the rants of a Rwandan pastor

The tone of my Rwanda trip was set on my first full day when we went to New Life Bible for church. In order to understand why this first day was so jaw-dropping (literally), I must first tell you a story...

Three years ago during the spring semester of my freshman year at Virginia Tech, I was sitting in my dorm room with my arm in a sling as part of my recovery for my shoulder surgery. It was during this time that I learned a lot about being still and learned a lot about how to listen to God. One day I was researching careers in law enforcement and in Border Patrol; I had wanted to be in law enforcement or the military for most of my life. In the quiet I heard God's still, small voice ask: "Would you give up all of this to go to the mission field for Me?" As a relatively new believer I was completely taken aback at what had just happened. As I sat there my response slowly but surely became, "Yes, Lord, I think so." So I started praying about missions. Sometime in the next couple days I was sitting in one of my ginormous 700-student lecture classes waiting for the lecture to start. Sitting near the back and with five minutes to spare, I prayed, "God is missions it? Is missions where You're leading me to? Is this the calling You have placed on my life?" Within a minute or two, the one kid, out of 700 students, who sits right in front of me at this secular university is wearing a tshirt with the Isaiah 6:8 verse on the back:

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:

Who should I send?

Who will go for Us?

I said:

Here I am. Send me."

Let's just say I didn't need more persuasion or further explanation. Only God can do stuff like that. Coincidence? No such thing. From that moment on I started pursuing missions. Sometime that same week I was praying about where God might send me. I was looking down at the sidewalk as I walked and prayed, "Lord, where do you want me to go? Where are You sending me?" When I looked up, the very first thing I saw was a big, bright yellow sign stuck in the ground that said, "What if you were in Africa?" These signs were for Earth Day or Environmental Day or something like that, nonetheless, that was the first thing I saw. There were hundreds of these kinds of signs all along the way to my class. I looked around the rest of campus as I walked and didn't see them anywhere else. When I came back from class (the same exact way I had gone to class), the signs were gone. Once again, I didn't need more persuasion. Thus began the journey to the missions field.

Three years later, as I sat in church in Africa, I anticipated that God would do big things. Leading up to my Rwanda trip I had constantly prayed that God would open my eyes and ears and that He would clearly direct me if I was to indeed go back to Rwanda for at least a year. I remember specifically praying that first Sunday for God to be loud and clear in His leading. Pastor Charles went on with his sermon about true worship and at the end he went on a 15-minute rant. When African pastors get going, man, do they get going. He was was yelling, he was jumping, he was waving his Bible all around. And what was his rather loud and rather clear rant about? Isaiah 6:8. My jaw hit the floor (I'm actually quite surprised drool didn't slip out) as he started proclaiming, "IF GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO GO, YOU GO! IF GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO SERVE, YOU SERVE! YOU DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO GO AND SERVE!" God answered my prayer for clarity and direction..loud and clear. It was from that moment that I knew I was going back to Rwanda come August. I didn't know how, I didn't know what needed to be done to get back, and I didn't even know completely why, but I knew I was going back. God used the same exact Scripture to call me to go back to Rwanda that He used to call me to missions. This is the sort of thing only God can do and I have no reason to ever doubt or deny. What an awesome God.

This was only the first day; just imagine all the things that God did with the rest of my time in Rwanda...

"let me explain, no, there is too much, let me sum up"

For those "Princess Bride" lovers out there, you might find a chuckle out of the title of this post. I couldn't think of a more applicable title. Moving on...

It's been two days since coming back from Rwanda and I am back in the familiar place of trying to put everything into words. I would say that I could just explain it with pictures, buuuuuuut I lost my iTouch somewhere in the guest house in Rwanda, thus losing the majority of my pictures and videos. Anywho, just like last year's Uganda trip, I'm having difficulty putting into words something that so drastically shook my world (in a good way). The following posts will be my ramblings and thoughts of all the God did and all the ways that He revealed so much, but for now I will attempt to give a short summary of my time in Rwanda.

God showed up BIG TIME.

He allowed me to see glimpses of all that He is doing in Rwanda.

As a result...

I'M GOING BACK FOR AT LEAST A YEAR IN AUGUST!

