Just Some Photos :)

On The Way . . .

It never ceases to amaze me what people here can carry. . . 

Big or Small they make it happen :)

My 17year old bike driver, he killed it!

He biked three miles with me on the back!!

The Road Less Traveled. . . 

The View From My Bike :) 

The River That Followed Us. . .

Little Angry Girl With a Machete :)

Created To Be His Help Meet

This past week I started reading the book,

Created To Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearls.

I have had this book for almost a year now,

But honestly it has been hard to pick up.

Call it what you want, pride, rebellion, or unbelief.

But after being raised in a society where women have to be educated, have equal rights, and you don’t need a man, we can do it ourself society,

it was hard for me to wrap my mind around the title,

 “Created to be His Help Meet”.

A few times I have tried to pick it up

but each time my pride glasses go on

and I think this book is sooooo outdated.

But there is something about the statistic

that says that ½ marriages in America end in divorce

and if you’re a Christian then the statistic is that 

½ marriages end in a divorce.

Ick. Why? What changed in society?

So here I am picking up this book once more.

And goodness have my eyes been opened!

So it starts off talking about God’s plan for a heavenly marriage

And how he created Adam first and then created him a Help meet.

“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. . . And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. . . and he took one of his ribs. . .And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto to man.” (Genesis 2:18,21-22)

This word Help meet, to me it just sounds ole’ fashioned.

But laying my pride down, I knew that their had to be a better way to have a marriage then what I personally had been exposed to in my 23 years of life. I have heard from different people that it was good for a few years and then its just life, to me that sounds terrible why marry if its just going to “be life”. I want a glorious marriage filled with love, laughter, and all “that” other stuff that comes along with being married  :) But I knew there had to be a way to have a different marriage

than the ones I’ve seen around me. 

Not that they are all bad

but I figure I only get one shot at this life here on earth

and one shot at marriage

so why not do it Gods way,

he has been around a time or two

and probably knows a bit more than I do!

So here I am learning some tuff stuff

and refocusing my eyes and my habits

to reflect more how God would have me live

and less how I think I deserve to live.

And so far for some reason when I stinking do it Gods way

I end up with crazy abundances of joy in my day

and in my relationships!

So maybe there is something to this

“Created To Be His Help Meet” book

that is so intertwined in His word,

yet is super simple and only requires minor adjustments.

WARNING: I MAY OFFEND YOU AND WHAT YOU, AS A WOMEN, “THINK” YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO. *But if you lay down your offensiveness as I did and take this for what it is your life might just be radically changed for the better. And your marriage might be too!

As well as your days. They are truly filled with more joy. 

Because hey, you are doing what you were made to do!!

“Man was created for God and women was created for man.”

If your are like me in anyway

I had a hard time swallowing this.

I just couldn’t get it into my head

without first getting a bit defensive

and being like BUT what about all they teach in school

about women’s right and men and women were created equal

and all that shenanigans??

But then a thought came into my mind

why is it that there are more people today

than ever before in history are staying single

and why does it out weighs the ones getting married??

Aren’t we as humans designed for relationships?

Don’t we get the most fulfillment in life

when we are loving others and being loved?

Serving others and  spending time with those we love?

And why has that drastically changed in the last 50 years?

What changed to make this slide in society.

As I sat and thought about these things I couldn’t help but wonder if society is now pushing divorce down our throats a bit and calling marriage a bit “ole’ fashioned”. Saying divorce is “normal” and if anything, quite expected, of at least fifty percent of those that do choose to marry. I don’t know about you but this is shocking to me.

Christian or not the statistic is the same. So what’s is the deal?

What has changed? And how do my eyes need to be refocused to look more like Christ eyes?

So here is where my treasure hunt began,

One week ago I started this search

for some God based answers.

Uncomfortable? Yes.

Worth it? Absolutely.

So a bit of a recap on what I have learned so far. . .

•   When you honor your husband, you honor God. When you obey your husband you obey God. The degree to which you reverence your husband is the degree to which you reverence your Creator.  As we serve our husbands, we serve God. But in the same way, when you dishonor your husband you dishonor God.
•         It's not a question of whether or not you can do a better job than he; it’s a matter of doing what you were “designed” to do.
•    A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a persons strength. Proverbs 17:22 NLT
•    God stands with you when you stand by your man, but you will stand alone if you insist on standing by your rights.  He was not created for you but you for him.

