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 :)