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