Muraho update #2

Muraho again! An update I wrote for our group trip, soon to be posted on the church website (http://www.rezchurch.org/). Check there every so often for more updates, but I thought I'd include it here since it's fairly personal since I wrote it. Enjoy...

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Muraho again! Yesterday, the Rwanda team departed from Nyagatare,visited Bishop Alexis in Gahini, and safely arrived at the As WeForgive house in Kigali. Our brothers and sisters in Nyagatare sentus off with monster hugs and greetings to everyone. It is going to bedifficult to describe the intensity and impact of these newfoundrelationships with words, so we hope everyone will be able to see iton our faces and hear it in our voices when we return. We also had agreat time with the amazingly adorable children of Nyagatare, as wewere able to play football and dance with them, visit their schools,and receive informal lessons in Kinyarwanda (the native language,although many speak very good English).

Many of you will also be happy to know that the Rwandan prayers formarriage and children in our church have been fervently renewed byPastor Emmanuel and several members of their Development Committee(our Rwanda Group's counterparts).

Bishop Alexis and, today, Archbishop Kolini were incredibly gratefulto have us and shared wonderful advice and prayers in encouraging ourministry here in Rwanda and especially back home.

We got a real sense of the (material) poverty and desolation resultingfrom the genocide yesterday, yesterday visiting Jon's friends Aishaand Gloria, whose entire families were killed, and today visitingKininya, a reconciliation housing association in which victims andkillers are living and working together. As Blake said, in the Biblepeople went up mountains to meet with God. And as we were there in Kininya, we met Him as well. Friends, He is here and moving mightily.

Today we also attended a screening of As We Forgive at a local prisonhousing 5,200 inmates, over half of whom are there for genocidecrimes. The message of repentance and forgiveness was powerful andopened some wonderful doors for conversation.

We give thanks for the work that the Lord has done already, and forthe favor and protection He has shown us. We miss everyone from homebut are grateful for your prayers and the opportunity to be sent outon behalf of our churches. Please continue to pray for our health andsafety, as well as the As We Forgive church leaders' conference thatwe'll be attending the next couple of days.

Grace and peace from our Almighty God,

The Rwanda Team

Muraho from Rwanda!

Muraho! (Hello!) I am sitting in our hotel lobby in Kigali, Rwanda right now. This may be the first indication of one surprise from this country: it is not nearly as desolate and forsaken as we (or I) tend to think of it. Kigali is a great city, very safe, plenty of things around, even an Italian place we went to dinner tonight! (A welcome change from traditional Rwandan food...not the highlight of the trip so far.)

Many, many more thoughts, emotions, and reactions will be coming probably as I get back. But almost halfway through the trip, I can confidently say that my world has been sufficiently rocked. We'll see how this other half goes. The moral of the story so far is that I love this place and the people here, and as much as I expected similarities and differences, I am finding the scale tipping heavily to the similarities side. We've been embraced and loved and shared laughs and joys with our new Rwandan friends, many of whom I feel like I've known for years. And that is nothing to say of their individual and national coping and recovery from their 1994 tragedy. This stuff is crazy, but good.

Much love to everyone back in the States. It will take me a while to process everything about this trip, but it should provide some interesting food for thought, or at least some good blog ramblings.

Matt is going to Rwanda...tomorrow!!

Dear friends and family,

Mwaramutse! (That's "good morning" in Kinyarwandan. Tomorrow we're off! I'll get picked up around 6am and fly out around 10. Truthfully, I can't believe it's finally here. We've been talking and planning and fundraising for so long, in some ways the thought of actually going to Rwanda somewhat escaped me. But ready or not, here I come.

A few more details about the work we're doing that have come up. We're spending the first half in Nyagatare, as I mentioned, working with our sister church there to help them develop their relationship with our DC church, help with the students our church supports, and communicate with the new pastoral staff there about how this partnership can work best. Later, we'll be bringing the As We Forgive film to the folks in Nyagatare for a viewing (they haven't seen it yet) and training on discussion leading. The second half we'll be in Kigali, helping to put on a prison screening of the film and attending a training conference for community leaders on the film. Overall, a big focus of the trip will be a needs assessment and relationship building, but we're hoping to put some of our harder skills to good use as well.

Personally, I am excited and feel mentally and spiritually ready, at least as much as possible. I definitely have no idea what to expect, but I think that's a good thing. I anticipate my mind being blown, my heart broken, my body exhausted, and my spirit revived. I expect my understanding of the world and of God to balloon beyond what my American culture and experience can provide. I hope that my future calling and dreams will be re-shaped to take into account the people I encounter. And of course I hope and expect to leave the country better than we find it. In small ways in small parts of the country, we'll have a few days of influence, and I hope people are blessed by our meager offering of ourselves and whatever service we can provide.

I'm so grateful for the encouragement and prayers I've received so far. And here are a few specific ways to join us in prayer during the trip:

• for health and safety during the trip and on the ground, plus smoothness of logistics and traveling
• for an open, soft heart, not bent on my own agenda but eager to listen and serve
• for an eye to see and ear to hear all that God is revealing to me about myself, the world, and especially Himself
• for relationships with the church in Nyagatare, solid communication, and fruitfulness in the reconciliation efforts
• for the As We Forgive Rwanda Initiative, our sister church, President Kigame, and the Rwandan people as a whole

We're hoping to blog a little when we're there, but if not will certainly put up some posts when we get back. My personal reflections will be on my blog, and the team reflections should be on the blog on the front of our church site. And I'll send out a brief recap when I get home and recover a bit.

