Sunday, December 7, 2008

hurray we got another 3 min phone call!

tirzah recorded a radio interview. it will be broadcast in 3 countries.burundi, tanzania and rwanda.and she is bringing acopy home.it is pouring rain there...and she left her poncho! oops!

there is a petrol strike in rwanda so they can only get approx 5 gals at a time.this is creating obvious difficulties. boy do i feel guilty for griping about gas prices...atleast we could fill up if we could pay for it.

also "On Monday, the day we got to byumba, a terrible van accident happened that killed 11 students from the University here in Kigali. One was a wife of a pastor that Pastor Samuel knew very well. It affected the whole area of Byumba. On Tuesday they held a memorial service for all 11 people that were killed and we attended it. Thousands of people came to pay their respect. Only the immediate family show emotion but everyone else looked very sad.
one of the biggest challenges- poverty and the need for jobs. Only one percent of the population works to get a paycheck. All the rest are self employed in their gardens and fields trying to raise enough to feed their families.

We met with a group of widows. they meet weekly to pray, dance and sing. Boy, can they dance ~ and us too! We each had a opportunity to encourage them in the Lord and in trying to raise their grandchildren and make a living everyday. In the evening we went to several of the churches that are under Pastor Samuel. Each of them were up high in the mountains. Even if they have nothing and I mean nothing they dance and sing like they are rich. Each time we got to give our testimonies and gave words of encouragements. They gave us gifts and even served us tea, bread and bananas as we were the first white people to visit their churches. It was very hard for us to eat in front of them when we knew they had nothing that day for food. God humbled us in their presence."

mama comment- tirzah is soo picky! i am so thankful that what they offered was food she likes. that made it a little easier on her. i doubt she will complain about food after this trip :0)

Monday, December 1, 2008

Update!

1-“WE ARRIVED SAFELY IN KIGALI ON TIME. THE FLIGHTS WERE NOT FULL SO WE WERE ABLE TO SPREAD OUT. EVERYONE IS FEELING WELL AND ARE TO BED. PLEASE TELL EVERYONE TO CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR OUR TEAM AND THAT GOD WILL BE SERVED WELL.
2-We head out today for Gisnezi and Byumba so probably won’t have email access. Everyone is doing fine and feeling good. Continue to pray for us as we move onto the locations.

the best thing was having the phone ring and hearing tirzah smile thru the phone,
"my feet are in rwanda"

pkease keep her and the team in prayer!