The Big News!!!!

So by now the news of my engagement has reached far and wide but just in case you have not heard...I AM GETTING MARRIED! So here's the scoop...

Our story…how do I even begin to tell our story? Ours is a story of God’s provision, His kindness, His grace, and ultimately His glory. Just as God told the Israelites to remember the things He had done and to tell them to their children for generations to come, I look forward to sharing our story with our children and grandchildren someday.

God heard the heart cry of His son, Appolinaire, in Rwanda and His daughter, Valerie, in America. He saw that their hearts were fully His, committed to serving Him, loving Him completely, but still longing for someone to walk with hand in hand on this journey of life.

I (Valerie) grew up in a quaint little place called Manheim, Pennsylvania far away from the country of Congo where my dear Appolinaire was born. Though his father and mother were Rwandan, they had fled to Congo in 1959 because of political unrest in Rwanda. Appolinaire was born in the Congo and lived there until 1995. He lost his mother when he was only 17 and he father deserted the family not long after. Being the oldest, he took the responsibility for himself and his siblings’ wellbeing.

Sometimes I wonder why I was born and raised in the comfort of America while he suffered the pain of poverty and death here in Africa. But surely God was carrying out His plan for both of us though our lives were worlds apart.

After finishing high school, God lead me to Elim Bible Institute, and it was there that He revealed His call on my life to serve Him as a missionary in Rwanda. Appolinaire went to Bible School in Nairobi, Kenya and then came back to Rwanda to serve the Lord. He is an associate pastor in a Pentecostal church here in the Kigali area and he teaches classes part time at World Mission Bible School.

I first met Appolinaire in 2006, the first time I came to Rwanda. I was a part of a team from Elim that took a trip to Uganda and Rwanda. Though we were only here in Rwanda for a few days, Appolinaire took notice of me during that time. In the months that followed, we began to communicate via email and thus began an interesting and beautiful friendship. I have to admit that I was rather oblivious to his affections and interest in the beginning and it took me awhile to figure out what was going on. However, I did notice how kind and sweet he was from the very beginning of our communication.

When I returned to Rwanda in 2008, our friendship grew even more and began to develop into more than a friendship in our hearts during that time. However, I still was unsure about where the relationship was going and so I just treasured these things in my heart.

Coming back to Rwanda this time, I honestly did not know what God was going to do with our relationship, if anything. I did not expect what He did do and I certainly did not expect it so soon! I had always prayed that when the time came God would speak to me clearly about the man that He wanted me to be with. I have never been one to date casually and I had always just known that God would work things out and make the way clear to me when the time came. So, though it seems sudden to some, it is no surprise to me that God would speak to me clearly that this is the man He wants me to be united with in marriage. I cannot even begin to tell you the prayer and tears that have gone into this relationship already! I have received clarity and peace to move ahead in our relationship. I truly believe that God has called Appolinaire and I together to serve Him and expand His kingdom here in Rwanda.

So yes, I am in love but I am not in denial. I know very well that this is going to be challenging. Marriage is hard work even when you are from the same culture and Appolinaire and I have to added stress of different cultures and different ways of communicating. But I know that we are both committed to this relationship and are willing to work hard. We know the challenges will come but we are not afraid of them because we know that a cord of three strands is not easily broken.

So that is actually the short version of our story, believe it or not! We are planning to get married here in Rwanda on August 14, 2010!

Happy New Year!!!

It is hard to believe that it is really 2010! It has been a few weeks since I have written because life has been rather busy around here.

Christmas was nice though very different from what I am used to in America. Not all the hype and fuss leading up to Christmas, just simple celebrations, a few decorations, a gift or two, and “special” food. For our family, the special food consisted of hamburgers and hotdogs! Sounds funny I know but when we asked the kids what kind of special meat they wanted to eat, they quickly answered “hot dogs!” Here in Rwanda meat is pretty expensive and hot dogs are especially expensive. We don’t get to eat meat often so when we do it is a special thing for us and especially for the kids.

