Weekend Adventures!

Saturday marked our first week’s journey! What a blessed, challenging, and full week we had! On Saturday we had the opportunity to RELAX and do a little sight-seeing, Rwanda-style. Diana took the team via an unpaved, untouristy, windy, hilly, and very bumpy road to visit an incredible waterfall which started off as a small unassuming stream that suddenly had a 100+ foot drop down a rocky cliff side. On our way back, we were traveling along a beautiful hillside that followed Lake Burera which is filled with islands of lush banana trees. There were giant wooden canoes at the base of the lake so we stopped by to see if the operators would be willing to give us a ride. After some negotiation and a little money, they allowed us to pile into the canoe for a memorable ride! Following the trip, Diana convinced them to sell her 5 of the handcrafted oars to take home. We are still wondering how they are going to use the canoes now, with more than half of their oars gone...

Sunday, we had an incredible opportunity to go to CHURCH – and we mean CHURCH – all three hours of it. This church is truly amazing and you can tell the Holy Spirit is in that place. About 100 people packed into this small church made of mud-brick walls, tin roof, and lava-rock/dirt floor. They started off with dancing and singing, and we joined in the festivities. I had some little kids try to mimic every dance move I made, and we all praised God together. Pastor Bwendi, a large Rwandan man who likes to joke that he is the cousin of the gorilla, invited us to come sing a few songs. Luckily, we came prepared with a guitar. But after hearing so many amazing African praise songs, we had a tough act to follow. We managed to get through it, but we were relieved to allow the church choir back in the spotlight. Let me tell you, this church knows how to praise God!

At the end of the church service, we were offered a VERY generous gift... a live chicken! They wanted to give us this chicken and we did NOT know what to do with it, so Diana smoothly found a way to give it away by auctioning it off in the church service and offering to match whatever money was offered. Thomas, our local Rwandan TVM staff member ended up buying the chicken which we then matched the money for, so we still technically had the chicken. There happened to be a 90-year old man in the church today and so we gave the chicken to him to the applause of the church congregation. And a miraculous way God works in “connecting the dots” is the wife of this man (who just may have been half of his age) has Lymphedema and the next mission team coming to Rwanda (in September) will be a medical mission team focusing on treating people with Lymphedema. We were able to tell her about this and God-willing, we will be able to help her in the near future.

Following the church service, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading down the bumpiest road we probably have ever been on. What was only 25 kilometers away took us approximately 2 hours. But we were determined. We were out to investigate into this “fuel” we had learned about called Bio Gas which is basically converting manure and urine into usable, burnable fuel similar to propane. We learned of a doctor from America who was running his household entirely off this bio gas so we contacted him and then had the chance to learn of the full process. It was very fascinating and definitely something we will be continually exploring in the future.

We had a great weekend! This upcoming week we will be focusing our efforts on getting widows prepared for dyeing their yarn. Please keep us in your prayers!

Blessings,
Sean