Rwanda for Jesus and the Children's Home!

On this Sunday (July 1) we decided to attend church with Innocent where he sings

with the worship team. The name of the church is Rwanda for Jesus! 

The minute you enter this place you know the presence of the Lord

is near.  A guest speaker from London, named Jane filled the pulpit and when 

I say filled I mean her words were filled with the Holy Spirit as she talked 

about the Love of God and how we live that out. 

At one point as she was speaking about what our lives should be like

and look like as believers and she said this...

"Are You a Presence Carrier?" 

Are you carrying the love of the Lord to the world?  

If the presence of the Lord is living in us then we should be carrying

that presence with us wherever we go to all those we come in contact with. 

They should know that we are presence carriers!  

Carrying the Presence of God to others in all that we do and say----What an honor to do 

for the One who has done everything for us. 

Ok.. that is a tall order... but are we?  

Do we even think about our

lives in that way?  

It certainly has made me think about what kind of a 

"carrier" I am. 

Innocent is in the back row on the left in the tie! 

Jane, challenging us to live the life!
She had been the speaker for the women's conference that
was held here the week previous.  She was dynamite!

After church we grabbed some sandwiches and headed south to visit the 

Urukundo Childern's Home and meet the staff and all there. 

Bruce, Amy, Innocent, me, Arlene, Nelda and Kristi

shortly after we arrived.

Since the children were napping we sat and had a short visit with
 Arlene and Louise.   Oscar came a bit later.

Isn't this a great picture of Amy?

After our visit and hearing some of Arlene's story of how she started the home and preschool... we headed out for the tour of the whole place.   Our first stop was the garden
where we saw the most productive stalk of corn... AND it stood alone!  No other corn.

 In Hope House... Arlene and Nelda watched
 the kids working with beads. We all were actually.

EVER WONDER HOW A PINEAPPLE GROWS? 
During the time my family was here... we learned many things.
One of them was that to grow a pineapple you simply cut off
the top of a pineapple and plant it in the soil... From that point on
the pineapple "grows" up out of the soil into the fruit. It is
almost like an above ground root fruit. Check out the link for 
the real scoop!

http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-a-Pineapple

Arlene is growing a small field of them on her farm.

 After seeing the school buildings and the place that Arlene trusts
the new primary school will be built.... we headed up to the top of the mountain
for a 360 degree view of Rwanda and even a glimpse of the Volcanoes from afar.
Oscar is in red.  He is one of Arlene's newest employees. I forget his
official title... but i think it is something like business administrator.
Please forgive me if I have that wrong.

Coffee Beans... some more ripe than others.

Looking way too cool on the mountain top! 

Looking good (and cool) on the mountain top!
Nelda and Kristi and Amy were all "too cool" here.
They thought Africa was HOT.. but NOT!  It gets warm
here but never really hot, hot.. like it has been in the States
lately.  This is not all of Africa though.. Rwanda is cooler
due to the mountains and the higher altitude even though it sits
virtually right on the equator. 

A Great Reunion with Claude

So great to see him happy and healthy again! 

  "Oh, Please... Can't anyone babysit today?  I need a break!"
"But Mommy we love you soooooo much!" (says piglet on Mommy's left)
The farm is thriving--all the plants and all the animals!

Francoise with a few of the kids just up from nap time.

Louise romping with the kids on the mat. She is there almost
every weekend and the kids all love her so much! 

 I heard that Sarah was getting her hair cut.. really her head shaved soon
 so i took a few close-ups of her before no hair day!  She is a doll.

Carlos.. from Bogata... ( i think that is right) and his special
girl.  Sarah just loves him.  He has been volunteering for a few weeks.
And I think he will have a hard time saying goodbye to her, too! 

 Innocent seemed right at home with all the kids.  They all loved him and this was the
first time any of them had met him.  His first trip with us to visit.

Nelda had the joy of lifting "little Diane".  She is a heavy little load!
All the babies have an incredible density to them.
Nothing fragile about them, for sure.

 The baby Nelda held and this little girl are the 2 "Lollipop" kids!  They are growing
and little Soso.... on my left is getting bigger too!  He is a cuddly 2 yr old.

 Fun and love fill these eyes and they are full of both! 

 Seems Simba was the only one that really knew what to do
on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
I just loved this little island of grass that he choose to crash on!
AHHHHH, the dog days of summer!

It was a great day for us to be "Presence Carriers" to the Children
but when I'm there and after I've gone I realize that
THEY have been the "Presence Carriers" to me.

I do pray that the Lord will bless these children as they grow up
in Him and continue to bless them as they grow into the girls and boys
God wants them to be.

And as for us... I pray that we will be the Presence Carriers to others
that God has designed us to be.

love,
margie

 This post was written today July 10th, but it is from the happenings of July 1st.
By the way, July 1 in Rwanda is Independence Day! 


My preview isn't working so i will publish this and hope it is ok...
sorry!