Much of our time on and around Christmas was spent cleaning and packing up all our belongings. We moved into our new house on the 28^th. What a day that was! Not only did we move all of our things to our new house, we moved the Remember Me Boys’ Home here to Kanombe! They are now living in our old house. So it was a long day and a lot of work but it is really nice to have the boys’ close by now.

Things have been sort of in upheaval since the move because we moved into a house that is not finished. So we moved our things temporarily into the areas of the house that are ready and are waiting for the rest to be done. The last few days have been kind of like camping! Good things I always liked camping J.

Our Precious Little Ones...

This is Laurette and Charukhan standing in a window of our house. Charukhan is the son of one of my brothers and Laurette is a new addition to our already large family. She came to us last week and though she was a bit of a surprise she is a wonderful blessing and we love her very much!

You just never know what the day will bring…

Yesterday began like most days: ice cold shower in the dark, porridge at the table with the family for breakfast, walk to the office and settle into my desk to study Kinyarwanda. Even the walk home for lunch was uneventful. Lunch was simple but delicious, potatoes and cabbage. A knock on the door after lunch was the event that brought the unexpected element into my day.

My brother, Olivier, came to the living room to inform me that Laurette and her grandmother were at the gate. Let me give you a brief background. Laurette is a precious little girl, age two and a half who was being raised by her grandmother. Her mother was raped and bore her at a very young age and is therefore unable to care for her. So the grandmother had taken on the responsibility of raising her but she is a widow herself and very very poor. Long story short, Les and Yvonne have agreed to take Laurette into our home and raise her as their own child at the request of the desperate grandmother. We had to have certain paperwork in place before this could happen so we thought that this process would take awhile.

Naturally, I thought that this day, they had probably just come for a visit and maybe to update us on the necessary paperwork. Imagine our surprise when I discovered that the grandmother’s intention was to leave Laurette with us the same day! I quickly called Yvonne who was still in the office to let her know what was happening at the house. So that settled it, we had a new little girl at our house! You just never know what the day will bring!

Of course, it was not that simple. Though Laurette is young, she is not too young to understand that she is not with her grandmother and is now surrounded by strangers. I held her tightly as she sobbed and cried for her “mama.” My heart broke as I watched this precious little one struggling to understand what was happening to her. How traumatized she must be.

To complicate things even more, we had to go to a conference in the evening so she could not even get used to the house. And she is absolutely terrified of our dogs too. The poor little thing is having such a rough time adjusting but we know that these things will take time. She clung to me and eventually fell asleep as we walked the forty five minute walk to the church where we were having the conference. It was a bit of a rough evening with lots of crying and calling for “mama.” But we made it through and today she is doing much better. The other kids (my brothers and sisters) have taken her under their wings and at this point that seems to be the only thing that helps. Though she clung to me yesterday she now seems rather terrified of us (being white) but we know that too will take some adjustment. Keep her in your prayers as she continues to adjust to life in our household. She is a precious addition to our already large family!

Two months...

I am approaching the two month mark of being in Rwanda! I am throughly enjoying life here though at times it takes some getting used to. Lately we have been without electricity and the running water comes and goes frequently. Here in Rwanda if you are renting a house and someone that rented before you has an outstanding bill for electricity or water, they can shut off your electricity until someone pays the bill. So apparently someone before us has a bill that was not paid and therefore we are living by candle light.

It really is not a big deal, it just requires some adjustment. If you want to read or study you just try to get that done before it gets dark around 6 pm. The other night I was cooking and as it was beginning to get dark I realized that I had not yet sorted the rice (you have to sort through your rice here before you cook it to take out any bad pieces or little stones). So I learned my lesson and will certainly make sure that I sort the rice before it gets dark. Sorting rice by candlelight is frustrating to say the least!

The lack of light has given us more family time though. All you can really do is sit around in the evening and enjoy each other's company. We sing and listen to the kids telling stories all while sitting in our outdoor kitchen area as someone is cooking on the charcoal stove. Sometimes it feels like camping! But, hey, I always did enjoy camping! It has been a full moon lately and so that helps give us a little more light. Life is different when you have no electricity. You have to wake up early and go to bed early to make the most of the daylight. Once again, I am reminded of the beauty of a simple life!

