It has been 6 weeks since my team stepped foot on foreign soil. It is hard for me to believe so much time has gone by.
We have been living in Rwanda for 4 weeks already and it is beginning to feel more like home. We have a local shop where we buy our milk, eggs, and bread each day. We also have an internet cafe that we use every Monday on our day off. We are learning which taxis (buses) take us to ministry, certain restaurants and into the downtown area. I have also learned how to count to 10 in kinyarwanda and I have learned a few other words that are helpful in everyday conversations with people we meet along the way. I am very excited to continue learning and picking up more of the language.
As far as the ministries we've been doing here, things are going well. Our team of 15 people is divided into three teams of 5. Each team goes to one ministry for three days each week and then we rotate the ministry locations the next week. The two ministies we've been working with so far is a group of street kids in the downtown area. They go to an organization run by the Catholic church during the day and we go teach them English and do a Bible study time with them. They love when we come! They start up school next week, so this will be our last week working with them. It has been such a joy. :) The other group we work with is a church on the outskirts of Kigali. We are helping them build a new church - so we carry amatafari (bricks) and cement (cement). I have even learned how to carry containers of wet cement on my head. I still have to balance it with one hand, but I am hoping to gain better balance and be handsfree soon:)
Living in one house with 19 people has been wonderful and challenging at the same time. It is never boring to be home, but it is rarely quiet either. It reminds me of when I would have dinner parties at my house back in Gunnison. The difference is that the "guests" never go home.
I will write more another week. It is time to head out to dinner. We are going back to the authentic Italian restaurant for more delicious pizza. It's our day off and so we are going to live it up.
Thanks for your continued prayers and support. :)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Outreach Overview Update - First three weeks
Update written Jan 4, 2010
Wow, it has been a whirlwind of three weeks since I left Kona, Hawaii. My team and I have experienced several trials already and are becoming much stronger through it. We hold on to the belief that God has everything in control even if we can’t or don’t recognize it at times. We have also shared incredible times of closeness with the Lord through prayer, worship, and experiencing more of the world that He created.
To start, our leaders, a married couple from Rwanda, did not receive their visas to go to Belgium and France. Two other students, one from Russia and the other from the Marshall Islands, also didn’t receive their visas and would follow us to Europe two days later.
So, with news for our leaders unable to enter Europe meant the day before our team left Wes, the other student leader, and myself, were told that we were going to be leading the team until our “real” leaders could meet us. At that point they really thought they would only be one week behind us and would meet us in France. The short notice was very difficult for me, because as you may know, I definitely am a girl with a plan. So, now to be responsible for 13 other students was very nerve-wracking for me. I spent the entire last day in Hawaii preparing as best as I could, though I couldn’t foresee the challenges ahead.
After a bit of a mix-up of flights, the initial team made it safely to Belgium and was greeted at the airport by two of the wonderful staff from the YWAM Brussels base. Frankwin and Richt were very patient with us as we stumbled through buses and metros jet-lagged and carrying 2 big checked bags each plus all of our pillows carry-on bags and even a few blankets. We were quite a site, I am sure :)
We settled into our apartment (3 bedrooms) and 1 bathroom on the 4th floor of the YWAM building. Mikaela, one of the other students, and I actually stayed at a family’s home about 15 minutes walk away. We were saving the third bedroom in the apartment for Gabby and Margret assuming they would get their visas soon and come meet us.
I enjoyed staying separate from the team because it gave me a chance to rest and have more quiet time. The down side is that I really didn’t feel like I was connecting with the team on a personal level. Much of their hanging out and getting to know each other took place after Mikaela and I left to go to bed at night.
The first night in Brussels we had the opportunity to go to an English speaking church’s fundraiser dinner just down the street. So the team decided to push our jet-lag aside (11hour difference) and head out for an evening of new experiences. This was the beginning of outreach! We had a great time though we all left before it was over – some of us were literally about to fall asleep on the tables.
The first week in Belgium consisted of times of open worship – singing, dancing, painting – in public plazas and in the metro station. We also attended a few church services where we did our skits (very rough as we hadn’t practiced them much yet) and a few of the team members shared their testimonies. We experienced an African church, Pilipino church, and a Brazilian church all in one day. It was such a fun, multi-cultural experience that I hadn’t even anticipated.
