Merry Christmas From Rwanda National Team

Merry Christmas to all from Rwanda.

Counting Nails

In the moments before going to bed I was hit by another moment of cultural frustration. It hardly seems worth writing about but I personally found it actually humorous.

Our home, although a God send for sure, has less storage space than our home in America. Less than most homes in America. It does not have a garage or attic and most homes here are not built with the idea of having a washer and drier inside. So, we have our washer and drier (I still have not called an electrician) on the back porch. The washer is hooked up in a hodge-podge way with a garden hose to the water main. We commonly have to wash loads twice because our worker or a child turns the water off in the middle of the wash cycle. Sometimes the city water pressure drops in the middle of the cycle and the washer cannot hand the low pressure and shuts off.

The storage rooms we have are not big enough for my tools, the washer and dryer and most of the other items we had in our garage and shed in Tyler. These items in addition to the items that would go in an attic (Holiday decor and kid's clothing that are waiting for the next child to grow into them) won't fit in our home nor our storage. We need to get our washer off the porch and into the storage room where a plumber can hook it to the water main properly. Well the landlord was really big on the idea of paying for an additional add on storage room (sarcasm here). His exact words were, sure "you" can build more storage if you like. He'd love that, I add the storage on and he ups the rent because the property value goes up. Well my idea is to build lofts in our two storage rooms. Far less expense and I can take it apart and take the wood with me when I move.

Tomorrow is construction day and I have been sitting here calculating the board foot needed to build the frame and the size I will need to cut my plywood. I have to be careful about the plywood because the only plywood around is the material some of the shipping boxes were made from and you generally can't buy it here. As I was thinking about the frame I came to the point where you plan how to attach the frame to the walls of the building. You have to use really large nails because all walls are sun dried or furnace baked brick with sprayed concrete over them. You have to drive the nails through the wood and into the brick walls.

I realized during this process that I was beginning to acclimate to Rwandan culture. Why? Because I was counting nails.

In America you go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy a box of nails, maybe two just in case. Well here in Rwanda you plan your job and you go to one of the only hardware stores where the owner likes mzungus and I feel like she gives me a good price (I call this place Little Lowes, and it's located in a place I like to call Lowes Town because there are at least 10 hardware stores on the same block). She only sells the big nails in single units. So I have to count nails. You cannot imaging the depression that would ensue if I was about to finish and realized I was a single nail short. Driving to downtown Kigali to buy a single nail might just do me in. So, I better count my nails carefully.

Blessing to all. Hope all is well this Holiday season.

Thanksgiving

What a team. God is so good!
You butcher 'em, you fry 'em, you carve 'em.
Even girls can play horseshoes. Doesn't she look like a natural?

Well, happy Thanksgiving to all.

We had a great time for Thanksgiving dinner. As many of you know, some of the guys (David and Chris) had the idea of raising some turkeys for Thanksgiving. What a great idea. After we butchered them and they sat in my freezer for about 6 weeks it was time to find out if they were edible. As always the Robinson clan decided to go with the Cajun Fried Turkey. It wasn't easy in Rwanda. Since our container was full I had to leave our turkey frying pot and burner in the states. Turns out it didn't matter. We were able to buy a 20 liter pot at one of the stores here and since frying foods is a Rwanda past time oil, although expensive, is plentiful. After a night of prep (and someone didn't put 100% into plucking their turkey) we were able to get the oil plenty hot on one of Marty's rocket stoves. Worked like a charm. We fried two turkeys, a chicken and 4 lb of chicken quarters. Wow was it good. I do have to say that as good as the food was it was not nearly as good as the fellowship. We had the best Redneck Thanksgiving ever. Fried turkeys and horseshoes. It really is amazing that even though we are 10,000 miles away we were able to reproduce a great southern Thanksgiving right here in Rwanda. It was a blessing to all who attended. I can honestly say that it was a day that brought peace. We knew that no one else around us was celebrating or even cared what was going on but it was a short moment of peace and fun.

On the flip side, "Black Friday" brought many disappointments. Kristin was able to speak to her family last night as they were preparing for their annual trip to Wal-Mart, Kohls and so on. They were cutting out adds and planning their route. Even I was surprised by how much I missed that. I don't usually participate in the shopping but just the day of rest after Thanksgiving with family was missed. We kind of made up for it by doing some online shopping. Not quite the same. At least no one had to wake up at 4 am to stand in line at Wal-Mart. But just so we didn't miss out, Kristin had to get up at 4 am to help Samuel who was having his turn at Africa diarrhea.

After resting and cleaning up after Thanksgiving our family decided to put up our tree. It was cloudy and cool (about 68 degrees) so it almost felt cold. But no snow, no chill in the wind. Just 68 degrees, same as every other day. We pulled out all three of our Christmas bins that made it here on the container. I think we left at least 3 or 4 in Tyler that wouldn't make it on the container. This bothers us because in our unpacking we have found things like a bin of empty figurine boxes and a couple boxes with only one or two things in them. Too bad they didn't have the Christmas ornament hooks in them. That was probably one of the most frustrating things yet. We had no hooks to put our ornaments on the tree with. Fortunately Louise Koonce was able to abate the depression with a box of paper clips. We made it through. Our tree is up and at least the inside of our house looks like Christmas.

We are actually doing quite well. The kids are enjoying school and we have began to feel settled as we unpack more and more boxes.

I have met with the department heads at Kigali Health Institute and have begun to make plans to begin teaching in their nursing midwife program and their laboratory medicine program. I will teach a section of chemical pathology during the Endocrine module but as we talked, the director kept asking me if I could teach Hematology. I kept saying I wasn't as qualified to teach this as Endocrine but I could probably teach part of it. He finally told me that his Hematology instructor quit last month and they had no replacement as of yet. I conceded and agreed to teach Hematology to the second year students. Fortunately it was actually my best subject and my first choice for specialty however I was not interested in taking care of cancer patients and thus went to Endocrine. I know it is going to be hard the first couple classes but I pray and ask for prayers for it to become easier.

I am thankful for this chance to teach because it gives me and ATN (Africa Transformation Network) another opportunity to impact Rwanda and show ourselves committed in the eyes of the government. It allows me access to young men and women who will influence thousands of others in Rwanda. The best thing about Rwanda, it's alright to be a teacher and a christian. I have the chance to interact not only intellectually but spiritually with a hundred young people. I pray, as I mentioned before in my previous blogs about disciple making, that I can be constantly intentional about expressing my faith in every interaction at KHI.

The bible study going in my neighborhood has been struggling. I believe Satan is attacking it hard. The leader of the group had a death in the family after the first meeting and thus had to take the obligatory week of mourning. This happened on a Sunday and so the week lasted until the following Sunday. It prevented two meetings. However I was able to minister to the man and his wife and was actually able to have him in our home during the mourning time for encouragement. On my visit to his home to pay respects he asked me if I could read to him from my bible. I was so shocked but pleased. God uses all opportunities to reach people.

We had a successful study this past Sunday and at the end of the study one of the attendees said he was wanting to invite two of his near neighbors and have the study in his house.