That's the gist of it. The fact that I'm going back in August, Lord willing, kept me from bursting into tears on the plane as we were taking off from Rwanda. Just like I said last year, I left a part of my heart in Africa. It's impossible to leave with your whole heart...IMPOSSIBLE. I miss the dirt up my nose. I miss sleeping with mosquito nets. I miss hearing goats across the street. I miss those bright brown eyes of the kids. What a strange heart God has given me.

More posts to follow!

take these before the Throne!

As promised, here is a list of specific things to praying for. If you receive my email updates, most of these will look familiar with a couple new ones thrown in there. Help me to lift these up to God and to take them before His throne:

That I would be an ambassador of Christ- even though I'm not going on a "mission trip," I am still an ambassador of Christ everywhere I go. I am still the light of Christ and there are still people who need to hear the Gospel.

That I would have open ears, eyes, heart, and mind (and a shut mouth) to see, hear, and understand God's leading- praying for clarity along with this would be great too.

That the emotions of being in Africa (which tend to run high being in such a place) would not blind me nor distract me from how God is leading and that decisions wouldn't be made based on those emotions.


That I would be able to talk to who I need to talk to and spend time with who I need to spend time with.


For protection from the fear of man that would hinder me from following God's will- aka the little lies that the devil tries to implant.

For the farming team I am traveling with and their ministry these next two weeks.


For the people of Rwanda, Africa New Life Ministries' staff, and their ministry.


Smooth transitions back to the US for myself and for all members of the team.


This should keep you prayer warriors busy :) I also have one more prayer request to keep in the back of your mind that has nothing to do with Rwanda. I will be taking Bible proficiency exams for Gordon-Conwell two days after coming back from Rwanda. I will be taking the exams late in the afternoon on the 17th. Jet lag will be an issue; the time I will be taking the exams is right around the time where an absolute wall of tiredness hits. Please pray for supernatural energy, recall, and focus.

I'm so excited for what God is going to do with these next two weeks. I have an anticipation and expectation that He is going to show up BIG TIME.

See ya'll on the other side!

RWANDA!

It's currently 12:20am the night before I leave for Rwanda and I am STILL trying to figure out where to start with packing. I'm all good and dandy when it comes to packing toiletries and the miscellaneous items, but when it comes to picking out clothes for two weeks...forget it. I HATE packing clothes. I either overpack or wish I had packed something else. Oh well, enough of that rant. There are more important things to discuss here, such as...

I'M LEAVING FOR RWANDA TOMORROW! My flight leaves at 5:49pm, will lay over in Brussels, and will arrive in Kigali, Rwanda around 8pm Saturday night. I will be spending two weeks there working alongside Africa New Life Ministries and visiting various cities and villages such as Kayonza, Kageyo, and Bugesera. I will be traveling with a farming team from Oregon that's also going over, though I will technically not be part of the team; I don't have too much to offer when it comes to farming. All I know to do is dig a hole, plop in a seed, cover it up, add water, and add a little bit of sunshine...definitely nothing compared to the farming techniques that the team is bringing over. We will all be living in ANLM's guest house (which has WiFi!) and I know I will be following the team's itinerary most days. When I'm not with the team, I hope to be spending significant time with the current missionary/intern, Marie. Marie has been heading up and organizing the English program for ANLM's schools and has been helping with the street kids' tutoring program. Spending time with Marie is crucial because I could be the one replacing her when she leaves late summer. I wanna know the ins and outs, ups and downs, and crooks and nannys...the good, the bad, and the ugly. Put it this way, I'll be finding out a WHOLE LOT MORE about what the next few years look like based on this trip and if indeed God is leading me to take Marie's place. As of this moment, details are a little hazy, but I know that God will be doing a whole lotta revealing these next couple weeks.

While I'm there I will also be visiting two genocide memorials, going to a church that has a service in English AND a service in Kinyarwanda (can't wait for THAT taste of Heaven!), and going on a safari. And since the guest house has WiFi, I'll be taking my iTouch, so I'll be able to update Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. So check those places for updates every so often. I'm going to put up another post with specific prayer requests before I leave.

I can't even begin to describe how excited I am. I just realized a couple days ago that I have been waiting to go to Rwanda for almost four years. I've wanted to go ever since I first starting hearing stories from friends who have been to Rwanda a number of times. I was supposed to go two years ago, but the trip was cancelled due to political violence, although I did end up going to Uganda later in the year. But now I get to finally go! Praise God! The waiting is over :)