Philippians 4:4-9

^"4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

God is good. Life seems so much more simple here. I love waking up each day and simply being excited about the day ahead and what God is going to do. So far this year, one high school student has come to know the Lord just this past week. Let's rejoice in that!

Kibuye

2 weeks ago, I went to Lake Kivu and Kibuye for the weekend. It was a beautiful place!

I went with a group of friends by motorcycle, for which I have my very own PINK helmet. Yes, you read correctly...it is pink. Some call it a Barbie helmet. Well, it sure did draw attention. The entire 2 1/2 hour drive there, I was stared at. As the local people walk alongside the road, they stop and stare when they see us both coming and going. With a big smile on my face (I love riding on a motorcycle! And I love living in Rwanda!), I would return the waves and thumbs up signs of all the little children as they laughed and jumped around when we drove by.

At one point, in part to rest our legs and in part to see a well that Living Water International drilled for a community, we stopped on the side of the road and watched/played soccer with a large group of local children. They loved it - gathered around us, smiling, playing homemade instruments, laughing...

Once arrived, we checked into a hotel where I shared a small room with a friend and then sat in the restaurant to order our food. Restaurant service is very slow (compared to Canadian standards) is Kigali, but extremely slow in smaller villages... it takes hours from the time you sit down: you order drinks and wait for a long while, then order food and wait for a long while, then eat, and finally wait for a long time for the bill. The whole eating out process takes hours from start to finish. But usually the food is worth it :)

In Kibuye, we hired a boat complete with 2 drivers for the day and went out to Bat Island on Lake Kivu. We climbed it in 16 minutes (I won a bet about this, thus the time is important... I said it couldn't be done in 15 minutes or less... and I won a free dinner out :) ). We stopped to take pictures of giant millipedes that littered the hillside (I picked them up, too!) while the guides threw rocks into the trees to startle the bats into putting on a display for us. There were hundreds of them flying overhead! It was pretty amazing, because I loved bats to begin with.
Upon reaching the top, we had a spectacular view and took some group shots (hope to be posted soon). After our descent, we enjoyed another hour or two just swimming in the Lake and praying against being infested with parasites from the water. (So far, so good) :)

Overall, a wonderful weekend with some great people!

General Update

Well, it's been a while but I am still alive. :) I have been busy with my teaching - writing progress reports, preparing to teach a series of in-service workshops to my colleagues, etc. My classroom of students (now down to 13 adorable grade 5's) continues to be an excitement here as I so thoroughly enjoy teaching them. They are really hardworking kids with sincere hearts for God. It is refreshing each and every day to see their desire to love God.

Each recess, I enjoy playing 4-square with them, to which they absolutely love getting me out. On another note, some students "spotted me with a boy" (imagine that?! Ms. V has friends and can actually be seen outside of the school yard!) and have done detective work all week to determine the 5 W's surrounding this said boy. In fact, they have veritably planned our wedding for us already! I simply shake my head and cannot help but smile at their excitement and innocence in being involved in my life :) They crack me up!

Money, money, money

Well, I'm down to my last 2000 RWF (equivalent to approximately $4)... Really need to get to the bank! Of course, it will cost me 1000 Francs to even get to the bank via moto. Oh, for a beloved bank machine or interact card. :) Just kidding! Living simply is refreshing to the soul... and God continues to provide. He always has and always will. God is good!

Long Weekend

We had a long weekend with a holiday today to honour the Muslim celebration of Eid which marks the end of Ramadan. It was nice to sleep in (no Rufus the Rooster crowing every 3 1/2 minutes for some strange reason... I guess he was enjoying his holiday too! Usually, he begins his morning routine around 4:00am and continues on even throughout the day... and no, I'm not kidding. Oh, and did I mention that he resides in a neighboring backyard...nice and close to my window :) ). I enjoyed a leisurely day of cranking the worship music both in the house and my classroom as I spent time in both - cleaning, marking, eating, and planning for the week. And now I am soon on my way to a restaurant called Bourbon Cafe which slightly resembles Starbucks (also has a full menu for meals) for some good food.

God of this City

I pray these song lyrics (Chris Tomlin's "God of this City") for Kigali:
You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

Ant Rant

I made up this song today while eating corn chips from an ant-infested bag... (yes, they chewed through the plastic)...

I hate ants
Yes I do
I want to murder them all
With my shoe

They managed to wiggle their way into my closed jar of honey. Through the plastic into our one precious bag of corn chips. Through the box into my coconut milk powder. Into my bag of candies that I give to my students (I had to pour the bag on the classroom floor today in order to distinguish between candy and ant - nearly similar in size too - only to then stomp out the innocent little lives of all the ants so we could get to the candy... needless to say, we were all feeling rather itchy after that scene). They crawl on our plastic saran wrap, on our dish towels, into our freezer (bad decision, ants!...we now have a mass grave of hard-bodied vermin in our freezer)... and the list really does go on.

I really don't hate any of God's beautiful creatures on earth. Except ants. It's official. I hate them.