I would like to ask for prayers for Lugira. He is a young man I might have mentioned before who is Rwanda-Congolese and grew up in a "church home". He loves God but stated that he has never studied the bible in this way before and never considered that you could have church outside "a church". He is doing one bible study here in Kigali but recently has expressed to me his desire to reach the displaced Congolese in the refugee camps here in Rwanda. At first I thought this was just too huge but I realized that this is just what our team has been praying for. We want to reach millions of Rwandans and we have to have Rwandans to reach Rwandans. Here is a young man who has a special skill (able to speak 5 languages and is not white). He was able to visit one of the camps and blended in perfectly. He met with the 12 pastors (there are 15,000 people in the camp) of the camp. He was actually able to get them all to meet in the same place. This was the first time that the 12 pastors of this camp have ever met together as a group. He explained to them about the concept of neighborhood groups and how neighborhood bible studies could and would produce stronger members and socially accountable groups. He explained how neighborhoods become families when they read the word of God together. The pastors were just amazed at the idea of having church outside of church. There is not a single church in the camp that has been started by a refugee. They were all started by outside, approved denominations and are full of people who simply have no where else to go on Sunday morning. He describes it as the only entertainment they get. He has been able to meet with them twice and has now asked me to train him in the details of the Disciple Making Method. He wants to teach church planting to ministers in the refugee camp!

In my mind this is huge and it is overwhelming. However, God has no limits and Lugira is motivated. Please pray for me and my team as we try to train this young man and that God is in this. It is easy for projects like this, especially this size, to fizzle but this is because of the doubt in our hearts. Pray that we will believe in God's mighty hand and that we will allow God to show himself mighty. Please pray that Lugira is also honest and open. In Africa it is especially hard to identify those who would take advantage of you. It is hard to read them when you don't understand their language or their culture. I have prayed about this repeatedly and I know others here have been praying as well. I went as far as asking one of the Rwandans who works at ATN to go to the camp with him. The report from this was favorable and so please pray for his integrity.

I hope you all know that I pray for you often. Many of those who read this blog I know by name and pray for by name and others I simply lift you up in prayer to the Lord and ask him to reveal you to me. I praise God for each of you and ask Him to bless you and open your hearts and show you a new way to love Him and share Him.

I ask for your prayers, for the men mentioned above and for my family. We are having our first Thanksgiving and Christmas in Africa and that has already been hard. We are blessed by all those who have given themselves in pray and who have supported our family financially. We thank God for all of those who put food on our table. We ask you also to pray for the kids school. The semester is almost over and we have yet to raise the money for next semester. We pray and ask God to lift up those who are able to provide for our family in this way. This school is a blessing because it has allowed our kids to adjust to being in Rwanda. Each kid has a class that is a mix of American, European, Asian and African students. Aaron is the only mzungu kid in his class. All the others are African. This has made their adjustment much easier. Kristin and I are blessed because we don't have to home school them right now. We realize that it would be near impossible to do language and adjust to our own surroundings, in addition to getting our house set up, if our kids where home all day every day. The cost of the next semester is $6000 and we are praying for those who have the heart to share this expense with us and contribute as you feel capable.

Blessings to all of you.

Brian

Bible Study Day 1 and a bonus

Well I'll start with the bonus. Today we received a package from the Phillip Woodward family. What a blessing. Such great people. My kids were overjoyed by the Hershey's assorted chocolate and the chocolate chips. I know I will benefit from these as well when the cookies were made. However it was the 6 pack of Dr. Pepper 12 ounce bottles that drew my immediate attention. This gift, added to Sylvia's previous package containing my most favorite candy bar, Reese's peanut butter cups made for such a pleasant evening. It just doesn't matter to me that I won't go to sleep until about 2am. Now I will say that life does not revolve around such things but I can also say that it is very close.

Well onto the Bible study tonight.

I know it sounds odd but we don't start with prayer. We assume everyone has a different idea of who God is and what church and bible study are so we start on an even playing field and we organize the study in a way that does not preconceived or offensive ideas into the study. Now I don't mean offensive in a "Offend them by being religious" but rather by being sensitive that many have been hurt (some physically) by churches and are not ready for diving in to church routine.

The first series of questions ask of everyone at the study are about learning to share and confide in each other and setting the stage for prayer and intercession. We can refer to it as the discover part of the study. We want to discover things about each other and we want to discover facts about God. We first ask, "Is there anything you are concerned about or worried about this week. This allows people to interact with issues in their lives that are bothering them without feeling too vulnerable and begins to set the stage for the idea of praying later. This question is followed up by "How can this group help you in this issue?" This begins to lay the foundation of ministering to one another.

After this time we begin our study by asking someone to read from our first scripture which is Genesis 1:1-24. Creation of all things except man. (that is our next session)

Once we read we ask everyone to just simply write or say a simple summary of the passage in their own words. We want them to be able to do this because when it comes time to share with others in our daily walk we can remember our synopsis easier than memorizing 25 versus of scripture.

After everyone is given the chance to summarize we then ask, "What does this passage say about who God is"? In this passage we want every to begin with a basic, and similar understanding of the fact that God created all things. He created all things "Good" and that God had an organized plan for his creation. Later we will see in the next study that God created all this for man.

We then ask, "What does this passage say about man"? This study is more about God and less about who we are because we want each person at the study to have a single foundation for going forward. It generally does not matter who you are, if you believe in a god, you believe he created the world. Once the stage is set and we agree that God created all things and is all powerful then we move to the fact that he created man to be good and he created us in such a way as to have a personal and deep relationship with everyone of us.

The next section is the obedience section.

The next question in the study is, "What now?" "How does this passage make me different tomorrow than I was yesterday. How will I act differently tomorrow after having read this"? The answers vary but tonight it seemed that the main theme from those at the study was that God is powerful and good, he created all things and he created them good. Therefore we must respect what he has done, respect his creation and treat it as a gift.

The last part is the sharing part.

We ask, "who will you share this with during the next week"? Can you share it with a co-worker or a neighbor this week? Can you share it with your family or a friend. And even deeper, "Could you organize a similar study in your home or at your workplace using this scripture?"

We next ask about neighbors. In sharing with your neighbors can you find out how they are doing? Do they have a need that either you or this group can help with. We want them to make a connection between sharing the word of God and acts of service. These form the foundation of true worship and form the basis for building Godly communities.

Next week we give them an opportunity to report on their attempts of sharing and to give feedback on how they or we as a group can help someone in their neighborhood.

I continue to challenge and pray that some of those reading my blog will consider following this pattern of study in their neighborhoods. I want to tell each of you that before coming to Africa I was mislead by Satan into believing that I was not qualified to teach the bible to others. I am not the kind of person that can easily memorize chapters and chapters of scripture. But I know now that prayer and living a life that is transparent and using conversation that is always intentional in motive is the key. Pray every day for someone to notice when you say, "God has been good to me today". Everyone notices it when I say it because no one expects a Mzungu (white person) to say something like that in Kinyarwanda. Their eyes almost bug out and they stop what they are doing. Then, as David Lipscomb once said, "Love them until they ask you why". Speaking and living with spiritual intent always gets someone's attention. If it is someone who "hates" churchy people or "those God people" then guess what, now you have something to talk to them about. They would love to tell you all the things wrong with church. But at least they are opening the door for you to talk about God.

There are plenty of preprinted bible studies out there and on the internet. If you would like a PDF of the one we are using please email me at awillingspirit@gmail.com. I would love to share it with you. However, if you pick one from the internet or you just make up your own, remember this: If the study does not end with the question, "Who are you going to share this with" then you're not making disciples. Disciples share the word.

God has given us all the ability to share His word in some way or the other. Some are more fluid and obvious than others but just as sharing comes in many forms so does receiving. Your style of sharing will find someone. Just be intentional about using it.

Bless you all. We pray for so many of you daily.

