Play For Hope

Well, I have come to the end of my journaling for Africa. I hope everyone reading this has enjoyed a little better detailed account of what Josh and I had the opportunity to do over there.  Wow!  It was incredible! I hope you have fallen in love with Rwanda as we have!  Thank you so much for keeping up with me.  I am sure I will have a few random posts in the months to come, maybe some poems or whatever the Lord lays on my heart.  God bless you guys!  And I would just ask you to pray for this ministry.  Keep up on the website and with everything going on with these kids and coaches.  And, if God lays it on your heart, maybe you can become a financial partner with the ministry and help this ministry evolve?  Love you all!  May God inspire you in your lives for greatness! 

~Laura  

Day 15-The Final Day :( 

So we have come to the end, and unfortunately the last day was pretty rough for me.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat, coughing and sneezing.  I felt pretty miserable.  But if there was any day to get sick, I guess it was best to be at the end, and not in the middle when all the main stuff was going on.  We left pretty early this morning for Butare.  We were supposed to visit a genocide site here, and have a little bit of time to shop for souveneirs before heading back to Kigali.  We took a bus that was about an hour and a half long.  The morning started on an interesting note as we were literally seconds late for the bus.  Our driver actually blocked our bus in to let us get on as it was trying to leave, but unfortunately Serieux had rode separately from us and was like a minute behind, so right after the bus left he arrived. :)  They have buses that run every 30 minutes however so it was not that big of a deal.  Instead I got to go to the bathroom in my first ever paid for hole in the ground!! ;)  All I can say is I am so glad I carried some toilet paper with my in my fanny pack everywhere I went! ;)  So we eventually got on the bus and were headed out for Butare.  Josh and I noticed that the bus drivers here have certain signals for the other bus drivers.  I never could figure out what they mean, but they had at least 10 or more signs that they would use with their hands out the window in passing another bus!  As we were riding I could not help thinking about how beautiful the land is here!  We were going up and down mountains as we got higher you could see all the lush, green land below.  It was so beautiful!  God is so amazing with his creation!

When we finally arrived in Butare we took motos to what we thought was the other genocide memorial.  We learned that it was actually a cultural center! ;) So, we just explored the city instead and got a few souveneirs.  Josh and I sat with Serieux for a while and just chatted about life, which was really nice!  I am going to miss him so much!  He has such an incredible heart for this ministry and for people in general.  He is always such a blessing to be around!  We talked about marriage in the Rwandan culture, which was very neat.  Apparently when you get married you also have some people who serve as accountability for you.  If you are ever going through a hard time or fighting with your spouse, they come in and help the two to solve the issue.  This was such a smart thing to me!  I think if people did this in America, a lot more marriages would survive.  Instead, Americans try to hide the problem until it explodes and both sides become too hardened to want to try and solve the problem.  The culture here seems to have so much more wisdom about people than we do here in America.  I think when materials get in the way and try to solve our problems, we lose grasp of the fellowship of people that God created to help us in times of need.  I know that this country is in so much need physically, but many of these individuals are well above us in understanding true joy and fellowship.  

After this Josh and I got some snacks for lunch from a grocery store and then we were back on our way to Kigali.  By this point in time, I was starting to feel pretty miserable, and this bus ride back was completely full.  Josh and I were squeezed on a row with another lady right by the door. I kept sneezing and coughing and couldn't stop.  I didn't have any water or anything, and there was no stopping on these rides.   I am sure everyone on the bus was getting annoyed with me, because I was getting annoyed with myself.  :)  But there was nothing I could do.  When we finally got to Kigali, we waited for another bus to take us back to Serieux' home.  We finally arrived back at the house and Francine had food ready for us.  Josh and I quickly packed our bags and then sat down for our last meal.  Francine was so gracious to us!  She made us all of our favorite stuff from our meals.  We had peas, and prines, the juice I love, and the beef macaroni that Josh loves!  :)  It was great!  Shortly after dinner our taxi was here and we were headed back to the airport.  It was so hard to say bye to Francine, and Harmony!  Harmony was such a blast this whole week!  And little Honora was so precious!  We did manage to say our goodbyes and headed up to the airport.  Serieux met us up there with a going away gift of African Tea!  :) My favorite!  He is so sweet!  Well, we finally said our goodbyes.  It was sad to have to leave, but at the same time we are both ready to get back to the states and tell everyone about our experience!  The check in at the Rwandan airport took a ridiculously long time!  It was crazy!  But we made it to our flight.  As soon as we got on the plane I took 2 NyQuils and was out!  ;) It was even hard for me to wake up to eat my meals, ha! ;)  But I felt well rested getting back to the states, since I practically slept through all 3 flights! ;)  Now my stomach is trying to get readjusted to American food, but other than that things are going well!  I miss Rwanda already!  I hope and pray that everyone is still doing well there!  What an incredible experience I had!  I love Rwanda with all my heart!  I hope and pray that God will send us back soon! :) 

