Sent to Rwanda

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...

So, it's that time of year, every organization you've ever given to is asking for money. It's the end of the year and everyone knows we all want those tax deductions!! Or you may be thinking, I just gave you money, why do you already need more? Well, things happen. Because of financial difficulties, one monthly supporter of $50 had to discontinue their support. I understand, life happens. But that $50 impacts me in a big way here. My car is...well, almost 20 years old. So far, about once a month it goes into the mechanic's shop for something. Right now, it is in for the suspension. The roads are very hard on the cars here and even though I love my "hot rod" (as one of my teammates' kids call it); I have realized I need to get a vehicle that sits up a little higher (and maybe has air conditioning for the hot days). There are many roads I am not able to drive on. Just like on Friday when we were going to the orphanage. Usually, I ride with some friends...

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to visit 3 different village areas. The first was to meet the child that my family sponsors. You can read about that unique introduction here. The second was with one of our teammates as they were taking one of the guys who works for them to see his family. And yesterday, I went with two of the ladies from the PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS project I have been working on the last 3 months. On this trip I learned a lot. One  of the women wanted to do a clothes collection and distribution for a local village. I thought we were going on Thursday just to distribute the clothes, but was I in for a surprise. As we made our way out to one of the ladies’ farm about 20 minutes outside of Kigali, we arrived and she proudly presented us with her “piggery”. She started about one year ago with 2 pigs and now has about 20. I got to see pineapples grow (I thought they grew on a tree). And then we sat under a tree. I wasn’t sure exactly ...

How many Christian concerts have you gone to where they encourage everyone to sponsor a kid somewhere a million miles away in some far off country? I have been to many and have experienced differing emotions when it gets to "that" part of the concert. I have gotten up to go to the bathroom, so I don't feel guilty for not sponsoring a child. I have said things like, "There is so much need in our own backyard, why do I need to send my money across the ocean?" Or how about this one, "How do we even know that money is actually going to get to that kid?" A couple days after I left for Rwanda, my parents went to a Christian concert where Food for the Hungry was asking for sponsors. My parents sponsored a child who was in Rwanda, an 11 year old girl named Jeanette. My whole family is involved, even my sister's children put part of their allowance aside for Jeanette. This morning, I got to meet Jeanette and her family! I know for a fact that Food for ...