Our Week in Rwanda

Where to start? We have not had access to internet and phone service has been hard to come by so I haven’t been able to blog and now there is so much to say! We arrived in Gisenyi last Thursday and immediately went over to the Ndengera Foundation to meet the orphans and see the programs they have there (sewing room, card making room, bead making etc). We were immediately surrounded by kids and they grabbed our hands and followed us everywhere. I was overwhelmed by emotion as I looked down at their eager faces, covered with dirt looking up at us with bright excited smiles. They wore tattered stained clothes and many had no shoes. I wanted to burst out sobbing but held it together so that I wouldn’t scare the sweet little girls holding my hands. Simon Pierre ( the pastor of the church in Gisenyi who started the foundation) has done great things to help provide for the over 800 orphans and widows/grandmas who live in Gisenyi. They have trained the women to make bead necklaces out of paper and the older orphans make gift cards out of banana leaves to sell for income. They also give them food, sponsor kids to go to school and give them uniforms, sports equipment and school supplies. There are several women we met who have AIDs and are both caring for 10 kids (their own and others that were orphaned).Through donations the church has been able to buy them some homes to live in. The homes here are made out of mud bricks and if there is a roof it is corrugated tin. The floors are either cement or dirt, depending on how much money the people have. Most homes are about the size of a storage shed with one extra room. One widow we visited has 8 kids she has taken in and she has no roof. The 3 small rooms in her house were completely bare with only one corner containing their belongings: one dirty sleeping bag, a small pot and a few mismatched flip flops. As a team we decided to pitch in towards a new roof for her. By Thursday this week we finally finished building the playground for the nursery school at the church. It is the 1st playground ever in the town of Gisenyi. The kids had no idea how to play on the equipment, we had to demonstrate how to swing, use teeter totters etc. They still don’t want to walk on the balance beam and insist on using it as a bench. I am so proud of John for designing and overseeing the building project. He was amazing! The swing set alone is a work of art and the playhouse looks great. The team had to do most things by hand: dig out all the rocks, saw the huge wood beams, hammer nails.. we had occasional power and spent a lot of time waiting on supplies. We definitely learned that things are on a different time schedule here. The people are so helpful though. When we ordered the lumber we were a bit frustrated when after 4 hours they hadn’t delivered it yet. Little did we know they were “hand-delivering” it.. pushing 400 Lbs each of wooden beams each on a hand made wheelbarrow over pot holed filled unpaved roads for about 2 miles. Wow! We had a new appreciation for the work ethic here! I will have to write more later about our funny moments: riding on the back of motorcycle taxis through the dusty streets (all 15 of us in a line!), 21 of us packed into a small van with wild music jamming, the Game refuge tour with baboons , giraffes, zebras etc.., taking sponge baths every night without power or hot water, the meals etc.. So many good memories!

Almost there!

The team is together in Nairobi Airport (Kenya) right now waiting for our 12 pm flight to Kigali. We had two 9 hr flights already and14 hrs of lay-overs between London and here. We are tired but in good spirits! Our Kenyan friend Beth just arrived and will be flying with us to Rwanda. We will spend the night in Kigali tonight before driving to Gisenyi tomorrow (3-4 hr drive). Not sure how often we will have internet access but I will try to update with pictures soon! Good thing Melanie brought her laptop!

Here we go!

We are leaving in a few hours for London. We fly overnight and then meet up with the rest of the group tomorrow. We will then fly another red eye to Kenya and then finally arrive in Kigali, Rwanda on Wednesday around noon. John and I have been scurrying around with last minute details, there is so much to remember! Please pray that all of our luggage arrives safely, we have four 50# suitcases packed with gifts, supplies and our stuff. We would also appreciate prayer for the kids and their time with the grandparents and for emotional strength as we are away for the longest period of time that we have ever been. Of course, we also pray for health, protection, success with the playground project and that God would work through us in every way he desires. We are excited!

12 days until our journey begins!

Praise God, today we finally received our Nigerian visas. We are so relieved to have our passports back so close to leaving:) I posted a picture of some of John's relatives that we will be meeting in Nigeria. It's hard to believe that after praying for 15 years to find his long lost relatives, we will actually be meeting them and seeing the land of his father. Update on Rwanda: John has been working hard on designing the playground and making a materials list for the project in Gisenyi. We have also been busy collecting shoes, school supplies, and small gifts to pack in our suitcases for the orphans. I am most looking forward to hugging and loving on all the kids. I can't wait for that. It seems surreal that we will be there in two weeks. WOW.

