Rwanda, Africa. I am forever changed. Let's see if I can put into words a description of my trip. It all began on a Tuesday night. My parents and Josh dropped me off at the airport and I said my goodbyes. (Which wasn't easy, but the Spirit gave me strength and peace). We flew to Washington DC and stayed the night there. We met the rest of our team at the airport on Wednesday morning, and all of us boarded the Ethiopian plane. Ready to go. I couldn't believe I was about to fly 12-15 hours and thousands of miles away from home to another country across the world. Say what?! Yea, I thought I'd lost my mind.. Little did I know, this wouldn't be the last time I would question my sanity on this journey...
I spent the first part of the plane ride watching movies, listening to music, journaling, praying and reading my Bible.. I had talked to some of my team mates (almost all of whom had been on mission before), and they were all so fired up and so confident. I began saying things like "I am so under-prepared! I don't know what I'm doing. I'm going to make a fool of myself. I am not ready for this". Mary, Pam, and Jeri encouraged me by saying that the Holy Spirit would provide all I needed, but I've never had to rely on the Spirit in that way before. I always think I "have it under control".. As I began to freak out even more over the fear of failing miserably in Rwanda, I opened my Bible to John 20. I read about when Jesus re-appeared to the group of disciples, and there was doubting Thomas.. He was doubting (duh) that Jesus was REALLY alive.. Then in verse 27 Jesus told Thomas "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Take your hand, and put it into my side.
Stop doubting, and believe."
It felt as if Jesus was sitting right there with me on the plane. Like He took my hand, looked me in the eye and said Anna, I. Am. Here. For. You. What a moment that was. Even thinking of it now makes my heart swell with love and joy. After this, I decided to try and sleep since it was dark out (finally).
Then came the migraine. The worst migraine I've had in at least 6 months. And of course, along with the migraine came the sickness. I had the window seat and two Ethiopian girls were sitting next to me. I did not know these girls, but by the time the plane landed they were handing me wet towels, patting me on the back, and had even donated their little white barf bags to the poor sick girl. Gross. Yet even in this moment of horrible sickness, after my sweet time with Jesus a few hours before, I felt peace. I knew I was supposed to be there. I knew I was right in the center of God's will. The sickness did not shake me, and I have God to thank for that; I can say that was the provision of the Holy Spirit.
We had one more plane ride to Kigali, Rwanda. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel! We arrived (and amazingly so did ALL of our luggage), and headed to the Genocide Memorial. Wow, that was a cold awakening. The people of Rwanda lost approximately ONE MILLION people in the course of 100 days. Can you imagine it? It sounds like the most horrific, terrible nightmare anyone could think of. This country needs the restoration and healing that only the name and person of Jesus Christ can bring. After touring the memorial, we headed to our hotel for the night in Kigali. We shopped in Kigali on Friday morning then headed out to Gisenyi where we would be serving for the rest of the week.
In Gisenyi, we met our mission point teams for the week. The mission point team consisted of two North Americans and two ministry partners. The ministry partners are trained through e3 Rwanda, and they are our translators for the week. They are amazing and SUCH a blessing to work with! The North American I worked with was Carrie (from Oregon), and our ministry partners were Enock and Alex. We were mission point NUMBER ONE! Yea! Our village was in Kibavu, Rwanda. These three people were like family by the end of the week and I miss them all so much! The next morning it was game on. This was the day I would go to an African village and share the Gospel. Yea, I was freaking out that Saturday morning. We started with a large worship service, I am SECOND groups, and breakfast at the hotel.. Then it was time to load up in the vans and go. There were two mission point teams per van. We headed out first down a paved road through a few towns.. Then about 30 minutes later, we turned off onto an extremely rocky, muddy, rough road.. This was the road we traveled for about an hour. We went through many villages.. I began hearing "MUZUNGU!!" alot, and Betty, a minstry partner, informed me that this meant "white person". So the children would chase our van yelling muzungu!, begging for money and water bottles.. People would stare and point when they saw us drive by.. Some would laugh, and some small children would cry because they were afraid.. Most of these people had never seen a white person before.. Crazy, huh? This was another moment I questioned my sanity for going on this mission trip.. I was getting so nervous..
As we drove through these villages, we turned down many "roads".. We drove up and down some really steep hills, slid around in the mud quite a bit, and I remember asking Betty at least ten times "Does this guy know where he's going??" She ensured me that he did, although I couldn't speak his language and had no clue what was really going on.. Then we arrived at a village church.. I felt relief because I thought we were finally there, but nope.. It was the other team's mission site. So we let them out of the van, and then it was Me and Carrie with Enock Alex and the van driver.. I got even more nervous now.. I didn't really know any of these people.. And again I questioned "What am I doing here!?!?" We drove another 20 minutes or so and finally arrived at a small house. There was a large crowd outside, and they were all singing and dancing. Enock translated that they were saying how thankful they were for "the visitors" and how they had prayed for us to come for so long. This is when I knew I was supposed to be in Kibavu, Rwanda. God willed for me to be in this tiny village in the middle of nowhere Rwanda, in AFRICA.. I would have never guessed this would be happening to me. I never thought I would be about to preach the gospel "mud hut to mud hut". God knew. And He assured in my heart right then that He was in control and He had a big plan for our mission point team in Kibavu, and our whole mission team overall in Rwanda (and the Congo).
Wow, this is already pretty long. I think I will make this a two-part blog. =]
So there is part one. I will do my best to get a part two up later this week.
("God is good!")