Prayer requests:

Continued peace in our new environment

Block Party

Well, we have just finished cleaning up from our party. We are so blessed with good neighbors. It was good to just sit and watch them interact and to learn about culture.

I previously said I would keep you posted about the process and progress of discovery bible.

The first and foremost task is to pray. I thank each of you who have prayed. I have also prayed that some or many of you will wish to begin your own bible study/disciple making group in your neighborhoods. Always start with prayer. You must invite the Holy Spirit before you invite the first person. We have been praying for this and have asked the Holy Spirit to be present and I can say for sure he was. The party was a bit slow getting going as most things in Rwanda are. To our surprise the food was nearly on time but the guests were at least 30 minutes late. After we got started and pushed all the kids outside we just talked about the neighborhood and the fact that somehow all the people on our street know our youngest son Aaron. I assume it is because he plays out on the street with the other neighborhood kids after school almost every day. They all seem to be drawn to him. I was thankful because one of the men present was the local veterinarian and Umudugudu leader (sort of like a city councilman for the neighborhood). One of the main issues being pushed by the central government is community development. So it was easy to get them on the subject of being good neighbors. From their it was an easy transition to "Love your neighbors as yourself". They all participated in conversation about how important neighbors were and how neighbors should watch out for each other. By the end of the night all agreed that we should meet weekly and get to know each other better and have a bible study. The Umudugudu leader volunteered to have it in his home but another person suggested they share that responsibility. So next week we will have it in at Everest's (the Umudugudu leader's) home and see how it goes.

The key here in initiating the study is to just make it clear that you are not trying to lure them to a church or towards certain beliefs or denominations. Rwandans seem to be afraid of that. We simply put it in social and political terms and explained that the principals in the bible are the foundation to being good neighbors and that even if people go to church they are not being taught to read their bibles and share it with others in an intentional way. Even Everest stated that he finds it hard to help his neighbors because he does not spend enough time with them and does not know their needs.

I am just in awe of how God works.

The first study will be on Genesis 1:1-25.

The basic layout of the study is like this:

Opening:

Ask each person

What are you thankful for the past week?

What problems do you have this week?

Is there any way this group can help you?

Read Scripture:

What does this scripture say about God?

God created all things.

God created man to be like him.

God called creation "Good".

God loves man?

What does the scripture say about man?

Man was created like God.

Man was created to be with God.

Man is intended to have a personal relationship with and communicates with God.

How will this scripture make me different than I was yesterday. Or the "I will statements".

Share section:

Who will you share this scripture with during the next week? Could you share this with another group?

Do you know anyone who needs help?

How can this group help them?

The share section is the most important. It teaches that worship is not listening but rather doing. And doing is discipling. It encourages them to use what they have read in the Word to change how they live and how they serve each other. Later the progression of scripture is intended to teach them that doing for God is doing for others and that serving each other is true worship.

Well I will keep you posted. We meet next Sunday at 6 pm. Please pray for us and our group. Most of all pray that this group will share with others and in time come to a point where they become leaders in their own studies and become disciple makers. Pray that the study will be driven and dependent on the Holy Spirit and not on us. If it is to multiply it must be by their own growth and the effort of the Holy Spirit and not because I am present.

Prayer requests

Well we're finally getting settled. My house is in order and no one is throwing up. Praise God.

With our house getting into order and all of the Robinsons well we are ready to party. Block party that is. We just wanted to ask all of you to pray about our block party. After dinner tonight we were able to get around behind our house (not easy in our area) and the people behind us to the party. This was the hardest part since we thought they didn't speak english. We went around to the house and met the two people we can see and hear from our yard. They don't speak english so we actually invited them in Kinyarwanda only to find out they were the hired help. The owner was inside and she is Ugandan thus she speaks great English.

From the looks of it we will have about 30 people in addition to our family on Saturday. Please pray that we are able to start a Discovery Bible study in our neighborhood.

Please pray for one of my bible study facilitators this week as well. He has felt a desire to gain access to some of the refugee camps and find out how he can help with ministering to them. He is going down this weekend and we will meet again afterwards to find out if there is anything we can do to access this group of people.

On a less important side but certainly an issue that is just pounding away at my cultural adjustment: I can't find my all in one printer/scanner/copier. Seems silly but little things like this really mess up your day when you are looking for just one little thing to go right. Example. Tuesday my daughter was sick and at home. I was committed to getting at least one thing done so I decided to get the stove in the kitchen. I took it out of the box and realized that it was natural gas ready and had to be converted before using propane gas. This made me nervous since this is something I would normally call someone to do if I live in the States. After getting this done I finally got ready to hook it up to the gas bottle and discovered that they are not sold or shipped with an intake adaptor to hook up the propane. I panicked. The idea of trying to find such a part in this country (or continent) is insane. I called a plumber and tried to explain that the stove needed to be fixed. Well I had to go to the airport to pick him up (he was working in the general area) and bring him back to my house. He looked at it and disappeared for almost 2 hours. In the meantime I decided that I would get the drier out. It had rained all day and the clothes on the line had been there over 24 hours. Well the drier doesn't come with a cord. Can't get one of those here either. Have to get an electrician. Oddly enough, I did the one thing I would never do in the states (convert the stove) and I couldn't do or get done the two things that would have taken an hour in the States. To make things worse we had to cancel language for the day because Kristin and Grace were sick. We discovered the next day that the lesson we were on was house hold appliances. If we would have language that day I would have been able to tell the plumber that the stove was broken in Kinyarwanda. Finding my printer would have made it a good day. But it is lost. Pray for things to go right the rest of the week. Maybe even pray for the printer to show up.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to be present at our block party.

Blessings

Update

I know many of you have been praying about our block party and we are so thankful. However we were not able to have the party today. We feel like we have been attacked in so many ways this week and as a result were unable to host our neighbors.

Just as we were making plans for our party our container was released from customs. We had just called someone to arrange for the food and the guys at customs called and informed us of the release. They told us it would be the following morning but was not until 5 pm that night. Not only was the initial truck load delayed it took a total of three trips to bring our things to our house. For the next 4 days we did nothing but sort through things and try to get organized. We had so much to put away it was astounding. The final blow was Kristin waking up sick today. We had to ask our neighbors to postpone our party until next week.

We do want to say how thankful we are to have received our container in such a short time but even in a good thing there is the sense of failure. We committed ourselves to connecting with our neighbors tonight but we just could not fight the fatigue and ensuing illness that has hit our household.

We ask for your prays for Kristin as she recovers from her illness and we ask that you pray for strength so that we can make our house at least safe to walk around in so that we can have our block party next weekend.

Pray for our efforts to reach our neighbors and make disciples in our community. I will continue to pray for each of you as you struggle in the same battle to bring discipleship to your homes and neighbors.

Blessings to all.

Planting Churches/Living Lives of Intentionality

Over the past months, including the last few months in the US and the first 6 weeks here we have been undergoing a change in paradigm that is a growing trend among missionaries of many denominations. We are working on a biblical model known as CPM (cpmtr.org) that in the end we pray we will see the establishment of not one church but many churches in our region and possibly even hundreds of churches in Rwanda. The first thing we have to deal with among our team is culture. We have all struggled to rid ourselves of the culture of building church and training leaders. We realize that Jesus sent out his followers into the region before they were "well trained". He did not give them money and he did not send them to school before allowing them to speak in his name. He sent them out a little at time. He rejoiced in their success and taught them when they failed.