•        A wise women sets a joyful mood in her home. Through laughter, music, and happy times, she creates a positive attitude in her children.
•    Discontentment is not a product of circumstances; it is the state of the soul.

Challenge: Courtesy of Debi Pearls the author. Test it out this week and see if maybe, just maybe God’s word knows a thing or two about marriage. . .

 Thanksgiving produces joy.

Open your mouth and begin to thank God 

for his grace towards you.

Thank him for every good thing 

he has brought into your life. 

Thank him, thank him, and thank him again. 

Joy is the result of a thankful heart.

 A thankful heart is the result of a person who decides to give thanks.

Love And Laughter :)

In a small corner,

In a small community,

On the other side of the world,

Everyday around two pm we meet.

Some walk from far away,

Some live in the community,

others leave small jobs to come and meet with us.

We all come for the same reason,

love and hope.

And Crocheting hats :)

Dirt under our feet,

Sitting on wooden benches.

With our yarn in our laps.

We sit, laugh, and learn from each other.

Over the last week

I have really  fallen in love with these women.

Their eyes.

Their smiles.

Their love.

And the fact that we get together

Everyday for three hours and I get to teach them

Something I just learned myself.

It’s a beautiful thing here.

This is Janet, she is in her late thirties and has five kids.

She is married and she has the only husband  in the community.

There is so much beauty and commitment in her.

Everyday she shows up on time.

For Africa and this community, that’s impressive.

She is on her second yarn

and is now making a beautiful neon yellow hat.

She might just become the leader once we head home.

She always has her youngest one on her back.

Goodness God really put his hand print on this country.

And made it beautiful.

Here is her youngest one sitting with mammy

while she crochets.

Watching these women sit and chat

and laugh together just makes my heart sing.

 Last week we started teaching the community we are working with 

how to crochet hats. 

We are hoping to sell them in the States

 and use the profit to help this community 

save up enough to get a sewing machine

 and hopefully God willing a small shop 

that would provide enough work for these women

 to feed their families. 

My single moms ministry is growing!!!

Party In Heaven. . .

This morning we set out three strong.

Two of our teammates are sick.

Two stayed home to cook.

And our translator wasn’t feeling well either.

So he stayed home too.

So Ben, Alysha, and I headed out,

Meeting pastor Andrew and Pastor Claude

Around 9:30am to hit the streets to do street evangelism.

The first house we came to we saw two kids,

one about two and the other eight years old.

The young girl watching them invited us into the home.

Alysha shared her testimony and how its not about a religion,

Or a church, but about a personal relationship with Jesus.

About how we need to live from the love, not for the love.

And how you cannot earn more of Gods favor by doing good deeds,

But how when you are so filled with the revelation of His love and His character you can't help but become His hands and feet for His beloved.

Following this she wanted to give her life to Christ, so we prayed with her and she prayed back in Kinyarwandan. It’s a beautiful moment that we get to be part of here in Rwanda getting to walk people into salvation and realizing that these are my brothers and sisters now. And that we are His children. We exchange phone numbers so we can follow up with her.

And let her get back to her house chores.

We walked a bit after leaving her house,

down a long dirt road,

covered in the same rocks and dips,

that are now becoming all to familiar, 

from the rainy season.

We turned a corner and saw a young girl sweeping the dirt

with a straw broom,

which always seems a bit odd to me, sweeping dirt.  

We stopped and talked to her and as we were talking her sister came up.

They told us that they both were following Christ and that their whole family had given their lives to Christ.

I asked her was there a change that has happened since then and she said, “she no longer is a slave to her flesh and her sinful nature but now she is a new creation in Christ and living by the spirit.”

And she quoted Ephesians 2:4

“But God so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead” Ephesians 2:4

My face lit up, from end to end as she said this.

Something within me wanted to shout, YOU get IT you REALLY get IT!!

Some times I think we miss it.

I know i missed it for a long time. 

But hearing such a good, honest, heart filled response

just makes me wanna huge her.

We prayed for her and her sister to be lights unto their extended family.

That they would have courage to speak boldly about God.

And we let her get back to her dirt sweeping.

As we looked down the road we saw a family

of seven or eight all watching us.

As we approached we began introducing ourselves

and where we had come from.

I then shared my testimony about forgiveness 

and the importance of forgiving those who have harmed you without receiving an apology, 

 as I was talking the moms eyes were locked with mine

 and the grandma my just stared at me with this huge grin on her face. 

