Rwanda Recap

First and foremost, I want to say: “Thank you, Rwanda!” Thank you for some of the most incredible two months of my life. Thank you for the fresh mangos and avocados. Thank you for an amazing ministry filled with such beautiful people. Thank you for the lifelong friendships that I now get to hold in my heart. Thank you for the mornings of prayer and evenings of mourning. Thank you for the smiles of the kiddos and the sticky little fingers that gave me new hairdos. Thank you for New Life Bible Church’s worship team. Thank you for being my home for this season of life.

We walked this street almost every day to get fresh fruit and ice cream from our favorite gelato place!

Our first few days in Rwanda were a bit chaotic. We flew out from South Africa on an enormous plane that we basically had to ourselves. Each one of us had our own row to spread out in while enjoying movies and snacks. It was a dream come true. We had a short layover in Ethiopia and then squeezed into a tiny plane to fly into Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. This was definitely a bit of a wake-up call and brought us all back to reality, especially when we landed in the middle of the night and had to figure out transportation to our hostel, the Mamba Rwanda. Our experience at the Mamba was interesting to say the least… they overbooked themselves which meant that most of us needed to share beds with each other, the bar was always loud and wild, and they ran out of drinking water halfway through our first day there.

However, we quickly laughed off all this drama when our host, Glenda, came to pick us up. Right off the bat, we were blown away by how kind she was. We fell in love with her and the ministry almost instantaneously. HopeRwanda is an incredible organization that focuses on empowering the marginalized to be able to step up as leaders in their community Glenda’s passion for this work and her love for her staff and the program participants is so evident. I was excited to get to partner with someone who is so invested in and enthusiastic about making a difference in the world. She had a tentative schedule ready for us and made it clear right away that she wanted to give us a taste of each part of the ministry as well as plenty of space to have personal and team time.

Glenda also wanted to make sure that we were educated about the culture and the situation we were stepping into. We would be in Rwanda during Commemoration, a week of remembrance in honor of the genocide victims. Therefore, our first thing on the schedule was to spend a day visiting two genocide memorials. This was an incredibly emotional and challenging day for me, but thankfully I was able to process it with my team and Glenda. Take a look at the blog I wrote about working through the reality of these heinous acts.

We quickly got to know the ladies of the sewing program and got comfy in our cute little house. For our time in Rwanda, we would only be staying with our team instead with the whole squad. As much as I love all the girls, I was pretty excited to have less people to deal with every day. It made morning routines a lot easier and everything in general less chaotic. We quickly settled in and decided to make a prayer wall in our living room area, which was one of my favorite things ever!

Look at this adorable set up! Claire and I shared a room which was perfect because we both love to sleep.

Dana even made a video giving a tour of the whole place. Take a look!

When it came to ministry, our first job was to organize and run a team building event for the men. Hope takes in a group of men from Iwawa, the local rehab center, every six months. The men choose a career path and receive training for it, learn how to build a healthy community, and get resources to help them adjust to life on their own. On the day of our event, we had lunch with them and then walked them through different exercises like the human knot and various games we played at training camp. It was such a fun day! They all got so into it and were completely committed to finishing each task.

Always end the day with a selfie!

We got to celebrate Dana’s 28^th birthday in Rwanda! The weekend before the big day, we went rock climbing at a local gym and then got lunch at a café. We may have accidentally gone to the wrong gym at first, but overall it was a success! On the actual day, we surprised her with coffee from her favorite coffee shop, cheesy decorations, and dinner at a Thai restaurant. Everything was near perfect until our driver didn’t answer any of our calls and left us stranded at the restaurant for around 2 hours. In true World Race fashion, Dana took it with all the grace in the world. It was so amazing to get to love and celebrate you in this special way, D!

Look at her go!

Next up was Project Runway: Rwanda Edition. I’ve been gushing about Denise and her tailoring skills for weeks now, but in case you need a refresher, check out the blog I wrote about it.

I’m still so obsessed with Denise, and she was definitely one of the hardest goodbyes this time around.