Our paradigm shift is first to stop using the word church planters and start using disciple makers. The term church planting has so many images associated with it that it is more of a burden than a job. In America and in Rwanda the word church has two meanings. One for those on the inside and one for those on the outside. Unfortunately those on the outside see church as restrictive and suffocating or even false. They don't see church and God as being the same and they cannot understand why they are different. Our goal here is not to bring those around us into contact with "church people" and conform them but to take those around us into a relationship with God in a peaceful and comfortable surrounding in which they already live and transform them. Conforming is teaching church culture. Transforming is disciple making. One statement we hear around here often is churches don't replicate, disciples replicate. So you have to ask yourself, "Am I a church goer or a disciple"? Here in Rwanda they are not the same.

I say all of this as a preface to a prayer request and a challenge. Here in Rwanda we commit ourselves to living intentional lives. By this I mean that every person we meet is a potential disciple and may be that one person who is willing to start a discovery bible study (DBS) in his neighborhood. We try to go into every conversation and relationship with the intent of finding out how peaceful a person is and whether they are spiritually oriented. There are plenty of spiritual people who don't know God and who don't go to church. This takes much prayer. So my first challenge to each of you is to be intentional about your prayers for those around you such as your neighbors and your co-workers.

My prayer request is that you pray for Kristin and I this week because we have been inviting our neighbors to come to our home on Saturday for a sort of block party. It is our purposeful intent to have them in our home and find out which of them (singular or plural) are people of peace who could host a bible study in their home. We cannot have it in our home because again we are white and they will come if simply for the opportunity to come to a Mzungu home and to have the social clout that comes with that. We ask that you pray for us as we go around and invite them because they all speak different amounts of English and this will tax our rudimentary knowledge of Kinyarwanda. Pray for the person of peace that I know God has already prepared and pray that we will be able to guide this person in the leadership role of DBS leader. It is the hope that all DBS leaders become disciple makers and eventually begin teaching new DBS leaders in their circle of influence.

It is my challenge to each of you to ask yourselves, "Am I just a church goer or am I a disciple maker"? Christ did not call us to be church goers but rather disciple makers. I challenge each of you to be intentional in the next couple weeks and plan a way for you and your family to have contact with your neighbors, co-workers, lodge pals or what ever group you can bring together in your home. I challenge you to be praying for ways to identify those in your neighborhood who are peaceful people and who may be able to host a bible study. To be intentional you must pray about and think about everything you say to them. From the way you say hi to the way you respond to their questions. Example. If they say, "How are you"? The proper answer is not "fine" or even "great". Every thought and response must be intentional. Like, "God has given me peace today", or "God is good to me today". You can practice and think about these "God" statements that I promise will get the attention of a person of peace. I also challenge you to pray for persons of peace in your daily circle. Watch out, it may not be your buddy who is nice to you at work. It may be the the guy at the gas station you see every week or the person who mows your lawn. Be ready and intentional.

Jesus was intentional. He did not have to stop in Samaria on his way back to Galilee. He chose to. He had a divine appointment. I can guarantee that if you pray for God to bring people of peace into your lives he will make divine appointments for you also and you will become the disciple maker God intended you to be.

So, pray for me as I pray for you to be intentional. Again I challenge each of you to go into your neighborhoods this week and seek out the persons of peace. Be intentional. You may not start a bible study right off but keep going.

I am going to dedicate my next few blogs to the process of making disciples. The goal Kristin and I have are to make disciples dependent on God and each other and not on us. To plant disciples in each community rather than one church in a city of a million.

I recommend that anyone who is willing and has the desire to be a disciple maker read the book, "Movements That Change the World" by Steve Addison. It will excite you about the possibility of how the Holy Spirit can work in the lives of single individuals to bring the lost home.

bira shoboka!

Well I kind of feel like I've arrived today.

We have language lessons 5 days a week from 7:30 am to 8:30 am. This is particularly great because the kids leave for school at 7:05. This leaves a great time for Kristin and I to have direct and uninterrupted time with our instructor, Chris (short for a much longer Rwnadan name).

Over the last 4 weeks we have been working on basic things like asking how to get somewhere, how to give directions (note my previous blog entry about frustrations of giving directions) how to buy things at the market and so on. We have done well and feel we have advanced at at least an average pace. Well today we sort of digressed from learning how to say, "Please close the door" or "Please open the window" to simple responses to questions. One of the ways our instructor teaches is to constantly ask us questions and we answer back in Kinyarwanda. Well I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to ask, how do you say, "It is possible". I have heard so many times over the last 6 weeks , "It is impossible". So today I have officially learned, "bira shoboka". It IS possible. This hasn't really gotten me anywhere yet because if I say it they go on to explain why it is not possible and then I am lost again. I can only keep repeating, "but it is possible" to no avail.

Oh well, I am one step closer to the inner workings of this society. Certainly a society in which I will never full fit but I can feel God finding ways to draw me closer to reaching Rwanda in it's native language. I will have to add on to this new bit of language skill by learning how to to say, "With God, all things are possible". I have had to chance to share this with many over the last weeks and I am so often pleased to hear that yes, they do believe that God can do all things.

We have seen God do so much. As an update I can say that our visas were approved and our passports are stamped and official now. We don't have to plan a trip to Uganda or Burundi in 6 weeks so we can renew our visitor visas. In addition we are awaiting the final clearing of our container. It arrived about 7 days ago and the moving company here in Rwanda assures us that all the paperwork is done and approved and that the only thing left is the customs stamp. Please pray that all things work for the best the first time. The law states that we are entitled to one container per family free of tax as long as we have nothing that is intended for retail. (Which we don't). However, it is not uncommon for them to attempt to charge some tax for some of the new items on the containers but this is part of a game and if it happens then it is more delay and more paperwork. The delay means storage fees. The fees are not that high but they are unnecessary and frustrating.

One blessing today is that we received two packages in the mail today. We had mailed them to ourselves about 9 weeks ago. We were not able to fit Madelyn's bike on the container nor were we able to fit her American Girl doll and accessories in our carry-ons. We had to mail both. Well they arrived today and we just can't wait until Madelyn gets home from school today. She is doing so well and oddly enough she is our big helper. She gets quite upset if she misses her turn to hand wash the dishes after supper. She just loves the job.

Now that I've found the verbal response to, "it is impossible", Please pray for me as I continue my quest to find the cultural response to this difficult cultural and often spiritual impasse.

Please pray that we will continue to find the "people of peace" that God has planned for us and that we will be diligent and successful in bringing them into relationships with us and finally with God.

More Frustrating than funny

It is just a reality that many of the things we experience are truly more frustrating than funny. It is a simple truth that culture shock is a reality. Many of the things we have experienced this week have humor but the burden of them has made the humor marginal.

I have to say that one of my most frustrating issues this past week has been in the area of giving and getting directions. In this country there are few if any street signs. The ones that do exist should not because no one notices them and no one can remember the names of the streets even if they live on them. So imagine trying to give directions to a man on the phone who speaks english only slightly and even that is mixed with french. He has to come from the

middle of Kigali to our district (suburb) in order to set up our internet. He calls me on the phone and says he is on his way. My directions are like this. "Okay, where are you"? His response is in french since the word hello did not clue him in that I was english. The fact that I did not say bonjour did not register to him. He says, "I'm on the road to the Senate". Fortunately I know that road. I send him on his way in the direction of a small grocery store and finally a round about that he does recognize but that is the easy part. Now it is time for the dirt roads. The road does not have a name so we say Niboye road because that is the district that the road cuts in half. After that the exact instructions are, "go 2/3 of the way to the end and go down the mountain until you reach more dirt roads with more small markets on the corner. In Tyler it would be like telling someone to go to the corner with the bank on it and turn left. I finally had to give up and go find him. However I'm finally over the nostalgia of the bumpy dirt roads and I'm tired of being stared at as I bounce all over the road when I drive. I did find him and finally I have email.

