Election Time

More security threats in the city. Possible grenade attacks. Please pray for safety and peace in Rwanda.

Prayer

Fasting. So good to focus on prayer!

Future Plans

I don't believe I have made this officially public as of yet; however, after much prayer and thought, I will be returning to Rwanda in August (after a 6-week visit back to Canada this summer) and plan to teach in Rwanda as long as the Lord allows. I love being here: the people, KICS, the culture, and relationships that I have formed. I have been extremely grateful for your support and I look forward to visiting with you this summer.

Reports of Violence

Three grenades went off in Kigali on Friday night. All at bus stops. Apparently 1 person is dead while another 30 were sent to the hospital with various injuries, some serious. I am thankful for my health and safety as God's hand continues to be upon me.

The Dog Ate My Homework...?

A student came to class today with the following homework excuse to which I couldn't help but laugh out loud: "I couldn't finish my drawing in time because we had no electricity for the whole night! We had to use candlelight and so now my drawing isn't very good." :) I love Africa!

Memory Verses

"My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." (Proverbs 4:20-23)
The above is the coming week's memory verse for my class. I also learn it with them as we have an ongoing competition against one another. Prior to Christmas holidays, we all memorized the entire book of 2 John and I promised them a party if their class average beat my mark (and they didn't beat me...but made a valiant effort nonetheless).
One of the best things to come out of our competition has been the attitude of two of my students. They both come from families that don't recognize the importance of the Bible for everyday life. In fact, during parent interviews one of their parents implored me to discontinue teaching the Bible so intensely as it is a "dead word." Those two students have made it their goal to now study and memorize 3 John because they so enjoyed the challenge of learning 2 John. Hurray!
So now, each week I have promised to also learn the memory verses with them - this week being Proverbs 4:20-23. What an amazing passage in Scripture. And what a challenge and a privilege to be able to learn the Word alongside my students. God is good.

Haircut

I just went to a salon (called "Saloons" here... :) ) to get a much-needed trim. He asked me how much I wanted off... one or two centimetres? I said only one because I want to continue with long hair. 45 minutes later, my hair is almost 10 centimetres shorter. Welcome to Africa.

Friday Morning Rumblings

The earth shook. My dreaming postponed. Why were the walls and my bed shaking? Earthquake! Two harmless earthquakes in the middle of the night, in fact. Having never experienced an earthquake in Canada before, I was a bit confused and "shaken"...but quickly rolled over and returned to my slumber. I had children to teach in a mere 5 hours!

Christmas 2009 Trip, continued

We returned from Petra to delicious Christmas dinner leftovers and began planning and preparing for our next trip - Israel. The Miles - a family in Jordan that helps children with congenital heart defects - offered to take us with them into Israel for the week. Along the way we stopped at Gadara, also known as Umm Qais, and walked along an old Roman road nearby the place Jesus cast the demons into the pigs from the demoniac. After Gadara we all piled back into the nine passenger van and continued to the border between Jordan and Israel. We breezed through Jordanian customs and drove across the famous Jordan river into the promised land. There began our troubles. Two of our group, David and Jonathan, had visited Iraq previously where they taught English for a few months... this was apparently very suspicious to the Israelis. They held all of us up... for five hours! We sat in the Israeli customs office until hours after it had closed and played games, sang songs with guitar accompaniment, and prayed vigorously until one of the guards came and finally said, "At last, you are free to go." The vigorous prayer continued as it was now night and we had to drive through some potentially dangerous areas on the way to Jerusalem. We finally arrived at 1:00 in the morning and fell into exhausted sleep.

Throughout the next few days we visited some of the coolest places on Earth including some places Jesus walked, such as the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. We also saw the Rock of Agony, Temple Mount, Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall), Garden Tomb, Sea of Galilee, King David's Tomb, Mary's (mother of Jesus) Tomb, Church of the Holy Sepulchre (shrine at Christ's tomb), Hezekiah's Tunnel, and the Old City - Arab and Jewish Quarter.

On New Year's Eve we youth (the six of us under 30 and over 10 went to see the celebrations on the infamous Ben Yehuda St. which has had its fair share of violence through the years. We escaped with our lives though were only a few feet away from a fatal stabbing; watching the police and military swoop in was actually about as exciting as the night got. There was remarkably little celebration it seemed, though there was a lot of drunkenness and a few street musicians.

On New Year's Day we made our way back to Jordan, taking a detour to En Gedi where David cut the robe of Saul. The border crossing into Jordan was actually pretty painless. They didn't care whether any of us had been in Iraq before.

Our remaining time in Jordan was spent shopping and enjoying the luxuries that are unavailable in Rwanda. We drove out to Makawir, the place where John the Baptist was held and killed, enjoying one more taste of biblical history before making our way back to beloved Rwanda.