thankful for hi-speed internet

dear faithful blog readers,

it is monday, the day i normally update my blog. i want you all to know that we are safe and healthy and doing well.

im not going to write much today because we are not at our normal 'cyber-cafe' and the connection here at this place in incredibly slow. i have several emails that i am eager to read and today, that comes first! (thank yall for emailing me so much encouragement. even though i cannot reply to each one, they all mean so much to me!)

so, know that all is well here in the 'land of 1,000 hills'. you are missed and loved!

-kt :)

God is good

I know they say teachers shouldn't have favorites, but this week has definitely been my favorite! The kids have been so sweet and so much fun. Along with our Bible story, we share the gospel on the last day in the class. Pray that God would use us to speak to these children. I have found a few that I wouldn't mind putting in my suitcase on July 22! We were playing outside yesterday with a huge inflatable volleyball that we brought and the kids were so excited they didn't know what to do with themselves. They were all running around sqealing and acting goofy. One little girl came up to me and grabbed my hand and gave me a high five and said, "Muzungu, bitse?" ("White person, what's up?") I laughed so hard because she was being so goofy and of course, when one of them found something to make me laugh, they all started doing it. It was hilarious.

Yesterday after school, we stayed in an empty classroom until our Bible study started. A little girl named Umadi came and hung out with us while we rested. I gave her stickers, aga chupa (an empty water bottle), and drew pictures with her. I could bring her home. Even though we don't speak the same language, we had so much fun together. Smiles and laughs are the same in every language. Theophile (the headmaster at the school who has been translating for us) had his wife cook us lunch (rice, chips, goat, red sauce and fanta). It was good, but we had to eat SO much! Each day at the school, Theophile and the other teachers buy us a bunch (sometimes 2) of bananas. I think we eat more bananas than the gorillas here in Rwanda.

Bible study went really well yesterday. We studied the Lord's prayer and the women were really encouraged by the study. I, too, have been learning a lot from the study that we are leading with this group. Our God is big and He is GOOD!

Today was our last day in the third class. It's amazing how time flies by here. I'm realizing that this trip is going by so quickly. Pray that we will continue to take every opportunity that God presents us with. We do not yet know if Mary is well enough to translate for us tonight. We may or may not be having Bible study this evening. She is out of the hospital, but continue to pray for her recovery.

Pray for the rest of our week. There is a possibility that we might go with Kezia (Esron's wife) and Bernedine (another women's leader of the church to visit women who are in the hospital). This is a ministry of the church that takes place every Friday. Bernedine goes to pray for them and take them food. (As a nutrition major, I am really excited about this!) We have not received "authorization" (permission) from Esron to go yet, but we will find out this evening if that is okay. Pray for that.

Also, Saturday is an international 'work day' and all activities are cancelled until 12 so that people can work on public things throughout the country (landscaping, cleaning, building, repairing...). Cars are not even allowed on teh street. Of course, this means that our Saturday Bible study will be cancelled. Pray that God will use that time as He wills.

I think that is all. Thank you all for your emails this week. They have been so encouraging. We feel your prayers. God has been SO good this week in giving me peace and joy!

May you also have unexplainable peace and joy!
Love you all!

staying busy

Here we are again, another Monday, another 'email day'. Our time here has been flying by. To think that we've already been gone 3 weeks!

Last Thursday, after we emailed, we went back to the Ligue and found out that Mary (the woman who translates for our Thursday night Bible study) was sick in the hospital and our Bible study that night was cancelled. (We used that time to get some much-needed rest.) We found out later that a cut on her leg had gotten infected and had made her very sick. Last we heard, she was supposed to get out of the hospital today. Pray for her recovery.

Friday morning was pretty relaxing. We got to sleep in (woke up around 9) and got ready for the day. I did a little laundry with some success (at least my clothes SMELL clean now, and don't have quite as much dirt on them). Esron came and picked us up around 2 and we went to Kabuga. It was about a 30 minute ride from Kigali. First we went to visit a sewing project that One27 has helped. It's a way to teach uneducated girls a skill that will help them make money. After that, we went to 'greet' the church. They sang some songs for us and we introduced ourselves. They presented us with traditional Rwandan baskets as a way of saying 'thank you' for being involved with their church and its ministries.

Saturday was typical. We had Bible study with the women at the church. We discussed the attributes of God. It went well. We visited with a missionary friend (Linda) Saturday afternoon and had dinner with her.

A team came on Saturday night from Michigan. They stayed 2 nights at the Ligue before going out into a village. We rode to and from church with them (Esron's church). After church, we rested and prepared our lessons for the week. We took the team to eat at the Emerald last night. It took a long time to get our food, but it was good because it gave us a long time to talk. That was a breath of fresh air to fellowship with people who really speak the same language as we do.

