Sent to Rwanda

This morning at our Christmas service at Christ's Church in Rwanda, I cried a little. I listened to Moses, our youth minister, read the story of baby Jesus and how King Herod wanted to kill him and I cried a little. I looked around the room and watched as one of our team members had quite a few family members fly in from America and I cried a little. I sat on a row with my roommate and our 3 grown up girls who live with us and I cried a little. I watched as those 3 girls praised the Savior of the world with everything they had within them and I cried a little. As a member of the choir, I sang a song about feeling Jesus in my bones and not being able to hold it in and I smiled the widest smile of the day! My life is so very different that 1 year ago, 2 years ago and goodness knows 3 years ago and we aren't even going to 4 years ago! But isn't that how it should be? Each year we can smile and know that we are different people because of a Savior who came to the w...

I haven't written about those cutie babies in a while, so I figured it is time. I call them babies, but they are really babies up to little kiddos. Someone posted on facebook the other day something to the effect "People frustrate me when they say, 'I'm not ready to adopt'. Do you think the children out there were ready to be orphans?" I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to visit the local orphanage and get to love on the babies. Some people don't like the word "orphanage", I guess it's no longer politically correct, so maybe I should call it--place for babies who don't have a mom or dad. It has been a roller coaster of emotion over the last few years--visiting the place for babies who don't have a mom or dad for the first time is overwhelming. The reality of babies who don't have moms and dads for whatever reason and looking into their little eyes is a tough one. Even tougher is seeing a special needs child, knowing th...

First, may I say sorry for not writing in so long. I've been going 90 to nothing and decided to take a little breather. I sent an email recently about the new young women's project (which we are still needing funding for...www.duhugurane.org). In addition to this work, there has been some extra  things going on that I wanted to share about. When I returned, I found a roommate and a house pretty quickly. The roommate was set before I left and the house kind of found us. I have questioned why this house, it's a little too big for just the 2 of us and was completely empty when we moved in. Recently, we were challenged at church to pray for an area--our property, a neighborhood, city, etc. I choose to pray outloud for my compound. (All of our houses are surrounded by a wall and gate and are called "compounds".) I don't know why, it was just on my heart. Around the time these prayers began, we started looking for one more roommate to help with expenses. A reall...

Wow. It seems like yesterday I was driving around Oklahoma seeing family and friends, drinking Dr. Pepper and eating loads of Mexican food! So let me update you on what has been going on for those who don't follow my every move on Facebook. This is a long one…so grab your coffee and let's go... I jumped right back into work right away, but with a new approach. While in the states, I kept hearing the same message from speakers and mentors: See where God is working and find how you can be the hands and feet, not the other way around. I realized that I'm not supposed to do something, then try and figure out how God fits in. I know, this may be common sense to you, but I'm a little slow and new to this missionary thing. =) Also, I want to get really focused on where my times goes. There are so many good things to be involved in, but I really want to be focused on doing something really well. So you may be asking…where is your focus going? During the month o...

Coming back to Rwanda is like coming back to school after a summer break. Everyone has new clothes, new hairdos, and new gadgets to show off. But there is one thing that doesn't change. Every time I return to Rwanda I always look for one familiar face...Fanny. Fanny is one of the employees on our ROC--school and church property. She has been here since my first trip 3 years ago. She is by far one of the sweetest, most gentle souls I've ever met. Sidebar: The cultural norm here to greet another female is to embrace and touch one cheek with yours, then the other, then back to the original side and sometimes you get this...(in my opinion) a weak, limp hug. I like a good bear hug when I've been gone for awhile. That big squeeze that might cause you both to fall straight over! When I saw Fanny for the first time last week, she gave me a bear hug! It's good to be back!

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!” ~Jack Kerouac

I have been away for one year and have returned for a short visit. I find myself a little lost in a place that seems very familiar. There is new technology, new songs on the radio, new styles, new foods, etc. A few days after I arrived, I was running around with my sister and she made a comment that I have been really thinking on. She said something to the effect...Don't you feel that this isn't home and Kigali isn't home. Doesn't it just make you want to get to Heaven, our real home? One new song on the radio (probably not new to you), but I heard a song and the lyrics said, "All I know is I'm not home yet, This is not where I belong, Take this world and give me Jesus, This is not where I belong." How I wish I could be in one place with all the amazing people in my life...Oh, wait I can...and I'm going there and I want to take as many people with me as possible!

