Update from the Pioneers!

Hello Brothers and Sisters, The team has had a wonderful, exciting, and enjoyable time here in Rwanda thus far. We made it safely and smoothly to Kigali on Sunday evening. We drove out to our home in Gahini, and settled ourselves in finally, rest! Monday and Tuesday were our 'planning'/meeting/refreshing days to prepare ourselves for the next month, and four weeks of camp. We started out first week of camp on Wednesday, 9th. It was definitely a joy to see so many children's faces light up with smiles and laughter! Sadly though, it is hard to see how many line up in anticipation of getting in, only to be told that there is no longer any room for more kids to register. The camp can now hold up to 150 kids per week, which is AWESOME! We've played games, sang LOTS of songs, swam in the water, taught them some of the Good News, and enjoyed a last day of camp Slip'n'Slide! Our goal this year for the camp is to bring more responsibility to the Rwandan leaders and for us to step back and get ourselves going with Village Ministry. Our first week was a wonderful success, we only had seven people help out, the other seven headed to Gahini village for Village Ministry. The reach out to the village was also a HUGE success, most days there were around 75-95 kids, and our last day we had over 100; which is basically like having a second camp for the kids coming from the same area. How rad! This second week we have already started to step back a lot. We have two people staying with the camp this week, not taking too much of a leadership role, but more so assistance. Ten - Twelve people will be going to another village around 4km away for this week. Hoping to bring a similar camp feel to it as the first week. Playing games, speaking, singing, doing skits, and basically just investing our time and energy into the children's lives around us that need to see God's love! (I mean we all need to see God's love, but hopefully these kids can see that through our actions and attitudes while spending our time with them!) Dylan and Erica have taken some time this morning to watch how camp was going for the first day of the second week. Trying to get some things together that might help Betty, who is the Rwandan leader of the camp, understand and take more control of how camp should look like. How to run it, to organize it, and make it functional. These past two days, Sunday and Monday, where days off for the team. We had a rather relaxing Sunday. We got to to a Sunday service in the church in Gahini, which was really fun, and we also got to stay and experience a good Rwandan styled church service! We were probably there for four hours minimum. The rest of the day people took as relax time, and recuperating time. Monday was an early day. Started it off with group devotions and singing as per usual, it was Erica's birthday so we sang Happy Birthday, then we jumped into a bus and headed to Kigali bright and early. Spent the morning at the memorial learning more about the genocide. Then headed to the Burban for some lunch, and then for some football! Eddie + Bonita Mwanavenassa are missionaries here connected with the NGM Church, and have a soccer ministry here. We played a hard played game against their U18 team, and went over to Eddie's place for pizza and stories afterwards. He told us about his life story and the effects of the genocide and we were able to ask questions, he's a fabulous story teller! Mainly that is our life in Rwanda so far, Thank you much for your support and prayer! God bless, The Pioneers!