The blessing this week is that I was finally able to finish my application for visas and was able to turn them in. This was on my third attempt. The first day it took all morning to get my documents (marriage certificates, medical license and all the kid's birth certificates) copied and notarized. The immigration office closes at noon. The second day we arrived at the immigration office and I discovered that I was supposed to fill out my applications online but had not. God intervened again. Charles, the amazing man at ATN who is in charge of helping us get "official" was able to coerce someone to print them for me so I could fill them out. After scurrying to complete them before our number was called (we failed and had to get a new number) we walked to the desk and after reviewing the documents the agent said we could not proceed because the back ground in our photos was too grey. It was not nearly white enough. Again the word impossible (to which there is no answer, you have to just hang your head and walk away). We had to leave, go get all the kids and take them all to downtown to get pictures taken. I had to ask them to take them twice because they were really bad the first time. She took, "needs to have white back ground" to mean "needs to be washed out with really bright flash".

I prayed last night that God would keep the rules the same today. Here in Africa rules change from day to day and from person to person. I prayed that the person I encountered would follow the official rules and be a person of peace. I got up early and was the first person there and when I approached the agent and gave her the applications she said her name was the same as my daughter, Grace. I told her about Grace and how she got her name (I thought she would cry) then I figured since she was stuck there and appeared peaceful I would just preach to her about the meaning of the word grace while she did my paperwork. In the end I was able to finish the process and now I just have to wait for final approval and we will all be "official".

In addition we were able to go to church with our neighbors this week. The service was three hours long (no classes or breaks) and the kids were almost dead by the end. So was the lady whose job it was to keep the kids in line. The kids don't sit down front but have to sit at the back of the room under the eye of the "kid Nazi". I kind of liked it. She had to keep bopping Samuel to get him to stay seated. Don't blame him though since he is not used to such a long service. The joy in it was just the walk to church. The neighbor kids and our boys just love playing together. Aaron is so happy to have them near during the day.

(blurry but Aaron and Samuel playing soccer with neighbors)

(walk to church with neighbors)

We had a hard week and this was just the beginning of our struggle but we are blessed by God's constant affirmation of our presence in Rwanda and we enjoy seeing them come to us over and over. Please pray that he will continue to lay these in front of us and continue to pray that in all that we do we find people of peace in which we can form relationships with and prayerfully invite them to discover God with us.

Blessings to all of you.

Brian

p.s. One last funny image. We had to have our gate fixed this week because the hinge broke off. I had to call the landlord to send a crew to fix the all steel gate that weighs about 500 lb. When they arrived they brought their welder and needed a place to plug it in. When I walked in the gate I noticed a wire (not extension cord but real romex wire) with no ground leading to my back door. When I looked down this is what I found. No plug, just stripped the wires and stuck them in the outlet. Try this in the states.

Funny or Frustrating??

When I left for Rwanda I committed at least to my self that I would not make my blogs downers and a collection of pity posts.

God has granted me a different eye to see the difficult things through has made me more capable of seeing the humor in our new lives.

There are many things I have seen and experience this week that have made me both laugh and pout (at the same time).

We sent out our newsletter last week and mentioned my analysis of the correlation between standing in line and driving in Rwanda. Well the two came together this week as I was able to buy a 4WD vehicle and had to spend all day in the Rwanda Revenue Authority (and the bank, again). The RRA is sort of a mix of the DMV and tax authority. You have to go to the RRA one day and get a tax ID followed the next day by meeting the owner of the vehicle at the RRA at the car check place. This is the semi equivalent of an inspection. However, it is clearly an inconvenience to all involved. The inspector looked at the tires then opened the hood and leaned in to look at the engine block and left. We paid the fee and left. We finally made it through the maze of back roads that only my Rwandan friends could navigate and settled at the big RRA building. I have to say I was impressed. My frame reference is standing in line at the Cotton belt building in Tyler on a late August day. The interior air temperature was far cooler in this building than the Cotton Belt building. However, despite how slow the line moves at the Cotton Belt at least it was a line. There was no line here. It was a room of chairs, no "take a number" sign or device. I had no idea were our place in the queue was but thankfully my Rwandan cohorts knew how to keep track but again this was arbitrary and when a seat at the desk emptied the race was on. It took us about 4 hours to complete this part of the process.

In the end it was a good experience because it has typically been much worse for others and I was able to finish the process in less than one day and that is universally considered a miracle.

Other things that make me frustrated. RED DIRT!

When we left Oklahoma to move to Tyler in 2002 I felt almost confident that I was leaving behind red dirt for good. No more red sox, no more red pants legs, no more red mud in the shower and no more red dirt on my floor. I have all those now and much more with 4 kids. I am generally tired of being dirty.

Another amusing thing this week was related to the bike I have been riding. I have been riding Marty's bike or walking to the center we do most of our work out of and to begin with I get heckled by many of the workers on the street. The local government is redoing the ditch on our street and paving it with stone. A side note is that the 5 foot deep by 4 feet across ditch is dug by hand and the stones are broken up by hand to fit the area needed. This process takes about 50-70 workers. They watch me ride that bike many times per day and each time they act like it is the first time they have ever seen me. I must give them the comedy break they need to make it through the day. Well any way, I am also not used to Marty's bike which has straps that keep your feet on the pedals (competitive mountain bike). I always keep my right foot out so I wont fall over if I have to stop suddenly. Well I arrived at my destination I kicked my right foot over and forgot that my left foot was tied in and thus had nothing to stop me but the ground. The two old me across the street now have enough material to make them the life of the party all week.

We have been trying to get into our house every day this week. Every time we meet the land lord there is just a little more work to be done. The last 2 days we were to meet him and get the keys to the gate but he is either not there or does not have the keys. I was stuck at the house for 2 hours with the young man that has been guarding the house for the landlord. He does not speak English, the landlord only speaks French and Kinyarwandan and I only speak 30 words or Kinyarwanda and unless I suddenly have the need to ask him to put two blue pens on his head then our communication is over quickly. (However to my surprise, knowing how to say blue and pen and give me turned out to be great when the inspector at the previously mentioned RRA tried to steal my blue pen). It has been two days and I have no ammunition left. I still don't have keys to my gate and thus cannot get in. The final solution is to just go down to the security guard service tomorrow and hire the guard and when he shows up tomorrow night all will suddenly be resolved.

The money is a funny thing. We still look at the Rwandan Franc as play money. Now can you not when the coins stick to your daughters magnetic necklace. Very high iron content in their coins. You go to the store and you are kind of craving some chocolate since you have not had any decent quality chocolate in nearly 3 weeks. You look at the price and forget to convert it before your old addiction blinds you so when you finally eat half of it and then when you come back into your right mind you realize you paid 3 dollars for a 3-4 oz candy bar with a brand name on it. That's when you decide chocolate is no longer your weak spot.

I'd like to tell you the lighter side of Kristin learning to drive a very large, standard transmission, Land Cruiser (diesel) but she is likely going to read this and that would be bad news for me. (She did awesome by the way, love you dear).

