First of all, I must apologize for my incredible insensitivity in my former post about how Brayden could sleep through an earthquake. My husband pointed out to me that there was just a devastating earthquake in Nepal. Clearly I was not aware and so please forgive me. On a lighter note....this pic of Juliet staring at Brayden cracks me up!
We started our day eating breakfast on the balcony that overlooks this beautiful country. Juliet (from Ten Talents, Int.) met us here at the guesthouse and rode with us to the Home of Purpose so that we could get a tour of the home and plan for our week on how to make improvements to their home. We also sat with the girls that happened to be home and the house moms and showed them all the sweaters we had for them. I think the best way to describe it was that it felt like Christmas morning. It was so much fun to see them get so excited about their new clothes. They even started posing for us like supermodels!
Once we had an idea of what we needed to start the painting tomorrow we headed to the market to buy rice, beans and cooking oil for the special needs orphanage that is very close to the girls home. We arrived at the orphanage and gave them the food and other school supplies and art supplies we had for them and we were told that it was lunch time and that we would not be able to play with the kids because lunch time takes at least 2 hours. We had expected to be able to interact with the children in some simple way by blowing bubbles, or hitting balloons back and forth to each other, but it was not possible. They did offer to give us a tour. This evening we all agreed that this was the most difficult part of our day. It was difficult to see so many children and adults all in one place in need of so much care. It was difficult to imagine what a massive commitment it was for these caregivers to dedicate their lives to this work. But for me, what was so hard was to just be standing around. We wanted to be helpful but there were already a few volunteers that were helping with meal time, so there was really nothing we could do, so we continued on with the tour of the facility then prayed for the caregivers. As we were about ready to leave Anne noticed a young boy laying in a school uniform on the concrete slab outside one of the buildings. She inquired about him and learned that he was the son of someone that either works or lives in that facility. He complained of having a bad stomach ache. We all circled around him and prayed that he would get well. Afterwards, he just smiled and thanked us.
From there we went to the Home of Innocence which is the boys home. We got a tour of their home and the Ten Talents offices. We met a few of the boys too. One boy stepped out of the house and I immediately recognized him as the sponsor child of a friend back home. I said, “Hello A_____!” His face exploded into the brightest smile and ran into my arms and hugged me. I told him my name was Tina and that I met him a few years ago and that I was a friend of his Momma Linda. He was precious!
We had some time before we needed to be back at the Home of Purpose so we went back to the guesthouse for a cup of tea and visited on a more personal level with our translator, John. He shared some of his life story with us and it was a sweet time to get to know him better.
Our final activity of the day is by far one of my favorite moments in Rwanda to date. This description will not do it justice. We arrived at the girls home and waited for the all the girls to gather with us and once they did their computer/english tutor led them in performing a skit that they had put together that illustrated how God can change a life and bring hope to the hopeless. They did a great job practicing their english while delivering a great message. After this they offered to sing for us. I can not describe the power behind their voices, nor the passion behind their words. It was beyond inspiring. We finally sat down (in the furniture that was donated through friends of Mugisha Ministries!) and shared with them about the life of Joseph. We spoke about the character traits we saw in his life. Humility, acceptance, patience, integrity, striving to bless others, , being hard working, etc. We showed them an example of the craft we planned to do with them and explained that the mulit-colored design on the craft is like Josephs multi-colored robe. We asked them to imagine all the diffirent colors as the character traits displayed in Joseph's life. When they see their names with all those beautiful colors coming through, we want them to also strive to reflect those character traits in their lives.
Here is an example of what we did with them only using each of their names. They LOVED it.
(pic to be inserted tomorrow since it is 1am and upload is taking too long!)
There was only one dim light in the living room and no light in the dining room where the table was so we had to turn on our flashlights on our cell phones and hold them above the table so the girls could complete the craft. There were so into it that you could hear a pin drop and honestly I was dying to hear them sing again, so I asked them if they could teach us the song they were singing earlier, so they did and we all stood around the dining table, holding our cell phones for light, belting out worship songs and it was all I could do to hold myself together. These girls who have known so much loss, heartache and hardship are so quick to thank God for all they have and sing to Him with such passion. There are just no words to describe what it felt like to be in that room in that moment. When the song ended, I asked if they would sing to us in Kinyarwanda. They did. And I was in heaven. John translated the song one line at a time as they sang and it was a beautiful song about how God can rewrite the history of those that serve him. That was it for me, I reached my breaking point for the day and cried tears that were a mixture of so many emotions that I can’t articulate, so I won’t even try.
Our day concluded with another delicious meal at the guesthouse where we sat and debriefed all the emotions and experiences from the day. We are super excited to begin our painting project tomorrow.
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