Thought for the day.

Thinking and dreaming about summer plans. I have talked with the Myers Family, who are from the Wenatchee Free Methodist Church and are currently working in Nigeria, about coming for a few months to assist with their ministries there. Would you be praying that the Lord would continue to direct and provide HIS plan for the things to come?

I've also been thinking a lot about the anxiety that I feel when I think about my timetable for each day. I teach 5 times a week, which is not a lot compared to the amount of time in each day, and yet somehow I still feel rushed, like I must hurry from one place to the next, so very American. Did you know that the term 'Mzungu' comes from a Swahili verb that means someone who runs around in circles getting very, very dizzy. Yikes! They have me pegged pretty well. They shout it as I walk by and whisper it when they think I'm not listening but little do they know I'm very aware of this deeply ingrained desire to jump from place to place; that all this business creates a struggle to find time for the Lord and time for myself and sometimes even leads me to doubt the reasons I'm here. I remind myself often to breathe, to relax and enjoy my time. It's not meant to be a chore and things go so much better when I'm at rest and not pushing, pushing, pushing to get things done.

I had to have some difficult conversations this week and can't be very specific but I can say that I felt your prayers, that I was surprised how well they went and even felt refreshed and uplifted, so thank you! Thanks for your support, so glad you are on my team.

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Kenya retreat

I couldn't wait to share about my great time in Kenya. I'll write more about it later but here are some photos in the meantime. It was so refreshing to spend time with friends and missionaries who 'get it'. I am blessed!

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Being a Sender

This last week while I was in Kenya at a Free Methodist Missionary Retreat we talked a lot about how important it is to be encouraged while on the field. Sometimes we desire support but don't feel free to express that need. We understand how it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of supporting a missionary alone. So let me help you help me. We brainstormed 10 easy ways for you to send love. Feel free to choose one. It's just as necessary to be a 'sender', to support, as it is to be working and serving overseas. For myself or for another missionaries you know; I challenge you to take up your role as a sender!

1. Send a handwritten letter through the mail. It's really meaningful. Our address is:
Hope Africa University
BP 238
Bujumbura, Burundi
Africa

2. Send a digital message. Email, Facebook. Just a quick note of encouragement.
3. Send a family photo for my refrigerator or bedroom.
4. Call a missionary's family members to see how they are doing. My parents need as much support some days as I do.
5. Help Missionary's family communicate overseas, you can ask the Harris Family for specifics on that one :)
6. Mail a care package. It's not impossible and might be a great small group activity!
7. Have a Sunday school class write letters or draw pictures.
8. Schedule a Skype call with your missionary or facebook Chat, its not impossible and means so much, its also really helpful for us to stay connected with one another and for you to be updated on ministry.
9. Send an email, letter, gift for my birthday- June 6th.
10. Be a Prayer Team Member praying for personal requests, feel free to ask specifics anytime.

Morning Class

Here are some photos I took this morning of my Monday/ Wednesday class. All students in their 20's from Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.

Because I know you care

Welcome to our apartment! If you were here we would invite you over and in typical African style we would sit in the living room and we would have a cup of tea and talk about life. There would be no concern for time because you are important and you matter more than my schedule today. You might not be allowed into the other areas of our house, those are not for guests, but because you are special I have posted some photos so that you can see what life is like. I spend a lot of time preparing lesson plans, it's a rare occasion to be wearing pants so you are being let in on a private moment :). The other photo is my 'office', really just a space on the back deck, but I spend a lot of time there to, praying for you as I see your face on my picture wall and dreaming about how 50 people can get excited about prepositions. If you've been praying for my students to be engaged in class I want to thank you, this week my students enjoyed our lesson so much that another teacher had to come and ask my class to be quiet, ooops, once again I feel like I am playing the role of the 'crazy American' and doing it quite well, breaking all sorts of cultural bounds as I teach in a new style and make odd requests of my students and even make an uproar during class. I am thankful for the graciousness of the African Staff and of my students who, I'm sure, walk away very confused at the end of some classes. But I'm also sure we are learning from each other. It's more than just English, we are learning how to have patience, how to express our concerns and viewpoints and how to make it through this semester still respecting one another when we are finished. On Tuesday the 23rd Rachel and I will leave for Kenya, for an Africa Area Missionary Conference, I am so excited to be with friends but also to be refreshed and encouraged. Please be praying for safe travel and for a renewal of energy and insight.