Electricity. Simply put, you buy it at a store like you bye minutes on a pay as you go cell phone. You go to a variety of small stores, called a duka and pay for as much electricity you can either afford or the amount you think you might use in a month. Yes, you get to keep your electricity if you have any left over a the end of the month. I call them roll over watts. They don't expire. I went to the duka and asked for cash power and he said yes. He punched in my meter number and waited. Did it again and waited. Then he looked at me and said only one word. Impossible. If someone in the US said that to me I would have many pointed questions. In this cross culture encounter of the third kind, all I could do was walk away. My brain could not even comprehend all the things wrong with the scenario and could not formulate a rebuttal to this single word. He won his argument with one word and no struggle. I had to drive to town and go the the grocery store to by my electricity today.

Well I had many more little humerus stories but I have forgotten many of them and so I suppose that's it for now.

Please continue to pray for us and remember that we do pray for so many of you regularly.

Bless you all and thank you for everything.

Brian

New Home

Below I have posted a couple of pics of the home we expect to sign a contract on this evening. Kristin is trying to get the same pictures up on Facebook but her pictures were larger. I shrunk them down to a smaller pixel size and posted them here. She should have her Facebook pics up soon with better descriptions. We are blessed to be able to find it. It is about 5 min from the Koonces and less than 10 from the Crowsons. If you notice some of the roads that lead from the Koonces to our house you will understand why I can say it is faster to walk than to drive. Probably safer.

This step has gone a long way in encouraging our children. They are all doing well and view this step as a good step towards making a stable life here in Rwanda. We are fortunate in that this house is actually new but is cheaper than the houses that our other team members live in. God has been so good to us.

We have rested and transitioned. Today Grace, Aaron and I walked to the nearest little store in the neighborhood to buy some soda and gum. We met a few people on the way and had a chance to use our small Rwandan vocabulary that consists of hello, how are you and I want to buy...(whatever english word you want to stick in). They like to hear us use their language but I honestly think at this point it's because they want to something to laugh at.

Our next step is getting a car and language. Please pray that we can get a reliable car from an honest dealer. It is not like the US. you cannot go down to the used car lot and pick one. You have a person who is a "finder" or "dealer" that looks around town and has contacts that let him know when they see a used car. From there it is the same. You can trust them to be honest as far as you can throw them (Same as some US dealers) but just like the US there are those who are known to be honest. We are working with a Rwandan that works for ATN. He is the one that found our house for us as well.

Formal language starts after Sept 1. The kids start school Sept 1 at the private school here in Kigali. This will allow us to take language every morning. We will also try to get the kids language lessons on weekends. Please pray for the kids transition into school and pray specifically for our brains to become wired for new language. God created our brains and we believe that even though we are older than most new missionaries he can make us open to language.

A new day dawning

And I mean that literally.  With the intense jet lag I have witnessed the sun coming up for the last two days.  Just waking up here is so different and surreal.  The rooster crowing outside the walls remind me my growing up but the sounds of at least 5 different exotic birds (of which I have yet to learn the names of) squawking back and forth make the most pleasant alarm clock ever.  

Overall our trip here was more than tolerable.  We made it to London without much trouble.  The layover in Chicago was short and so we didn't have much time to ponder our changing lives.  After a 7 hour flight (in which Grace never slept) we made it safely to London.  We were happy to get there early because we had reserved a hotel (named Yotel) in the airport.  However, no one in the terminal where we landed had heard of it.  After finally finding the reservation on my computer we discovered we needed to be in Terminal 4.  When we arrived at the terminal we were told we had to leave the secure area in order to get to the Yotel.  This meant going through customs and immigration.  Just as we were leaving Kristin realized that we had left our camera bag on the plane.  We decided that I would take the kids through customs and to Yotel alone while she went to look for the camera.  It took her over 2 hours.  Yes they speak english in England but they don't do "american".  The kids did all go to sleep which was a great blessing.  We thought our flight was at 9pm so we got up and showered and left the hotel at 6.  We decided to check in for our flight first since we had to back through security but when we arrived at the ticketing agent we discovered that our flight was at 740 pm.  We had to skip supper in order to make it on the plane.  If we had stopped for supper before checking in we would have missed our flight.

The flight to Nairobi, Kenya was a little over 8 hours and 3 of the kids slept most of the way.  However, Grace watched videos most of the way and did not sleep.  

When we arrived in Kenya our flight to Kigali, Rwanda was cancelled due to a strike by the flight attendants.  We were told to come back to the desk for re-ticketing at 730 am.  This is not an American airport.  There was only one line, one attendant and no one in a hurry.  (sounds like an American airport)  After we were given new tickets for a 1230 pm flight and were told to wait in the transit lounge until the gate was assigned and called.  We waited until 1pm before we started asking questions.  By the time we were called to the gate it was after 230 pm.  We were told every 30 min that our plane would be boarding in 30 minutes.  At 4 pm they announced that our flight would be combined with another flight to a different city.  We would stop in Kigali and let some passangers off and then the plane would continue on to another country.  By 5 pm we were still seated in the gate area.  We were finally asked to board the plane and when they announced the gate everyone ran towards the door at the far end of the terminal but just about the time we were able to wake our kids up and move our baggage they announced that the plane would board from a door at the end we were on.  We found ourselves at the front of the line.  Amazing.  Even better than that, we had three men take pity on us and ask to carry our bags.  By this time the kids were so wiped out we could not get them awake enough to carry their bags.  We had one carry on per kid and four back packs/computer bags and we needed each kid awake to carry a bag or we could not move.  These men were awesome.  One of them was a man who was coming to Rwanda for the church planting workshop and was a church member in Togo that had been started by the Koonces.  God is awesome.

When you fly into Africa you have to deboard on the tarmac without a "jetway".  You have to carry your bags down the steps from the jumbo jet and then back up the steps into the airport.  So getting back on we had to go down the steps from the gate, to a bus, drive to the plane, walk across the tarmac and then up the steps to the plane.  When we got on board the attendant announced that it was open seating since two flights were combined.  She said that she expected every in coach to sit in coach and not to go into business class seats.  Ha!  It was a mad house.  people running all over that plane to get good seats.  We sat on board for almost 2 hours because their head count did not match the number of boarding passes give out during the day.

We finally arrived to a warm welcome in Kigali.  After getting our 12 trunks and 6 bags loaded we headed for the Koonces.  

The day we arrived Aaron came down with a fever and over the next day became worse with sore throat.  He has strep throat and already had to go on antibiotics. 

We have been here 2 and a half days now and the kids just love it.  Madelyn (who cried a lot before we left) said it was not what she expected and she feeling better.  They have had such a great time with the Koonce and Crowson boys.  

Today is our first Sunday and we are looking forward to church with many of the other American missionaries at NTCC (New Testament Church of Christ).

Thanks and Goodbyes

The count down is almost complete. The days and hours are ticking away. We will leave for Rwanda on August 12 at roughly 4pm. To say we are excited would be an understatement. To say we are not afraid would be a lie. To say that we trust in God would be true!

We would not be in this place today if not for the great will and workings of God. We began our journey 18 months ago and I can say our fear today does not come close to matching that of December 2007 when we fully gave ourselves over to God's calling. In the last 18 months he has brought peace and willingness to our spirits and we are anxious to see what amazing things he will do with us from this day forward.

We were singing in the car yesterday with Samuel. He loves to sing and is such an auditory learner that he memorizes songs after just one or two rounds. Anyway, we were singing "Hymns of the Month" from chapel at Grace. Singing the old songs made me remember "Count Your Blessings". After finishing the song we took the opportunity to think of all the wonderful people and blessings God has put in our lives over the last chapter in our lives that we feel brought us to this day.