As a child I remember a story about the city mouse and the country mouse, I am making a cultural adaptation here...the city mouse and the village mouse. Once apon a time, there was a city mouse, who was very convinced her city way of doing things was the right way. She had the clothes and the friends equivocal to the city life. There were certain foods she longed to have daily access to, where she knew city life was the only life for her. For the sake of this story, we will call this city mouse, Jamie. Then she was introduced to the village mouse, who, for the sake of the story we will call Tara. This village mouse wanted nothing more than to live in the village and work with other village mice. Tara and Jamie met and then lost touch. I'm not sure why, but sometimes it just happens. City life gets too city and village life get too...villagey. Then one day, unbeknownst to either mouse, their paths were crossed. The village mouse had come to the city to pray at the city mou...

For those of you who have seen the No. 41 bags on facebook, we have set up a temporary way for you to purchase them. You MUST know someone who will be bringing the bags to you and have contacted them in advance. No. 41 provides skills training and sustainable income to orphaned young people in Gisenyi, Rwanda as they get on their feet and transition to independence. The proceeds from our bags and beads will also fund a school feeding program for secondary school students in the area. Buy a bag, feed a child, support young girls learning a trade, empower them to give back to their own community. Changing the world for one. The bags are $50 each, plus a $1.50 paypal fee to cover the online processing. More pictures of the other colors of bags coming soon. There is a light, tan and chocolate.

A friend recently wrote about her experience driving in Kigali, so I was motivated to share my daily adventure when I get behind a wheel. There is one main understood rule of driving in Kigali: the biggest car will always have the right of way. Unless, you flash your lights and pull out in front of someone, which happens often. Driving here makes me exhausted some days. I am constantly watching--watching for a person to step out in front of me, a car to pull out in front of me or decide to whip around me thinking I'm not driving fast enough, or my favorite road annoyance--moto drivers! There are motorcycle taxis who pretty much feel that they have no rules on the road, so they are constantly cutting in and out of traffic. Ugh they are frustrating. There are always people lining the side of the road, walking somewhere. Sometimes they feel they have the right to walk on my side of the white line. It is customary to give them a little beep of your horn and keep going. Horn usa...

A blogging missionary recently wrote: People aren’t meant to be projects. Even people who have a desperate need, even people who are achingly afraid, even people who are longing for a Savior will feel the sting of loneliness that comes with being turned into a project for the sake of missions. Nobody wants to be your project… but everybody wants to be your friend. Ok, fine, maybe not everybody wants to be your BFF. There are plenty of people I plain old don’t like and don’t want to be friends with. I think that’s allowed. But, the point is, most people would prefer your friendship to your “evangelism”. Of course, friendship requires a lot more of you. Friendship must be nurtured. Friendship must be mutual and reciprocal. Friendship needs time and effort and, eventually, the sort of transparency that allows people not to see through you, but to see Jesus in you. It’s a lot harder to make someone your friend than to turn them into your project. But, I’ll tell y...

There are many phrases and gestures that I have noticed I have picked up from living here. But one of my favorites is saying: Oh, sorry. Let me explain. On my first trip here, I realized that when I would drop something, the nearest Rwandan would say, "Oh, sorry". I would laugh and say, "I dropped it, why are you sorry?". Or I would smack my funny bone on something. Again, "Oh, sorry". "But you didn't do it, it was me who smacked my own funny bone." I didn't get it. Oh, sorry isn't an admittance of guilt here. It is a sympathy gesture. For example, I'm sorry you dropped your phone and the battery just flew across the room...again. Or, I'm sorry you are coughing your brains out and you seem to be in pain. I believe that the short phrase "Oh, sorry" or "I'm sorry" has so much more meaning to me now than ever before. It is taking a moment to empathize with someone. Stopping to realize that the stra...

I had a friend ask if I would help her develop some type of training for girls who are just graduating senior six, or high school seniors, while they are waiting for results. In the Rwandese school system, they take final exams mid-November and then wait until around mid-January to find out their results. It seems like everyone is always waiting on "results". After talking with a few people, I realized the significance. Test results at various ages will determine your future--where you will go to school, possibly what you will study and finally, what you will become when you grow up. When the students who have graduated secondary school, or high school, are waiting for their exams; this determines whether they will be able to qualify for a scholarship to attend university. If they don't qualify for a scholarship, for many of them, that's the end of their education. So I asked, what happens to the girls if they don't get a scholarship? My friend said that som...

Being a little sister, I have always fought to stay out of someone’s shadow. I don’t want to be seen as anyone’s secondhand anything.  Over the last few months, I have found myself saying a phrase over and over in a few different situations, “I’m not Holly.” Holly is one of our ROC teammates who has a PhD in chemistry, certainly not someone I would put myself in the same category with. I was able to graduate high school with the minimal science and math classes and without any chemistry classes. (The teachers probably had something to do with that for fear I might try to blow something up?!). Anyway, so back to Holly. I was going through my sent email box of thousands of old emails and stumbled on a newsletter from Bryan (Holly’s husband), written by Holly just before I was about to visit Rwanda in 2009. She was describing some of the things she was working on and shared, “Some days are very difficult, so it feels good to share when really good days happen. This wa...