Sorry I was late....it was raining.

It rained today. This might not sound like a big deal but in Burundi it only rains during the rainy season, usually once a day and not for very long, but when it rains it pours. It comes down so hard that people hide in the Library or stay in their class, shutting all the windows and putting a pause on life until the sky is done dumping. I thought this was all a little odd until I lived in a rainy season and now I have gotten to experience it first hand, the skin soaking, run for cover, drenching rain that it is. Yesterday we collected 12 cups of rain from INSIDE our apartment. I smiled at first as I saw the students run into the library and shut the doors behind them or as people hurridly pulled clothes off the line but then it began to get louder and louder as it beat down on the tin roof. Reality hit as my papers started flying all over, down the hallway and into different rooms. We felt rain in every room and saw it spill into our apartment through the closed windows. All we could do was laugh, every shelf in the kitchen was wet, we had to pull back the rugs as puddles started to formulate under the windows and cover our things as it started to spray in from the vents above. It was hilarious to see us so relaxed at first then madly dashing around trying to do damage control. We measured and counted, mostly just so we could blog about it, but there was so much! I have a new appreciation for those who 'wait out the rain', who take cover wherever possible, I may be washable but I'm not crazy- getting soaked mid-day is not always the best plan. And I have a new appreciation for those without windows, those who have to take cover in homes where the roof doesn't always line up with the walls and the floor is made not made of concrete but of mud.

Blog-able

I leaned over to Barb last night and said 'This is totally blog-able'. Not only has this blog become a routine but its therapeutic and I'm constantly thinking of new  things I can share with you. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I love writing it.  Last night Barb Vibbert and I began a fluency class or conversation time for students, it is optional, free and doesn't include much homework. We were pleased to see 25 males in attendance from Burundi, Congo and Rwanda. I can already see it's going to be a lot of fun. At the end of class Barb showed a DVD on phonics and 25 guys sat repeating and singing along 'a i r says air'. It might have seemed hilarious at the time to see them drop their guard and respond like grade school kids but the importance of being understood is unmeasurable.
We celebrated Birthdays this week-both Javier and Brandon added a year to their lives, I'm pretty sure Rachel and I were more excited to give them their gifts then they were to receive them but they put on a good face for us. Rachel and I also moved to our new apartment on campus, our home for the next 9 months, it has been really fun nesting and cooking and making it our own, its surprising what a change of scenery can do for your perspective. The attached photo is the view from our bathroom window, that right there should be reason enough to visit, God's creation is just so beautiful! Our days click right along, filled with lesson planning and teaching and chapels and time with the students, ministry is never boring. Rachel and I are both looking forward to our upcoming trip to Kenya. I am counting down the days-just two weeks now- when I will not only get to meet many missionaries serving in Africa but will also get to see some really great friends, both the Willsons (Malawi) and the Myers (Nigeria) will be there. I am looking forward to what I'm sure will be a great time of fellowship. You can be praying this week that the students continue to learn from us, 50 people in a language class seems like such a barrier to me but all things are possible with Christ!

Day of Power

Classes were canceled today for the Day of Prayer. Students, Staff and Professors gathered in the chapel from 8-12:30 to worship and lift up prayer concerns.The Vice Rector asked the students to share praises; they are praising the Lord for professors, Voice of Hope Radio station here on campus-it can now be heard all over Burundi, a new football field, new buildings, a clinic in the beginning stages of construction, Kibuye Hospital-in the process of being turned over to the University as a teaching Hospital, the many departments or areas of studies here on campus and Rachel shared that we are thankful for our wonderful students. Cheers erupted from the crowd, like a home-run at a baseball game, the Vice rector admitted that we often forget about the students God has specifically brought to Hope and today we are thankful for them!  It was shared that when the university began the goal for the student body population for 2010 was 800 students, today Hope Africa admits 3,000 students. Praise the Lord for making it possible! The leaders here are committed to educating and raising up the next generation. Bishop Elie spoke on behalf of the University and gave several prayer requests, his vision for Hope, for Burundi and for the students inspires me. He asked that we not pray if we had doubts that God could accomplish all we are asking of Him today, Satan didn't need a foothold and God is capable of meeting our needs without the prayers of those who doubt. The Bishop has asked that we continue to pray for the renovation and extension of Kibuye Hospital as a teaching facility, so students don't have to travel abroad to specialize. That the satellite campus in Gitega would continue the stages necessary for buildings and eventually classes. He also expressed his vision to have a television station for Hope. We were all amazed when he shared the cost of 1/2 million dollars needed for equipment but he continued to remind us that he didn't need doubtful prayers and that God owns everything anyways, if He wants it done, it will happen. It was so encouraging to be reminded that I serve a God who owns it all, who loves these people more than I am beginning to, and who has more vision than I could ever hope to have for them.

