On June 23rd, I will board a plane in the state nicknamed “The Land of a Thousand Lakes”.
On June 24th, I will step off a plane in the country nicknamed “The Land of a Thousand Hills”.
That beautiful country is Rwanda, Africa.
I have been dreaming and praying about stepping foot on Rwandan soil since August of 2014. At that time, God began to pull back the layers of a dream I had no clue was deep inside me. Over the course of the last 20 months God has been continuing to surprise me by uncovering a deep longing to immerse myself in Rwandan culture. Since this dream was revealed, my passion for knowing the God who created me has blossomed, as has my desire to be used to introduce others to the love of God I have come to know. While God has not yet revealed to me the full picture as to why he is calling me to Rwanda I have no doubt he is. I am beyond thrilled to see how God wants to use, teach, and love me while in Rwanda.
There is much I want to share with you about this journey. I have known for the last few months this trip was going to happen this summer, yet didn’t share much about it outside of my close family and friends. The reason for that is because I was scared. It had become evident to me God was calling me into a greater risk than I had originally thought I had signed up for. As the risk got greater the more scared I got. There was quite a bit of time where the only thing I was fairly confident in was God was calling me to go this June. I had very little connections and no set plans. There was a pile of unknowns a million miles high. Doors were closing left and right. The trip looked impossible from every angle. This terrified me to no end. The trip I had always pictured was turning out completely different from my “ideal” trip. Surprise, surprise God’s ideas were different from my own.
Yet, through every closed door and heartbreak God kept asking me “are you going to trust me?”
My mind ping ponged through no, maybe, and yes over and over again.
But eventually I decided I had to jump. So I did! I committed to saying yes no matter the cost. It certainly still scares me, but God has been incredibly faithful since. This only makes me that much more excited to see what he does when I actually arrive in Rwanda.
While pieces are constantly evolving I want to share with you what is happening and what my vision for this trip is. One of the greatest things God has been teaching me is to trust him. For me, this looks like releasing my need to have everything perfectly planned out before I go. I am continuing to make more connections with individuals and organizations in Rwanda, but I am not going to know my day to day plans until they happen. There are two reasons for this, I believe. One is I think God just wants to teach me to let go of my fear of the unknown and to trust him. Secondly, it is much more of the African way. The African cultures I have experienced are ones of living in the moment (which is awesome) and not planning down to every detail, because well you just never know what might happen!
I may not know exact details, but I do want to share a piece of my vision for this trip with you. That can be summed up into three overarching words: LOVE, LEARN, SERVE. While they do each overlap let me explain what I mean for each.
LOVE:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
First and foremost, I want to fall deeper in love with the God who created me. I want to push deeper into knowing the God would created the entire universe and who had every single one of my days planned out far before I was born. This entire journey has been one great love affair with God and I can’t wait for it to continue.
I also anticipate falling deeper in love with the people and cultures God has created. We are so quick to separate ourselves from people who are different from us whether that is in appearance, socio-economic status, or culture. I find myself doing this far too often and hate it. Instead, I want to immerse myself in a culture so different from my own and, through that, hope God will teach me how to see and love His children better. I want to be better at loving every single person God places in my path. I hope, as I step so far outside of my comfort zone in this way, I will begin to see people more like Jesus.
LEARN:
“The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.” -Proverbs 18:15
Oh I expect God to provide me with an abundance of new knowledge on this journey! There are so many things I hope to learn. Among them being anything and everything I can about Rwanda. I want to learn cultural customs, languages spoken, food, landscape and history. I want to learn the hearts and stories of the people who call Rwanda home. I have read every book I could get my hands on regarding Rwanda, but know reading those books can’t teach me what immersing myself in everyday life can. While I dream about doing full-time ministry in Rwanda I know I cannot even begin to do that if I don't first take the time to learn all I can about Rwanda and build relationships there.
I hope to explore and learn why God is calling me to Rwanda as well as how he wants to use my gifts and experiences to share His Kingdom there. While some pieces of this are possibly being uncovered I can’t wait for more of it to be revealed.