I cannot start this expression of gratitude without naming one person first and foremost.

Sylvia!

She probably kicks herself just at the mention of the fact that if it were not for her generosity we would not be leaving for Rwanda. I know this is bittersweet for her but I also know she seeks and serves the Lord and would not have us do anything other than what we feel God has called us to do. In addition to all her generosity in regard to our fundraising, she actually went out and helped us raise funds from our peers at work. After all that, she allowed us to use her Bullard farm house for almost 3 months. Thank you so much Sylvia, we love you.

I want to thank the mission's committee and elders at Glenwood who have shown their faith in God by showing exceptional faith in us. The support they have pledged has been a great a leap as our own decision to go! Praise God for each of them. I also lift up the congregation at Glenwood for their support and love. We have felt so thankful for their heartfelt concern for our family.

We have had many people at church, work and other organizations who have offered us the use of cars, washing machines, dryers, internet access, and so much more. We could not have made it through the summer without these wonderful people. When our van broke down in Houston we didn't have to go a single day without or spend even a penny on a replacement vehicle. My partners at work provided a long term car when the van broke down and then a short term car when I had to give up my truck last weekend. We love each of you so much.

We want to thank all of the individual donors and churches who have committed both short startup funds and long term support even when times have been tough. The congregations at Rt. 230, Lakeside, New Hope, Park Plaza, and East Grand have shown such great faith in their offerings. I cannot even begin to name all of the individual donors across the US that are giving faithfully to see God succeed in Rwanda.

I want to thank Murphy Crowson, my wonderful teammate who has been with me (via internet) the whole way. He has provided us with so much information about how to get things done and who to contact for help. I know that his leading will make our transition into Africa so much smoother and I know I could not have done it without his help.

I give thanks for the Koonces. I know that Marty's two trips back to the US this past year were not for good reasons but each time he came he was able to visit with us and encourage us. He came to us during hard times in our lives and was able to just fill us up with joy and remind us of the reason we committed to this work.

Our journey to Rwanda began with a burden to become debt free. I firmly believe that we were brought to Trinity Clinic just for this reason. I am so grateful for Greg Stovall and the other leaders, my partners and my patients for their faith in me. It takes a great amount of faith and risk to hire a new doctor and to go to a new young doctor (who looked 15 when he started) and I am thankful for all of my patients who have stuck with me and encouraged me in this journey. The Lord has blessed us at TC and because of this our loans were paid off early and he has made his perfect time for his perfect will known once again.

I finally want to give praise to God for making Kristin and I part of the "Gathering" ministry at Karing Kitchen in downtown Tyler. I would never have guessed when we started this work that we would be leaving it for Africa. It was hard to go every Sunday when our kids were so small. I was just tired of mopping red drink off the floor every week. However I also would not have guessed how much it was preparing us for a cross-cultural ministry. God knew 3 years ago that we would be going to Rwanda and I have no doubt that these wonderful people were an integral part of our training. I have to give honor to Carl Wells who attended faithfully from the beginning despite his own ailing health. He has become a great person in Samuel's life and we will miss him greatly. I pray God's comfort on him these last days.

Finally, again, I must give thanks to God. Without his faithfulness and blessings this day would not have come. We cannot know what he has in store for us in Rwanda but as I have told so many of my patients, "I just know God is going to do something great, I just pray I will be there to see it".

Moving Day Part III

We drove to Houston on Sunday night, the night before we are scheduled to be at the warehouse.  In addition to going to the ware house we have to go to DHL shipping to pick up solar equipment previously ordered from African Energy.  The order was a rush job and paid for on Friday at 3 pm and so the order was not confirmed or released until Monday morning.

 

Day 1:  Houston

We were expected at the shipping warehouse by 9 am.

We awoke first thing and actually made it to DHL international shipping by 7:40 and had to wait for them to open.  When we did get inside the men at the dock had no idea what we were talking about.  We had to explain a little and so they called the rep in charge of African Energy who told them she had no idea what I was talking about.  So we called AE and explained the issue to them and they then called DHL and “released the order”.  We had to wait 70 minutes for the order to be brought out of the warehouse.

 

We finally arrived the first morning around 930 am and immediately began to work through the poorly packed boxes that left our house.  We tried to repack boxes and consolidate stuff we wanted and take out things that we didn’t mean to send down.  Besides the heat you could tell that the supervisor was not thrilled with us opening boxes and messing up his system.

 

The company guy that we had been communicating with came to the warehouse later in the morning and after looking around told us that there was no way everything would fit.  He told us that they have never fit that much total volume by weight on a 40 foot container and that the central office told them it couldn’t be done.

 

Well that kind of discouraged us but Pat, the team supervisor looked at us and said that he would get it on.

 

The next greatly discouraging thing was the inventory method.  The movers who came to Tyler used yellow stickers with preprinted numbers and a few white stickers.  They would not yet us put our inventory numbers on the boxes they packed.  The guys at the warehouse used orange stickers and put them on some of the boxes with the other stickers.  Now we had 4 different numbering systems.  Rwandan’s don’t like complicated things.  In addition, the supervisor was wrapping our large bins/tubs in the same paper they used to wrap furniture but did not put our inventory numbers on the outside of the wrapping.  I tried to cut through one but it was about 12 layers of wrapping paper with at least two layers of that mesh paper that was impermeable.  He put one of his stickers on the outside of the wrapping and labeled them “plastic bins” or “trunks”.   We had no idea what was in each trunk.  The issue is, we have to place value on each numbered item for tax and insurance reasons.  Some trunks had ziplocks or used kids clothing worth 10 bucks and some had transformers and electronics worth hundreds and we have no idea which is which.  If you guess and get caught putting a value of 10 dollars on a box of transformers worth $200 you can get fined or in trouble and then they can make you open every box in customs and delay the release of your container by weeks.

 

Day 2:

The shipping co. saved the actual loading for today and we were up by 5:30 to arrive at the warehouse by 7.  I am totally at peace about what fits or doesn't fit.  (We had a lot of people praying about many aspects of this day, and I could really feel it.)

 

The first part of the day went pretty well, even though to our inexperienced eyes it did NOT look like it would all fit.  The Loading Guys were very good at their job and very kind to us.  They also played Christian music on their radio.  I can't tell you what a blessing that was to us.  They didn't cuss, either.  Crazy.  They also were oddly open about sharing their lives with us.  It's funny that we are ministering more than ever here in the states now that we're moving overseas.

 

By noon they had the flat bed trailer loaded on ( Yay, we have a trailer!  Dave, you must have prayed for that!  :-), AND the kayak AND the canoe.  No way did we ever think all that was going on there, but God just kept right on stuffing it in.  The appliances went on early, so just "house" boxes were left.  I need to say that we drove down to Houston in separate cars so we could take as much stuff as possible "just in case it fit."  Brian had the truck and trailer loaded like Jed Clampett.  All he needed was a rocking chair on top.  I had the mini-van with the seats laid down and loaded with boxes.  (My sister had the kids in Shreveport)

 

Brian had a speaking engagement at 7PM so he left me in charge at 1.  :-(  (That's ok, my team was praying for me...)  At 1:45 they turned to me and said "Ok, what do you want taken off?"  OFF?  They said it wasn't going to fit, and they started ripping open boxes of dishes and pots and pans.  No problem.  We were throwing away as fast as we could, and bundling what we wanted into bundles and jamming it into cracks and crevices.  No numbers.  No inventory.  It was probably better Brian WASN'T there!  Our next prayers will have to be about what gets stolen.  (That's ok, it's God's stuff.  If He wants to give it to a thief I'm ok with that) We UNpacked 13 boxes, but everything but 5 items went on!  Praise God!  Absolutely stunning!  I took lots of pictures.  The stuff left was unneeded, and God blessed us by making it those specific things.  I was so happy I couldn't wait to call Brian.

