What I Said at Church on January 2

First of all, murakoze cyane cyane cyane!  I would like to thank my church family for all of your support over the past year, both prayer support and financial support.  If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do in Rwanda.  While I can buy the most delicious avocado in the world for a quarter and the most delicious pineapple in the world for fifty cents, a gallon of gas is six dollars and a big box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes is…wait for it…. TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS.  But don’t worry, I never eat corn flakes for breakfast..

Now if you will, turn with me to Ephesians 5 and let’s read verses 15 and 16. 

Nuko mwirinde cyane uko mugenda mutagenda nk’abatagira ubwenge, ahubwo mugende nk’abanyabwenge, mucunguze uburyo umwete kuko iminsi ari mibi.

Oops, looks like I brought my Kinyarwanda Bible with me tonight.  I believe the NIV says, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

Now, if any country in this world knows evil days, it is Rwanda.  One hundred of the most evil days of our time were in the spring and summer of 1994 in Rwanda.  One million people were slaughtered with machetes in one hundred days merely for being a certain ethnicity.  But I’m not here to talk to you about Rwanda’s past; I’m here to talk to you about the present and future in Rwanda, about making the most of every opportunity, about open doors…

I’m sure you have all heard that when God closes a door, he opens a window.  Someone probably said that to you when some thing you really, really wanted just didn’t seem to work out.  I, however, personally think that more often than not, God opens doors and rather than just walk through them, we search for a window to jump out of. Opportunities arise every day; we just need to make the most of them.

Now for a few anecdotes from Rwanda…

Speaking of open doors, one night in February, one of my housemates left the back door open, and someone made the most of the opportunity.  That someone being a thief.  We woke up the next morning and found we were missing 3 laptops, 2 cameras, an iPod, a Kindle, a wireless router, a computer monitor, and season 2 of 24.  I wrote a series of long, in-depth blog posts about the incident if you want all the details, but I’ll give you a quick recap right now.  Basically, we had said sayonara to our belongings and gave up hope after a few days, but then exactly one week later I received an email from my friend Rachel in the US that read as follows:  “Hey Kel, just got this today...maybe has something to do with your computer? I don't know, but it would be a really weird coincidence if someone was trying to scam me and happened to write to me from Gisenyi, though I suppose they could have just gotten my email off of your computer. Weird all around.

Ø   hi rachel. My name is John Isaac i m in Gisenyi Rwanda. So if you can now you can call me on 0788570017. In bref i have some thing you lost. Please if is possible call son as pos. Merci

Now, I’ve always heard that if it seems to good to be true, it probably isn’t, but could it be true?  Could it be???  I called the number in the email which started the covert operation that led to the recovery of all of our stolen goods.  It was a daylong affair involving multiple undercover cops, plenty of time at various police stations, and a newfound friendship with the regional police commander, who is a good friend to have.  It was like the newest episode of CSI:  Rwanda.  Long story short, all of our electronics were being sold on the black market in the Congo, but thanks to one honest man named John Isaac, we got ALL of it back.  Now, if God can help us recover thousands of dollars of electronics from the black market in the Congo, I want you to tell me something God CAN’T do….  So, one of the first lessons I learned in Rwanda was that God truly is capable of absolutely anything and that He really is on our side.

The next story is about an open door that I walked through.  After teaching for 6 months at Sonrise School in Musanze, Rwanda, a new opportunity arose for me.  And wanting to make the most of every opportunity, I walked through the open doors of Kigali International Community School.  I stumbled upon an amazing community and the opportunity to influence 220 children from 30 different countries and God broadened the reach of my ministry exponentially.  And through PE, even!  I am having an absolute blast teaching fourth through twelfth grade PE at KICS and I’m enjoying the KICS community as well.  To illustrate just how supportive this community is, let me tell you about my experience with malaria.  I’m sure most of you were kept up to date by my parents, but if not, I spent four days at home in bed with a terrible fever before I was admitted to a clinic for a very strong treatment for malaria.  Then I spent four days in the clinic on a quinine IV, and God provided so much for me.  Not only did he provide a wonderful, competent doctor and healing for my terrible sickness, but he provided a very supportive community to nurse me back to life.  One of the moms from my school saw me looking pitiful in the waiting room of the clinic and I filled her in on the situation.  She said she would bring me food.  And bring me food she did!  Every meal of every day her cook made me something delicious and her driver delivered it to me in my bed.  Another KICS mom brought me tie dyed socks to raise my spirits.  My headmaster did all of my dealings with the doctor and brought me movies to watch in my room.  Another KICS mom came in one day just to wash and braid my hair.  It was an amazing outpouring of love.  I couldn’t have chosen a better place to be, and I am so thankful I walked through the open doors at KICS.