While the girls were hard at work creating our gorgeous dresses, we spent a day visiting former graduates of the program. This is where I met Asumpta, who is beyond amazing. Before coming to her house, however, we had two other stops to make. First, we visited Rachel whose husband, Ramadan, had been falsely accused of murdering one of the boys in the village and was in prison awaiting his trial. We got the chance to encourage Rachel and love on their two kids. Thankfully, Ramadan’s trial went well, and he was released a few weeks later! During our visit, however, we had a very interesting experience with a man named Triple 6. Dana wrote a blog about it all. We also got to visit Therese and her son Remember. I’ve never seen such a joyful little baby; he was so precious!

Unfortunately, we never got to see Asumpta again, but I’m beyond confident that I’ll get to meet her in heaven one day and spend eternity together.

Our next few days were spent with the girls again. After joining them for their morning devotion, we taught them about nutrition and first aid. Then after lunch, they taught us how to sew! It was an absolute blast! Despite the language barrier, Denise taught me the basics of working with a sewing machine and even helped me make a small bag.

I looked about 100% less cool and professional when I tried.

Thankfully, we got to see the guys again! This time we were asked to judge their talent show and of course, we immediately accepted. It was so much fun! The guys were so excited to show off all their talents and got really into it. We saw a wide variety of skills including dancing, singing, walking on homemade stilts, and a skit. It was actually really cool to give the guys space to express themselves and use their creativity. We ended the day with awarding prizes for the top three acts and having a giant dance party. Dana made an awesome video highlighting all the time we got to spend with the guys. Check it out! 

A few weeks in we started going to New Life Bible Church. One of the members of the HopeRwanda Dream Team, Alain, is the worship leader and invited us to come to one of the Friday night worship sessions. Alain is by far one of the most humble people I’ve ever met and made it seem like it was no big deal. The second this man started singing, our jaws hit the floor and we had to double check that we hadn’t actually died and gone straight to heaven. The Spirit’s presence was so thick and tangible in the room as the music continued late into the night. We were blown away and desperate for more. We decided to come back on Sunday morning for the church service. Surprisingly, a pastor from Indianapolis was visiting the church and gave an incredible teaching. The worship was just as good as on Friday night so we promised ourselves that we would keep coming back. We also found out about the upcoming women’s conference and church-wide fast. We were so excited for the opportunity to get more involved. The conference was amazing and was when Jesus asked me to cut my hair. The fast was a really great learning experience that was super encouraging together. By God’s grace, we were actually able to come to New Life for Easter even though we were staying at a hotel in the mountains for debrief.

Sarah-Katherine, you could definitely have a future in hairdressing.

The week after the conference, we had our own women’s event. The Beauty for Ashes retreat was beyond incredible and made my heart grow even bigger for the girls in the program. I’m so thankful that we got the opportunity to do this for them! In case you missed it, check out my blog about it here. 

Everyone loves a good spa day!

Because we spent two months in Rwanda instead of our usual one month, we had a mini debrief half-way through. It was basically a long weekend where all three teams met up at a hostel and spent some relaxing time together. The hostel was cute and cozy, and our schedule was super open. One of the other teams was having a bit of a rough time, so it was a joy to be able to pour into them and love them a little extra.

Malaria protection or princess beds? You decide.

After coming back from mini, we jumped right back into things. Days for Girls is an amazing organization that works to increase menstrual care and education around the world. Ambassadors teach young women about their periods and how to take care of themselves while they are menstruating. They also give the women kits with reusable pads and cleaning supplies. Glenda is very passionate about this mission and is looking to partner with Days for Girls more permanently by having the sewing school make the materials. We took their certification class to become ambassadors and got to do two events. First, we got to sit down with some of the girls from the local area and whose parents are involved in Hope. We gave each of them a kit and snacks while Jacquie, one of the teachers at the sewing school, taught them about their menstrual cycles and how to use their kits. We then had the opportunity to teach the women in the sewing program who had received their kits a few months ago. Alain translated for us, and he did an amazing job!