 

 I said good bye, filled up the gas tank, got a snack and a drink and got on the Beltway 8 in Houston.  I'm stinking filthy, by the way.  I actually took wet wipes and scrubbed the warehouse grime off my knees.  There's something completely humbling about kneeling on a warehouse floor with your personal possessions strewn about on the floor.  I remember thinking "I feel exposed because I'm kneeling here with my pots and pans all over the floor."  The minute I could I called Brian to tell him what happened, but we weren't on the phone 5 minutes when I said "That's funny, the air conditioner just went out."  (It's 101 degrees, ugh)  Then "Brian, the car won't go over 55!"  The exit was 1 and 1/2 miles away, and I'm down to 40mph.  When all the lights started flashing I got over as fast as I could.  This is a toll road, with an entrance 100ft behind me, and an exit 100ft ahead of me.  And a husband 2 hours ahead of me!  Smoke started coming out of the engine, so I got out while I called for a tow truck.  (So many praises here, by the way.  Foremost, I didn't have the kids with me on that scary road!  And I had a snack and a drink!  No problem)  In my experience tow truck drivers take about an hour, so I got back in the car since I'm a closet albino.  Glory if the tow truck arrived in 10 minutes!  Off we went to the Mazda dealership (a 45 min drive in Houston rush hour traffic).  They had to push it into the service bay, and the driver said he only takes cash.  How am I to get that much cash?  The nice dealership lady said "Our shuttle driver's not busy--he'll take you to an ATM."  No problem.  30 minutes later I got to sit in the AC for the first time that day and the lady tells me the engine is blown.  Oh well.  We were going to give the van away, but God had different ideas.  Again, more praises.  About where it happened, when, and to whom.  Brian was on his way back to tow me home.  While I waited 3 hours in the AC with a book, a snack, a drink (the same ones-I still haven't had a chance to eat them) and no kids (:-) a man wanders through from the showroom.   He introduces himself as Mac and he asks me about what I'm doing at the dealership so late.  After recalling the story about our morning and our car he wanted to know all about what happened and where we're going, etc, etc.  I gave him our card at this point, and we sat there for quite a while talking about missions, my family and his family.   When Brian got there Mac got some other guys to help us load the van onto the tow trailer, but it wouldn't go.  He handed Brian the keys to his car and said "Take my car to Wal-Mart to get a hand winch."  So we drove his MERCEDES to the store, came back, got the van loaded.  Brian said, half-jokingly, "Anybody want a free car?"  Mac said "Yes!"  So we drove with him to his house where he treated us like honored guests.  I mean, he offered us food and drinks and honored us with stories about his wife and wonderful daughter.   We then followed Mac to a used car lot and dropped off the car and headed home.  We limped home at 2am, and by 8:30am the next day we had a vehicle offered to us for the rest of the summer.  No joke.

I feel like I haven't done this story justice, but you get the idea of the way God took care of us.  I praise Him for all the blessings, and I thank you guys all for praying over us.  We felt it!

 

Love,

Kristin

Moving Day: Part Deux

I have to say that as hard as we tried we did not do well on our first go around with moving day.  We struggled because movers would not do things our way.  They would keep saying, we will do that when we get to Houston or we can do that later.

Well here we are 2 months later.  

I want to say that the last 2 months have been a specific time that God has taught me about prayer.  I started off May by going to a Church planting workshop where I was amazed by the amount of time "the great church planters" prayed.  I had decided then that I would begin looking at prayer like running.  My wife, at the age of 40 has decided to become a runner.  She has done amazingly well.  She runs three to four times per week and has worked up to over 4 miles.  She even went 8 miles one weekend.  She finished 4th in her age group in the Race for the Cure in Tyler.  Way to go babe.  Anyway, I decide that I would do the same.  I would pray longer each day of the week and work my way towards a more peaceful and "listening" relationship with God.  Strange, when I first began this I thought that I needed to practice saying more and asking for more intervention.  However, the longer I went, the more I realized that I just needed to listen more.  What great peace it can be to ask God to come nearer and then to actually feel that happen.  It opens your eyes and heart wider so that you can actually see the answer to the parts of prayer where you actually talk.

Well, we began to prepare for our trip to Houston this week by praying.  I have been praying for peace and patience so that I did not offend any of the workers at the warehouse.  I'm sometimes good at that.  So far we're golden.  Kristin and her side of the family have been praying diligently that everything we brought would make it on the container.  Still waiting on the verdict.  

Well I awoke in a frenzy last week because I realized that in my hurried preparation for the "Moving Day Part I" that I had put the certified copies of my diplomas, certification and notarized copies of my medical licenses in the box with the originals and then the movers took it away.  I knew I would never find them.  However, I needed them because the people in the government offices of Rwanda love certificates, especially if they have a stamp or a seal on them.  Kristin and I began to pray that not only would God give us the vision and the discernment to identify the items we really needed and the top "want" items from the endless boxes but that he would make ours eyes able to see the exact box my certificates were in.  Getting a work permit is hard to do without certificates and nearly impossible if you cannot prove you are qualified to do the work you're applying to do.  And you cannot get the container that the certificates are on if you don't have a work permit.  Huge ugly circle!!

Well today as we are rummaging through the warehouse I moved a large box so Kristin could repack it and behind it was a smaller thin box that had a bunch of papers just hanging out perpendicular like a flag.  Literally just sticking out!!  I pulled them out and they were the notarized copies of my original certificates and diplomas!!  As they say in East Texas, I almost fell out!!!  The papers had slid around in the box and somehow while in transit the box had been turned on it's side for just a moment then stood back up upon storage and the papers slipped halfway out of the box.  I don't need to explain more about that prayer...

The second prayer event today was the container itself.  The movers had said the shipping company would deliver the container to the warehouse around 10.  By noon it was not there and so we left and bought lunch for the packers.  Fortunately there was plenty of wrapping to do and the workers did not have time to be idle.  We arrived back from lunch and I asked Kristin to pray for the container and she prayed for God to give us the container in 20 minutes so that we could get done by mid day tomorrow.  I am not kidding you when I say that it arrive 20 minutes later on the dot!!

Now I would say that in the past not only was I a prayer that only talked to God, as opposed to listening.  I also was a person who believed in generalized answers to prayer rather than specific.  I find now that as we draw closer to leaving for Rwanda that God has drawn me closer and, if I can be so bold as to imply what God thinks, has enjoyed our listening time together.  It is great to listen to and for God in these last days in the States and I have continued to workout my listening and praying skills and some day I hope I can spend my time only listening.  That way I wont have to ask God for things.  I'll just live my life doing and seeing what he has already asked me to do.

Please continue to lift us up during the next couple of days as we load our container.  Also lift us up as we are down to 6w before we leave for Rwanda.

Dan Rather, CBS anchor, once asked Mother Teresa what she said during her prayers.  She answered, "I listen."  So Rather turned the question and asked, "Well then, what does God say?"

To that Mother Teresa smiled with confidence and answered, "He listens".