Tonight is our last night here in Rwanda. It's going to be a rough time for all of us. For our last dinner, we took the staff here at the mission house, as well as our drivers and translators, out for a very nice meal at a beautiful restaurant on a hill overlooking the whole city. It was a wonderful time of food and fellowship with our new, dear friends, and we were all doing our very best not to focus on the fact that we will be leaving tomorrow. I can't speak for the rest of the team, but I know for me personally the last few days have been incredible in truly strengthening the relationships that we have made here and I'm just not ready to come home yet. It feels as though we have barely scratched the surface of what we could accomplish here in Rwanda, and I find myself wishing I could stay for several months at least.
On a brighter note, yesterday was a wonderful last day spent in Kayonza. We spent the morning leading Sunday school classes for the church that meets in Kayonza. After that, we joined the rest of the congregation in worship. We were asked to participate in the service, so the whole team went on stage and sang two worship songs. Then we performed the "Everything" skit one last time, which again seemed to be a great success. We had originally thought Kevin would be preaching a sermon to the congregation while we were leading Sunday school, but it turned out that Kevin just preached the second sermon of the day, so we were all able to sit in and listen to him. And he did awesome!
After the church service we were able have a party with the children from the orphanages at Kayonza. We sang songs with them, they performed traditional boys' and girls' dances for us, and we served chocolate cake and Fanta. Then some of us played football, also known as soccer back in the States and some of us played "Mozungu" (white person) Says, our African variation of Simon Says. All in all, it was another exhausting day, but by God's grace we had the energy to get through it with smiles on our faces.
Today was very low key - we got to sleep in! We didn't meet for our morning devotions until 8:00, as opposed to the usual 6:30. At around 9:00, a group of college-aged women from a house called the Esther Home joined us for breakfast, along with our friends from the band Hindurwa. We sat and got to know the girls, and then we played a few rousing games of volleyball with the guys. It was a very different experience from working with the street kids and orphans, which we have been doing for the rest of the week - and we loved it! It was a really wonderful way to end our trip.
Tomorrow, our flight leaves in the afternoon, Rwanda time, and we are scheduled to arrive in Portland just after 2:00 PM on Wednesday. Please pray for safe, healthy travels for us all, and that our luggage will make it home as well!
Thank you all so, so much for all your prayers and support through the entire process of making this trip happen. We are all so grateful for you and, God willing, we look forward to sharing our stories with you when we get home.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Good evening Ryan and team! I can't believe how fast the time went. You definitely made great strides, a big impact on the community there. No, it doesn't seem long enough on this trip. I can imagine future trips with more hope, caring, sharing the word of God. Urugendo Rwiza (have a good trip- home). Anyway, sending our love, prayers for a safe flight home. Always, Mom, Dad, Erica and Juneau
Team:
What a great blessing you have been and you have received. We are praying for a safe and uneventful trip home. And in case you didn't hear, Ducks 44 Huskies 10! Gotta love it!
.......Mike A.
Post a Comment