Our last big event was a Kid’s Day. HopeRwanda supports the children of current and former participants by providing necessary school materials and fees, watching the kids throughout the week, and educating parents. We planned a field day for over 100 kids aged 4 to 18. Let me tell you, it was even more chaotic than it sounds but it was also so much fun! We had a parachute, tin foil “soccer” balls, jump ropes, and whole lot of energy. We came up with an obstacle course and played random clapping games. Finally, we served the kiddos snacks, juice, and candy, herded them out of the gate, and disappeared into our rooms for a long nap.

Who would have thought that a five-year-old could eat three croissants?

Hope is looking to expand and make their programs more efficient by having everything in one place. They also want to start a permaculture farming program to teach the community about sustainable farming. This is actually super, super cool and becoming more common around the globe. The gardens we worked in in South Africa and Lesotho both used this method and it’s incredible! I would definitely encourage all of you to learn a bit about this, especially if you’re interested in farming or gardening. We watched a documentary called Kiss the Ground with the Dream Team, which was very informative. That being said, HopeRwanda recently purchased a large plot of land where they hope to start building soon. We got to come out to the land every now and then to pray over it, worship, and explore. It is breathtakingly beautiful and overflowing with peace and goodness!

LOOK AT THIS VIEW!

On one of the days, we also got the chance to visit a preschool that Hope is looking to partner with in the future. We were greeted by some of the tiniest, cutest kiddos yelling “welcome” and wearing oversized uniforms, which absolutely melted my heart. We spent the morning dancing with them and playing games. We then served them a snack and hugged them goodbye. They were so unbelievably precious!

Sitting in a puddle of kids is my kind of chaos.

The weeklong commemoration for the 1994 Genocide starts on April 7 every year. Stores close and people take off work to spend some time mourning and remembering. We got the first two days off as well which gave us lots of time to process and do what we could to support the people we knew. We went on a prayer walk through our neighborhood, went to church at New Life, and wrote notes to the girls in the program. We also had Debrah over for dinner and helped her cook a traditional Rwandan meal, which was such a blessing!

I’ve been wanting to get some tattoos since South Africa. Anna Stewart and I tried to go during our time there, but it didn’t work out. Thankfully, Sarah-Katherine was on the same page as me and found a tattoo artist within our first week of being here. We finally found time to go a week before we left. I ended up getting four new tattoos and I’m so freaking excited about them. 

I’m also super stoked about a fundraiser that Dana did. Since planning Beauty for Ashes, we wanted to find a way to buy Bibles for the nine girls in the sewing program. Dana decided to reach out to some of her supporters to see if they would be able to contribute to this dream. We ended up with an insane amount of money within a few short days which meant that we not only were able to buy Bibles for the girls, but also for the teachers in the program and all the men.

We included a photo of us with each Bible and wrote a note or verse on the back. Handing out these Bibles was definitely a highlight of this month.

One of the other highlights, was the dinner we had with the Dream Team. We met up at a restaurant with Luc, Judah, Emmanuel, Zaki, and Alain and spent hours enjoying the most amazing food and laughing our heads off. Sarah-Katherine and I got to hear stories about Luc getting chased by a rooster and Judah’s uncle getting attacked by a hippo. It was truly the perfect send-off and solidified the love we felt for this organization and country and these amazing people. The time we got with the Dream Team over the course of these few weeks was so encouraging and beautiful. It was such a blessing to get to work with such godly, kind men and to get to serve their families. We had a wild night of babysitting Luc’s twins, bought Judah’s wife flowers, and had some amazing worship sessions with all of them.

We gave the guys a photo of us in a frame with fabric pieces from all our dresses. It was intended to be hung in the office or the school where everyone could enjoy it, but Emmanuel immediately took it home and hung it up in his living room, so I think it’s gone for good.

Of course Dana made the most incredible recap video that pairs perfectly with this blog – be sure to take a look!

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Clearly, I had the most amazing time in Rwanda. Sorry that this blog turned out to be half a novel, but I just had so much to share! Please keep the squad in your prayers as we travel to Romania tonight and prepare to work with Ukrainian refugees there.