Christmas is still Christmas...

1. Even if it's 100 degrees outside.
2. Even if there's no evergreens, only palm trees and banana leaves.
3. Even if you're sleeping on the floor. (It's ok cause Jesus slept in a manger.)
4. Even if there's no running water.
5. Even though I'm about to walk on a white, sandy beach instead of white, crunchy snow.
6. Even if banana "brew" replaces eggnog and hot apple cider.
7. Even if I see camels instead of cars.
8. Even if my "presents" are the presence of those I love around me.
9. Even though roasted goat bones replace candy canes.
10. Even if you have to slaughter your dinner a couple of hours before you eat it. :-( (a sad experience, but a reminder of the precious blood of the Lamb that was slain for us.)

Christmas is still Christmas no matter where you are because the Christmas spirit lives inside our hearts. I know it's soo cheesy and cliche, but it's true! Merry Christmas to you!

Merry Christmas!

I sitting here in a small internet cafe in Moshi, nestled right beneath the breathtaking sight of Mt. Kilimanjaro rising to the sky, capped with patches of snow. It's completely stunning! It's hard to take a good photo though; because of too many clouds....you only see parts of the mountain at a time. But even then, you can tell how colossal it is. I'm grateful for a long Christmas break from school, time to rest and reflect, and spend time with family and friends in Kenya and Tanzania. I've spent the last 2 days around Marangu, "Chagga Land," visiting churches, childrens' homes, waterfalls, and natural swimming pools. :-) And eating nyama choma and "mbege", the local banana brew with Grandma Bibi, and a host of the Oyondi cousins. Tomorrow, I'll travel to Mombasa by bus, and spend Christmas there with the Oyondis and the children at Wema orphange. I can't wait to see their smiling faces! This internet cafe is about to close, but I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, as this will probably be the last chance I get to post before then. As I was reading last night in Isaiah, this verse really jumped out at me. Isaiah 52:7 says, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" Jesus brought all these things to us, when He came to earth as a humble baby, born in a lowly manger, for the purpose of dying on the cross for our salvation. And He calls us to serve as He did...bring good news, proclaim peace to all, bring good tidings. I'm remembering this Christmas that He is the giver of all these gifts and more. Let's rejoice that He came to save us, and that our God reigns! May you all have a Christmas full of His Spirit, reigning in your hearts. I have many pictures to post of my experiences and opportunities, but I'll have to wait until I return to Kigali. Thank you all for your love and support, and for your gifts. Through your gifts, I've been able to give so much more and continue the blessings! I love you all! Merry Christmas!

Advent

My kids were in charge of chapel this week, and we decided to have Advent be our theme. Did you know Advent means "coming" or "visit?" It's so nice to be in a room full of kids and not a one of them mention Santa visiting them with tons of presents. (I love Santa, by the way, but it's nice to be able to focus on the coming of Jesus instead!) We lit candles for each theme of hope, peace, joy, love and the Christ candle. (I hope there's no rule against lighting all the Advent candles in one day!) :-) The kids wrote their own prayers that they read outloud. I think they are beautiful, precious reminders of the joy and innocence that exists in children.

Hope

God, thank you for your hope that you give us every day. As we come for chapel this afternoon, fill us with your hope and your light and take all the darkness out of us. We hope that you are blessed by our chapel. We hope you are smiling at us. Help us to continue to hope for you. We hope that if anyone doesn't know you, Jesus, that they learn about you today! We ask this in your name. Amen.

Peace

Loving God, thank you for your peace. Thank you for the peaceful baby Jesus you brought to us on Christmas. Help us to live our lives in peace with everyone, even people we don't like. Fill us with your peace, Jesus, so we can give out peace to everyone everywhere we go. Even when we are in trouble. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Joy

God, we thank you for your joy you give us that is deep inside our hearts. Even when we are sad, we can still have joy because we know you Lord. You are our everlasting joy. Help us to be joyful to everyone this Christmas and remember and prepare our hearts for the baby Jesus to come and bring us joy. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Love

Loving God, we thank you for your gift of love that you gave to us with the baby Jesus. We know He came to earth so he could grow up and die on the cross because he loves us so much. Thank you God. Help us to remember to love each other like you love us. Help us to share all of your love with everyone, even our enemies. We love you so much Jesus. Amen.

I pray that during this Advent season, we can slow down from our busyness and shopping and remember who is coming soon! (And I'm not talking about Santa!) As we all light these candles at church, Lord, help us to shine the light of Jesus in our hearts this Christmas season. Help us to be the light of the world no matter where in this world we are!

I love you all!

Gahaya Links pictures

Chanil weaving her basket with sisal


Ms. Joy explaining the shipping process



Gahaya Links warehouse

Dyeing the sisal (notice what a beautiful color they are dyeing it! :-)

KICS kids with their handmade ornament baskets

Field Trips!

We took our first field trip today to a Rwandan dairy farm! A lot of our kids are "city" kids, so this was a real treat for them to be out in the country, with the red dirt, fresh manure, and odd smells. They had a blast. God gave us beautiful weather, and good memories. We got to see the baby cows, the rebellious teenage cows who run away, and the kids even got to milk a momma cow! We saw the tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouses, and saw the pineapples, oranges and macadamia nuts growing. Did you know that when you plant the macadamia, you have a crop for life?! We saw where the cows "shower", and even got to cut the elephant grass that they eat every day. It looks easier than it was! The only unfortunate thing of the day was when Joshua accidentally fell knee deep in a pile of manure when he turned his head to look at the dogs. :-(But we got him washed off!

