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