Sometimes, God opens doors for us, but other times, God leads us to a door that we have to open ourselves.  That is what happened to me upon moving to the big city of Kigali.  Back in America, I had been a faithful attendee of LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival) in Black Mountain, North Carolina.  Shortly after I moved to Kigali, I received the monthly update from LEAF informing me that some LEAFers were coming to Rwanda and Tanzania in August.  I took the initiative to email LEAF and set up a meeting with the director when she was in the country.  LEAF has an outreach program where they hire local performers to teach vulnerable youth in third world countries traditional music to preserve the arts and help lift the youth out of poverty.  LEAF in Rwanda has a dance troupe of 16 former street boys who learn drumming and dancing from Leonard, a member of the Rwandan national ballet.  I met with some LEAF people at a coffee shop and we shared about what our organizations did in Rwanda, and then the LEAF people were ready to go.  I stopped them and said, I LIVE in Kigali.  Is there anything I can DO to help?  I have plenty of spare time.  I suggested possibly teaching the boys English, and the LEAF representative started to cry.  They had asked the boys what they wanted, and more than any material goods, they said they wanted to learn English.  So every Tuesday and Thursday, I spend two or three hours building relationships with 16 former street boys and teaching them English.  Almost every lesson turns into an impromptu Bible study.  For example, one day I was teaching them body parts.  Now, when I learned body parts in my Kinyarwanda lesson, it was like umutwe, ugutwi, amaso, iminwya, amatoko, amaguru, and I’m done.  These boys are so thirsty for knowledge that we started at the top of the head and learned every possible facial feature, eyes, eyelids, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc.  When I went from neck to shoulders, they stopped me and asked what “THIS” was.  I said, “an Adam’s apple” which forced us to get out their Kinyarwanda bible and read the story of the Fall of Man in Genesis 3.  Adam disobeyed God, ate the apple, and was punished.  So the Adam’s apple represents the fruit stuck in his throat.  After I opened the door to teaching my boys English, God started opening doors left and right for opportunities to share biblical truths with them.  I mean, what are you supposed to do when one of them asks you what the word “forsaken” means but turn to Mark 15 and read the account of Jesus’s crucifixion?  Of all of the things I do in Rwanda, my favorite is by far hanging out with “my boys” every Tuesday and Thursday, and had I not opened the door, I wouldn’t have the privilege to share so much life together.

God has also opened another door to me that allows me to use my passion for writing and the English language to tutor two middle school boys whose father works at the US Embassy.  It is a huge blessing to have a supplemental income for the next five months, but come June, I will be living completely off of support again.  I have recently signed on for one more school year at KICS as middle and high school English teacher and will need to raise $10,000 more dollars to continue doing what I do in Rwanda until June 2012.  If you want to contribute to my ministry in Rwanda, you can write a check to Rocky Creek and mention that it is for Kelly in Rwanda and it will help me survive another year.  I would also greatly appreciate your prayers, for my effectiveness in my jobs, my health, and my boys.

Of course after spending an entire year serving in Rwanda, I have hundreds more tales to tell, and I’d love to share them with you.  But more than tell you my stories, I want to encourage you to make the most of every opportunity.  Stop looking for windows to jump out of and just walk through the doors God opens for you.  I promise you won’t be disappointed.