Eating Grasshoppers! mmmmm!!!!!

Before...

After we finished eating...only legs left!

Live grasshopper...about to become a snack!

Frying them up!

Our adventure for this morning...running all over our property catching grasshoppers, taking off their wings, frying them in a pan with salt, and enjoying a special treat with our breakfast! They were actually very delicious!

Language, language, language...

Right now my days are consumed with language study aside from the other daily activities of cooking and washing. I had thought I found the perfect language helper but unfortunately all that fell through and at the moment I am on my own. Actually, I am not really on my own at all because I am surrounded by people speaking Kinyarwanda all day long. So between help from my brothers and sisters and my own independent study of a Kinyarwanda lesson book, things are going pretty well. It is exciting to study hard and be able to see the results. I love when I can sit back and listen to my siblings laughing and telling stories and begin to recognize words and concepts. As tedious as it is, it is rewarding as well.

The language itself is quite challenging. It is a tonal language which means you can have a word that looks the same and sounds almost the same but means something completely unrelated. There are high toned words and low toned words and I cannot usually hear the difference. So I am spending much time just listening and trying to train my ear to hear the different sounds.

Turns out the other day, while trying to tell my brother’s little boy (my nephew) Charukhan to wash his hands, I instead told him to wash his banana tree! This is challenging but fun too!

The Ministry of Identification

Things here in Rwanda are going very well. It is hard for me to believe that I have been here for over a month now! In some ways it seems like I just arrived and in others like I have always been here. The adjustments are going well and I am grateful that at this point in time my daily schedule is pretty relaxed which allows me time to study language, build relationships, process the culture around me, and pray!

As I was praying yesterday I felt the Lord speaking to me about the ministry of identification. Let me explain. I believe that God has called me to come to Rwanda not just to be a missionary to Rwanda but to really live with and identify with the people. I know to you that may sound insignificant but here in Rwanda it is actually a rather profound testimony. Rwanda has received lots of outside help from various missions and organizations (Christian and not). But you don’t have to be here long to see that many people serving here do not really identify with the people. They drive around in cars supplied by their organization, live in huge houses, and don’t really even try to learn the language of the people. There is really an “us and them” mentality.

So God has been speaking to me about the power of identifying with the people. It happens in simple everyday ways. Learning the language is huge. When I am out in the village or town and I speak Kinyarwanda (limited though it may be) I can instantly see the difference on people’s faces. They love and respect the fact that you want to try to communicate with them in their heart language. It is a beautiful testimony. I think about the ministry of identification when I am sitting in the sun on my little stool scrubbing my clothing by hand. I think about it when I am cooking dinner for my family on our little charcoal fire. I think about it when I am traveling by public transportation. I think about it in the morning when the ice cold water hits my body as I wash up in our outdoor shower. I even think about it when I use the latrine!

You see the thing is, I could have a washer if I really wanted to. I could cook on a gas stove. I could get a hot water heater. All these things, I could have if I was willing to pay the outrageous prices for them. And in fact, here in Rwanda if you are white, you are almost expected to have these things. People look at me strange when I tell them I have to go home and cook on our amakara (charcoal). They think it is strange that I wash my own clothing. They would expect me to at least to pay someone else to do these things for me. But this is the ministry of identification. It is about becoming like the people, understanding their struggles, entering into their lives, experiencing their world. And this is what I have been called to do here in Rwanda.

Yes, I will be doing lots of other kinds of ministry eventually but I never want to forget the power of identifying with the people. God has called to be a different kind of missionary. I cannot just come and do a few good deeds and then go home thinking how I helped the people. My ministry is living in Rwanda. My ministry is having a Rwandan family and loving them just like I would my own flesh and blood. It is a long term thing; in fact it is a life time thing. It is a God thing that I can only do by His grace and power!

