I have now been in Rwanda for a week but the internet connection has not been all that good this time, hence my long silence. The first week was mainly settling back in and renewing contacts and seeing old friends.
At the weekend I was invited to the formal betrothal ceremony of the daughter of Robert and mama Peace in an enormous festive marquee in their garden round the corner from here. There were many from the Mango Tree Church present so I was among friends. It was very colourful, with a lot of formal speeches and banter from the men of each family. Then the girl and boy were brought in and presented to the families for formal approval of the match. Finally traditional dancers performed and then everyone queued up for food. I left at that point because I wanted to get home before it got dark.
The Alpha Community Academy is on holiday for the long end of year vacation - so it is extremely quiet on the campus. One or two staff are around but otherwise I have been on my own. Due to a generous gift from a friend of the school I was able to go and buy 4 computers for the school and we took delivery of them the next day.
Last evening Ruth and Susan arrived from Wales. Their plane was very late due to freezing fog in Amsterdam but their welcome meal was outside on the balcony where it was a very warm and pleasant change from chilly Britain. Now the work starts in earnest. The team is assembled and ready to go. Today we have been reviewing the whole scope of the work with the deaf group at the Mango Tree church and tomorrow we will put together the programme for next week's Bible Week at the church. I have been able to communicate much better than before with Susan now that I have a rudimentary degree of sign language to work with. She is very patient with me.
I would ask for prayer for the deaf group, that they would come and really benefit from hearing God's word during this week. Pray for us that we can communicate clearly. This is by no means simple because we will be working in two spoken languages, two sign languages and lip-speaking in Kinyarwanda - all at the same time with a number of interpreters. I am amazed that it is even possible! Pray for our energy levels to be maintained and for God's name to be glorified.
At the weekend I was invited to the formal betrothal ceremony of the daughter of Robert and mama Peace in an enormous festive marquee in their garden round the corner from here. There were many from the Mango Tree Church present so I was among friends. It was very colourful, with a lot of formal speeches and banter from the men of each family. Then the girl and boy were brought in and presented to the families for formal approval of the match. Finally traditional dancers performed and then everyone queued up for food. I left at that point because I wanted to get home before it got dark.
The Alpha Community Academy is on holiday for the long end of year vacation - so it is extremely quiet on the campus. One or two staff are around but otherwise I have been on my own. Due to a generous gift from a friend of the school I was able to go and buy 4 computers for the school and we took delivery of them the next day.
Last evening Ruth and Susan arrived from Wales. Their plane was very late due to freezing fog in Amsterdam but their welcome meal was outside on the balcony where it was a very warm and pleasant change from chilly Britain. Now the work starts in earnest. The team is assembled and ready to go. Today we have been reviewing the whole scope of the work with the deaf group at the Mango Tree church and tomorrow we will put together the programme for next week's Bible Week at the church. I have been able to communicate much better than before with Susan now that I have a rudimentary degree of sign language to work with. She is very patient with me.
I would ask for prayer for the deaf group, that they would come and really benefit from hearing God's word during this week. Pray for us that we can communicate clearly. This is by no means simple because we will be working in two spoken languages, two sign languages and lip-speaking in Kinyarwanda - all at the same time with a number of interpreters. I am amazed that it is even possible! Pray for our energy levels to be maintained and for God's name to be glorified.
Great to hear from you Hazel and now that I've met Ruth and Susan it's easy to picture you serving together. I pray God will guide you and help you to overcome the language and signing barriers, lot's of translation and interpretation needed. It's just well you don't have the Welsh language in the mix too!
ReplyDeleteGod Bless You three as you minister together.
Yacky Da!
ReplyDelete