Well we survived the night, with hardly any sleep. When I opened the door to our room this morning to walk outside I was shocked! It was absolutely breathtaking! The view of the lake where our “hotel, motel, holiday inn” sits in incredible! I felt like I was in Fiji or some exotic island. I could not believe it! The pictures hardly do it justice.
We met Skip and his family for breakfast down by the water and then we all took off to the hotel golf to meet with Steve’s team and then we headed for the refugee camp. The drive was beautiful once again and when we arrived the camp was huge! There are three generations of refugees now living at the camp. There were people everywhere. We drove up by a little church named “Deliverance Church of Jesus Christ” and our vans were swarmed, the kids were everywhere. We unloaded the vans and brought all the supplies into the church. Once inside the church it quickly filled up, Pastor Joseph and the president of the camp spoke to us. She was so emotional and filled with joy that we had come to the camp to visit and show that we care about the refugees she had a hard time speaking. Just the little effort it took to bring supplies and aid from home and then to spend a couple hours with the people really touched them. All that people really need is to know that someone cares about them. That they are not alone and that they are loved by people around the world.
We had some more worship time and some different choirs came up and sang and then the leaders of the church ministry and the camp were introduced. Pastor Joseph explained to us that their church had started with just 7 people standing outside under a little tent. The did not have a building and many of the other refugees would laugh at them and make fun of them. So they prayed that their church would grow and today they have a building with full house every service including children’s ministries.
Steve played a game with the kids called Twanga Twanga and then presented them with a soccer ball. He also went through the supplies that their team had brought for the people there. He explained that he was entrusting the supplies with Pastor Joseph and he would be the one to hand them out to the people in the church, since he knew which families really needed what. He then delivered a message of hope and encouragement for the people there.
I walked outside after we were all done inside and started talking to some of the kids. Two of the boys there spoke English really well. They asked me if we brought Bibles for them. I explained to them that we tried to but there weren’t enough Bibles for us to get to bring to the church. I asked them if they could read English as well as they speak it. They told me they could and so I went and got my little Bible (thanks Molls!) from the car. I wrote a message for them on the inside of the Bible and handed it to them, after making them promise me that they were going to share it and read it with anyone that wanted or needed to hear the word of God. They agreed once more and I gave it to them along with a highlighter, which they were pretty excited about. So please pray that those boys will grow strong in their walk with the Lord and not only that they would be a blessing, but that God would utilize them to mobilize and to teach other His word.
After the camp we left and headed back to the Bethanie where we checked out only to find that we paid more for dinner the night before at this guest house than we did the room! Which made the three of us laugh. We had lunch and then went over to the hospital for a tour. This hospital in Kibuye is the where the PEACE Plan health initiative is being implemented. Unfortunately though a member of Steve’s team was not feeling well and was taken there to be checked out so we didn’t tour the hospital because we had to leave early. The nurse wanted to check him out and make sure he was alright (which he is) before she gave us the tour. It seems to be a decent hospital for Rwanda, as it is only 1 of 4 in the country, 3 of which I was able to see.
Arthur gave us a ride back to Kigali and where we have never been so thankful to be back in our guest house!
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