Feats of Strength

Thursday, November 29

Today we spent the morning at the Dream Center with the street kids. These are boys who have no real homes and at times have to steal to survive. Half don’t have shoes. Some only have a single T-shirt which they wear as pants. They are as young as 5 or 6 years old. And today was their day to party. We had only expected 125 or so but by the time we got done with worship and had moved outside the crowd had probably grown to around 400. After some songs and an awesome drama performance, the kids decided to put on a show for us. A group of guys with an age range of probably 10 years spent the next 20 minutes showing off their amazing gymnastics skills. According to Denise, “They could be future Cirque de Soleil members.” We then had them do cartwheel races (every kid there could do a perfect cartwheel, I hurt myself every time I try and that’s daily) as well as a footrace against the “Muzungus” (white people). This entire morning was absolutely fantastic. I really can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. But at the same time, it was impossible to not have watery eyes after thinking about what these kids go through every day. Just the fact that one of the main reasons they were excited to be there was because they actually got a meal with a Fanta that day.

The rest of the day was much lighter. A group of us went to the local market where we had quite an adventure. Here’s what happened. Denise points out a cool decorative spear set. The person manning the booth say it’s 9,000 Rwandan Francs (about $18). Jackie (our amazing guide/mission home cook), tells me to offer 4,000. They ignore me. I offer 6,000 and Obed okays it. I tell Jackie and she gets mad and takes it out of my hands. She returns to the booth and demands that they give me back 2,000. They do. Ten minutes later I notice that a few angry looking young men are following us around. It turns out the owner is mad and wants 1,000 more. Finally, after some arguing Jackie tells me to give it to them. She claims she did it just to make some noise. And this is why we love Jackie. While, the evening was very calm for me, Lynn had quite a night and here she is to tell you all about it. TLS

Thank you Tim. One of the main things I was looking forward to on this trip was the chance to meet with Florence and her Women’s Leadership Team. We jam packed a small office with myself, Florence and about 14 of her leaders—it was toasty warm let me tell ya! I shared a little bit of my story and my passion for leadership, and I encouraged them as they are just at the beginning stages of their ministry. Then they pelted me with questions. How do you plan your events, what things do you look for in choosing a leader, how do you handle a group when one person dominates the conversation, what things do you do with women at your church, and on and on. Though our countries and cultures are very different, though our churches are filled with different nationalities, there are definitely some characteristics and qualities in women that are universal and transcend the miles. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with these precious African women! And though the original plan was to meet for an hour and a half, you didn’t hear me complaining that we were together for over three! LM