I don't want to study...

You know I'm really looking for a distraction when I turn to my blog to occupy my attention.  I'm really not a good blogger - I realize this.  I just get baffled with how quickly time slips by.  I mean, I feel like I just posted on here last week!

Anyway, the reason I'm blogging now is because I don't want to do what I ought to be doing (Romans 7, anyone?), which is studying.  On Monday I am scheduled to take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam), a standardized test that is required for admission to graduate school.  I'm applying to grad school - have I mentioned that?  Well, I'm supposed to be studying but am in need of a little motivation.  And hey, blogging totally counts as practicing for the essay portion of the exam, right?

I do actually want to report on a trip that I took to Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last week.  It was great!  A group of us went down - it was me, Shelah, Harriet, two psychiatrists/counselors/professors/pastors extraordinaire and their wives.  We were holding a 2-day conference for about 40 pastors and ministry leaders on counseling people who have been traumatized by war and conflict.  The participants were primarily from Goma in Eastern Congo, where there has been terrible violence and war for decades.  Others came from Rwanda, which is itself still healing from the tragic genocide of 1994.  

The conference went very well, though it seemed like the pastors would have liked to stay for weeks to continue learning.  At one point they were asked to raise their hand if they themselves have suffered traumatic experiences, and nearly every hand in the place was raised.  They were asked to write their stories down as part of the healing process, and the accounts they gave were shocking.  I can't even imagine being in their position - being charged with shepherding people through such difficult times when they themselves are also the victims.  Please pray for these leaders as they have gone back to their flocks, that God would use them to bring a message of hope, healing and forgiveness to those He has put in their path.

The day after the conference was an extremely exciting day for me.  We went across the Rwandan border into DRC for a one-day whirlwind tour through Goma, the provincial capital.  Goma has been the site of very intense fighting between government and rebel troops over the last year, and to visit such a place was utterly fascinating to me.  

Before we even crossed into Congo, the roar of low-flying aircrafts carrying relief supplies drew my eyes to the sky.  I actually saw "blue helmets" - United Nations peacekeepers who are known for their blue berets and helmets.  There were trucks loaded with them all around the city.  And merchants selling endless sacks of USAID grain lined the sides of terribly potted, muddy roads.

The real reason I was excited, though, was because we got to meet some of the secondary students we are sponsoring in school there.  A small group of demobilized child soldiers awaited us at the Shalom Church in Goma, which we are partnering with to serve these students.  DRC is a French-speaking country, and oh how I wished I had studied French at that moment!  It was great to see these guys, but far too short.  It also became interesting when about 8 other demobilized soldiers showed up at the church and kindly requested that they could also be sponsored in school.  This was one of those times when I wished money grew out of my ears, because we just don't have the resources to support any more students right now.  That was hard.  But because we only had one day in Goma and had to make it back over the border that afternoon, we had to move quickly.  We had other places to visit.  

At the church we also met a women's group which has organized to reach out to women and girls who have been raped, visited a center where rape victims can receive treatment and rehabilitation (rape is terribly widespread in DRC), and saw the church's health clinic.  Another highlight was getting pulled over by police twice during our day in Goma and having to bribe our way out both times.  Corruption is also rampant in DRC.

By the time our few short hours in DRC were over and we crossed two more borders - through Rwanda and back into Uganda - I couldn't get that place off my mind.  Even now, my memory is prodding my imagination with thoughts of what could be done there.  Good grief, I haven't even left yet and already I'm thinking about coming back!

Again, please pray for the people in Goma.  Pray for peace to finally find a foothold there, for reconciliation among the people and for wounds of every kind to be healed.  

To read a bit more about the trip, see my post on the Refuge & Hope blog.  Here are some photos from the trip:

Harriet, Shelah and me just hangin' out at the equator on the way down to Rwanda

Group shot at the conference

After a great session, these men sang a song on forgiveness that they composed during the break

Shelah with Pastor Bamo and some of the boys in Goma who are now in school, 

along with the others who showed up at the church

Kids at the church in Goma

More kids

Crazy wooden bikes made locally and used to carry absolutely everything

Pastor Bamo at the future site of the church and clinic in Goma

What happens at every stop when you have us whiteys around

A beautiful sunset in southwestern Uganda

Never Again: the Home of Righteousness

Take a walk with me, if you will, as I travel back in my mind to the land of a thousand hills.

Otherwise known as Rwanda, this nation just south of Uganda to be a delightful place to visit.  The rolling landscape is lovely, the people are quite warm, and the boda boda drivers carry an extra helmet just for you!  (Motor vehicle safety really is a novel concept.)

My friends and I had a really wonderful time in Rwanda - both in the country and in Kigali, the capital city.  The thing that impressed me most was how organized and peaceful everything seemed, particularly compared to its near neighbor to the north.  It seemed almost ridiculous to think that horrific acts of evil and genocide were carefully planned and chaotically executed there just 15 years ago.

"Oh no - not that again."  Some of you may feel the impulse to stop reading now, once reminded of a time when this term "genocide" popped up in every other conversation I had and seemed to dominate my every thought and action.   The thing is, though, that somehow with everything that's happened over the past few years, I had nearly forgotten about that chapter of my life - that chapter of me.  Even as I prepared to go to Rwanda, I somehow didn't grasp the significance of it - that I was going to the place which indirectly led me to where I am today.