We started week 3 in the school this morning. This week we are teaching the birth of Christ. The children we're teaching this week are a little older and they were VERY well behaved this morning. I think this will be a really fun week.

Thank you all for your prayers. Keep praying for us. I think these next two weeks will be the hardest (physically and emotionally). Pray that God would continue to give us strength and peace. Love you all!

PS- my mom said some people are having a hard time commenting on my blog. If so, you can email me at katybug06@hotmail.com.

time is flying...

This has been quite a busy week!

As of 12:00 today, we finished our second week in the school. It has gone well, but has been quite draining. Our schedule of teaching 4 days has worked out great. We have enough energy to get through Thursday but would probably be pretty burnt out if we went back Friday. (However, God has been so faithful in providing REST for the weary!) Each morning (Mon- Thurs), our driver picks us up around 8 and takes us to the school. There are 35-45 children in each classroom. They hardly fit on the benches. The classroom has about 10 benches and tables and a chalkboard. We are so blessed in America! We teach a Bible lesson and some English words from 8:30-10 and then the children have a snack break and recess. Then, at 11, we review the morning's lessons and play some games until 12, when they go home. Working through a translator can be difficult (and very exhausting). The kids are precious. They are so fascinated by us. They want to touch our skin and hair all the time. It is funny how so many things about children are universal.

Tuesday, after school, we visited the Anchor of Hope office. For those of you who do not know, Anchor of Hope is an organization over here that ministers to street children. (Our friend, Sarah, is one of the founders.) On our previous trips, we have met many of the boys that are sponsored by Anchor of Hope. Some of them are part of a program that provides lunch at the Anchor of Hope office. It was so much fun to see these kids again. They've all grown so much! After we had lunch with Sarah and some of the other staff, we got to play with 3 of the younger kids who did not have to go back to school. It was neat to be able to play with just a few kids. (At the school, we don't get to play much because there are SO many of them!) That night, we went with Esron to a home where a small group was being held. There were about 10 adults and some children. They met in a small room and sang hymns and read by candlelight.
They had us give an 'exhortation'. It was a really neat experience to meet with them.

On Wednesday, we taught, and then hung out in an empty classroom from 12-3 until we met with the women's small group. During our break, we ate (they brought us sweet bread, fantas and LOTS of bananas) and prepared our lesson. The group time went really well. We began a study on prayer. The study is good, but the questions that it led to were even better. Pray that our studies will lead to more good questions and God would speak through us to answer them. That night, we went to eat with Sarah and Sylvain, which is always a treat! (We're really starting to miss people who speak our language.)

To answer a question I have received in many emails, the weather over here is perfect! It rained the first few days we got here, but now the dry season has begun. The high is usually around 80 and the low around 60. (One thing I'm not missing is that TX heat!) We sleep with the windows open and wake up to the sunrise and birds. Like I said, perfect! They were supposed to clean our room today!! When you take as few showers as we do, the sheets get dirty pretty fast, so we are really looking forward to that. (By the way, for those of you who have stayed at the Ligue, the showers are just as cold, but there is more water pressure.) After we check our email, we'll go back to the Ligue for a bit and get ready for our study tonight. Pray that all goes well.

I have been really stretched this trip and I'm learning a lot about myself. I've learned a lot about depending on the Lord and also that I really enjoy leading a group. There have been several times that we have been 'put on the spot' or asked to do things with a very short notice (such as our 'exhortation' Tuesday night). I know this was TOTALLY God working through me, but I felt very comfortable and really enjoyed that!

Tomorrow we will be traveling to Kabaya (a village about 30 min away) to see a church and a sewing project there. Pray for safety in our travels and for God to work in our time there!

Continue to pray. God is so good!!

loving every minute

Muraho! (Hello, in Kinyarwandan- that's for you, Abbey)

We have come to really look forward to checking our email, as our family and friends are all so encouraging! We DO miss yall, but not so much that we're ready to come home. It hasn't been too long since I posted last, but here is what's been going on:

Saturday: Went to Esron's church (Remera) around 9 for a women's Bible study group. It went really well. It lasted 4 hours (they go all out when they do church over here!). We taught for about an hour of that. Esron was able to translate for us, which was great! We've been using some other translators while we've been here and had forgotten how much easier it is to work with Esron. We had Esron translate the study into their language, so the women were able to have their own copies and follow along and take notes. It went really well. Other than that, they talked, prayed and, of course, sang. It is somewhat exhausting to constantly either be working through a translator or not understand what's going on. Pray that we can keep up the energy in that area. Saturady night, I got to talk to my family (and I mean the whole fam). They were with my grandparents, so they just passed the phone around. It was great to hear from them!

