25!

 Birthday Dinner

My good friend and mentor, Campbell, Kate - partner in crime, and me

Even overseas

Kate and I have spent the past week in a village in the Ruhango district of Rwanda a couple hours from here. I love the drive everyday; I'm still consumed by the breathtaking beauty Rwanda offers. Yesterday we were able to see their water well completed and the hand pump installed. Now the woman whose entire family was murdered in the genocide and left to tend to the 4 acre farmland will have clean fresh water along with her surrounding community.

Before I left I was warned to not develop a bleeding heart for Africa. Knowing that I am already burdened for the forgotten and poor, I figured Africa would indeed wreck me. It certainly has, but differently than expected.

I'm letting go of the dream to eradicate global poverty, rather I'm realizing the importance meeting people where they are... and simply loving them. Not that desiring to elevate people from their poverty is a trivial pursuit, but that is no longer my primary focus ...it is that they know Jesus. There's no promise that their material wealth or status will ever change, but if they realize they are loved by the almighty God they will be rich beyond measure.

Below is a video I'd like to share of children we've come to adore in Ruhango. They're song... "even overseas, people praise God"

Meet the Magruders

Meet the Magruders -the adorable family we are staying with in the Living Water International HQ and guest house. Mac and Ashley moved their family to Kigali, Rwanda just a few months ago - Lilly, Duncan, and Ella Jade are the little ones who will have amazing stories to share with their friends about the time they lived in Africa...

I have become quite fond of Ella Jade, the precious child they adopted from China. We've bonded over our shared interest of drawing, love for horses and...Coca Cola. It's hard to believe that this little girl full of life wasn't always part of this family yet coexisted among many abandoned children in an orphanage.

Rolling hills and ...predatory birds!

On a lighter, funnier note.. I have to share a story that had me laughing the whole day. Last Thursday we rode out to the country side with Mac & Mike (guys heading up LWI in Rwanda) to meet with a community leader to discuss the drilling location for a new well.

We stopped for a bite to eat on the way and as we were seated at the table eating our sandwiches ..out of nowhere a massive ball of feathers swooped down, clobbered Mac upside the face and stole half of his sandwich. It took us a few seconds to realize what had just happened, but apparently it's common for rather large birds to steal food right out of your hand.

Lesson learned - guard your lunch!

A Thousand Hills

Rwanda is often called a land of a thousand hills. Our first full week here has been packed with raw exposure to this beautiful country - not only to the breathtaking views of Rwanda's charming, rolling countryside but also to the desolate conditions in which half it's populations subsists, that's about 4.5 million people - in a land roughly the size of Maryland.

Kate and I spent most of last week with Phillip, a Rwandese man who teaches LWI's Hygiene curriculum to villages in his home country. On Monday we drove to a village a few hours from headquarters for our first hygiene training. The drive was absolutely beautiful, the tropical landscape kept my attention as I've never seen so many shades of green. The reality of being in Africa sunk in as we passed village after village reading welcome signs branded with the USAID logo.

We've already had so many memorable and eye opening experiences but what happened on Friday I'll never forget. Kate and I rode with with Phillip to a local village for a small pump repair. As we were driving through the village Phillip stopped the truck to speak with a woman who was passing by. About a mile away we saw a muddy brown river weaving through the lush green forest - the local community used draw drinking water from the river's runoff. This woman shared that she is 44 years old and has been drinking this contaminated river water for her entire life.

About 8 months ago Living Water drilled a well in the village center - now she and her family can enjoy clean - safe - drinking water, a basic necessity of life that we too often take for granted. The woman spoke on the quality of this clean water she now has access to and shared that she and her family no longer become ill from drinking contaminated water.

...My heart was burdened and broken, yet at the same time filled with joy. I felt honored to hear her story and to witness the body of Christ remembering (and helping/caring for) the poor in such a profound and tangible way.

Water is life

Touch down in the motherland!

We arrived safely (but very jet lagged) in Kigali, Rwanda on Wednesday afternoon. It's hard to believe I'm actually here! After a year of exposure to Living Water International and the global water crisis, I saw my first LWI branded water well as we drove past a local village. I was astonished to see that people were collecting water from the same muddy hole they used before the clean water well was drilled - stuck in the habit of drinking contaminated water. It blew my mind! I knew there was a grave need for the African community to understand basic hygienic practices but to see it firsthand made it a whole new reality.

Author of Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, and his church have sponsored 50 wells that LWI is preparing to drill in Rwanda. Kate and I will have the opportunity to teach Rwandan trainers LWI's health and hygiene curriculum - so they may in turn teach fellow natives to not recontaminate their new clean water source.

A side note . . .
Kate and I visited the genocide memorial site on Friday, a sobering and heartbreaking exposure of this country's history. As we interact with the local community, it's important and necessary to remember the horrifying atrocity Rwanda experienced and everlasting damaging effects these people suffer even today, 15 years later.