Introducing My Big Brother... Eric

This is my big brother Byishimo Eric. Byishimo means "happy" and that is exactly what Eric is! He is part of Les and Yvonne's family though he does have his own biological parents. He is still just as much their son too.

Eric loves to worship and he spent lots of time teaching me Kinyarwanda songs. He was such a great help to me, translating for me, and helping me find my way around. I am so grateful that God has brought him into my life to be my brother!

I learned so much from him too. He has such a sweet spirit and he is always so thankful! I think he is always excited about something and I love that about him. He really has the joy of the Lord all over him. He has been through plenty of tough times but he is so full of the life of God that it is contagious.

You will probably hear me mention Eric many times in the future because he is a really important part of the ministry. That is one of my favorite things about the ministry that we have in Rwanda, there are many national Rwandans on our team! That is really important!

Introducing My Rwandan Family

I think sometimes people get confused about who is who when I am talking about all my precious family in Rwanda...so I am going to be introducing all of you to them one by one!

When I speak of my Rwandan family I am talking about those who I lived with and loved for the last two months of my trip to Rwanda. They are also the precious family that I will be going back to when I return. I did spend the first four months in a different area working at a boy's home and all of those boys are like brothers to me too but God has really joined my heart with my family in Kanombe and surrounding areas. It is a special connection and a special love that I can not even find words for!

Let me start by introducing my favorite missionary friends, Les and Yvonne Parr. Actually they are much more than friends...they are family too! They have been so amazing to me and have accepted me as part of their family and part of the ministry that God has entrusted to them.

In 2005, God called me to Rwanda and I remember feeling like "okay God how are you going to pull this one off?" I had absolutly no connections to Rwanda. I did not know anyone there and even the mission organization that I assumed I would work with had no missionaries serving in Rwanda. Well.... He totally knew what He was doing, as always! I was a student at Elim Bible Institute and was planning on joining a professor of mine on a trip to Uganda. So I am thinking "okay I am called to Rwanda but I am going to Uganda? What are You doing here God?" Well, nine days after God called me to Rwanda I was sitting in a class when my professor announced that not only would we be going to Uganda but we would be travelling to Rwanda to visit some missionaries there for a few days. You guessed it... Les and Yvonne were those missionaries that we went to visit.

I did get to meet them for a few brief moments right before they left to go to Rwanda and I will never forget the connection I felt with them. I just knew that God was connecting our hearts.

I will also never forget the feeling I had when we finally arrived at their house in Rwanda in the summer of 2006. "HOME!!!" That was all I could think as tears rolled down my face..."I'm home!"

So that is how I met Les and Yvonne. God has been knitting our hearts together ever since that day and I can hardly wait to see what He will do with us in the future! They are currently in the process of starting a non profit organization called "A Voice For Rwanda" and I am so excited to be able to be a part of it! There is so much that I could say about them but really all you need to know is that they love God with all their hearts and they love the people of Rwanda with all their hearts too! By the way in Rwanda they go by Mama Muto and Papa Muto, just so you know if I ever refer to them that way:)

And hey you can check out their blog too! http://www.avoiceforrwanda.blogspot.com/

Christmas

Christmas has been interesting this year. I am so happy and blessed to be able to spend time with my family here in America! I know that I will not be able to be here every Christmas from this year on so I am trying to make the most of it. But I tell you what, this whole having two families on opposite sides of the globe if difficult, to say the least. I love being with my American family but I am missing my Rwandan family at the same time. Oh my...

I did get to call my Rwandan family on Christmas. I tried to call them all afternoon on Christmas Eve but the lines were busy I guess. So I decided to stay up late and call them at midnight, which was seven o'clock on Christmas morning in Rwanda! It was so great to hear all their voices! They were so excited and I could hardly understand them because they were all trying to talk to me at the same time. My little brother, Ntwari, asked me if he could sing a song for me and he sang me a very spirited version of Trading My Sorrows (I sent them a cd of English worship songs.). So precious! My sister, Christine, keep tellling me that there were dishes for me to wash:) I used to always come up to her when we were washing dishes and say "Ndashaka gufasha" which means "I want to help." My older brother Eric even ran down the street in his "jammies" to take the phone to the church so that I could talk to the pastors and my sister Alice who was helping to get ready for the Christmas service. What a blessing to be able to talk with the pastors of my church! I love them so much and this is the first I have been able to talk to them on the phone.

It was a phone call filled with much laughter and many tears! How my heart longs to see all their precious faces again! Thank you Lord for letting me have them in my life!

It's been a long time!