Sunday: Happy Father's Day! Church was 4 hours again. Again, it's hard to never fully understand what is going on. We met another muzugu (white person) there Sunday morning who is here working for World Relief. It was nice to hear someone else speaking English. Sunday was our first day to dance. (We avoided getting pulled in last week, but they had us sit on the front row this week.) It was great fun. I love watching these people worship with everything they have. I mean, really, when was the last time you (or I) praised the Lord so vigorously that we actually SWEAT? I danced with one woman who literally had sweat dripping off her forehead. I am still in awe of the hope these people have. We heard about a new restraunt (the Emerald) and had dinner there Sunday night.

Today was our first day in the second class at the school. We started teaching the story of Noah. (Each week we'll teach a different story, mainly for the sake of our own sanity.) This class is so well behaved. It was really nice, however, we had to come up with more to do to fill the whole time. After school, we had our driver drop us off at the Emerald and we got a snack and read out on their little balcony. Then we walked here (the post office) to check our email.

Keep praying for us.
-Pray for my back. (As many of you know, I've had problems for years and will be having surgery shortly after we get back.) It hasn't been too bad yet, but keep praying!
-Pray that we wont get homesick. (We're not yet, but we've got a long time!)
-Pray that our down time will be restful and productive.
-Pray for our Thursday study. Our translator may have to leave the country to be with her family. God's in control.
-Pray MOSTLY that God would be glorified in every aspect of this trip and that we would be make the most of every opportunity He gives us.

Again, thank you all for everything. Emails, comments, prayers. I love you all!

1 week down...

We finished up our first week at the school yesterday. It was great. They memorized Genesis 1:1 in English and Kinyarwandan. Precious! We had a really good time with them.

Monday and Tuesday afternoons were pretty slow. Wednesday we stayed at the church after school and had lunch with Esron's family. It was a typical Rwandan meal: goat, peas, carrots, cauliflower, rice, chips, red sauce, and bananas for desert. We got to visit with Esron and his family until 3. It was good to spend some time with Esron as he has been very busy for most of our trip. We got to see baby Gladys (who will be two this month) and that was fun! At 3, we went to the church to meet with the women's small group. There were 6 women there (plus Melissa and I). We felt a little intimidated, as these women are all older than us and wives of pastors and leaders in the church, however, it was really great. It was humbling that THEY want to learn from US. We are learning so much from them! We all shared our testimonies and spent most of the time getting to know each other. I talked a little about Jesus' temptation in the desert from Matthew 4 and how when He was tempted, He found strength in scripture. We told them that is what we want this study to look like. We want to talk about real issues and find out what the Bible says, because, although we will only be here for a few weeks, God's word is eternal. Esron told us later that they could not stop talking about how excited they were to have us spending this time with them.

Yesterday, we finished at the school and then went back to the Ligue for a few hours. My mom called while we were resting. It was so great to hear from her and dad. Around 5, we went with Mary (a woman who works at the Ligue) to do a Bible study with some women she knows. We met at the house of another woman who works at the Ligue and lives nearby. We walked through a maze of tiny, crowded homes until we came to the one we would be meeting at. I was holding back tears the whole time. These looked like the homes you see on tv. On all my trips, I have never seen houses like these in Africa. I knew they were here, but we've never really seen them. These people are living next to piles and piles of garbage. The dirt and smells... I could not believe it. It was humbling, once again. We met in a small room (maybe 4 ft by 10 ft) that had a small window, 8 chairs, and a bamboo rug on the floor. The women came shortly after we got there. I think about 8 women (and 5-8 small children) came. We filled up the chairs, plus there were some people on the floor. We shared our first lesson (gospel presentation) and they were all so happy we were there. We shared prayer requests at the end. In both groups we have met with, the requests have been the same:
1- that their children would not be hungry and would have the funds to go to school
2- salvation for their families
3- that they would follow the Lord faithfully
wow. I am so selfish. I'm tired of granola bars, and they are praying that their children would have food to eat. At the begining of summer, I was starting to doubt my major and why I had chosen nutrition. God has used this trip to show me that really is where He is leading me and that He is going to use my studies throughout my life.

After that, we went to eat with Sarah and Sylvain again. While we were eating, Kahler called and I got to talk to him for about 5 minutes, but it was still good.

We slept in this morning until about 9. We were supposed to have a Bible study with the Dorcas ladies this morning, but there was some miscommunication and they aren't even meeting today. Hopefully that will get worked out before next week. So, we've been resting and organizing things at the Ligue and just walked to the internet. We'll probably get as much done here as we can and then we'll walk home and get ready to go to dinner around 6.

Thank you all for praying. Again, I love reading the comments and wish we could get to the internet more often! LOVE YOU ALL! :)

"Good morning, teacher"

We went to church in Remera (at Esron's church) on Sunday. It hit me that I was in Rwanda when all the little ones ran over to us with wide open arms for hugs and then wanted to sit in our laps, touch our skin and hair... Needless to say, I was fighting back tears there for a minute. Church lasted 4 hours, lots of singing and dancing, and a little preaching. Nobody in Africa is too young to dance. When we got back to the Ligue, we took a nap (didn't get much sleep the night before), and then woke up and planned our lessons for this week. We took quite a hike and went to eat at a different pizza place with Sarah and Sylvan.

