More Than Words

More than words. It has been the most eye opening two weeks of my life. I spent all of last week out at the center with the Peace Corps volunteer that is based out there. I helped her run some games and we spent time brain storming for when the books finally arrive for our new library. It has been great getting to know a lot of this Peace Corps volunteers who have been here for almost two years and just to hear their stories about why they are serving here in Rwanda. I took Saturday off and treated myself to lunch in town and then rested the rest of the day to get ready to head South to where AEE was having a crusade, we were going to be a part of the final day.

Sunday Morning I woke up at 3:45am to watch two of my very good friends wedding. It was hard for me to not be there at the ceremony, but my fantastic girlfriend streamed it live on her iphone. I was very thankful that I was able to see part of the ceremony before my internet went out. I then got up and got ready to head to AEE to catch a ride to the final day of the crusade in the south part of the country. It was a great day. MANY people gave their lives to Christ which was so exciting. I also rained on Sunday for the first time in a long time. The final ceremony ended at like 6pm and those of us going back to Kigali piled into the cars that we can in and headed home. We stopped a couple of time to get food and for a bathroom break. We were probably about 45 min. to an hour outside of Kigali and we came up on people waving for us to slow down and then within seconds outside my window I saw the worst thing my eyes have ever seen. We stopped and I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough. It was a motorcycle accident and it was a hit and run. I ended up praying for this man who injured very badly. When I was in college I had a snowboarding accident which left me with a broken arm and I while I waited for ski patrol one of my very good friends held me while I lay on the side of a mountain. I wanted so badly to go hold this man but the sense was not safe for me to do so. I was then told that we needed to leave. I didn’t want to. I wanted to help this man but there was nothing we could do. We were a good distance from anywhere. A truck ended up pulling up that was going to take this guy somewhere. I spent the rest of the drive back to Kigali crying and praying. I have never felt God’s presence more than that drive home. I felt him very strongly at the accident scene too. I finally got home and was able to spend some time talking it out with Jean. I wasn’t able to talk to anyone in my vans about it because I was the only English speaker. Jean was great she listened and then she spent some time praying for me. I also was able to talk to my dad and my girlfriend. I wanted so badly to be able to tell them how much I loved them. Life is precious.

Monday finally came and I was able to jump right back into working. Our books finally arrived and I spent the day unloading about 2/3rds of the book out of the back of this semi-truck. The rest of this week has been sorting through 28,000 books that will go to 12 different schools here in Rwanda. It was been a good week to be able to keep my busy. I turned another year older on Wednesday. 31!!! So crazy. It was a great birthday. I spent the day sorting books and then I took three of my friends out to dinner at my favorite restaurant in Kigali. They have the best pizza in town.

I also found out that my brother Steve will also be coming on the FPCB team that will be arriving here in two weeks. I am very excited to see him and my fantastic girlfriend who has loving and supportive of me while I have been here. I am very excited to be able to share Rwanda with them and to also be able to share them with Rwanda. Thank You all for your prayers and encouraging words.

Prayer request: AEE – everything about it. Leadership, staff and volunteers
The man in the accident and his family and for the person who hit him
Jean as she prepares to head to Bellevue
FPCB team as they prepare to come to Rwanda
In Him, Mark