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.