The guidance and protection of God

Megan and I were talking about my Northlake girls today and I miss you guys so much! I wanted to write you a myspace message Nikki, but I forgot, you don't have one. Anyway I will see you all on Tuesday August 12th!

Megan’s dad comes to Rwanda on Monday, and with him, which I am very excited for, also comes CHOCOLATE! Haha. Oh, and it is official, we will leave August 3rd to go to Uganda and visit a little boy the Swansons have been sponsoring. We will return the 6th.

Pastor has stopped coming to English class, which means Megan and I walk to a bus stop 15 minutes away from our house every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (we used to go with her in a taxi). Most of the buses that pass are full so we have resorted to hitch hiking. The first time, we were waiting and joking about hitch hiking and Megan saw a car with muzungus heading our way, and screamed at me, “HILLIARY PUT YOUR THUMB UP!!!!” And being a very obedient girl I did, although I found it quite funny that she didn’t have the guts to put her own thumb up. Ever since, I have been the one flagging down our ride. It has actually been a pretty cool experience meeting random people and hearing their stories of what they have been doing in Rwanda.

Tuesday was our third time teaching crafts and we taught the women how to make Ugandan beads out of newspaper. Out of all of the things I thought would have been difficult in teaching crafts, I was surprised to find that many of the women didn’t know how to use scissors. It is too bad that we started teaching crafts so late, because we only have four more times before I leave, which isn’t enough time to teach them knitting or other skills.Although we are unsure, I think that all of the women we are working with have AIDS, along with little babies they are trying to care for. One of the girls doesn’t even look to be 18 years old and it breaks my heart thinking of the life she has most likely lived. Orphaned at a young age by the genocide, never having anyone to take care of her, never having enough money to attend school, being forced into prostitution for survival and now her life is being cut short from AIDS. But I know that that’s all we can see, which is such an earthly perspective. All of these women have come to know Christ, and through all of their strife they have come to know a true joy, and it is only the beginning. I was looking at one of the women who is sick from AIDS and I felt very sad because I know she doesn’t have much longer on this earth but I had a vision in my head of Christ embracing her a new creation, whole, and free from suffering.

After crafts was over on Tuesday we went to Mumugi to take back some paint we had bought, as it was the wrong color and took five days to dry, and to visit with Veterine (we learned the spelling of his name). Immediately after getting off the bus we saw Veterine looking the same as we had seen him last, sitting in the dirt wearing hole strung pants, with a dirty cub scout shirt on. We asked him if he wanted to go with us to eat something, and with much difficulty due to the language barrier he told us he couldn’t because he can’t walk. During our conversation a crowd of about 30 people gathered around us. Sometimes I hate my skin so much here. I just want to be able to do something without drawing the attention of everyone around us.

We then left to go buy food and to exchange the paint. The time before, we had gone to the store with Chantal and we didn’t remember where the shop was. We were aimlessly walking around and I was thinking about the Chronicles of Narnia books, and how Aslan always was guiding his children. I prayed that God would guide us as well, and lead us to where He wanted us to go. I felt like he had answered my prayer and shortly afterwards He brought us to the store. We returned the paint and got about half of our money back and asked if they had a different paint. A man named Jully who was temporally working there helped us out and led us to a different store to look for a paint that would work. He is on vacation from work for two weeks traveling from Kampala, Uganda, down to Burundi. He has been working with women, as well, teaching them skills. The store he took us to did not have any paint, so he took us to another one. We found some paint that looked ideal, but it was too expensive so we decided not to buy it. He asked us if the paint was going to our ministry with the women. Upon responding, yes, he said, “I am going to buy it for you.” It was encouraging seeing how thoroughly God answered my prayer.
On the way back we bought food and brought it to eat with Veterine. There were four other kids with Veterine so we felt we should share the food with all of them. Luckily there was a little cove we were able to eat in, so we weren’t bugged by the masses of people. We all sat on a concrete ledge, said the blessing and ate. I really wish we could somehow help these children long term. They are apparently all his brothers and sisters and none of them attend school. It is highly important for the people here to go to school, because since the jobs are so scarce it essential to have a degree.