One month until travel time!

Wow, we leave in one month! We finally have all of our vaccinations done (7 shots!). We were able to both get our yellow fever shot for free through the Air Force base which is a blessing. One area we could use prayer right now is for our visas to Nigeria to get approved. We have applied twice and had them rejected for "missing items" such as a copy of our hosts passport (why would he have a passport, he has lived in Nigeria his whole life). These requirements aren't listed on the website and we hear something different every time we call. We are going to try to go through traveldocs.com and let them work it out! Pray for quick turnaround please!

15 years ago today

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the start of the ghastly genocide that occured in Rwanda in April 1994. It is hard to imagine how the people of Rwanda could ever move past such an awful bloodshed. I am surprised however, by all the accounts of reconciliation and forgiveness that are taking place there. Recently I read an article from the US organization Prison Fellowship about a special program they help support in Rwanda called the "Umuvumu Tree Project". This program was started in 2002 to help reconcile some of the 125,000 genocidaire prisoners to their victims in order to ask forgiveness and bring about healing for both parties. This seems almost impossible on human terms, unfathomable to be able to forgive such atrocities. Yet 40,000 prisoners have been through the program already and with the help of local pastors and a lot of prayer, reconciliation is happening. Bishop John Rucyahana who works with the reconciliation program says, "Christ's love and the power of forgiveness are conquering years of ethnic tension and hundreds of thousands of vicious acts of violence. It's like a miracle to the world. But to us, mercy is an act of love."

Our Team

We have a finalized team list and it is exciting to think that God hand-picked the 15 of us from all over the Western US to be part of this experience together. We would love prayer for the team as we prepare to go to Rwanda together.
Team members:
Gordon and Rachelle Wong, Oahu
Lloyd and Jody Hisaka, Oahu
Melissa Leininger, Oahu
Rick, Gail and Colin Ragle, Big Island
Jason Hamanaka, Oahu
Amy Coulter, CA
Jennifer Loux, CA
Melanie Richardson, CA
John and Amanda Huckstep, CO

Ups and Downs

What a week! We had a few roadblocks thrown at us this week and it definitely seems like the enemy is not happy with our plans to go. 1st we got a notice from the IRS saying we owed $1800 from 2007 taxes. Praise God a relative of ours got that cleared up and we owe only a few hundred (it is hard to file taxes correctly when you are living in suitcases and in the middle of a move:) Then I have been attacked by anxiety lately. I have been praying a ton and learning a lot about spiritual battle. This temporary trial is only making me stronger and more equipped for the amazing journey ahead. One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:28 We are assured that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose".. Amen!

No turning back!

Today we got our plane tickets.. no turning back now! We also heard more about the playground project. Our team will be turning a 30 x 60 ft dirt lot into something fun and beautiful for the kids (hopefully!) Gordon asked us for ideas... we can't ship equipment over so we'll have to be real creative.

What we will be doing in Rwanda

On June 8th, 2009 John and I will fly to London, meet up with our team, and then head to Gisenyi, Rwanda to work with Simon Pierre and his orphan outreach organization, The Ndengera Foundation. Ndengera currently is caring for 624 orphans whose parents died from HIV/AIDS as well as 190 street children and orphans whose parents died in genocide-related cases. The main project we will be working on is to build a playground at the orphanage. John is hoping to play sports with the kids and I plan to love and cuddle as many kids as I can. We just want to pour out God's love to these kids in as many ways as we can.

Why we are going

Complicated question.. a lot of reasons. It started when I read the book "It's not Okay with Me" by Jeanine Maxwell about her experiences with AID's victims in South Africa. I wanted to go immediately and almost went to Swaziland in 2007. The timing wasn't right though and so when our church in Hawaii announced last year that they were planning a trip to Rwanda for June 2009, I was immediately on board. John thought he would never be able to get time off of work to go so he put the trip on a back burner in his mind. In the meantime, amazing things started happening. John has been looking for his Nigerian family for over 14 years. In October we found a cousin in Benin City (through Facebook!). She was able to put us in touch with his nephew Shaun and the family keeps growing. What a blessing it has been! As we get to know Shaun over weekly phone conversations, the desire to go to Africa has grown heavy on John's heart. He was granted the time off of work and has now signed on to be part of the team to Rwanda. After working at an orphanage in Rwanda for 10 days we will travel to Nigeria to meet his family members. I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of a long journey for us.