop called Aromas. After coffee I took them to church with me at 6pm. It was the hardest service for me to sit through. The worship was great but the guy preaching preached in French and he yelled the whole time and wouldn’t let the translator finish before he started again. Was glad when the service ended.

Monday I was out at the Center doing my thing. Still not sure what my thing is. J

Tuesday I was able to join Rwanda Partners and the SPU students. We went out to this house that I believe the SPU students bought for a woman who had been the victim of domestic violence. We ended up fetching water for like an hour. We would walk down to this like stream and would fill up these cans with water. They were using the water to make mud. That’s right mud. They had added on to this house and it was made out of mud bricks so they were filling in the gaps of the bricks before they put cement on the walls to make them nice and smooth. The pictures I put up today kind of show what we did. We ended up standing around which made me feel uncomfortable because people where just staring at us. So I asked if we could help and they said yes. So I grabbed some mud and started throwing it at the walls. It was actually super fun. I think the woman enjoyed watching us get our hands dirty. The woman that I am talking about, are women who weave the baskets that Rwanda Partners sells. After we finished the house, we went to see where the women make the baskets and how they do it. It looks so hard. I also got to drive a car that day which was super fun. I can now say that I have driven in Africa.

Wednesday was along day. We had devotionals at 7am. There is actually a Pastor here from Australia right now who has been doing the morning devos for us. And he has a group of people joining him Saturday. This month of July is going to be a full month we have a lot of short term mission teams visiting. The pastor ended up going out to Rwamagana which is where the Center for Champions is so we got a ride out there. I hadn’t seen the kids in a couple of days to it was good to get back out there. A student came and asked Melissa and I for some prayer. Apparently he had gotten in trouble and was feeling bad about it. He has some anger issues. So we prayed for him and then had him write out on a piece of paper what makes him angry. It took him 2 hours and he had 5 pages of stuff. I started thinking about all of the 150 students that we have that have some crazy storied and pasts. It would be so good if we could get some counseling for all of them. Just one of the many needs. Students keep asking me when I am leaving and then when I am going to come back. Those are hard conversations for me. I am trying to make sense of my time here and 5 months is a short amount of time. When I started this whole process of coming to Africa, I sat with me support team and we talked about my re-entry back into the states and one of the things that came up was that I might have a hard time figuring out where home is. I miss Bellevue A LOT but I am also starting to feel very comfortable here. I have built some fantastic relationship with the students. I think it is going to be hard for me leaving them. More to come on that. I play a lot of 3 on 3 basketball and Wednesday was a bad day for my team. No wins. Oh well. Wednesday was also the day we took the student who won our library naming contest to dinner at this nice hotel in town. He showed up at our class room all dress up with nice pants and shirt. It was cute to see. I felt very under dressed in my cargo shorts and my Chicago Cubs t-shirt. We sat down at the hotel and looked at the menus. We told him order whatever you want. He so he ordered the steak. Good man. So the four of us Andrew, Melissa the student and I sat and had dinner. It was kind of a stressful time for me because the last taxi leaves at 7pm and we didn’t get our food until 6:30pm. We ate super fast and had to run to the taxi. We made it. Melissa and I got on the taxi and were talking about how fun dinner was and she all of a sudden was like “OH MY GOSH” I didn’t now what was happening. There was a chicken running around the inside of our van. Everybody on the taxi was laughing. The owner ended up grabbing the chicken and holding it all the way back to Kigali. Only in Africa.

I saw a picture of our new book cases that we are having built. They look AMAZING!!! I am so excited to see them in person.

Prayer Request:

AEE and its leadership

The SPU team as they head home Saturday and the weeks following as they make sense of what they experienced. Also pray for me because I will miss them.

Students at the Center

The Australian team as they prepare to come.

Prayer for Jean. She is an amazing woman.

Prayer for our taxi rides.

The FPCB high school team as they prepare to come out here.

In Him,

Mark