We also took time today to pray for all the different nations represented at the University-Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Chad, Rwanda, Central African Republic, Congo, Tanzania, Burundi and of course America. Each representative brought forth prayer requests and then we took time right then and there to pray for them. I'm also thankful that God is not intimidated by the many languages spoken. Swahili, Kirundi, French and English were all in our service today. I was thinking about you today, wishing that you could be part of the service, knowing how much you would have loved to be reminded that prayer is indeed powerful and effective and to see and take part in what God is doing across Africa. But even though you weren't here today I know you are still a support and can be involved in the process of His plan here in Burundi. As the Bishop said 'today was a day of power for Hope Africa University'.

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Giving up control

For some reason I forgot, I forgot that nothing is an easy process here, nothing ever happens the way I think it should. Going into town is not a simple process, I can't just get in my car and drive I have to first walk to the bus stop, flag down a bus-which may or may not be full, sometimes waiting for the 5th or 6th one- then ride a long, hot, sweaty ride to the market where I will then walk several blocks to my destination. I forgot, somehow in my three months between Malawi and Burundi, that this is all very normal, it is life here in Africa. It's just the way things are, they take longer and are often times more frusturating that America. I forgot that I can't just walk into a post office and expect the cashier to hand over the stamps, no she wants to know where the envelope is, never mind I don't have the envelope, the letter isn't even written yet, but she cannot imagine why I would want to buy stamps if I wasn't going to give her a letter in return. I forgot that thinking outside the box is not everyone's forte. I forgot that sometimes they don't bring the drink I ordered because, well, they are out of the one I ordered but they didn't ask or communicate this minor fact they just bring me a different replacement. A friend was sharing with us how he has come to the conclusion that he is giving up control, he has been working in Bujumbura for 6 months and he has realized that things don't work the way you want them to, you can't control life here, you can't function the same way as you do at home. Such wise words. I want to be done as well, done expecting things to be the same, done being disappointed with results. I want to be okay if it takes an hour to get stamps or ride into town. Jen Willson always said 'if I get one thing done today it will be a good day' :)
These last few days have been a little frustrating. I am realizing what a spoiled American I am, my computer has decided not to charge and my ipod isn't working, I disgust even myself, those are just small problems in a place where I am always reminded of those who live with deeper issues, but it does add an extra layer of complication when I can't replace the things I've become dependent on. Will you be praying with me that I will trust the Lord to provide, to meet every NEED just like he says he will? You can also be praying that he will heal my computer.
We had a great ceremony on Friday, the President of Burundi came to speak at the dedication of the clinic, you can see the photo of his guards at the school campus and the almost completed Library/classroom building- doesn't it look great!
I've attached some pictures of our recent explorations around Bujumbura, our goal for Saturday was to make a memory, I think we accomplished that, we walked around for the better part of the day, spreading cultural diversity everywhere we went, getting a great tan and discovering lots of new places. Did you know there is a theater in Buja? Or that you can have a picnic lunch with a view of the Lake and the Congo Mountains? When I say we spread cultural diversity I mean that everywhere we go people are excited to see us, well most everyone, they yell our name from across the street, like we are celebrities, 'Mzungu, whitey, American, Chinese, blanco', I'm not really sure what there intent is in playing the role of captain obvious but we've decided to embrace it. Anytime you feel like you blend in with the crowd or that your not unique come to Burundi, one walk downtown and your self esteem with improve. You are special and everyone notices you!