Let's try this again...

So once again it has been a very long time since I posted on this blog. In fact, so long that most of you have probably given up on checking it by now. But I have decided to try this again, this time I hope to be more faithful. I have been having lots of frustration with my email contact list and somehow it seems I deleted half of my list by accident! I am too frustrated to deal with it at this point so I decided to pick up this blog again as a way to keep in touch rather then sending emails at this point. Thanks for your patience.

I now have internet access in my house so I hope to be updating this blog on a very regular basis so check in often and spread the word to others who are interested in knowing what is going on in Rwanda!

The New Website!!!

So the new website for A Voice For Rwanda is up and running!!!!  Some things are not completely finished yet but it is looking pretty good I think!  Thanks to Jerry Warsaw for creating it for us!

Check it out!   www.avoiceforrwanda.com

So here's what's going on...

It has been too long since my last post.  So long, in fact, that you have probably gotten tired of checking my blog and finding nothing new.  Sorry about that!

So here's the latest update.  I am busy jumping into the nity grity details of preparation for Rwanda.  The plan, Lordwilling, is to return to Rwanda in the beginning of October this year.  So I have been busy working on a budget, paperwork, and details with my sending agency Commission To Every Nation.  I will be traveling to Texas for an orientation in June for a few days and am looking forward to that very much!

Last month I had a yard sale and bake sale to raise money for Rwanda that was a huge success!  Thank you so much to all of you who donated items and baked goods and also to those of you who came out to shop!  

Things are going well and God has been teaching me so much!

God is so Faithful!

I have been so blessed by the faithfulness of my God! Ever since I returned from Rwanda I have been seeking the Lord and asking Him for guidance and direction in this time of preparation before heading back to Rwanda. I was especially asking the Lord, "who will send me?" I know where I am called to go and who I am called to work with, but who will send me there? It seemed like no one was really ready to begin a "new" work, in other words, send someone to Rwanda to work with A Voice For Rwanda since they had not previously had workers in Rwanda. It was an interesting journey, but I literally stumbled across an organization that seemed to be "made" for my situation!

I am excited to report that I applied to that mission sending agency in Texas called Commission to Every Nation (CTEN) and was quickly accepted! I have begun the process with them and I am totally at peace! God is indeed faithful. He is the Lord who Provides!

By the way, as I have been seeking the Lord as to when I should return to Rwanda, it is looking like I will be heading back around the end of September or very beginning of October. Though it seems too far off, I am at peace with this also and I know that God has a plan and He will carry it out. His plans are good and right! Though my heart longs for Rwanda, my heart is at peace in His hands. Plus...I will be here for my new niece or nephew's arrival!!!!!!!!

I appreciate all your prayers during this time of preparation. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you and give you peace!

Steps of faith

This is a walk of faith for sure but I would not have it any other way! Learning to trust God to lead in His timing is the only way to live.

My heart longs to be home in Rwanda with my family but I know that His plan is better than mine anyday. Right now I am here and I am finding His purposes here also. I am having a great time reconnecting with family and friends and investing in those relationships. I have been able to really plug back into my home church and have found so much purpose there too!

I had been thinking that I would aim to go back to Rwanda at the end of May but now it looks like I may not return until the fall. While it is going to be extremely hard to be away from everyone in Rwanda for so long I am excited to see what God has for me here. I know that He is up to something. I will be here for the arivial of my new niece or nephew in September too!!!!!!

It is all about trust! That is the biggest lesson I am learning these days. It is all about hearing His voice and trusting Him. He is who He says He is and He does what He says He will do! Our God is so faithful!

Rwanda Night success!

Thanks again to everyone who came out to Rwanda Night! I really enjoyed the night and I trust that you did too! It was fun to see everyone tasting our Rwanda cuisine! If you missed it I am sorry :) I feel so blessed to have so much love and support behind me. I am always blown away by how God moves on people's heart and brings our hearts inline with His! What a priviledge it is to serve a God like Him!

Rwanda Night!!!

