In Kigali!

Greetings from Rwanda!
Had a great--- seamless trip here. Thank you all for your prayers!
(Thanks, Rosanne and Jeannie for getting me to the airport!) Left Thurs. at noon
and arrived here in Kigali at 8:00pm on Friday evening to find Bruce and
Michel and Isabel (the associate director and his wife) waiting for me.  All my
luggage even arrived in one piece the same day, which isn't all that
common...so I was even more grateful!  We had a great reunion!

You know that scripture in John when Jesus says He is going to prepare
a place for us and then He describes the mansions that will await us?
Well, i felt like that is what Bruce prepared for me.  Our house is huge
but I don't have my pictures downloaded yet, so I'll include them next time.
Still have lots to do and things to get to "make it home" but the palm
trees and beautiful landscaping around the house make it just
like a mini-resort.  With 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms ---it feels like
a resort.  So... you MUST come visit!  We have lots of room!

Had a movie date last night in "Heaven"--the name of an open-air thatched
restaurant that shows American Movies.  We got to see the Iron Lady
with about 50 other expats!  (Burrito bar for dinner)  Fun to go out again!
The Brits loved it and said it was exactly the way it was during MT's reign.

Church this morning was great --to meet some of the locals that Bruce
has come to know.  The pastor is leaving soon so they had the succession
of leadership today on their 5th anniversary.  The pastor is going home
to recruit more folks to come be a part of ROCK.. their ministry here
at Christ Church in Rwanda. (CCR)

We were also reunited with the Rugege family that I've told you about.
Anxious to see more of them in the future.  The best thing about church
today was the first song that talked about "Not wasting your life."
At the very beginning--over 2 years ago when the idea of coming to Rwanda was
just beginning to become serious I had read John Piper's book,
"Don't waste your life"... so when the song started this morning it was
yet another confirmation to me that we are to be here.  I hope i won't waste
my life or my time here.

Bruce is very busy --in fact you can check out the press conference that he had
last Friday right before i arrived at http://kigalitoday.com/spip.php?article1851.
Good luck trying to figure out exactly what happened. At least you'll get to see him!

The funniest part of the service today was that Bruce was recording/video taping
some of the very loud music on his phone.  Great idea to be able to share.  So just as
communion was starting he must have bumped PLAY and play it DID!
He couldn't get it turned off so he just held on tight to the speaker so it
wouldn't be too loud!  One of those giggle moments in church when you
can't stop laughing and don't know what to do!

Innocent, our house boy took us to some unbelievable places this afternoon
to buy a hoe and work boots.  But that is a story for another day. Almost
everyone works here on Sunday... only a few shops were closed.  We did buy a
mosquito net for our bed.  Had a few of the little guys swooping in last night.

I'll try to write every few days but...the internet cables have been damaged in the
ocean due to a ship dropping anchor (off the coast of Kenya) on the cables so our internet is not good here right now..  However, we are sitting at a coffee shop about 2 miles from our house and since they are with the other internet company.... their's works great!   In fact.... Rob and Michelle and boys skyped us while we were here.  They even got to meet our waiter!
Have a great week ahead. I will just been unpacking and getting settled for
most of this week so it might be an uneventful time...except for the beautiful birds that sing from sunrise to sunset and the little swallow-like bird that sits right outside our door each evening... atop the pillar and the tiny little ants that like our kitchen.. ha!
Love and miss you all!
margie