We started teaching in the school today (8:30-12). I think it went as well as it could have. This week (Mon- Thurs) we are teaching the youngest class. We taught days 1 and 2 of creation, a memory verse, and some english words. At 10, they have snacktime and recess until 11. Recess is madness- dirt, sweat, and tears... and then they do excercises before they go back in. After recess, we went outside and played a game with the class and reviewed the things we taught this morning. There are 5 classes at the school and we'll spend each week in a different class.

When we got here, we realized we were going to have to be very pro-active in organizing the Bible studies. This has been a challenge, but God has really worked out some neat things!
We talked to Mary (a women who works at the Ligue) this afternoon about doing a Bible study at the Ligue. She was very excited and was going to get a group of widows to meet on Thursdays.

So this is our typical schedule for each week:
Sunday: church (usually in Remera, with Esron, but we may go visit some others)
Mon-Thurs, 8:30-12: teaching at the school
Wednesday, 3-5: leading a women's small group on 'Christian maturity'
Thursday, 5:30-7: leading a women's Bible study at the Ligue (basic Bible doctrines)
Friday, 9-2: working with Dorcas project and leading Bible study there
Saturday, 9-1: leading women's Bible study in Remera (basic Bible doctrines)

On the afternoons that we have off, we will be following up with children who are currently part of the One27 scholarship program and looking for new ministry opportunities.

Again, thanks for your emails, comments, and PRAYERS!! Keep praying. Love you all.
-katy

we're here!!

actually, we've been here since wednesday. sorry it has taken so long to update this. it is harder to get to the internet over here when you dont have a personal driver to take you everywhere. (we've been taking a taxi everywhere, but it gets expensive)

we arrived safely on wednesday, however, our bags did not. we have now rested and are excited to get things started over here.

here's a short summary of our trip so far:
WEDNESDAY:
arrived around 2:00, went and bought water, went to the Ligue to 'take a nap' (and woke up at 10 the next morning)
THURSDAY:
we went back to the airport to look for our bags- no luck. went to La Gallette to buy some snacks. had dinner at Sole Luna (the pizzaria) with our friends, Sarah and Sylvan.
FRIDAY:
visited the Dorcas Proj. to talk to someone about doing a Bible study there. The possibility looks good. Went back to the airport and GOT OUR BAGS! went home, showered, put on CLEAN CLOTHES (for the first time in 5 days!), unpacked and organized everything... we went to bed pretty early because there is not much to do after dark. kahler was able to call around 9... i gladly woke up! :)

i dont think its really hit me yet that im even here (or how long i'll be staying)! i had goosebumps as our plane landed. i dont think i'll have a problem staying here for 2 months. (dont worry mom, im already missing yall!)

africa does not feel like a 'new place' to me anymore, but like another home. i feel like i belong here. the people, the smells, the sounds... its wonderful.

continue to pray for us. we're working out the details of how our women's Bible study will work. we're trying to figure out the small when and where details before next week.

also continue to pray for my family, that God will give them peace while I'm here.

we had a hard time sleeping at first. maybe jet lag, maybe the malaria pills. it seems to be getting better today. (we woke up around noon today... oops!) pray that we continue to rest.

thank you all SO much for your emails and blog comments. i wish i had time to reply to each one, but we dont (so consider this your personal thank you!).

love you and miss you all! :)

next stop: Kigali!!

We have arrived safely in Nairobi, Kenya. When we got off of the plane, it was about 70 degrees (of course, I could be totally wrong with that, but it felt GREAT!) I hope it is the same in Rwanda.

Internet time is cheaper here, so I will update more: The flights have been good. We have actually gotten to sleep some, which has been a blessing! On our flight to London, we somehow got 1sy row Economy Plus seats (which means bigger seats and endless leg room). It was fabulous! We weren't so lucky with our flight to Nairobi. I have nothing to complain about though- I'm finally in AFRICA!! :)

I have no idea what time it is in TX. It's about 8am here. Our plane for Kigali, Rwanda leaves in about 2 hours.

Ways you can pray:
We will get over jet lag quickly.
Pray for one safe, final flight.
Also, that all our bags make it there!
That God would prepare us and those we will come in contact with for this trip.

Next time I blog, I'll be there.
Love you all dearly!

safe in London

We made it safely to Washington DC last night around 9 (TX time) and then we got to London at about 5am (again, TX time).

Now we are waiting for our flight to Nairobi, Kenya, but we don't leave for another 7 or so hours.

Thank you all for your prayers. Continue to pray.
Love you all.