Hello Everyone!
When all my days begin to run together here, my heart finds such promise in this verse! Between a deep rooted joy and the constant craziness of Africa, God has kept my heart overflowing with gladness. We have had quite a BIG week here in little Rwanda! Today brought me a hefty dose of humble pie and an event that will keep me laughing til Kingdom come. We took a trip to Kigali (the capital of Rwanda and roughly a two hour drive form Musanze) to gather all sorts of supplies for Rays of Grace's NEW HOUSE! A trip to the city can be quite refreshing. They have some fun "American-type" places to eat and some fabulous grocery shopping :) So Jeff and I left the house around 6 am with joy in our steps, eager to take a fun day trip. Once we arrived in Kigali we stopped at Bourbon Coffee which is the Starbucks of Africa... Such a treat! After breakfast, we gathered all of our household items and headed out for our 30 minute walk to the bus park. A hefty storm blew in so we hunkered down for a bit and decided to partake in a buffet for lunch. The food was delicious and kept us occupied as the storm rolled through. After the storm cleared, we gathered up our things and started our journey to the bus park! This is an experience all in itself. It brings the term "organized chaos" to a whole new level. When two Mzungus walk into the park, the party starts. You are being yelled at, directed, grabbed, etc, etc, until you finally find the bus you need. We honed in a made a B Line to our bus and settled in for the two hour journey ahead. Everything was going swimmingly and I even started to sleep for a bit. Suddenly, I instantly regretted my lunch choice and I had a long way to go. I had my window open, taking deep breaths, but it just wouldn't cut it. Everyone was getting frustrated with the cold air and took the liberty of shutting the window in my face. I braced myself, said a quick prayer, handed my Ray Bans to Jeff (priorities, right?) and humbly accepted saying bye to my lunch out the window of a bus. As if I didn't stick out already, I became the talk of the bus ride and now the talk of the town. Hahahahahahaha all I can do is laugh. After that, no one wanted to close my window anymore... Winning. All that to say, I am going to take a hiatus from the buffet scene here. One of my biggest prayers has been for humility and God really showed up big today :).
Anywho, all sickness and laughs aside, we have truly been receiving abundant blessings this week. After roughly three weeks of searching for a home base for Rays of Grace, God parted the confusion and placed a house/office in our laps. Psalm 5:3 has continually rang true in my heart - "In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation". We are called to humble ourselves before the Lord with the cries of our hearts. He hears us and answers according to the riches of His Will. If we pray with expectancy, we begin to see The Maker's Hand in every part of our lives. He is a Sovereign God who truly desires the best for His children. Hooray :)
We will be uploading photos within the next few days of the house to our Facebook Page if any of you would like to view it:
http://www.facebook.com/RaysOfGrace
We have also learned insane amounts of information as we have immersed ourselves further and further into this new community. We are hopeful to carry out clean water projects and to start up small craft businesses for the women in our area. However, our main vision has changed. As I wrote in the last blog, there is a HUGE need for a proper education in order to end the cycle of poverty. We have befriended a large amount of students ranging from Primary School to College-aged students. There biggest request - "I want to attend University in America so that I can come back to my country and help". Wow. Humbled. Once we heard that, we got down to business. We began researching like crazy and figuring out just what this would take. The more we researched and prayed and sought out advice, the more God impressed upon our hearts the idea of starting the Opportunity Program. We would like to open up our home for students to come to so that Rays of Grace could prepare them for an education in America. We are hoping to fundraise financial means to purchase a small amount of lap tops, books, pens, pencils, dictionaries and such to begin the preparation. We have learned of a location near Kigali that allows students to take the SAT's so that they are eligible for University's in the U.S.
We are hoping to start with one boy and one girl. We are hoping to find host families for the students to stay with while they are stateside. We will ask the students to research grants and scholarships while we begin the start up stages for a Tuition Fund. Although we are starting with two students, we will have a constant flow of younger students coming to our house for homework help, English lessons, after school programs and hopefully a meal program. And now the BIGGEST HOPE - to create programs in Colorado, Texas and New Jersey (the three places we have the most connections) where the kids could come out for two weeks to a month to experience America and to show them different college options. We would love to work with different ski resorts and ski companies so that the students could partake in all the fun Colorado has to offer :)
To try and wrap up this novel, we have some BIG prayer requests. We are praying for God to equip us with the energy, strength and courage necessary to make this happen. Rays of Grace is truly to here to further His Kingdom and to serve our brothers and sisters with all that we are. We prayerfully submit this to Him and invite you to come alongside of us in prayer as well!
Again, all advice and wisdom is ALWAYS welcomed! God is good ALL THE TIME!
I love you all!
BIG grace and BIG hugs!
britt :)
PS - Hi Mommy :) I love you and miss you :)
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