I was a sophomore in college when a night out at the movies changed my life.  I went with my roommate to see a new movie that had just come out in theaters, called Hotel Rwanda.  The film tells a story of survival during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and as I left the theater that night I was consumed with sadness and indignation for what had happened then - and also for the fact that it was all news to me.  Before sitting in that dark room,  I had never even heard about the events that were represented in those horrible images.  That felt like an injustice almost as great as the terrible things that had unfolded among those thousand hills.

I didn't realize then that seeing that film had changed the course of my life forever.  After going home and doing a bit of research, my roommate and I came across the genocide unfolding in Darfur and, to make a long story short, my life was basically turned upside down as a result.  A handful of friends and I organized a campus-wide campaign for Darfur over the next couple years, I decided I wanted to do policy advocacy, changed my major to study Political Science and international development.  Graduation led me to a policy advocacy organization in DC doing work on international development issues, then a trip to multiple countries to study development brought me to Uganda, where I connected with Refuge & Hope and decided to return to volunteer here.  

Visiting Rwanda felt like coming full circle in a way.  But it wasn't until I visited a genocide memorial site that I even realized the significance of where I was.  As I said before, the country seems (at least on the surface) to have recovered so much that genocide is actually not the first thing your mind registers when you go there.  The boda boda helmets are just too distracting, I guess.

But finding myself in a small Catholic church just outside of Kigali brought it all back in a painful wave of emotion.  That parish in the village of Ntarama was the site of the brutal massacre of an estimated 5,000 people.  With row upon row of skulls, other bones and the muddied clothes and belongings of so many victims, the building itself still bears witness to the unimaginable evil that manifested itself there.  Being there was overwhelming, to say the least, and my heart was broken anew in the presence of something that was somehow simultaneously both reviling and sacred.  Standing at the altar, I felt my mind grappling to come up with some way to make sense of what I was seeing, and only one thing came to mind and kept playing continuously through my head - the line of a song - Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

There can be no explanation, but that we live in a fallen world where despicable things are not only possible but promised, and we are in desperate need of redemption.  I am reminded of how the apostle Peter tells us that "in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness" just after saying that we ought to speed the coming of the day of God.  

That's the kicker for me.  Really - me?  Speed the coming of the day of God?  How?  

"Live holy and godly lives," Peter says.  "Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him."  

I don't know how to be spotless without Christ.  I don't know how to speed the coming of God's home of righteousness without Christ - it's all impossible apart from his atonement and the Spirit working in me.  I know that.  But it seems as though God has again used Rwanda to make another indelible change in my life.  Because I can now say with great certainty that as I stood in that church marred by the blood of so many innocents, I understood as fully as I ever have what it means to look forward to that new home with the very greatest of anticipation.  

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Jambo!

Greetings from Kenya, everyone!

I'm at an internet cafe and am short on time, but I just felt like posting and promise to write a really great update on the past few weeks when I get back to Kampala. Featured items may include: the trip to Rwanda, progress on the community center in Greek and projects in Kaberamaido, general weather patterns in East Africa (seeing as I've practically traveled through all of it in the past week), and/or recent scary dreams of mine. Could be intense. So stay tuned!

Checking In

Hi friends,

Just a quick update - a lot has been going on!  My friend, Jason, was visiting here in Uganda all of last week, and he was able to do a lot with us the whole time he was here - including a trip just outside of Kampala to take mosquito nets to a school for blind children and a trip up to Kaberamaido with Jade, Harriet and myself.  We went out there to meet up with the ten widows and ten "Arrow Boys" who we are investing in over the next year to do agriculture training, and to formally begin the program with a nice little MOU signing ceremony.  It was so exciting for me to see the things we have been discussing and praying about for so long put down on paper and to know that they are being put into motion!  We also feel good about the people from the community who will be leading the trainings and helping facilitate things.  It really seems like they genuinely want to see change in the community, starting with these two small groups, and that they have caught the vision of how this small number of people can extend the benefits to the larger community.  So it was a great trip up to see them, and I was able to take individual portraits of each of the participants, which I hope to upload soon so you can see who you can be praying for.

But that's not all!  My three great friends - Kristen, Will and John - arrived on Monday, and we've also been moving around just in the few days they've been here.  We went out to Kapchorwa on Tuesday morning and stayed a couple days.  We met up with the pastors there and went out into the rural areas to distribute 200 more mosquito nets (left over from the team's visit last month) in new locations and went out to Greek to check on the community center we are helping build out there.  Phase one of the construction is completed, and the foundation is laid!  The work is going along quickly, and the engineer I spoke with hopes to complete the building just as soon as we can get the resources out to them.  The center will serve as a meeting place for church and for other community meetings, area church functions, etc.  Look out for photos of the construction site on here soon!

So John and Will have been on a whirlwind around-the-world (literally!) trip, which has taken them to Malaysia, Ethiopia and Uganda so far.  Their next stop is Rwanda, and Kristen and I are tagging along for the ride!  We board the bus for Kigali bright and early tomorrow morning, and we'll stop in a town in northern Rwanda to visit with a church that's actually the sister church of the church that Will attends in DC (which I also attended when I lived there!).  Then we'll move down to Kigali and find whatever awaits us there!  I'm excited.  And tired.  I only have a couple of hours before it's time to get up and go, so I'll end here with the promise of photos and more stories to come when I get back to the computer... and life as usual.  If there is a "life as usual" here. : )