Joshua's Blog

Well hello everybody! I just finished an awesome weekend in Kibuye. On the edge of Rwanda, across from the Democratic Republic of Congo nuzzled against Lake Kivu lies Kibuye. A picturesque little town home to 50,000 Rwandans. The weekend started off a little rough, the pastor was not informed anything about our plans while in town, so the pastor was rather stressed trying to scramble to make arrangements. But once the afternoon turned to evening, the pastor became the pastor Valence I remembered… one of the gentlest, solid men I’ve met! Saturday I gave a 4 ½ hour seminar to the church leaders about the role the church plays in a child’s life and vise-versa. The group was smaller than expected because the church has just recently experienced a dramatic church split with one of its elders being caught in adultery. Upon the request of him stepping down from leadership many people left the church. They lost over two thirds of the congregation! But it was very encouraging because they church is eager to rebuild with the solid core leaders that have been sifted out. Sunday I gave a sermon on the importance the family and having a solid house environment plays in a child’s life. Both were well received and I believe encouraged the pastor and his wife. We learned so much about Kibuye including the fact that it was one of the hardest hit communities in the Genocide. Many stories could be shared, but unfortunately I don’t have all that much time so I’ll have to leave it at that… thank you everyone who prayed… there definitely was obvious spiritual opposition to us being there and so all the prayer we received was extremely valuable!

Tomorrow we leave for Gashora, I’ve cut the trip down one day and so we will be back on Thursday. Pray for our safety, especially for health. This area is one of the poorest areas of Rwanda and definitely will have health concerns. Travel is very rough as well… so safety in that regard as well. My hope is that we learn a TON about rural life, this is an extremely unique opportunity (not too often do you have an organization who is willing to take care of you while you are off in the middle the heart of Africa, arrange transportation to drop you off and pick you up a few days later! All for next to free!) So I’m very excited! So pray, and think about me and Bryan! We miss everyone so much!

Joshua

P.s.
Enjoy the song by Patrick from his new album!