Much love from DC today and Africa tomorrow,

Matt

Rwanda update: a hand and a thumb

That makes 6 days to go. And gosh, I'm ready. We have a big fundraiser event tonight, which should be really fun, but in all honesty my mind is way past that. And to be more honest, my mind has only made it as far as the plane ride at this point. I'm guessing that's because I have been on planes, so I have an idea of what that'll be like, but I've never been to Africa, so can't really begin to picture what to expect. I think I'll be pretty antsy on the flight, and eventually books and cards just aren't going to cut it.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have been nominated treasurer of the trip, which means that I have to make sure everyone has enough money to pay for transportation, food, lodging, etc. every day. So I'll be carrying a few thousand dollars' worth of Rwandan money around the country, which is slightly intimidating. Don't tell any robbers you know in Rwanda about that.

It's also been fun to start thinking about fun, non-traditional things to pack. I just bought a few soccer balls and a pump that I'm excited to bring over and play with some kids there. Jon asked if we could go running, which will be pretty sweet, so I'll pack my running shoes. I also will pack my solar shower to attempt to have a warm-ish shower some nights. Otherwise, I think a lot about shoes. I feel like shoes have a big impact on experiences like this. And lastly, for now, is a guitar. What a privilege to lead some folks in music worship in Africa!

For now, it's time think about Groovin' for Rwanda tonight. Maybe I'll see some of you there!

Countdown

Can we just take a quick look at the ridiculousness of things coming up in the next few weeks? Here is a brief countdown of significant upcoming events:

• 10 days until I leave for Rwanda
• 12 days (I think) until my 2-year DC anniversary (which I'll be abroad for, ironically)
• 14 days until the start of the Fall semester (although I'll miss the first week)
• 20 days until college football season (again, I'll miss the first week, but Go Irish!)
• 22 days until the infamous Katalou Labor Day bonanza and mega-slip-n-slide
• 32 days until I go back to see my family in Michigan for the first time in a while
• 34 days until I attend my first 2010 ND game (at MSU)

What the heck? Ready or not, here comes fall!

Rwanda update: 13 days to go!

Today is Friday the 13th (which my family considers a lucky day), there are 13 days until we leave for Rwanda. Perhaps it's appropriate to list 13 things I'm excited about for this trip:

1. I will meet and live for a week with people whose background is entirely different from mine.
2. We will be bringing the message of reconciliation and forgiveness to leaders who will, in turn, spread it to their community. What a way to serve!
3. I'm excited to play soccer with the kids. Or should I say, "joue au foot"....my French is a bit rusty. But I love that completely different people can bond over the sport.
4. I'm going with quality people that I'm excited to know better through this time: Blake, Andrea, Josh, Jon, Kelsey, Sarah, Alicia, and Kaety. Not to mention the Rwandans we'll get to hang with.
5. I'll get to pray and worship in a way that is foreign to me. The God is the same, the understanding and relating to Him is different.
6. With 20ish hours of travel each way, I'm hoping to crank through some good books. I have a stack I've been meaning to work on.
7. We'll get to share stories, messages, and pictures with friends, family, and our church when we get back. It will be an awesome uniting of worlds for us.
8. Touring the country will be awesome. I have heard and seen that it is a beautiful place. I'm holding out hope for some gorillas too.
9. I'm excited to mourn and cry over the genocide memorials. Pain is not good but it's real. And I believe that realness is a higher good than painlessness. I'll get just a glimpse of what the people there suffered, but I will join with them.
10. Along with that, I'll rejoice and laugh and dance for the joy of hope in recovery and renewal.
11. My perspective of my life will change. Need will be redefined. I mean this in material and emotional ways.
12. We will make Rwanda a better place. We won't change everything and most people will never know we were there. But for the few people we do get to see and serve, we will leave that country better than we found it.
13. What an adventure! God is good and His provision is perfect. What more could I be excited about than taking a leap with Him and His people?

Rwanda update: shots...check!

Okay, that's slightly misleading. I still need to get my yellow fever shot, so ask me about that in a couple weeks if you don't hear anything by then. But today I got my typhoid fever and polio shots, along with malaria meds. I had no idea that polio was required since I got the shot as a baby, but apparently for international travelers, they recommend a booster just to be safe. Cool with me, I'm all for not getting polio.

So with surprisingly sore arms, I count 26 days until we leave. The plane ticket is bought, the plans are mostly in place, and aside from a daunting fundraising event and packing, I'd say we're ready to go. Okay, that's not true at all, but I feel like it should be. Our team meetings are very interesting in the detailed planning we try to do, and I go back and forth between thinking that this is useful and just diving into the laid-back African culture already. Hopefully there's a happy medium.

Our new big project that we're excited about is bringing the As We Forgive movie to the town of Nyagatare (where our sister church is), which has never seen it. It'll be such a cool way to combine both of our missions of sharing the film with the country and building the relationship with that small community.

For me personally, I think I'm as ready to go as I'm going to be. I can't wait to get there, meet the people, see how they live and interact. It's kind of strange to think that the 9 days we're there will be a blip in the Rwandans' lives but incredibly impactful in mine. Maybe there is someway we can make a more lasting positive impression. I don't know what to expect, really, but I'm okay with that. This is a good thing and the right people, and the Lord of everything is with us in it.

Bring on Rwanda!