The second week we had planned to go to the south of France and join a different YWAM base and do outreach for the poor people in the area. Unfortunately, when we went to buy train tickets, they were twice as much as we had planned for ($450 per person). So, we went to God in prayer to find out what He wanted us to do.
We all felt that He was asking us to stay in Brussels and use the café area on the first floor of the building as a 24-hour prayer and worship room. I felt that God was asking the team to pray and worship all through Christmas day, so it was decided that we would start at midnight on Christmas Eve and continue until 8am the following Monday. We had big plans - eighty straight hours of prayer for Belgium and worship to the God. We signed up for 2-hour shift to lead the intercession and worship times, and each person committed to be in the room at least 10 hours for each 24-hour period. It was incredible to feel the presence of God so heavy on our souls!
We finished out the time with lots of sniffles and hoarse voices. I guess the cold weather took its toll on our bodies that had grown so used to the warm weather of Hawaii. Overall, we were so rewarded for listening to the voice of God and staying in Belgium for a time of intense prayer and worship. In our discussion after the final hour, the majority of the team voiced how much more faith they have in prayer after such a wonderful time. I had experienced God in a very intimate way and enjoyed a wonderful time of resting in His presence.
My time in Belgium was like a crazy rollercoaster ride. I was on a high one minute praising God and plummeting out of control the next – unable to bear making one more decision for the team. I realize that I haven been operating on my own strength. I really don’t think I know, what it means to have God carry me, or my burdens. Maybe I’ve been there in the past, but right now I can’t remember how to do it.
So, one prayer request would be that I would learn to operate in God’s strength and not out of my own. I was crumbling under the stress of being the leader of the group and having all of the students come to me for answers to questions that I didn’t know. I don’t even feel like a student most of the time because I am always worrying about something or taking care of details that the rest of the team is totally unaware of. Things are getting better now because of a Word our leaders back in Hawaii received from God.
Right before we left Belgium, our school leaders and team leaders decided it would be wise to have one more student step up as a leader until our leaders can meet us. This transition has helped me a lot in my stress levels. I still have a lot to learn in how to operate as a team of leaders.
Unfortunately in this role of leader, I have become aware of my control-freak-ness. Yuck! I want people to do things my way and am not as open to other people’s thoughts and ideas as I thought I would be. Well, I guess that is another prayer request - no more control-freak-ness. :)
So, I guess that brings me to Rwanda! This is really where our hearts have longed to be the whole time. When we stepped off the plane and were greeted with smiling faces we were so relieved and felt at home. One of Margret’s best friends, Immaculee, is staying with us here in Rwanda in a 5-bedroom house that we are renting. It is a great house and very homey! We are all learning how to adjust to the high water pressure, which causes leaky faucets and toilets if we aren’t careful. Sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor just a few inches from the next person is also a bit of an adjustment from my huge bedroom back in Gunnison.
Kigali, the capital city is absolutely beautiful. After visiting Sierra Leone a year and a half ago, I anticipated Rwanda to look much the same – trash everywhere, very run down, and overtaken by poverty. Kigali, is anything but that. The city is well manicured with trees and plants along the side of the road, there are sidewalks along the main roads (which are paved), there are signs on the side of the road for taxi stops, and there are even metal trash cans permanently placed along the sidewalks and streets. Needless to say, the Rwandans know how to make their city beautiful. Now, there are still areas of poverty where the children are wearing filthy clothing and look as though they haven’t bathed in a week. Overall, though, the people of Kigali, take pride in making their city safe and beautiful.
On the down side of things, nearly the whole team came down with a stomach flu – one girl got it in Belgium before we left and so we think it was passed to the rest of the team. It may have also been increased by the change of water and food here. Though we are taking precautions to boil the water we drink and wash dishes with, Immaculee said that most people still get sick when they come. I was struck down on Friday afternoon and spent some time in the bathroom that evening. Not much fun. But now we are all healthy and well.
Yesterday all of the team was feeling better and made it to church at the Zion Temple. It was great to get out and enjoy our first African church service! The mayor of Kigali and one of the ladies on the parliament were at the service and spoke a bit about the politics of Kigali and Rwanda. It was so amazing to hear them praying that all they want is for God to have his will within the governmental sector. We also found out that this is an election year, so we will spend some more time praying for the next set of people to step into the political seats here.
