It is very quiet here in the mission house without our team. We have received papers that show the official boundary lines of the Acres of Hope property. Our next goal is to be registered with the government here as a foreign charity (NGO- non-governmental organization). Mike saw a friend at church on Sunday who later contacted us to let us know that she could help us to get registered, because she knows the people we need to talk to. We thank God for that!
Mike also wants to get an appointment with the Minister of Family (a government position) so he can find out what their plans are for the street children of this country.
God is giving us contacts here. We are looking to purchase a vehicle for use whenever we are here, and God has helped us by putting us in contact with a pastor here who is wanting to sell his vehicle and will work with us on this, as well as putting us in contact with another missionary who knows about vehicles and can give us good advice on this. We also have some other contacts that people have passed on to us but we’re not sure how God is going to use them yet.
I was feeling very Rwandan on Monday. I washed almost a week’s worth of laundry in the tub and hung them out to dry. For four people the laundry does add up! Now I have thoughts like, “Is this visibly dirty yet? Does it stink? No, OK don’t need to wash it yet!” Of course, most everything you wear outside of the house will get some dark African dirt/dust on it, so most everything has to get washed!
Sunday we went to church at African New Life Bible church. Their first service is an english service, including a kid’s class, so we went to that. We rode the public transport again (bus) and figured out that if we’re going to take the public transport we’d better leave a lot earlier! You see, here there are no bus schedules- they don’t leave the bus station until the bus is full. And I mean African full (4 people in a space that Westerners would think seats 3). At 8 o’clock on Sunday morning there aren’t as many people at the bus station so we had to wait a while for it to fill up. But thankfully the church service lasts 2 hours, so by the time we got there we still had an hour of church left. 🙂 There’s walking involved in the trip too, but not too bad.
I’ve walked up to the open market with our host and the cook here- walking is the African way! (Most people are not able to afford cars.) The open market has a very strong smell- could be the live chickens, that area was especially strong. Nate got to pet a chicken, and now KaLia wants a pet chicken to provide eggs for us! She’s already making plans…
Please continue to keep us, TTI, and the Acres of Hope/Home of Innocence in your prayers. You can pray specifically for TTI to be registered as an NGO here, as well as for God to go before us, direct us, and provide for us.
Thank you for working together with us!
God Bless You,
Lisa