One month to go..

Hey guys!!

One month from today I will be in Rwanda spending a little over a week before heading to Uganda for a semester studying at Uganda Christian University just outside of Kampala.

One year ago I had no idea that I would be spending a semester in Africa.... In fact, one year ago, I didn't know that in the next year I would be in Rwanda twice, and working with my school to build a school for 40 beautiful Rwandan children that would have never been able to be in school.  (See the video on this about Restore Rwanda). But God is much bigger than we can ever know, and it is through Him that all this happened and is happening.

 The reality of this and what this means is starting to really hit me. This is going to be one of the most challenging, difficult, crazy semester I’ve ever had, but I feel as though it will be the most incredible, awesome, wonderful, growing and learning time I will have had as well.

I will be doing the Uganda Studies Emphasis route, where I will be staying in a dorm with other Ugandan students and engaging in university life. This semester includes two home stays of 2 weeks each, one close to campus and one in a more rural setting. I will also be spending 10 days in Rwanda with the study abroad group, spending more time in some different areas of Rwanda along with time in Kigali.

I hope to be able to update everyone on life in Uganda as regularly as possible, though I don't know yet what "regularly" actually means. I will have access to wi-fi, so email me, facebook me... I definitely would like to have some contacts over here still. =)

Preparing for the most epic semester yet!

In Him,

Jennifer

Something to consider..

"How can I refuse to forgive when I am a forgiven sinner as well. According to God's Word, I am called to forgive him, for I did not create this man. Even my family that he killed-I did not create them either. His crime was against God who created the people he killed. So I placed everything in the hands of God." -Rosaria, "As We Forgive" Documentary (See Trailer Here).

 

Wow.  Can you just take a minute and reflect on what this means?

17 years ago, during the genocide in Rwanda, Rosaria had taken her fourth and youngest child to Kigali because he had been sick and needed to go to the hospital. While in Kigali, a group of militiamen attacked and killed every one in the group Rosaria was with, including her son. Miraculously, Rosaria survived the brutal attack. It was some time later that she would find out that her husband, her three other children, her parents and each of her other siblings were all murdered, along with several nieces and nephews.

 

In the wake of such devastation, God gave her a gift. In the fall of 1994, Rosaria found out she was pregnant and giving birth to a little girl, named her Cadeaux, meaning "Gift" because she was the only thing she had left.

Some time later Rosaria was presented with a man who said that he was the one who had taken part in the killing of Rosaria's family. The very man who took his machete and ended their life, was now asking Rosaria for forgiveness.

Not just any killer, but a man who knew them. Knew her family... Maybe even had dinner with them on occasion. A neighbor friend. In a society where everyone works together, everything is shared among the villages, they were very close. Hatred and lies separated them and somehow led to the unspeakable act of murder.

Now. Look back upon what Rosaria said. She doesn't hold anger in her heart. She has given it over to God and fully forgiven him. The man who killed her family.

 

She said later "How can I refuse to forgive when my Heavenly Father forgave me".

 

Wow. Just, wow.

 

I hope you can think about what this would mean for you.

Maybe you don't have to forgive someone who killed your family. Maybe it's just that you haven't forgiven someone who cheated you. Maybe a family member really upset you about something and you haven't spoken to them in years. But we are called to forgive.

Mathew 18:21-22 "Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven."

 

Questions

Luke 6:20-25

  Looking at his disciples, he said:

   “Blessed are you who are poor,
   for yours is the kingdom of God.  

 Blessed are you who hunger now,
   for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
   for you will laugh.  

 Blessed are you when people hate you,
   when they exclude you and insult you
   and reject your name as evil,
      because of the Son of Man.

   “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, 

because great is your reward in heaven. 

For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

   “But woe to you who are rich,
   for you have already received your comfort.  

Woe to you who are well fed now,
   for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
   for you will mourn and weep.

 God never said life would be easy. God never said we would have rewards on earth for doing good things.


Our reward will not be here. Our reward is better. It is a Heavenly, Eternal reward.


For those of you storing up treasures on earth. Why? You can't take it with you.
It can't give you true happiness. Instead I ask you to think about this. Think about what you can be doing to store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:20)
 That's been on my mind a lot. I know I have been guilty of this in the past, but I hope and pray I am never like that again, and I hope that is your prayer as well.

"Messed Up"... How it all began.

Right now, I feel messed up. I feel messed up for Jesus in this messed up world we live in.
Specifically right now, I'm "Messed up" for Rwanda.
Messed up for Rwanda?? What does that even mean?
 David Platt, in his book Radical, “I could not help but think that somewhere along the way we had missed what was radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable.”
Being "Messed up" isn't about sticking with the comfortable anymore. It's not about forgetting what you know to be true, but it is about pursuing what God has for you. It's about trusting God-With everything. It's about falling in love with a country and a people so much, that being "Home" in America doesn't feel like home any more.

I guess the best story always begins at the beginning.

I went on a mission trip to Rwanda in November, 2011.
After preparing for the trip, hearing stories from people about their own trips, and realizing that this trip was going to be very different than most mission trips, we were on our way to Rwanda.

On the bus to our hotel, speaking with one of the leaders on the trip, an amazing, Godly man named Cyrus, we were asked a question.
"Are you ready to be messed up?"   "Messed up? Yeah, I guess" was our answer.

Little did I know. We weren't just going to be Messed up a little. We were going to be completely, royally, completely messed up.

For those who aren't familiar with the story of Rwanda, it is the place of the 1994 Genocide. In as little as 90-days, over 1 Million people were estimated to be dead. In the country the size of Maryland, this was no small thing. Every single person living in Rwanda at the time was affected in some way. Entire families were wiped out, children horrifically murdered, and unspeakable acts of torture inflicted on innocent people.  Seventeen years later, the country is slowly picking up the pieces, but it is still a slow, painful process.
I highly encourage you to watch this video to better understand this:
Reconciliation Documentary Trailer "As we Forgive"
Take a moment.
Could you forgive?
Could you live next to and have meals with the man who killed YOUR family?

This is what we encountered on the trip.

We met women, children, those who lost everything. Their children, their parents, their siblings. People who have every right to hate the very ground the murderers walk on, don't you think?

These people weren't doing that. In fact, some of them live right next door to them. They babysit their children. Share meals together.
They have chosen to forgive.
They have embraced what Jesus did for us on the cross when he said "Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they are doing".

Rosaria told us "If my God has forgiven me, a sinner. How can I not forgive them too?"

Leaving that beautiful country and those beautiful people was one of the hardest things I've had to do.
I was "Messed up".

In fact, "Messed up" doesn't even begin to cover it.
I realized I could never go back to the way I had been living.
My shallow-ness, my selfish-ness, my way of living all had to change.

Royally messed up for this.
Completely ready to surrender everything and go if God is sending me.
But for now, Waiting. Praying and hoping that this "Messed up" attitude never goes away. Never dies down. Never changes.

Holding children at the Widow's Village

Holding little Asa

Painting fingernails at the Village of Reconciliation

Church of the Blessed Tree Mango

Village of Reconciliation