This afternoon we are all heading to the Memorial for the Genocide. I am sure it will be a very emotional time the rest of the team and me. Immaculee will also be going with us, and though she is Rwandan, she has never been to the memorial. I suppose when you live through something so tragic, you don’t want to relive it all at a memorial. We will all be praying for her through such a difficult time.
This week we will jump into some ministry time. I don’t know exactly what we will be doing, but I do think that a visit to an orphanage is planned for sometime this week. I am very anxious to get the ministry started that I emailed about in the last letter, the Compassion Transformation Center. We are praying that our leaders will be able to join us soon. This CTC is really their dream received from God, so we will follow God’s guidance for other ministry opportunities until they can join us.
I do have one more thing to tell you all about. As I mentioned in an earlier update, I have accepted the opportunity to stay here in Rwanda with our leaders until July working to further establish the CTC ministry. I am very excited about this and really feel that this is where God is calling me.
When July rolls around and I head back to the States, I plan make Hawaii my home for a more permanent time. I am going to be making a two-year commitment to the campus in Kona. The leaders of my school, Dawn and Pieter Heres, have asked me to come and be a staff member with them. This opportunity is what I have been dreaming of since last April. Even before I knew where I was going to do my DTS, I knew that I wanted to be in Hawaii staffing after my DTS finished.
As a staff member, I will work with the DTS schools for 3 months in Kona, then lead a team somewhere in the world for three months. The other 6 months of the year, I will be staffing on the Kona, Hawaii base in some other aspect. I have been asked by the couple who oversees the Mission Builders Program (the volunteer program I worked with last March) to staff with her. In addition to staffing, I would also be receiving continued discipleship training through bible studies, small groups, etc. So, I will be serving and learning at the same time – two of my favorite things!
One of the amazing aspects of Youth with a Mission is that no one within the organization receives salary. This keeps the fees down for the students who come in for training and keeps more money going out into the mission field. In addition, financial support is a great way for other people to get involved in the mission field even if they do not feel that is their direct calling.
As I mentioned in a previous email, I am looking for a support team to make all of this possible for me. I have figured my monthly expenses starting in March to be $900. Those expenses include everything: lodging, food, personal expenses, health insurance, cell phone bill, and student loan repayment. I don’t have any specific number of supporters I need, but let’s say people felt called to give $75. That would mean 12 wonderful people could join this experience with me.
I envision my supporters as the group of people who get to share in the victories and cry with me during the hard times. Equally, I want to share in the victories of my supporters lives and cry with them. I will personally communicate with my supporters at least one time per month catching up on their life and filling them in on events in my life. I truly envision the relationship as a team effort – and I just happened to be the hand out doing God’s work during this time.
So, now I request that you take this idea to God and ask if He wants you to join my support team and if so how much He wants you to give each month. I am looking to build relationships with my supporters so a commitment of at least one year would be great! If you receive a “thumbs up” from God, please email me back so I can share more about the support team and you can share how I can support you.
It is such a joy to include you all in this journey that God has called me to! I can’t wait to tell you about all the adventures of the next few weeks. Stay tuned to the long email novels from Logan. More are surely to come :)
Thank you for your prayers and support!
Wow, it has been a whirlwind of three weeks since I left Kona, Hawaii. My team and I have experienced several trials already and are becoming much stronger through it. We hold on to the belief that God has everything in control even if we can’t or don’t recognize it at times. We have also shared incredible times of closeness with the Lord through prayer, worship, and experiencing more of the world that He created.
To start, our leaders, a married couple from Rwanda, did not receive their visas to go to Belgium and France. Two other students, one from Russia and the other from the Marshall Islands, also didn’t receive their visas and would follow us to Europe two days later.
So, with news for our leaders unable to enter Europe meant the day before our team left Wes, the other student leader, and myself, were told that we were going to be leading the team until our “real” leaders could meet us. At that point they really thought they would only be one week behind us and would meet us in France. The short notice was very difficult for me, because as you may know, I definitely am a girl with a plan. So, now to be responsible for 13 other students was very nerve-wracking for me. I spent the entire last day in Hawaii preparing as best as I could, though I couldn’t foresee the challenges ahead.