Day 14! 

This morning we got to see the coaches again for one final time before we have to head out tomorrow.  It was so wonderful to have the opportunity to see them again.  Elvis, Santa, Regis, Christian and Robert each spoke individually about the training that they learned from us and the impact that it is already having on their teams.  Also, they were all so incredibly grateful that we came from America to be with them for a couple of weeks.  It amazes me how grateful they are for the small things in life.  I feel that, because of what some of these people in Rwanda have been through, their eyes are more open to love.  They see a better picture of truth and are able to wholeheartedly recognize it, and be thankful for it.  I think many times in America, even myself, I overlook things in life that are happening right before my eyes that I should be on my knees worshiping Him for.   Before we left, they all lifted their hands and prayed over us.  It was a very special time, because I had no clue what each individual was saying, and yet, I could feel the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit with us in that room.  I could feel the hearts of the coaches thanking the Lord for us and praying over our lives.  Their was so much passion and worship in the room at that time for our Savior.  I don't think that I will ever forget that moment.  Here, a room full of men sacrificing everything they have and laying it all at the feet of Jesus so that they are able to invest into the hearts and souls of athletes, and they are lifting us up in prayer.  I felt as if I didn't deserve it.  I felt as if we should be the ones praying over them and all that they are doing and sacrificing daily.  They are incredible men of God and I pray that God continues using each and every one of them in a very real and powerful way to each and every individual they come into contact with.  

After our final time with the coaches this morning, we headed out to run some errands and grab some lunch before we had to head out to our team for the day.  As we were waiting at the office to head up to another field, we saw about 15 ambulances racing up the hill, and about 3 military vehicles racing down the hill.  We were not sure what had happened, but we knew that something must be going on.  Later in the day we discovered that two of the large buses had collided and that there were about 40 people injured because of it.  Hopefully nothing was too serious and that they will all be ok.  

After this we headed out for our final team, which was Tonto's team called Hope For Life.  Tonto has a really cool story as he has been working for an organization which gets children off the streets and into a house where they farm rabbits to live and sustain themselves.  It is just really neat to hear about some of the children being able to get out of their life on the streets and start a new life for themselves, a life full of hope!  He had a out 30 girls there that Jena and I talked with.  There was no hidden or quiet area for us to talk with them here, so we just set them a little outside of the field.  The girls were very receptive though and had a lot of good questions for us.  They are so sweet!  Tonto is doing a great job with these girls!  This is I believe one of the newest of the teams, and they already have team captains and different lines of authority for people to go to in areas of conflict and whatnot.  Before we left, we gathered all the children, girls and boys together and Christian spoke to them a little encouraging them in the Lord.  They sang a song of worship to get started.  I just love the culture here how everyone is not afraid to dance and clap and get involved when they are singing for the Lord!  Everyone is very expressive here.  It is great!  

After this we were headed back home.  I cannot believe that our trip is almost over!  It has gone by so quickly it seems.  This has been such an incredible, eye-opening experience for me.  I pray that I will never forget the people here and that I will be able to return soon.  I have such a heart for this culture!  I want to encourage them to be able to reach all of their amazing dreams and goals in life!  And also, I pray that all of these children would come to know how much they are loved by God!   

Hey Everyone!  I am so sorry I have been so bad with updating this.  Life has been a little crazy lately with work, and my sister's baby coming up. I only have 3 more days of blogs left, so I should be able to finish them up between today and tomorrow.  Thank you so much for being faithful viewers of this blog!  These kids deserve so much!  

