Thursday 16 February 2012

Last Week of Outreach


February 11 – 16, 2012 (Day 48 - 53)

On Saturday (Day 48), we prayed for the bride and the groom’s original design. First we prayed for the bride and then for the couple together. After lunch we all got dressed in our traditional Rwandan dresses that were leopard print (or leo-pard, as Franzi says). We were a bit late to the church but we were able to sit through the church service. Then, everyone headed to the reception. We had Fanta drinks and saw some more traditional Rwandan dances like what we had seen when we were in Butare. It was getting a bit late so after we were able to have some delicious cake and give the bride her gift, everyone except Immaculee headed back to the base.

On Sunday (Day 49), instead of going to church we had our own little church service as a team. We sang worship songs, prayed, finished our affirmations of each other and then Richard preached. Afterwards, we had communion as a team. We then went back out to the restaurant that we had been going to every Sunday for lunch. Olivier and Michael (who the leaders had been teaching the DTS with) came along. At night, we watched ‘The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement’ and ‘The Blind Side’.

On Monday (Day 50), it was our last rest day of outreach. In the morning, Laura, Rebecca, Franzi, and Bianca went back to the market. On the way there and back they were able to ride on motorcycles, which is the Rwandan taxi service. Today, most people did their last load of laundry and just relaxed. At night, everyone except Ashley and Kaitlin went to Immaculee’s sister’s house for dinner. Ashley hadn’t slept well and Kaitlin was sick so they stayed back and watched Princess Diaries 2 all over again. Everyone said that the dinner went very well. The only thing was is that the team got back at 11:30pm, but Richard and Immaculee said that they wouldn’t have to start working at the preschool until 10am, instead of 7:40am.

On Tuesday (Day 51), it was Valentine’s Day. The team went to the preschool for the morning. We had thought that we would be doing practical work again but the preschool expressed their need for us to come back. After lunch, Richard called us down to the dining hall for a ‘special meeting’. We sat around in a circle as Immaculee began to talk about God’s love for us. Then, she handed out roses for everyone, and then brought out cake for us. But, she told Ashley to wait to cut the cake because ‘God might give us a bigger surprise than a cake’. Then, Bella from Butare came out of another room carrying another cake. We were all so excited to see Bella again and she told us that there was ANOTHER cake waiting for us in the next room. We sat around together and ate cake until we had to get back to the preschool. Tuesday night we watched the movies ‘Inception’ and ‘Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa’ in the lounge.

On Wednesday (Day 52), we had a morning of debrief. We prepared for the week of debrief at the oval and talked about our experiences with outreach. We also had our second cake. After lunch, we packed and cleaned our rooms. At night, we watched ‘The Princess Diaries’ and ‘Crazy, Stupid Love’.

On Thursday (LEAVING DAY), we finished the cleaning and packing. At tea time, we had an early lunch and ate our final cake from Bella. Bella also surprised us again when she came all the way back from Butare to see us again. She brought us all Rwandan tea as an expression of her love. At lunchtime, we said our goodbyes at the base and left with Olivier, Noel and Immaculee’s sisters to the airport. We had touchdown in Uganda and had a six hour layover in Ethiopia. We are expecting to be back in England tomorrow at 7am.

Thank you for anyone who has supported us through finances or prayer to help us come on this outreach. A lot of people on the team have had people donate to their DTS and they wouldn’t have been able to come without their help.

May the force be with you, always, Immaculee’s Babies

Friday 10 February 2012

YWAM Arise and Shine School

February 6 – 10, 2012 (Day 43 – 47)

On Monday (Day 43), it was our rest day. In the afternoon, Immaculee’s sister offered to take us girls back to the market. We finished up buying souvenirs and gifts for others. Otherwise, most people were able to sleep or do more laundry.

On Tuesday (Day 44), we start out very early to work for the YWAM preschool. Franzi and Taryn are with the youngest class, the two year olds. Sarah and Ashley are with the middle class, which is age 3 and Bianca and Kaitlin are with the 4 and 5 year olds. Rebecca and Peter had not been assigned to classes so Peter was helping David (the leader of the preschool) in the office and Rebecca came up to the top class. On the first day in the classes, we were only there to help settle the kids down and observe the teacher to see what we could help with the next day. The youngest class mostly spent time singing songs together but the two older classes had lessons from the Bible and worked on math. There was a time for a relatively good snack and playing outside with the kids. After lunch, we all went back to our classes and helped the teachers prepare for the next day. Mostly, we were writing in their homework and in-class assignments and writing them up for the next day.

On Wednesday (Day 45), we all worked at the preschool again. The kids are super cute but very excited all of the time. Since it was our second day, we were able to lead activities. There is a section of the day called morning circle. And that is when the kids pray for the people who are sick, sing songs, update the calendar and update the weather. In the upper class, Bianca led the kids in the song ‘Who is the King of the Jungle’, while Kaitlin led the calendar and weather update. Our favourite times are before class and during snack break. Then, we are able to play on the playground with all of the kids. During class, we were all able to see the first rainstorm in Rwanda… which made everybody very excited. In the days after, the air was so much cooler and not as humid. Instead of working on the kid’s homework in the afternoon, there was a worship and prayer time at the YWAM base with all of the Arise and Shine staff. Afterwards, David had organized a volleyball game which was the nursery school vs. the primary school. I think that the primary school won.