Wow! I have not written here for quite a long time. I started this blog for when I was in Rwanda and now here I am back in America and it has been months since I have written. Sorry, if you were someone who checked my blog to see what was going on.

Anyway...I am going to give it another shot. I really want to be able to keep up with this as well as sending out my emails to keep in touch with everyone here in America while I am in Rwanda. Yes for those who did not know...I am going back! I don't know exactly when but I am trusting God that it will be in May or at least the very beginning of June! So you can pray for that too! I trust that God know what is best but for now I feel like this is the time frame He has given me. I just keep trusting!

So I am going to start now with writing in this blog and that way I will not forget to write in it when I get back to Rwanda. That is the plan. Can't wait to be back there and I know I will have lots of new stories to share with all of you.

God Bless!

"Abana"

"Abana" means children here in Rwanda and they have been my exceeding joy! The children are so precious. As we walk down the street to our house they come running from every direction yelling "Muzungu, Muzungu" which means white person! To us that may sound strange and even rude but it is just part of the culture here and I have learned to love the sound of their little voices! They usually just want to touch you or walk with you. Recently they have started to run towards us with their arms out wanting hugs:) That is my favorite. It is the same in the village as we walk they come running.
Today Theresa and I spent most of our time just hanging out with the children from the village. We play ball with them, sing songs, play hand games, and my favorite just hold them. Today I held a little girl named Mariete for probably an hour and she was just as happy as can be. I was too of course. Sometimes I wonder if I am making a difference by just holding the children but I know that they sense my love for them. I wish I could give them everything they need. Their clothing is very dirty and torn in many places. I can tell that some of them are sick and they are not well nourished. But as I hold them I pray to my Father that He would bless these little ones in a special way.
I am really hoping to post some pictures on my blog but at the moment it is not possible. I have tried but these computers are too slow to upload them. I wish all of you could see what I am seeing!

Gitarama

So I have been in Gitarama for over a week now and things are good. It was a rough beginning I must admit. Getting used to the pase of life here is the challenging thing. Everything is so slow. We are finally getting started with our work. We are going to be teaching English at a primary school in the village of Byimana.
On Tuesday we got to visit the school. Wow! There are 1600 students and only 24 teachers! Here some of the children go to school in the morning and some in the afternoon. Some go all day but I have not figured out the system yet. Theresa and I will be teaching the children in the sixth grade because they have to take national exams in November and there isan Englis component to the test. Here in Rwanda, national exams are a HUGE deals to the kids. If they pass they can go to secondary school (which is like 7th, 8th, and 9th grades). So we will try to help them be prepared.
It is going to be a huge challenge for us. It seems like they can do really complex grammer but they really don't know what they are readingor saying they have just learned the formula and the rules. How do you teach English to someone who can make a direct statement into an indirect statement but has no clue what that statement really means? Interesting....

We had quite an experience when we first arrived at the school on Tuesday morning. Hundreds of children running toward us and surrounding us to the point that we could barely walk! They were so excited to see Wazungu (white people)! Most of them had never seen so many white people before. There were ten of us counting Theresa and I and a team that is here from Florida State University. What an experience. Some of the children couldn't wait to touch us and others would touch us and then scream and giggle.

Rwanda!

I can hardly believe that I am writing this as I sit in an internet cafe in Kigali. My heart is overwhelmed at the thought of all that God is allowing Theresa and I to be a part of here.

We arrived here on Friday afternoon and spent the day just enjoying Les and Yvonne and their preicous family. I am in love with their family! There have taken so many children and young people under their wings! Though they are in the process of adopting four Rwandan children, they have many many more then that! I have so enjoyed getting to know each one. They each have such distinct personalities and even though I can not speak their language I have come to know and love each one even in this short time. Eric is one of their unofficial sons and he speaks english very well so that is helpful!

Tomorrow afternoon we will be traveling about an hour and a half to a village where we will be spending the rest of our time here in Rwanda. We are excited to get started there but we are also sad to leave Les and Yvonne and their family. They have been so welcoming to us that we already feel like they are our family!

One special memory that I will always have was on Friday night when we had just arrived in Kigali. We went with Yvonne to the home that they have started for some of the older girls who had to leave ths orphanage down the street. There are about ten girls (most in their twenties) who now are able to live in a house together rather then just being kicked out on the street to fend for themselves when they got to old for the orphanage. I will never forget them as long as I live. Yvonne had brought some nail polish along so that we could paint eachothers nails but the girls just wanted to do our nails. They heated water and washed... I take that back... Scrubbed our feet. Then they trimmed our toenails with a double-edged razor! Then they took such care in painting our nails. I think they must have been working on our feet for an hour or more! How percious. We could not even talk to them because they did not know english but we were able to enjoy eachother's fellowship in such a special way. I could not help but think that we have never treated any visitors with such love in America! God teach us to be like these people.

TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost Home!

In the summer of 2006 I had the opportunity to visit Uganda and Rwanda for two weeks. While I was only in Rwanda for four of those days I will never forget the way I felt the night we arrived in Kigali. The tears came quickly and all I remember is that I had the overwhelming sense that I was home. Rwanda is where my heart is at home!

I can hardly believe that at this time next week I will be in my precious Rwanda!

15 DAYS!!!

I am officially leaving for Rwanda fifteen days from today! I can not even explain what I am feeling. I am excited beyond words. It has not been easy getting to this point but God is so faithful to what He has promised. I am so blessed by the amazing support that I have felt from my family and friends. The finances for this trip seemed so overwhelming to me but God has supplied for all my needs! I felt like I was to take some time off of work before the trip so I have not been working for the last few weeks but even now God is providing for me in crazy ways. Yesterday I went to the dentist to make sure that I had paid my bill and I actually had a credit so they are sending me a check! I have no clue how that is even possible but God works in mysterious ways! It is amazing what He will do when you trust Him and hold nothing back.

So yes I am excited but I am also a bit overwhelmed with the thought of all that is before me. I really am not sure how to do what God has called me to do but that it probably the point. If I knew exactly how to do it I wouldn't need faith. Oh and do I need faith! He is all that I really have anyway.

The Lord's Plan Will Prosper...

What a journey it has been...! Last April I graduated from Elim Bible Institute after spending two years there studying Missions and International Community Health. To complete this program of study we are required to do an internship overseas in the health field. So the original plan was for me and Theresa (a fellow student in the program) to go to Ethiopia for three months to complete our internship and then to travel to Rwanda for three months.

We were planning to leave in January. Around November we felt like the door in Ethiopia was closed to us and so we decided to just go to Rwanda for the whole six months. This was the hardest decision to make because it meant giving up our internship and therefor not completing our program and receiving our diplomas. This was tough but we really felt that it was what God had for us and so we followed Him even though we did not understand.

So our next plan was to spend three months with the Parrs (an American missionary couple) in Kigali, Rwanda. The other three months would be spent in a village about an hour from there. By this time we had pushed our departure date back March 31st.

Just when we thought things were lining up perfectly, our plans changed again! We got a call from Elim Fellowship (our sending agency) saying that they did not want us to spend three months with the Parrs for reasons that I will leave unsaid. So once again we were on our faces before the Lord crying out to Him. It just seemed that everything we planned was crumbling once again. Lord, what are You doing?

That was just a few days ago and I can already see the hand of God. He is opening and closing doors so that His will can be done in us! Now we have an open door to spend our whole six months in the village that we were going to spend our last three months. I am disappointed that we can not work with Les and Yvonne but I am excited about what God is going to do with us in this village. We are trusting Him completely! So Lord willing, we will be there by mid to end of April. I think I am finally beginning to learn that it is God's plan that will prosper and not my own!

In the beginning...

So when and where did this call to Rwanda start? Well...God had this planned for me before I was born and in hindsight I can see His hand all over the details of my life calling me and preparing me to live radically for Him. In 2002, I went to Kenya for a month and Africa began to capture my heart. The next year I went to Zimbabwe for three weeks. It was then that I realized that my love for Africa was more than just feelings, it was a call.

November 30th, 2005 was a day that changed me forever. I had been asking the Lord for clarity in my call to Africa. Africa is huge and I wanted God's direction to a specific place. During a chapel service at Elim Bible Institute God spoke to me with more clarity then ever before. He lead me to the passage in Ezekiel 37 about the Valley of Dry Bones. Then He gave me visions of the bones in Rwanda from the genecide in 1994. Then He brought to mind a song with the words... "you see dry bones but I see an army." With all these pieces in my mind the call came clearly. "Valerie, you see dry bones in Rwanda but I see an army. I want you to go there and I want to use you to breathe my life into those bones and raise up my army in Rwanda."

I could never have imagined how that day would forever change my life. Within nine days of receiveing my call to Rwanda I found out that one of my college teachers was taking students on a trip to Uganda and Rwanda! So in the summer of 2006 I traveled to Uganda and Rwanda for two weeks. This served to confirm my call to Rwanda. I remember arriving in Rwanda and being overcome by the emotion that I was home!