Day 13 :) 

So today we have just been relaxing at the house so far.  It has been raining all morning so far.  This is the first day that it has rained.  It has rained several evenings, but this is the first time it has rained during the day.  We did end up leaving later in the morning, and met about 36 of Robert's kids at his field.  We took them all through the FMS which took a while to get through that many kids, but it went really well.  Most of the kids have incredible shoulder flexibility here.  And there are a lot of very good squats.  The most rewarding part of the day for me was that after all the testing, we had the opportunity to take all the kids to a restaurant to get food.  It was absolutely amazing to see their faces to have the opportunity to go to a restaurant and get food.  It is something we take for granted in the United States, so much, and here this might have been the first time for some of these kids to go to a restaurant.  They were SO joyful to be able to fill their hunger.  I cannot even explain how great it felt to be able to reach some of their physical needs!!  Just like we were able to do with Regis' team earlier as well.  It was so wonderful!  I pray that one day an Academy can be built and these children can at least have shelter and food.  

So the car that we rode in today was awesome!  It was a French station wagon that was at least 30 years old.  I was so surprised that it could even still run.  But not only that, it was able to drive on African roads and fit all 7 of us in the car! ;)  Later in the day we drove back to the fields on the slums.  We were supposed to meet up with Pascal and his teams, but because of the rain, Pascal was not able to show up.  A few of his girls did show up though, which was great!  We met behind a building in the rain and were still able to talk with them.  They were all very sweet!  Also, I could just see so much  hope in their eyes.  They have so much of a future ahead of them, and they are already taking such huge steps in their life by being involved with Play For Hope even though some of them get lots of ridicule for it.  I am going to miss talking to the girls after tomorrow.  I am going to miss everything here about Africa!  I love it here so much!  Tomorrow we are supposed to meet up with the coaches again for one final time.  I hope that most of them are able to make it because I would really like to see them again before we have to leave.  

On a lighter note, we saw one of the craziest cars today!  It was a big volkswagon van with blue tinted windows and green lights down by the bottom of the car. Today we are supposed to meet Diudonne for dinner, but I am not sure if that is still going to happen because it is starting to get late.  He is so sweet!  Because of finances though, he recently had to take time away from Play For Hope and is now doing Discipleship training with YWAM so that he can have housing and food.  I hope that he will be able to be financially supported soon so that he will be able to work with Play For Hope again.  He loves Play For Hope so much and has an amazing heart for this ministry.  

Day 12 :) 

Well today was an interesting day.  There were some ups and some downs.  We started the day off taking a bus to city center.  This is Kigali's downtown area.  There were many business buildings here as well as a mall where Jena and I had to pay to use the restroom.  Also, downtown there were many more people of other ethnicities.  I saw several Americans, some Asians and some Europeans.  I had not seen this anywhere else we had been.  Also, it was here where Josh and I went to exchange some money for some souvenirs, which was quite the experience.  What we didn't know was that there is actually a whole street filled with exchange places, so as soon as we, as caucasians started walking down the street there were about 5 guys on top of us trying to get us to go into their store to exchange.  We picked the guy who knew the best english.  Maybe a bad way to decide, but we didn't know how else to do it? ;) Once we got our money exchanges, we started our journey down to one of the soccer and basketball fields.  To get there we walked through what are known as the "slums" of Kimisigara.  There were homes with tin roofs that were held up by rocks, and these homes were practically one on top of another.  They were very small, and Serieux said that there could be up to ten people that live in that one home.  Most of them had clay and such that was kind of falling off as well.  And, it was crazy because these homes were literally built on the side of the mountain, so getting anywhere to or from them is quite difficult.  We saw this one guy carrying a large bag of something and 4 boxes on top of that on his head coming down this mountain.  It was incredible! There are no sidewalks or anything, so this was really quite amazing that he was able to do this!  The best that you would get for a sidewalk were some bags of sand thrown down to create a walkway.  Also, here there was a lot of dirty water running down the walkways, and it smelled a little of urine and waste, so you tried to avoid walking in these spots.  I just couldn't imagine trying to walk down this mountain without even any shoes on!  And, since we were outside of the main roads we were even more of celebrities.  We were practically walking through people's homes to get down the mountain, and by the time we would get to the next house there were already be more kids out yelling for us.  It is like they were quickly spreading the word so everyone could come out and see us.  I guess it was quite a site to see a "Mzungu" walking through your backyard! ;)  