So I am working hard on plans for my Rwanda Night on Saturday. I am really excited about it and it is all coming together pretty well. It is not really a fundraiser but more of a night of sharing what God has done and is doing in Rwanda. I am praying that God will really move on the hearts of people, open eyes to what He is doing globally, and ignite passion to partner with Him as He is moving in the earth! It's all about HIM!!! Some of you may be attending, some of you may not be but we can all pray that God will be glorified.

Pray for this journey....!

Oh my, this is quite a journey I am on! I am currently in the process of finding a sending organization to stand with me and send me back to Rwanda. I know where God has called me...Rwanda. I know who He has callled me to work with...A Voice For Rwanda. I just don't know all the step to get me there.

So this is a call to prayer. I am realizing that I need as much prayer support now in this season as I do when I am on the field! I want to see the path and walk in it! So thank you for standing with me in prayer.

What a HUGE family!!!

So now you have met my "imediate" Rwandan family but there is more....

I have introduced you to many members of my family already but this picture is a more full picture of my Rwandan family. Les and Yvonne have begun two "group" homes and a child-led household which I want to introduce you to.

Many people have a heart to help orphans of which there are many in Rwanda but what happens to these orhpans when they grow up. Many times they are too old to continue living in an orphanage but where do they turn? The reality is that many of these will end up out on the streets or other tragic lifestyles as a form of survival. This is the "lost generation" of Rwanda.

Many of these young people have not yet finished school though they are over 18 years old. They have no jobs, no money, no food, no family, and no one to guide them in their future. Many feel they have no future and therefore, no hope.

The "Remember Me" Homes were started for these precious young people. Les and Yvonne saw the need and God gave them the tools to really make a difference! The Remember Me Boys' Home currently has 9 older boys, two house fathers, and a cook. There are two more boys who are in the process of transitioning into the home. The Remember Me Girls' home currently has 11 girls, one of which is the house mother. These are the young people that you see in this picture. I can not begin to tell you details about each one but they are all precious brothers and sisters!

I also mentioned child-led households. These homes help the oldest sibling in a family become productive "heads of households" and learn to care for their younger siblings. There are currently two child-led homes that we are supporting.

It is exciting to see how their lives have been totally transformed. They no longer have fear about what the future holds and that has given them so much hope! To God be the glory great things He has done!

My little guy

So this is my little guy, Ntwari. He is so precious and so tricky! You can tell by the look on his face in the first picture!

He was my special little buddy for the two months that I lived in Kanombe with the family. We did lots together. I will never forget washing clothes with him. Especially the day he proudly announced to me that he planned to marry me! He was so precious. When I tried to explain that it would not really work because I was much older than him he just smiled and said, "no problem, you stay the same and I will grow then I will marry you."

What a sweet little guy. He is actually the one who gave me my Kinyarwanda name, Mukunziwimana Valeria. He will always have a special place in my heart! I will never forget all the precious manories of tucking him into bed at night. The way that I would always hold him on my lap when we had to have a "chat".

Ntwari, I can not wait to hold you in my arm s again!

My Brother Olivier

This is my fourteen years old brother, Olivier. Even saying his name brings a smile to my face. He is such a fun guy to be around. Olivier always has a crazy story to tell and we spent many nights at the table laughing all the way through dinner.

But he is more than just fun to be around. He has been through quite a lot in his life and I will always admire his good attitude and strength. I am so proud of him!

He loves football (soccer), most boys in Rwanda do! He also likes to listen to music and drama on the radio, and he likes to dance too.

Olivier, I miss you precious smile and laughter. Can't wait to see you again soon!

My Precious Prisca!

This is my favorite picture of Alice and Prisca. Alice is on the left and Prisca is on the right. Are they not gorgeous?!

Prisca is another one of my sweet sisters! I am so blessed to have her in my life. I love her smile and her fun, sweet spirit. While I was in Rwanda on this past trip Prisca was going to school in a different area so I did not get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked but I look forward to going back and getting to know her better!