Week 2

Ahhhh what an interesting past few days this has been!  I’ve got a few
great stories for you which I will share in just a minute.  :) I
wanted to thank all of you for being such an incredible encouragement
to me, from your emails to videos (haha!) to my first skype
conversation this afternoon!  What a blessing it has been to have all
of you on my side, praying for me and thinking of me as I begin to
acclimate to my new life in Rwanda!  Please know that I will try to
email all of you back as soon as I can, but it may take awhile as
internet is VERY slow here and power outages are common….

So, here are a few stories for you that I think you just might enjoy!

It was Thursday evening and I had just arrived to the restaurant
(which is part of the guesthouse that I’m staying in) for dinner.  We
had arranged for dinner to be at 7pm so I just sat myself down and
waited (since I am usually the only one in the restaurant).  After
about ten minutes of waiting, Peter, one of the cooks, came out into
the restaurant from the kitchen.  As soon as he saw me, he came to a
halt and stared at me with his eyes wide in shock…. after a few
seconds I didnt know what to do but laugh and ask him what on earth he
was staring at me for?!  Peter then breaks into a big grin and shouts
“Ahhhhhhh Melissa, I can’t believe I didn’t know you were in here!
Usually we ALWAYS know when you are here because we can smell you!!”
At this point I just busted out laughing (luckily Peter did too) as I
didnt know what to think!  Hahaha, lets just hope this is a good smell
and not because they think I stink!

On Friday I received my first marriage proposal!  That was much faster
than I ever expected… I may just come home with an African husband
after all!! Hahahaha ONLY kidding folks, don’t worry, that is not my
mission here.

On Saturday, I went out with Immaculate, one of the AEE staff, into
the field where they have a self-help group for women that has been
running since 2005.  It is not often that they see muzungus (white
people) in the village we went to, so I was quite the attraction!
Many of the children would yell out “Muzungu, muzungu!” and follow the
car as we drove past them.  Once we arrived in the village where the
meeting was going to be held, we walked down to a cleared area in the
brush and waited for the women to arrive.  Immaculate had brought a
bag full of bras for the women, which was donated to her by another
woman in England.  It continually amazes me how little many of these
women live on, yet are completely content and happy with what they
have.  But oh what a complete joy it was for them to receive new
bras!!  What a great reminder for us as Americans that even the
simplest of things can be taken for granted.

On Sunday I went to CLA (Christian Life Assembly) church in the
morning and felt like I had stepped back into America for those next
two hours.  It was run by white American pentecostals who were VERY
pentecostal, if that makes sense to any of you lol.  A peculiar church
to say the least…. the very first words of their mission statement
proclaimed that “we are an english-speaking church…” and were very
proud of that.  I found it a little concerning that “Jesus Christ”
didn’t come before “English-speaking,” especially since He is our
whole reason for going to Church!  Needless to say, I will continue my
search for a home church over the next few weeks

side note: on Friday, I met Susie, a girl about my age who graduated
from North Central in 2003 and has been living in South Africa ever
since!  She is visiting Rwanda for the next 10 days to decide if this
is where God is leading her next and will be staying in the same
guesthouse as me!  What a great connection that has been!

After church on Sunday, I went with Susie and Pastor Steven to see the
orphanage that he runs in his village.  He takes care of 80 orphans
whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS and many of whom are also
infected themselves.  The kids were absolutely enthralled with our
visit and I’m sure, could not get over how pasty white we were!  3
girls in particular were quite in shock at how tall I was and would
laugh and laugh every time I got up from sitting down!  Pastor Steven
asked if Susie or I would say some words of encouragement to the kids,
so she talked with the older boys and I did a ‘lil preaching to the
younger ones.  I must admit, I was so nervous!  I am not used to doing
this kind of thing completely unprepared!!  But Susie helped me with
the verse (1 Tim 4:11) and I spoke a few words of encouragement and
prayed with the kids.  It was a great challenge for me and reminded me
of the verse that says we “need to be prepared in season and out of
season to preach the gospel!”  So I’ve got my work cut out for me this
year!  Before we left the orphanage, the kids performed a cultural
dance for us which was INCREDIBLE! What a huge blessing that was and I
felt so privileged that they would share that part of their lives with
us.  If I can set up the pictures, I will add a link on here for pictures as well

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