After a bit of a mix-up of flights, the initial team made it safely to Belgium and was greeted at the airport by two of the wonderful staff from the YWAM Brussels base. Frankwin and Richt were very patient with us as we stumbled through buses and metros jet-lagged and carrying 2 big checked bags each plus all of our pillows carry-on bags and even a few blankets. We were quite a site, I am sure :)
We settled into our apartment (3 bedrooms) and 1 bathroom on the 4th floor of the YWAM building. Mikaela, one of the other students, and I actually stayed at a family’s home about 15 minutes walk away. We were saving the third bedroom in the apartment for Gabby and Margret assuming they would get their visas soon and come meet us.
I enjoyed staying separate from the team because it gave me a chance to rest and have more quiet time. The down side is that I really didn’t feel like I was connecting with the team on a personal level. Much of their hanging out and getting to know each other took place after Mikaela and I left to go to bed at night.
The first night in Brussels we had the opportunity to go to an English speaking church’s fundraiser dinner just down the street. So the team decided to push our jet-lag aside (11hour difference) and head out for an evening of new experiences. This was the beginning of outreach! We had a great time though we all left before it was over – some of us were literally about to fall asleep on the tables.
The first week in Belgium consisted of times of open worship – singing, dancing, painting – in public plazas and in the metro station. We also attended a few church services where we did our skits (very rough as we hadn’t practiced them much yet) and a few of the team members shared their testimonies. We experienced an African church, Pilipino church, and a Brazilian church all in one day. It was such a fun, multi-cultural experience that I hadn’t even anticipated.
The second week we had planned to go to the south of France and join a different YWAM base and do outreach for the poor people in the area. Unfortunately, when we went to buy train tickets, they were twice as much as we had planned for ($450 per person). So, we went to God in prayer to find out what He wanted us to do.
We all felt that He was asking us to stay in Brussels and use the café area on the first floor of the building as a 24-hour prayer and worship room. I felt that God was asking the team to pray and worship all through Christmas day, so it was decided that we would start at midnight on Christmas Eve and continue until 8am the following Monday. We had big plans - eighty straight hours of prayer for Belgium and worship to the God. We signed up for 2-hour shift to lead the intercession and worship times, and each person committed to be in the room at least 10 hours for each 24-hour period. It was incredible to feel the presence of God so heavy on our souls!
We finished out the time with lots of sniffles and hoarse voices. I guess the cold weather took its toll on our bodies that had grown so used to the warm weather of Hawaii. Overall, we were so rewarded for listening to the voice of God and staying in Belgium for a time of intense prayer and worship. In our discussion after the final hour, the majority of the team voiced how much more faith they have in prayer after such a wonderful time. I had experienced God in a very intimate way and enjoyed a wonderful time of resting in His presence.
My time in Belgium was like a crazy rollercoaster ride. I was on a high one minute praising God and plummeting out of control the next – unable to bear making one more decision for the team. I realize that I haven been operating on my own strength. I really don’t think I know, what it means to have God carry me, or my burdens. Maybe I’ve been there in the past, but right now I can’t remember how to do it.
So, one prayer request would be that I would learn to operate in God’s strength and not out of my own. I was crumbling under the stress of being the leader of the group and having all of the students come to me for answers to questions that I didn’t know. I don’t even feel like a student most of the time because I am always worrying about something or taking care of details that the rest of the team is totally unaware of. Things are getting better now because of a Word our leaders back in Hawaii received from God.
Right before we left Belgium, our school leaders and team leaders decided it would be wise to have one more student step up as a leader until our leaders can meet us. This transition has helped me a lot in my stress levels. I still have a lot to learn in how to operate as a team of leaders.
Unfortunately in this role of leader, I have become aware of my control-freak-ness. Yuck! I want people to do things my way and am not as open to other people’s thoughts and ideas as I thought I would be. Well, I guess that is another prayer request - no more control-freak-ness. :)
So, I guess that brings me to Rwanda! This is really where our hearts have longed to be the whole time. When we stepped off the plane and were greeted with smiling faces we were so relieved and felt at home. One of Margret’s best friends, Immaculee, is staying with us here in Rwanda in a 5-bedroom house that we are renting. It is a great house and very homey! We are all learning how to adjust to the high water pressure, which causes leaky faucets and toilets if we aren’t careful. Sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor just a few inches from the next person is also a bit of an adjustment from my huge bedroom back in Gunnison.
