Visits

Thursday, November 18, 2010

I hate to say it, but my goal from the beginning of my blog was to update at least every other week, and then it became at least once a month, but now, I am hopeful if I can get back onto a regular updating schedule. So my new goal is that I get back to at least every other week! I am far behind, so I am going to recap quickly, of the many good things happening in Rwanda and our field. Blake and I continue to visit our Nazarene Churches as regularly as possible. Our last visit, was a to village church, that only one other Nazarene Missionary had every visited, in its entire existence. So for us to show up and encourage the people was probably even more rewarding for us! We enjoy every part of visiting churches, but we enjoy building relationships with the people, during lunch, after service. On our way to visit this church, we stopped in the city, to speak with a young lady, which has already completed the ordination process with the Church of the Nazarene. She kept asking when she could start a church in the city. Our District Superintendent, said how about next week. She said that she had some people already available and willing to go with her to her Nazarene church as soon as she started it. We made a plan, and the following Sunday was the first day of her new church service! It was so incredible to be a part of something so wonderful, and just hear the excitement in the girl’s voice! Please be in pray for this new, small Church of the Nazarene in Kibuye, Rwanda!
At some time in my visiting of churches, or my time eating and fellowshipping with our Rwandese friends, I had a not so great visit from the small little parasite bugs called amoebas, and was sick for over 3 weeks. I finally started to feel better, just before we were prepared to leave on our trip to Zambia. We left on November 13th, and while I still felt a little weak and under the weather, the Lord protected us on the flight out, and helped me to be able to gain energy by the time we got to Lusaka, Zambia. We had 2 unexpected layovers, but after 4 flights, we finally arrived! The main purpose for our trip is to participate in a missionary retreat for our field that will take place November 23rd – November 28th in Livingstone. In addition to our retreat, Blake is traveling in southern Congo, to take care of some technological problems that these areas are still having. While I am a little jealous that he is back to visit Lubumbashi, I must say that I have very much enjoyed being in Lusaka.
A conversation that I had with Blake a few weeks ago, was, am I ever going to become un-Americanized? Not in any other sense, than feeling like I need to have something particular. For instance, the need to feel like I have to watch the new season of Survivor. Which is such a silly thing to feel like you need to do, but we have become so cultured into the popularities of the American world, that now that it is no longer an option, you start to miss little things, even as unimportant and silly as the little things might be. Lusaka has been exactly the time away from Rwanda that I needed. They have many of the “little” things. Yesterday, someone took me and bought me soft served chocolate dipped ice cream! It tasted exactly like Dairy Queen, and I felt very relieved to have had such a familiar taste to home. Not to mention, we had Subway sandwiches for dinner one night, this week. Since we have only been in Africa, for 10 months, we are not fully separated from our known American cultures, nor are we fully integrated into African cultures, the little things (like Doritos, and Sour cream and onion chips), that I have been able to find in Lusaka, have come at just the right timing, and I feel very excited to get to spend my week, while Blake is traveling, right here, among the “little” things.