Speechless

I am speechless daily over the kids that surround us. Yesterday I stood under the shade of a tree and preached about love to a crowd of Blue as they sat on the grass and listened. At one point I wanted to hide behind my translator Georges just to hid the fighting tears as I talked about my love for money. Most of these kids have no understanding about the god of money for they have probably never owned any of their own. I asked them to pray for me and to pray for my country for I dont think I will ever understand simple faith the way that people here in Rwanda understand it. I find myself daily learning from these kids as I see pure joy on their faces. I hope and pray that God will break my heart for these people and for the people that God has put in my life at home. God's love for us is more pure than anything we will ever understand and all He asks of us is to love Him back. I guess in these past weeks that is the message that I have been preaching. These kids have been incredible, as I was speaking about love to them and how much God wants us to love Him and to love each other they began to put their arms around each other. Again I needed to fight back the tears. My best memory of this camp was watching the biggest smiles you could imagine as kids went shooting down the slip n' slide that we set up leading into the lake. Everyday I embrace smiles of children experiencing true joy. I learn so much from these kids and am daily challenged in my life. I know that God has good things in store for this camp and for the people of Rwanda. A couple of days after we arrived our main camp leader and translator Betty told me that weeks previous to our arrival she had been praying for a camp In Gahini and even called all the people she knew trying to organize one. only days before we arrived had she given up on the idea of having a camp for the youth here in Gahini. God knows our hearts, He knows His children and the more we seek Him the more He will put us where He wants us to be whether thats in a job or traveling or school or even living in a foreign land. When we let God's love overtake our lives and lead our steps we are left speechless. -Daniel

A Sea Of Blue

The second week of camp has concluded, it has been a myriad of emotions, chaos and fun! I often walk through this sea of kids wrapped in blue camp Gahini shirts and let the reality of this venture hit me. Just over a year ago it was a dream that God had placed into our hearts and now here we are half way done the first year of camps! It is overwhelming to ponder, the greatness of this God we serve.

This morning I was reading about Elijah and Elisha and how they went for a walk one day and as they came to the Jordan river they hit the water with their robe and it parted, so they could walk across on dry land. This is the God that we serve, the impossible becoming possible, dreams turning to reality. These past two weeks have been an incredible stretching process for the entire team. We have experienced so many trials, whether getting sick physically, dealing with cultural differences or the ever prominent language barrier. It has been such a blessing to watch as each team member takes on the responsibility given them and also continually picks up the slack for those sick or tired or just weary from the cultural differences and needing a break. We have had two camps thus far, each camp having roughly one hundred youth attending. In every camp it has been surreal to see the change in these kids lives, to hear their questions during team devotionals about where God comes from or where He lives. I have loved seeing smiles on their faces and even the tears in their eyes as the last day they walk out of chapel giving hugs and speaking in their broken english, "I shall never forget you". It is these smiles and tears that inspire and encourage us to continue to dream, and to trust that God has big plans not only for our lives but for the lives of each and every kid we have been able to get to know these past couple weeks. One story to leave you with; When we first arrived I was in meetings with the church leaders here in Gahini. As we went over what the camp was going to look like and all of the small details that are involved with starting a project of this magnitude my good friend and the man in charge here spoke up. He told me that this camp is not only our dream but has been their dream as well. The idea of bringing kids out of their day to day lives and letting them be kids for one week, of giving them good memories to replace all of the pain and hurt in their lives and showing them God's grace love and joy. This he said is something that has been needed here for years and is an incredible blessing to this country. Please continue to pray for us as we have two more camps left to go. Jordan

Great Comments

Thanks so much for responding to our blogs and corresponding with us. It is wonderful to hear what you are all thinking... It seems that we often make the mistake of not expressing ourselves to the fullest with each entry. Perhaps we forget about those who haven't the slightest clue of what we are doing and only tell small portions, and perhaps we also keep it too short and brief as we neglect to give our blog the amount of time it demands of us. For this I apologize.

First off, our lack of knowing the blogging world is why we are continuing a blog that was created for a different journey. This is our way of sending our stories home. For those of you more interested in this mission to Rwanda we have not expressed our hearts for this, and our mission statement to the side of the page here is more in regards to the World Faith Tour.

The connection between our last journey and this mission is this; We still have the same heart for seeking out our calling, to live as God would have us live. Our stories are those filled with adventures and excitement. We hope people who read this will be encouraged and possibly inspired to dream.

"Getting back into the Game" hopefully this saying isn't taken so seriously that we can base our theology on it. I find that in many ways we are getting back into something different. I personally don't feel as if I will be a different person in or out of the game. But as we prepared to leave our home and enter into a foreign country, everyday life becomes a little different, almost like a game. Suddenly nothing is familiar, the people treat you differently by our white skin. The prices get hiked up and people try to scam you on the streets. But in no way is this mission, this chance to teach kids, a game. We take this responsibility seriously.

For those of you who have been supporting us. We send you more "thanks". Your prayers have been needed. Your finances have been important. Many of you would know that we have gone through the organization of AYMI, who you sent your checks to. This relationship between AYMI and ourselves has benefited us as a way to keep our finances accountable to someone.

I would like to answer a few good questions asked by Kim;

Q: Is there need in Rwanda? Greater or lesser than Canada?

A: I feel there is a big need in Rwanda and we are here to work towards changing that. I could possibly write a book on the needs of this place and why I came. In the blogs to come I hope that some of the needs are expressed, and any of us are more than willing to share in person our understanding of the situation here in Rwanda. Canada too has a big need, in which we are all responsible for. Personally, I don't know how to measure greater and lesser need. There are many ways to help make Canada a better place, we should all do what we can.

I find it odd being here and hearing how so many people here wish Rwanda could be more like Canada. I often tell them, I wouldn't wish that upon you. Rwanda has many strengths that we don't as Canadians. I often mention to Rwandise that in Canada we often worship money.

Q: Are you fulfilling your desires for adventure?

A: Absolutely! I hope I speak for everyone on the team, its full of ups and downs, mostly ups.

Q: Is the money going towards a Project that is sustainable?

A: We hope so. It is kind of an expensive one-time thing to do here. So far many local leaders have taken an interest in using this program and performing it in smaller scales around the country after we leave. Thus far we are getting closer to setting things in place for next year, to make things better. Our plan is that this camp will be running locally in less than 5 years from now. It seems to be catching on so fast it may be less!

Q: What is it that attracted you to Rwanda?

A: Jordan is the guy who had some dreams and visions of this camp when we were here last year, so we committed to coming back in a year to make it happen.

We hope that our blog has not given you the idea that living 'extreme and going overseas' is hand in hand with obedience and righteousness.

Kenton