On Thursday (Day 46), it was our third day working with the preschool. We had all gotten into a pretty good routine now, but our biggest struggles are always making sure that the kids quiet down for the teacher during class. After lunch, we helped our teachers write out the weekly homework and classwork for the kids. They sometimes use a photocopier at the school, but for the most part every single assignment for every kid needs to be handwritten by the teacher. For example, in the upper class, there are 28 kids who have 3 separate notebooks each. That’s over 80 notebooks that the teacher has to write separate assignments in. So the fact that our team is there is a huge help to them.

On Friday (Day 47), it was our last day with the kids. At the end of the day in the upper class, the teacher allowed us to have time to take pictures with the kids. After lunch, we were supposed to clean the bathrooms downstairs, but as we were carrying water to clean it we found it already clean and finished. So we were able to have an extra-long break after today. When we were saying goodbye to our teachers, they had handmade us all cards with blessings and verses for us. And although the week was very exhausting, we were very sad to say goodbye to all the kids. This whole week our leaders (Richard, Immaculee, and Laura) were teaching the current YWAM Rwanda DTS about freedom. They all prepared talks of topics like fear, injustice and unforgiveness for the DTS and spent the evenings praying for original designs and strongholds. Friday night, our outreach team watched 'The Book of Eli' with the rest of the base. Quite a gory-ish movie but very shocking... That night, we also saw the dresses that we would wear to the wedding the next day. At first, we all had different traditional Rwandan gowns, but two of the dresses were incomplete. So, instead we are planning on wearing leopard print dresses.

A last prayer request (as there is only going to be one more blog post after this and then we’ll be back on the oval) is still health. A number of us have been sick in different ways and a few of us have had to miss duties because of them. So although we’re in the last week, we would still appreciate your prayers for our health and safety.

Cheerio, Immaculee’s Babies

Sunday 5 February 2012

Zion Temple Celebration Church Week

February 1 – 5 (Day 38 – Day 42)

On Wednesday (Day 38), we were planning on working with Zion Temple Celebration Church that day, but it was unexpectedly a national holiday. So instead, we had team time in the morning. We had worship, devotionals, and prepared for the next day when we would be at the school. We also debriefed the week in Butare. After lunch, we all had time to prepare the teachings that we would share with the schools.

On Thursday (Day 39), we found out that our school trip was re-scheduled for Friday. So on Thursday we went to the church for their weekly intercession meeting. Kaitlin and Bianca talked about the main issues and prayer requests for North America and Europe. Then, Peter shortly preached on YWAM’s main intercession principles and led them into intercession for North America and Europe. Then in the evening, we went to another church meeting where Peter and Rebecca shared their testimonies.

On Friday (Day 40), we went to the school that was set up by Zion Temple. We split into different groups and went to the classes. Laura, Kaitlin and Peter went to the oldest classes where Peter shared a testimony, Kaitlin mixed her testimony with a bit of teaching and Laura talked to them briefly about hearing the voice of God. Ashley, Sarah, Franzi and Bianca went in two separate young classes and played games and songs with them. And Immaculee and Richard went to the middle class. Rebecca, unfortunately, was back at the base sick and Taryn was on work duty. In the afternoon, we went to the choir’s rehearsal and sang a song with them for Sunday’s service.

On Saturday (Day 42), we went to a meeting with the youth pastor concerning that night’s youth meeting. Basically, we just shared a bit of who we all were and what we had experienced at DTS and in Rwanda. Afterwards, we went to the hotel which the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’ was based off of during the genocide in 1994 and had lunch there. It was a very nice hotel and was a bit like a resort. There was lots of artwork everywhere. After lunch, Laura and Kaitlin went back to the base. Laura had work duty and Kaitlin was feeling a bit sick. The others went to a bank to pull out more money and then headed to the youth meeting. The meeting started very late because of the 5 weddings that were happening. But Peter was still able to preach his message before the team had to leave for dinner.

On Sunday (Day 43), we went back to Zion Temple for the church service. We didn’t preach in this service but Taryn was able to sing one of her songs ‘My Exceeding Joy’ and the team sang ‘Your Beautiful’ with the choir joining in on the chorus. Then, we performed the drama ‘The Wall’, which was very well received by the church. After the church service, at least 30 people were given the chance and accepted Jesus. The pastor had led a very passionate service with breaking down walls. After church, Laura and Immaculee went to visit different people while the rest of the team went back to the Italian restaurant for lunch. After that, we debriefed the week we had spent with Zion Temple.

Some of our prayer requests still include health. Several different people have felt ill this week from just a day to several. Please pray for health and safety within the team.

Live long and prosper, Immaculee’s Babies