Kigali, the capital city is absolutely beautiful. After visiting Sierra Leone a year and a half ago, I anticipated Rwanda to look much the same – trash everywhere, very run down, and overtaken by poverty. Kigali, is anything but that. The city is well manicured with trees and plants along the side of the road, there are sidewalks along the main roads (which are paved), there are signs on the side of the road for taxi stops, and there are even metal trash cans permanently placed along the sidewalks and streets. Needless to say, the Rwandans know how to make their city beautiful. Now, there are still areas of poverty where the children are wearing filthy clothing and look as though they haven’t bathed in a week. Overall, though, the people of Kigali, take pride in making their city safe and beautiful.
On the down side of things, nearly the whole team came down with a stomach flu – one girl got it in Belgium before we left and so we think it was passed to the rest of the team. It may have also been increased by the change of water and food here. Though we are taking precautions to boil the water we drink and wash dishes with, Immaculee said that most people still get sick when they come. I was struck down on Friday afternoon and spent some time in the bathroom that evening. Not much fun. But now we are all healthy and well.
Yesterday all of the team was feeling better and made it to church at the Zion Temple. It was great to get out and enjoy our first African church service! The mayor of Kigali and one of the ladies on the parliament were at the service and spoke a bit about the politics of Kigali and Rwanda. It was so amazing to hear them praying that all they want is for God to have his will within the governmental sector. We also found out that this is an election year, so we will spend some more time praying for the next set of people to step into the political seats here.
This afternoon we are all heading to the Memorial for the Genocide. I am sure it will be a very emotional time the rest of the team and me. Immaculee will also be going with us, and though she is Rwandan, she has never been to the memorial. I suppose when you live through something so tragic, you don’t want to relive it all at a memorial. We will all be praying for her through such a difficult time.
This week we will jump into some ministry time. I don’t know exactly what we will be doing, but I do think that a visit to an orphanage is planned for sometime this week. I am very anxious to get the ministry started that I emailed about in the last letter, the Compassion Transformation Center. We are praying that our leaders will be able to join us soon. This CTC is really their dream received from God, so we will follow God’s guidance for other ministry opportunities until they can join us.
I do have one more thing to tell you all about. As I mentioned in an earlier update, I have accepted the opportunity to stay here in Rwanda with our leaders until July working to further establish the CTC ministry. I am very excited about this and really feel that this is where God is calling me.
When July rolls around and I head back to the States, I plan make Hawaii my home for a more permanent time. I am going to be making a two-year commitment to the campus in Kona. The leaders of my school, Dawn and Pieter Heres, have asked me to come and be a staff member with them. This opportunity is what I have been dreaming of since last April. Even before I knew where I was going to do my DTS, I knew that I wanted to be in Hawaii staffing after my DTS finished.
As a staff member, I will work with the DTS schools for 3 months in Kona, then lead a team somewhere in the world for three months. The other 6 months of the year, I will be staffing on the Kona, Hawaii base in some other aspect. I have been asked by the couple who oversees the Mission Builders Program (the volunteer program I worked with last March) to staff with her. In addition to staffing, I would also be receiving continued discipleship training through bible studies, small groups, etc. So, I will be serving and learning at the same time – two of my favorite things!
One of the amazing aspects of Youth with a Mission is that no one within the organization receives salary. This keeps the fees down for the students who come in for training and keeps more money going out into the mission field. In addition, financial support is a great way for other people to get involved in the mission field even if they do not feel that is their direct calling.
As I mentioned in a previous email, I am looking for a support team to make all of this possible for me. I have figured my monthly expenses starting in March to be $900. Those expenses include everything: lodging, food, personal expenses, health insurance, cell phone bill, and student loan repayment. I don’t have any specific number of supporters I need, but let’s say people felt called to give $75. That would mean 12 wonderful people could join this experience with me.
I envision my supporters as the group of people who get to share in the victories and cry with me during the hard times. Equally, I want to share in the victories of my supporters lives and cry with them. I will personally communicate with my supporters at least one time per month catching up on their life and filling them in on events in my life. I truly envision the relationship as a team effort – and I just happened to be the hand out doing God’s work during this time.
So, now I request that you take this idea to God and ask if He wants you to join my support team and if so how much He wants you to give each month. I am looking to build relationships with my supporters so a commitment of at least one year would be great! If you receive a “thumbs up” from God, please email me back so I can share more about the support team and you can share how I can support you.
It is such a joy to include you all in this journey that God has called me to! I can’t wait to tell you about all the adventures of the next few weeks. Stay tuned to the long email novels from Logan. More are surely to come :)
Thank you for your prayers and support!
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