She must have been in her late eighties 

and you could tell that she waited eighty years for this moment. 

You could really feel the mom taking in each and every word I spoke.

At the end I said that we are here to get to know people better 

and at that moment I heard screams of joy 

and as I turned to look

 running down the road toward us was all of our little treasures 

 from the community we have been working with, 

they found us :) my heart was just overflowing with joy

 and love as their little arms wrapped around my waist. 

What a beautiful picture for this family 

that we weren’t just talking but we really meant what we said. 

I told them we had just met these little treasures last week 

and they are now our brothers and sister 

and we want her family to be in our family too! 

Clementine came up to me right away 

and stood by me the whole time 

her little brown eyes beaming up at me 

and listening to every word that I spoke.  

There is just something about her, 

my heart just loves to be around her. 

I held a little girl for a bit 

as we continued to tell them about Jesus. 

Then we asked if they wanted to 

 accept Jesus into their lives

 the mom looked at me and said sarcastically in Kinyarwandan 

that “if she didn’t want what we had then they would have went and hid  inside before we could get to them but because they all stayed outside they wanted Jesus to be part of their lives”

So the Mom, two men who looked to be in their twenties, grandma, and one of the young daughters who was a teenager 

all prayed to have Jesus in their hearts and lives!!! 

As I listen to the grandma who was closest to me repeat the pray back 

my heart melted as I thought about all she has been through 

and seen in her life

 and how today, December 28, 2011, she started a relationship with Jesus! Amen to that!!! 

As we were going to pray over them pastor Claude took the little guy out of my hands and instantly tears started to stream down his face, as I picked him back up his little hands griped my arm and around my neck as he wiped his tears on my shirt. I just wanted to bad to sit in that moment and treasure that little treasure. As we left the neighbors invited us over and we had so say goodbye to our little friends and that we would see them tomorrow. As we said bye sweet Clementine just looked up at me and I got down to her level and told her to take care of her hand today (she is the girl who I had to bandage her had last week and her mom ran out of bandages so it got worse again) and I told her I would be back tomorrow to change it.

My sweet girl, Clementine

As we entered the next house, of the young men who invited us over, we entered luxury, a nice house that right outside their gates borders poverty. I don’t know if I could ever get used to that. His eager eyes met ours as I asked him if he spoke English, he said he tries. I love that the fact that they are so willing to learn something new even if the muzugus laugh a bit at them and the Rwandans laugh a bit at us when we speak Kinyarwandan. He wanted to know how to do what we do. We explained about Youth With A Mission and he wanted to instantly apply for it. His name was Ben and he was 19 and just graduated high school. So we had Ben from our team share his testimony, Ben to Ben. As we got to the end Ben (the Rwandan) asked how we are able to get new revelation of Gods word when we read it. This was the perfect opportunity to ask if he had ever excepted Jesus into his heart and life and that when he does so he will get a new revelation of his love because the veil will be removed from his eyes. We asked him if he wanted to ask Jesus into his life and he immediately got down on his knees his cousins followed all four of them got down on their knees, talk about a humbling moment. I can just feel how honored God would feel at this moment looking down at his children so eager to receive what He has in store for them. As they kneel down and repeat the prayer and ask Christ to come into their lives you can feel the excitement in their voices. As soon as we finish Ben, the Rwandan, is eager to get into YWAM and so we exchange numbers and give him contact information for Gaby so he can apply for YWAM. I love the hungriness here, the culture of dropping whatever they are doing and spending time with strangers, inviting them into their homes and humbling themselves before this amazing God that brought us here to Rwanda, to these people, to these houses, for these beautiful people, for His will to be done. I’m just in awe of how good our God is at preparing each of these peoples hearts for our ministry.

So fruit that we got to see this week was yesterday when pastor Claude told us that on Christmas Eve when they had a all night prayer meeting one of the new believers came and shared his testimony about how he planned his suicide out and was going to walk it out the pervious Tuesday when we just “happened” to cross his path that day and bring him to Christ. His life was permanently changed because of our obedience. Wow. Talk about being used for the kingdom!!  Pretty sure there is a party in heaven today!!!

Thank you God, for getting to be your Hands and Feet here. God I pray that you would continue to give me courage to be your hands and feet and be sensitive to your spirit so your will can be done. Teach me to rely on your strength and not my own. Thank you for letting me be part of your beautiful people. Amen.