First Week Back in Rwanda

My first eventful experience in Rwanda was the ride home from the airport. Megan and I rode on motorcycles back to her house with all of my luggage, which was about a 20 minute drive. It still is mind boggling to me of how we managed to do it.

I jumped right into things the second I got here. The Hovde Foundation is giving Hope For Life a grant to buy land and build a house, and the representative (Jeff) of the organization was here. We went all over the place having meetings with him and other organizations. Through all the meetings, Hope For Life now officially owns its own land and will have a home built on it by December! We hadn’t told the boys about the grant up until this point, because we didn’t want to get their hopes up if somehow it fell through.

We told the boys that we had a surprise for them and on Thursday we took them on a fieldtrip to the land HFL now owns. It was about a fifteen minute walk to the land from our current house, and when we got there we told them that we now own this land and will be building a home on it because of the Hovde Foundation. The boys were so excited and were screaming and cheering. While we were walking back, a few of the boys were worried that they’d have to change schools because their current school would be too far of a walk and they really like their teachers. Veterne turned around in his wheelchair and rebuked them saying, “Are you crazy!? Don’t you think that if God has provided us land and a house that he will provide a car too?” This gave all of us staff quite a laugh. When we got back to the house the boys shared what they were feeling. They talked about how they had been praying so fervently for the past year that Hope For Life would one day own its own land. The oldest, David, gave his testimony of how he prayed so much that HFL would get its own land and how he has now been encouraged to pray even more because he sees how God answers the small and the big prayers.

I have been so impressed with the boys and how much they have transformed in the last two years. They are such good and well behaved boys it is amazing. Of course boys will be boys, but overall they behave as well as you could expect any boy coming from a good family to act.

I have spent a lot of my time here thus far just hanging out at the home getting to know the boys better. I introduced them to the card game called Dutch Blitz, and they absolutely love it. We have already spent hours playing it. My team always wins :).

Today I had one of the most humbling experiences in my life. Two of the boys, Muhawe and Daniel saw my flip-flops were dirty and scrubbed them until they were squeaky clean. Afterwards they proceeded to talk with Dorothy (one of the caretakers) and she told me, “They love you so much. They are asking me if they can wash your feet”. I didn’t know how to respond. I came here to serve the boys, not the other way around. It was very hard for me to let them do this act of service, but I knew that it was important for me to let them show their love for me. They thus grabbed a bucket and began to thoroughly clean my feet and my legs. They worked on my nasty feet for about 20 minutes, and even rubbed them with lotion when they were finished. The boys continue to astound me with their humility and servants hearts. It is an honor to see the miracle Christ has done in their hearts.

I know you all want to see pictures, but I have been holding off taking pictures my first week here, as I want to get the boys comfortable with me before becoming the paparazzi . So, hopefully I will have some for my next blog.