I can’t wait to see what God has to teach me about His Kingdom and character. Traveling to Uganda in 2014 taught me there is much we can learn about God’s character as we allow ourselves to open up to other cultures. I have no doubt God will use the Rwandan culture to show me more of his goodness.
I also hope to learn more about who God created me to be and how I can grow to have a more intimate relationship with Him. God has already begun to teach me I am stronger than I ever imagined I was and I can’t wait to see just how much more he is going to show me.
The piece of Rwanda that God initially used to reveal this dream to me was the way the country has learned to forgive. Rwanda has an extremely painful past. In 1994, nearly a million living, breathing human beings were brutally murdered in a 100-day genocide. Most of them by people they would have called friends. Yet, somehow since then many of these people whose families were killed have found it in themselves to forgive. They have forgiven the individuals who brought unfathomable pain on their lives. Not only have they forgiven, but they have been able to reconcile to a point where they are now friends with that person who caused so much pain in their lives. Despite having read many books on this topic since God initially revealed this dream to me, I still can’t seem to understand it. How does one forgive an act so much of the world would deem unforgivable? I hope to spend a portion of my time in Rwanda trying to understand this. I am not sure how this is going to happen as I suspect it is a very sensitive topic, but I trust God will show me. After all, it was a conversation about this topic that changed my entire world and catapulted me into this journey.
SERVE:
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” ~1 Peter 4:10
I am confident I will have multiple opportunities to serve on this journey and I am thrilled about that. However, God has opened up a door for me to serve that I never imagined. Through reaching out to the Vineyard Mission Rwanda in the capital city, God has created an opportunity for me to serve in the area of children's ministry. There is a lot I do not yet know about what this will look like and suspect I wont know until I get there. My understanding is they are looking for assistance in establishing their children's ministry and/or preschool run by the church. This is incredibly exciting for me! I have known for quite awhile that God has placed in me a gift and passion for seeing children become passionate followers of Jesus. Over the last few years, though, I have struggled to figure out how and where God wanted to use that heart and passion. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would lead to using them in Rwanda. Maybe it will be for a few weeks, maybe it will develop into a more long-term connection. I don't know, but if I can play a role in even one child becoming firmly planted in the love of Jesus than it doesn't matter to me.
Those are the overarching pieces of this trip I am focusing on, but this trip isn’t limited to that. I have been speaking with other individuals in Rwanda who I plan to connect with to learn from while I am there and can't wait to see what God has planned with those connections. I know God is up to something pretty amazing simply due to how hard Satan has tried to get me to quit. He tried to attack me emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually, and relationally. Instead of these attacks breaking me, though, they have made me stronger.
I am beyond thankful for all of you who have been supporting me through kind words, prayers, and love. Thank you so so much! I couldn’t do it without you. I will do my best to continue updating you regarding this journey. Soon, I will be posting the story of how God revealed this dream to me and the adventure I have been on since that day. So, if you haven’t heard that story yet stay tuned for it!
If you are interested in supporting me more on this journey there are multiple ways for you to do so. First is through prayer! God has been teaching me a lot about prayer on this adventure and just how powerful it is. I would greatly appreciate your prayers leading up to me boarding that plane, while I am there, and as I return. You can find an ever growing and changing list of prayer requests under my blog page titled Rwanda Trip Info.
You can also support me financially, if you feel led to do so. The truth is I can’t financially do this on my own. While the ask is great I trust God will provide all I need. The finances I raise will help cover the cost of housing, transportation (in-country and plane ticket), food, visa, and supplies to bring to the church I will be serving in as well as the other individuals/organizations I hope to partner with. Any extra I raise will be used to bless the church community and others God places in my path to partner with on this journey to Rwanda. I will also be spending the last few days of my trip in Uganda in order to visit a few special people I met while there in 2014.
If you are interested in financially supporting me you can do so HERE.
Thank you so incredibly much for every ounce of support you all have provided me! I feel incredibly blessed by the community God has allowed me to be a part of. Thank you! This journey is just starting and I can’t wait to see how God wants to use, stretch, and grow me even more!
Blessings to you all!