Before I fill you in on our day I thought I would just show you some random pics!
Here are the two beautiful Juliets!
And here is Ray with Kevine and Grace with Juliet. Kevine spent the whole first day we were visiting just sitting on his lap and snuggling with him. So cute.
Here is Juliet with some of the neighbor kids.
And here is a group shot of all the neighbor kids just out front of the Home of Purpose.
The start of our day was a difficult one. Juliet had arranged for us to get a tour of one of the local genocide memorials. We met Ellen at the site and she began to share with us her story. I have read many stories of genocide survivors and they are always very moving and difficult to hear. Every Rwandan you meet has a story of loss. Hearing Ellen describe how she lost her parents and 6 siblings was gut wrenching. Listening to her share how thankful she was that God was with her and how she was able to literally run between the legs of the men who were trying to kill her was emotional to say the least. She showed us several places where people tried to hide and yet became trapped and ultimately killed. I will spare you some of the details of her story, but the courage she has in telling and retelling her story to visitors is remarkable. She shares her story so that people will remember, so that people can honor the lives that were lost.
There was a point at which she had to cover her face and weep in the midst of her story and I just completely fell apart. I wept while hugging her and did not want her to continue because the memories were so painful, but she seemed determined to finish her story and I am so glad she did. She ran to Congo and when she reached there she thought she was safe but then she saw the men that had tried to kill her searching the camp. She continued to run. She went 3 months with almost no water and no real food to speak of. But she survived and eventually found her oldest sister. They were the only 2 survivors of their once large family. She has 3 children, but life is still hard because her husband, also a survivor, suffered tremendous PTSD and left the family, so she struggles to provide for her children. Her strength is incredible. But that is not the most remarkable thing about her. She has forgiven the men that killed her family. And that is not all, she cares for them, she counsels them and feeds their children when they come by her house. She could have had an attitude of “Where was God? Why did He let this happen to my family?” But she never once questioned or doubted his presence and power in her life. Only God could enable a person to endure such things with that amount of grace, forgiveness and selflessness.
There is no good transition from this story to the rest of our day, so I will just continue on. We went to the Home of Purpose and began our painting project! Here is Brayden on a very scary ladder!
We painted and patched walls until lunch and then we took a break to play with the neighborhood kids that came around. We made bubbles and Anne and our driver blew up those long skinny balloons that the kids used as bats to hit the bubbles.
It was a fun break from the painting. We completed about half of the home today and then went over to the boys home to visit with them for a bit. They played soccer for a while as we waited for all the boys to get home from school. Once they all arrived, one boy performed a poem and then they all sang and danced and we all joined in! It was such a good time! Brayden and I shared about integrity and acceptance. Tomorrow evening we will go back and Ray, Anne and Juliet will talk about blessing others, patience and humility. We look forward to another dance party tomorrow night after another long day of painting!
I have some great videos of the girls singing while doing their craft and of the boys dancing, but they won't upload! I did upload the pic of the craft we did with the girls on my previous post if you are interested in going back.
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