Last weekend was Easter and many families have many traditions on celebrating our risen Lord. For the last 15 years or so, my family has attended the Leadership Training for Christ (LTC) conference. We started attending the Dallas, TX conference when I was a freshman in high school and moved into the Tulsa, now Rogers, Ark. conference. I was immediately drawn to it because it gave me an outlet for the talents that God had placed deep within me and I was shown how to develop those talents to bring glory to God. And you get medals. (I was am a fairly competitive person, so it was a motivator.) People in our church would sign up as coaches to help guide us through events like drama, chorus, speech and so many more! They were mentors to us; guiding our unique talents that God had put deep inside of us. I'm sure sometimes they felt like they were herding cats! Some events were group events and some were individual; allowing us to share our talents with each other and also giving us ...

A few months ago, the guys at church gave me a Kinyarwanda name, " Ubuntu ", meaning grace or mercy in Kinyarwanda. They gave it to me because of my tattoo on my wrist that says, " Grace ". Since I have changed my facebook name, I have come across quite a few meanings for the words and want to share them. A friend recently posted this story: Today I read a story about an anthropologist who proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad? UBUNTU in the Xhosa culture means: " I am because we are ". After doing a little wikipedia search on the word...

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I reasoned like a child... (I Corinthians 13:11). The first part of this verse has been ringing in my head all week. Here in Rwanda, we have staff who help us around the house and in different capacities. I have a housekeeper, Emelyne. (I know this might be a hard concept to get). First, let me explain this and then I will get to my point. Househelp is normal here. If you don't have help, you are the oddball. Labor is inexpensive and the employment is contributing to the economy, giving someone a job who didn't have one. Emelyne was introduced to me by one of our ministers at our church. He said that she was a young girl, who had graduated secondary school (high school), but did not have the means to go on to university and was looking for a job. When I first met Emelyne, I liked her right away. Her English isn't real strong, but is much better than my Kinyarwanda, so I'm not criticizing. As my roommate, Betsy, and I got to...

I believe that being an aunt is one of the most important titles I hold. Some of you know my 3 precious biological niece and nephews, Carsten, Cohen and Teegin. My life was turned inside out when we were blessed with those cuties. Some of their friends began to call me Aunt Jamie. I kind of got used to the title. My definition of the word aunt: one who gets to love 'em, sugar 'em up and send them back to their moms (then take a nap) . Two weeks ago, one of our teammates told me, "Jamie, you're going to be an aunt again!" I was a little stumped at first, with 2 biological kids and 2 adopted kids, I knew they had a houseful. A baby had been left in a field and was being circled by some dogs when the neighborhood security guys found her. My friends agreed to take this little angel baby until a permanent situation can be found. Her mom abandoned her and is facing consequences because of it, but now Little G has joined our ROC team. After spending five seconds ...

Some of the leaders of our team are in the process of making some decisions about Christ's Church Rwanda, the church that some of our teammates planted. At our weekly prayer meeting, we were challenged to pray and fast for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; leading up to the planning session on Wednesday. I have been trying to decide about the fast and what to fast from. Before I came on my first trip here, I did a 48 hour food fast. God just poured into me during that time. I know that a fast isn't always a food fast, and for me, I don't believe that food fasting is the best idea right now. As we were brainstorming fast options, facebook came up. I laughed because I do spend umm..quite a bit of time there. When I think of giving things up, I remember a lady who used to visit a department store I worked in during college. Her children were grown and her husband had passed. She would buy things and return them the following week. It wasn't a money issue, the woman was livin...

I have never liked making resolutions because I have always said, "Why should I make them? I'm just going to break them in a few weeks anyway. Why waste the time?" Well, obviously my life has changed dramatically and I was particularly moved by our sermon today by my teammate, Rusty. My interpretation of his message was that you can't have a resolution without a revolution and you can't have a revolution without a revolutionary and Jesus is our revolutionary, so do something big to please Him and impact someone with your resolution. So, throughout the year, I am going to make resolutions and will write about them, thus reminding me to stick with them. The first resolution I want to start with is this: Love like you won't get hurt, Sing like nobody's is listening, Cry when my heartbreaks, Learn to listen/not just waiting to talk, Take time to get to know people, Always do the next right thing no matter what anyone says and most importantly Listen to...