Once we got to the bottom the fields were not far away. This soccer field and basketball court were actually the nicest that we had seen thus far.  Kind of crazy since the slums are right behind them!  There were a lot of kids out playing and even some kids playing inside on a rec court.  After seeing the fields we walked back up the mountain through the slums to catch a bus back to the house for lunch.  It was a crazy steep walk up!  I was certainly tired when we reached the top!  I cannot imagine having to hike that every day!  And especially without having any food.  What these kids go through is remarkable!  After lunch we walked to Busanza to work with Elvis and Jimmy's basketball teams.  (Yes, we had quite a bit of walking today!)  Jena and I talked with the girls as we had been doing.  These girls were the most fun so far though!  They were very interactive and had a lot of questions for us at the end.  Also, after we finished, they sang to us and desperately wanted us to sing back to them.  Jena and I were on the spot and I could not think of anything!!  I never thought I would be put on the spot to sing, but like Brian says, you never know what you are going to get in Africa! ;) Jena and I ended up singing Row Row Row Your Boat! ;)  It was classic! ;) On our way back to the fields to meet up with the boys the girls were all trying to teach me Kinyu-Rwandan.  One girl in particular knew a little bit of English and was teaching me body parts in kinyarwanda.  These girls were so fun! Also, right before we got there she stopped me and put her bracelet on my wrist.  She gave it to me as a gift!  That was so special to me.  She wanted to give another one that she had to Josh, but I told her his wrist was probably too big.  I don't think they were fully grasping what I was trying to say, but they got the one bracelet off my wrist, and about 5 girls together were trying to get another one on my wrist which was even smaller.  This girl had tiny wrists, and I knew this one was not going to fit, but they were trying so hard, bending my wrist in all different angles, there was no way I was going to stop them with the passion they were using to get this bracelet on my wrist.  Well, eventually it snapped.  I felt so bad, but she still seemed so happy that I at least had one for myself to wear.  The first one went back on my wrist as all was well!  I still have that bracelet and it is very special to me! :)

Also, with these girls, when we were in the classroom talking with them, I got even more of an understanding about how bad divorce is in their culture.  During the question and answer time they were asking about my family and it came up that my parents were divorced.  I have never seen any reactions as strong as these due to someone's parents being divorced.  I mean, here in the states it has become such a regular thing, which is so sad, but true.  But here all the girls jaws dropped.  One girl almost had tears in her eyes for me. They were all telling me how sorry they were.  In Rwandan culture however divorce is not really an option in their culture.  And if it does so happen, the mother is banned from the family, never to see her children again.  It is a terrible thing and the family is quite literally ripped apart.  It is a very sad thing. I love though, that even in a physically broken culture, with almost nothing of material value, there is so much respect and honor of marriage.  It is thought of as sacred and not to be touched or broken.  They make sure that there are people who hold the couple accountable in the circumstance that fights arise and there is tension.  People come in and help them to work through it.  I just love that!  I love that people are willing to step in and help to make marriage last.  If only this were the case in America!  We have become such a culture that is all about self-gratification that we have truly lost of heart of servant hood and responsibility. I know that when I say something I want to stick to it.  I want my word to be valued and for it to hold true.  That is why I pray that my marriage will be one like that of those in Rwanda that last until death does them part.  It really is a sweet thing to see in their culture.  Family is so much stronger than it is here, because in many circumstances it is all they have.  Family and love.  I pray that I could continue to learn a little bit each day from these amazing people  that have so much more wisdom than myself in many areas of life!

Tonight for dinner we went to a restaurant called Sola Luna. It was our one night out to a pizza place.  It almost ended in disaster when Josh's driver took a wrong turn and was separated from the group, but about 20 minutes later he finally showed up.  We had no cell phones or ways of communication which made it hard, but prayer alone got him there! ;)  The pizza was very good.  The only thing that was bad was that the culture inside the restaurant was like that of America again.  The restaurant was owned by Italians and there were only 2 African American couples in the whole restaurant.  The rest were foreigners.  This was really sad to me, because none of the people of Rwanda could afford a restaurant such as this.  We did bring Serieux back some pizza though which was good!  And the place did have a beautiful view!  Rwanda is so pretty at night, as you can see a few lights here and there lighting up the mountains.  So pretty!  What a wonderful place God has created!