Monday`s Comin`

That is the day that Serge and Prince are scheduled to arrive in Canada.

So very exciting as this will be Prince`s first time to Canada and there is so much to show him and so much for him to experience. 

It will also be the day that the on slot of activity will avalanche into our life.

Most missionary families get 6 months or a year to do what we have 2.5 months to do - spend as much time as possible with family, hang out with friends, connect with current and potential donors, spend time at the IT office, shop and try to relax a little. Don`t get me wrong... I`m not complaining in the least... but what does get me is that some people think that our time back in Canada is this long extended vacation. Mmmmmmmm....

Think I have yet to talk to a missionary who says that their time on home assignment is even close to a relaxing and refreshing time. We always joke that we need a vacation when home assignment is over! :-)

Well.. here I sit at my mom`s, writing a blog, the kids are having a nap, mom`s out and I`m watching a bit of TV... and I AM enjoying some time when no one is wanting something from me by phone, face to face or email.  

I just talked to Serge and he's running crazy in Kigali trying to get everything done before he and Prince get on a plane Sunday night. Told him to be chewing back the Vitamin C as well... don't want him to get the colds and coughs that we all have here in Canada. Sure hope I'm feeling better by then, cause Monday is comin' and everything that will bring for the next 2.5 months! 

If we get more snow in the next couple of months than you would want... just remember it's for us!

BUY ONE!!!

One of our interns this summer just completed a little project... a book on Rwanda. 

SO PROUD of her!! 

SO blessed she would give us  her skill and time. 

Check out the book and buy one :-)

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1676243

4 Years Old!

Our little Princess turned four on the 21st. 

Had a great time sharing her birthday with Grandma - who also celebrates her birthday that day. 

(If you didn't know I am already in Canada with Beni and Isabella... you do now. Serge and Prince arrive Monday to start our home assignment.)

Never Ceases to Amaze me!

Where and the amount of Christian worship music that is played in this country is really quite unbelievable.

Yesterday I was enjoying an amazing gift that someone had given me.. an aromatherapy massage at the 5 star hotel in town (YEAH!) and what was wafting over the sound system... a strings and piano combination of old hymns and current worship music. Was such great time for me... I actually stopped moving, I was able to reflect on God's goodness in my life AND I was getting a massage. Doesn't get much better than that!

When we go into Nakumatt, the big supermarket in town, Hillsongs videos are playing on the TVs.

When I first started coming to Rwanda, I would go to the Inter Continental Hotel for the FREE wireless... and be blessed to hear worship songs being played on the grand piano. Turns out that the piano players in Kigali are the worship leaders in the church ... so they get hired!

When you go to a football (soccer) game - think 40,000 people - singing to church music.

When I go to the local coffee shop - think better than Starbucks - I sit there listening to ... you guessed it... worship music.

Never ceases to amaze me.

Now you would think this might equate with a country full of Jesus followers... we're working on that!

The Poor are Chosen ...

AND they will be rich in faith... and inherit the Kingdom. (James 2:5)

I can't get these thoughts out of my head this week.

In the English Service, we are going through the book of James and this verse and the surrounding passage has actually maybe brought some closure to years of wrestling and thinking.

The big question... not just from me but from about everyone who ministers alongside us from the west is...

How can these people, who have nothing and have been through some extremely difficult life experiences, take every opportunity they can to testify to the goodness and faithfulness of God?

You would think that one who has been born in 'easy' circumstances, grown up in the church, had a variety of faith maturing experiences in life would be able to have more faith than the one with the opposite sort of life.

It's just not so.

I have lived in Rwanda for about 5 years and maybe, just maybe I am coming to peace about my heart and 'the poor'. I have been overwhelmed time and time again with their contentment, joy and determined knowledge that God is good and that He alone is faithful. When I look at their lives, it's hard for me to comprehend how they can truly say these things when HIV/AIDs, genocide, poverty, lack of the basic necessities of life - food, shelter, education - are in their daily lives.

But I think that God has opened my mind and my heart even more to understand how His world, His ways, His Kingdom is SO upside down from what I grew up with.

I used to think it was really sad that Jesus said we would always have the poor among us... but now I'm thinking.. it's a really good thing we do!

We need them to lead us to faith, to joy, to contentment, to total dependency on God.

My heart rests knowing they are chosen.