What does it mean to be thankful?
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 really nice girl moved in and it has been great. A few days later, 3 of the young women who work for No. 41...the bags I have been posting on facebook (some of you have bought)...moved to Kigali to start university. When I was told by my friend and No. 41 founder, how much they were paying for housing, I was pretty surprised and thought it was really high. We went to check out the place, let's just say, it wasn't a good arrangement for 3 young women. Sidebar...most houses here are made with a backhouse, or a room with it's own entrance for live-in staff (live-in staff---whole other discussion for another day). On our compound, we have a good sized backhouse with 3 rooms. After accessing the housing arrangement, I told my friend that we were packing them up and moving them into one of the rooms in my backhouse, which is several times larger than the place they were staying. They made some arrangements to get some bunk beds moved in and we went to get mattresses, they were pretty set.
These 3 girls--Diane, Amelie and Passy are awesome and have become little sisters. They have been admitted into English bootcamp for the women's university they are attending, which incidentally is the school I am partnered with, working on the training project for young women. At the end of the day, I come home and check in to see how school went and to see if they need any help with homework or proofing. My favorite homework day was when they were writing speeches. PS..Amelie was chosen for the best speech in class!
They are fantastic girls and they consume a lot of my thoughts. How do I empower them to become self-sustaining, beautiful women who love the Lord? Only a few months ago, they were living at a an orphanage, then were hired to help start No. 41, were trained as seamstresses, moved out to their own place and now have applied to university and have been accepted on a preliminary basis. They have an exam towards the end of December, if they pass they will be able to enroll for classes in January. If they don't pass, they will go back to Gisenyi, the city they are from. They tell me not to worry, because God is behind them. Love these girls!
So my prayers for my compound continued..God bless everyone who He puts in front of me who should come in for our weekly Bible study, eat dinner, watch a movie or need a place to stay.
A week ago Monday, the girls told me that they were worried for their friends in Gisenyi because of the fighting going on in DR Congo, which is about 20 minutes away from them. Gisenyi is about 3 hours away from us. I started calling around to get a feel for what was going on and the safety of the situation. The US Embassy had put out a warning notice about the fighting and by Tuesday morning the situation had seemed to have escalated. The fear was mostly surrounding the stray bullets from Congo. So our friends, who also had short term guests packed up and came to Kigali. At first, the headcount was 4 and then it went to 7 and then when they showed up it was 9 and a baby. Well, what do you do, but call your friends and see who has extra mattresses and bedding. Several friends committed mattresses and another went to pick up, another showed up with bedding, some food and toilet paper--the necessities. So in addition to the 3 girls in the main house and 3 in the backhouse, we had a total of 17. Sidebar 2...I adopted a new puppy over the last month, making 3 dogs.
I can't imagine their emotions of looking around at everyone they know and are living and working with and having to decide who gets to come now, who comes later and who stays. At that point, they had no idea what the situation was going to look like short or long term. We sit in thankfulness to our God who protected the borders of the country we live in and ended things before they began for our friends.
So what does refugee life look like at my house? People all over the living room, catching up on the latest episodes of The Voice and watching movies. By Wednesday, things had calmed down and most went back to Gisenyi. A couple friends stayed a couple extra days, who generally come every other weekend, to stay for Thanksgiving. I kept laughing thinking this was like holidays growing up when we would stay at our grandparents or aunt and uncles and people would be on mattresses wherever they fit.
One of my Rwandan friends was asking about our Thanksgiving and what it meant to me. I just laughed and said that I was thankful for the compound that God provided so everyone who needed a place to stay had one.
My prayers had been answered. Sidebar 3..my God is so big, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. *clap clap*
Wrap-up: I spent sometime on Friday in silence and reflection. God has proven faithful time and time again. He allowed me to use something He gave me to bless others. Others blessed me by being there to help my old and new friends. God has blessed me. He is the Great I Am, Almighty Protector and Lover of my Soul--there is no one like my God.