Joshua "scaring" away the chickens.

Megan in the greenhouse

Alex, trying his hand at grass cutting.

Lilly milking her first cow.

Orla playing with the teenage cow.

On our way back to KICS, we passed by Gahaya Gifted Hands, also referred to as Gahaya Links. This project started as a humble effort to teach 20 young genocide widows how to weave underneath a tree in the tiny village of Gitarama. With God's blessing, this project has now grown into a large enterprise, that employs over 4,000 weavers across Rwanda, most of them rural women who were widowed by the genocide, teenage orphaned girls, or women whose husbands are in prison charged with genocide-related cases. This project also helps women who are HIV/AIDS positive, by providing them an income, and also a sense of purpose in life. The founders are Joy and Janet, sisters who grew up in a Ugandan refugee camp because their parents had to flee Rwanda in the previous salughter of Tutsis in the 1950's. The sisters managed to beat the odds, and gain a scholarship to attend school, and that was their ticket out of the camp. After coming back to a deserted Rwanda post-genocide (1994), both sisters knew they wanted to remain in their homeland of Rwanda and be a part of helping to rebuild it. And they have. There are many testimonies of weavers who credit this weaving project for saving them. There's Ephigenia, who lost 65 members of her entire family during the genocide, and with them, her hope of life. Gahaya Links came to her village and encouraged her to join their co-op, but it was very difficult for her to interact with the killers of her family, as the remaining Tutsis still had to live in the same villages with the Hutus. After a while, Ephigenia became a master weaver, and her village elected her to be the president of their weaving cooperative. At first, people didn't believe that someone who lost 65 members of her family could successfully lead other Hutus in this co-op. But after spending time weaving with the killers of her family, Ephigenia became the first Rwandan to publicly open her heart to the killer of her family, and forgive him in open Gacaca court. Now, many other women have the courage to step out and forgive, after Ephigenia's example. Through their determination and efforts, Joy and Janet, have secured international partnerships with FairWinds Trading, Starbucks, and even Macy's. Their most famous basket, the agaseke "peace" basket weaves three lines of ethnicity together, one for the Tutsi, Hutu and Twa people of Rwanda. This peace basket is a bestseller of Macy's. Joy and Janet have also been awarded for their dedication to empowering the women of Rwanda by Oprah and the Clintons. We are blessed to be able to visit their center today, as Vanessa, Janet's daughter, is in our class. We were able to see some of the women at work and we even learned how to weave a basket using the grass and the sisal. We saw how they dye the sisal into beautiful, bright colors, and also the warehouse where they keep all the baskets and package them for shipping to the states. It was a fascinating experience today, learning about Gahaya Links' humble beginning, and their bright future ahead. To read more about Joy and Janet's enterprise, go to http://www.gahayalinks.com/ I'll post some pictures tomorrow. The formatting is messing up tonight and my battery is almost dead. Goodnight!

I'm learning

I never knew a lot about the Holy Spirit growing up, except hearing my Grandma talk about him, but it was always hard to follow her stories. :-) I love you Grandma! Right now, this year, this time in Rwanda, God has chosen to teach me so much about His Spirit, and how he moves in us. It's something I had always heard about growing up, but never really grasped how powerful the Holy Spirit really is. He has the power to heal, to totally transform, to renew, to build up beautiful things, and tear down ugly things! He's working in me this year, right now, in ways that I never felt comfortable with letting Him work before. Or maybe I just didn't think I could be used in certain ways. He can do all things! He really can. I keep thinking about that song Momma used to sing to us when we were little. I haven't thought about it in so many years....."He's still working on me. To make me what I ought to be.....How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me." I am sooo thankful tonight that He's still working and teaching me new things every day. I have been so stubborn sometimes (all the time) in certain aspects of my life. Giving Him control of lots of things, but keeping some things strictly in my own possession and control. I won't do it anymore. I told Him today, everything, everything, everything is His. I'm sorry for those of ya'll reading this and you don't have a clue what I am saying. I think this entry is more for me than anyone else. But thanks for reading and for praying with me too. I looked up that song Momma sang us, and found the next verse. It begins..."There really ought to be a sign upon the heart, Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part. But I'll be perfect just according to His plan. Fashioned by the Master's loving hands." One of the ways I think God is teaching me about His Spirit right now is through certain books I've been reading. Books that I would never have picked up, but for some reason, I have, and the words have spoken to me. Before our rafting trip, I scanned our library for some random "thinkless" book to take on our 13 hour bus ride to Uganda. I found the perfect travel book to read...and tucked inside one of the yellowish pages was a copy of Psalm 91, neatly typed out. It was comforting. And the Holy Spirit had also put that Psalm on another teacher's heart too last week. Saturday, I went to this random yardsale at the Embassy and picked up another random book for $1. I had heard of this book, a love story that only God could write for two people, and I never bought it in the States...I thought it sounded too cheesy. But God wanted me to find it now and read it right now. I'm so sure about that. On every page there's assurance. I am just amazed at how God loves us and sticks with us even when we're so stubborn for 28 years. I am so stubborn. I feel like I am like a baby Christian again, learning about the Spirit, and giving Him this part of my life I hadn't before. His grace and His love are amazing. He's still working on me! Thank God!

Jinja "Nile" pics

A beautiful tree

We saw the source!

Gorgeous view of Lake Victoria as it goes into the Nile

Whitewater on the Nile

9 daring teachers :-)