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 really nice girl moved in and it has been great. A few days later, 3 of the young women who work for No. 41...the bags I have been posting on facebook (some of you have bought)...moved to Kigali to start university. When I was told by my friend and No. 41 founder, how much they were paying for housing, I was pretty surprised and thought it was really high. We went to check out the place, let's just say, it wasn't a good arrangement for 3 young women. Sidebar...most houses here are made with a backhouse, or a room with it's own entrance for live-in staff (live-in staff---whole other discussion for another day). On our compound, we have a good sized backhouse with 3 rooms. After accessing the housing arrangement, I told my friend that we were packing them up and moving them into one of the rooms in my backhouse, which is several times larger than the place they were staying. They made some arrangements to get some bunk beds moved in and we went to get mattresses, they were pretty set.
These 3 girls--Diane, Amelie and Passy are awesome and have become little sisters. They have been admitted into English bootcamp for the women's university they are attending, which incidentally is the school I am partnered with, working on the training project for young women. At the end of the day, I come home and check in to see how school went and to see if they need any help with homework or proofing. My favorite homework day was when they were writing speeches. PS..Amelie was chosen for the best speech in class!
They are fantastic girls and they consume a lot of my thoughts. How do I empower them to become self-sustaining, beautiful women who love the Lord? Only a few months ago, they were living at a an orphanage, then were hired to help start No. 41, were trained as seamstresses, moved out to their own place and now have applied to university and have been accepted on a preliminary basis. They have an exam towards the end of December, if they pass they will be able to enroll for classes in January. If they don't pass, they will go back to Gisenyi, the city they are from. They tell me not to worry, because God is behind them. Love these girls!
So my prayers for my compound continued..God bless everyone who He puts in front of me who should come in for our weekly Bible study, eat dinner, watch a movie or need a place to stay.
A week ago Monday, the girls told me that they were worried for their friends in Gisenyi because of the fighting going on in DR Congo, which is about 20 minutes away from them. Gisenyi is about 3 hours away from us. I started calling around to get a feel for what was going on and the safety of the situation. The US Embassy had put out a warning notice about the fighting and by Tuesday morning the situation had seemed to have escalated. The fear was mostly surrounding the stray bullets from Congo. So our friends, who also had short term guests packed up and came to Kigali. At first, the headcount was 4 and then it went to 7 and then when they showed up it was 9 and a baby. Well, what do you do, but call your friends and see who has extra mattresses and bedding. Several friends committed mattresses and another went to pick up, another showed up with bedding, some food and toilet paper--the necessities. So in addition to the 3 girls in the main house and 3 in the backhouse, we had a total of 17. Sidebar 2...I adopted a new puppy over the last month, making 3 dogs.
I can't imagine their emotions of looking around at everyone they know and are living and working with and having to decide who gets to come now, who comes later and who stays. At that point, they had no idea what the situation was going to look like short or long term. We sit in thankfulness to our God who protected the borders of the country we live in and ended things before they began for our friends.
So what does refugee life look like at my house? People all over the living room, catching up on the latest episodes of The Voice and watching movies. By Wednesday, things had calmed down and most went back to Gisenyi. A couple friends stayed a couple extra days, who generally come every other weekend, to stay for Thanksgiving. I kept laughing thinking this was like holidays growing up when we would stay at our grandparents or aunt and uncles and people would be on mattresses wherever they fit.
One of my Rwandan friends was asking about our Thanksgiving and what it meant to me. I just laughed and said that I was thankful for the compound that God provided so everyone who needed a place to stay had one.
My prayers had been answered. Sidebar 3..my God is so big, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. *clap clap*
Wrap-up: I spent sometime on Friday in silence and reflection. God has proven faithful time and time again. He allowed me to use something He gave me to bless others. Others blessed me by being there to help my old and new friends. God has blessed me. He is the Great I Am, Almighty Protector and Lover of my Soul--there is no one like my God.
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