And while they were here…..
THE FOLLOWING STORY WAS WRITTEN OVER TWO YEARS AGO ABOUT KIGALI…
AND THE JOURNEY OF TWO FAMILIES' PARALLEL
TRIPS GETTING THERE!
TRIPS GETTING THERE!

“Do the Pictures!” Feb.
2012
We were preparing to move to Africa and Bruce Krogh had gone ahead to
begin his new job as the Director of CMU Rwanda, in Kigali, Rwanda in Jan.
2012. This project of opening a master’s
graduate program in IT, in the land of a thousand hills, began over 2 years ago
in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University where Bruce has been a Professor
for the last 29 years. (At this writing… 2014..over 4 years ago)
Crystal Rugege
joined CMU in April 2009 and was given the task of managing the development and
implementation of CMU-R. She was
responsible for developing the proposal for CMU-R and coordinating all aspects
of the project for Carnegie Mellon University and the Government of Rwanda. She
has been working tirelessly along
side of Bruce for months to get the program off the ground.
This will be the first of its kind in Africa.
After getting to know Crystal, we soon learned that Crystal’s
parents and us were all at University of Illinois at the same time for graduate
school—in the late 70’s. Bruce and Geoffrey (Crystal’s Dad) completed
their PhD’s there, but in different areas. I was the Stratford House Mom and I’m not sure
what Anne, Geoffrey’s wife was doing. The Rugege’s had come from Uganda after leaving their home country of
Rwanda, many years before.
So, after Bruce left in January 2012, I have been stripping
the house of unwanted items. One of
those items was a box of pictures… about
500-600. This box had moved from the
front closet to the back closet and had been setting around for about 20
years. I knew a lot of the box was
filled with duplicate pictures, but I had to sort them to make sure.
So, I started! Three
to four hours into the process I was sick of it and just wanted to throw the
last 100 that were in my hands away, but something or someone (like the Holy
Spirit) said, “Do the Pictures”--"Do the Pictures". So I continued.
Almost to the end… the last 10 pictures or so and up comes
the picture of Rev. Wayne Rogers dedicating our first baby, Heather, to the
Lord. Sitting there reflecting on this
sweet memory… I went to the next picture….
I was stunned as I looked at the picture. I hadn’t remembered there were other babies
being dedicated that day…. (I hope it was because this was our first baby that
I had just delivered a week before and not because I was being
self-centered)….but truly I don’t remember any other families there, except my
mom and Bruce’s parents. But in this
picture there was a beautiful black family, dressed in Western clothes and
another couple dressed in African outfits and theirhbabies were being
dedicated, too! But the one family…
that family… could it be??? It looks
like Anne and Geoffrey… but could it possibly be them? I sat and looked at the picture for 5 minutes
and then got up and went to another chair with better lighting and sat for 10
more minutes until I was almost totally sure, yet not quite.
After several emails back and forth, (talking to Anne and
Crystal about the possibility of this being them) Ann said, “Well, we did go to
University Baptist church and our daughter was dedicated there, but I’ll look at
our baby book”. I did the same and there
in the photo album was pasted the church bulletin lines that read…
“Babies
Dedicated Today…June 17, 1979,
Heather Krogh, Crystal
Rugege and Ola Sesay.”
(maybe Ola will show up in Rwanda,
too!)
But in our photo books I had not included the picture of the
other families… So, THAT picture was
not a duplicate. It is the only one any of us had, and I had
almost thrown it away!
“Do
the Pictures!”
I still
hear that still small voice.
33 years later… 33 years!!! (now 35!!!) God took the scales from my eyes to see this beautiful family of five
and who they were- 33 years later! (35
years ago, at this writing and now they are a family of 6).
It was indeed a picture of the Rugege family and our babies,
Crystal and Heather being dedicated to the Lord on the same day! The Lord had put us all together at
University Baptist Church, in Champaign, Illinois-- then sent us off to grow-- and He is now sending us
all to Rwanda to work together and worship together, too! Bruce has been attending church with Geoffrey and
Anne the last few weeks at their home church in Kigali, Rwanda. (Now
in 2014, we are heavily involved with CCR… Christ Church Rwanda.)
We visited the Rugege’s in July 2011, in their new home in Rwanda
where they recently returned to live and work since Geoffrey is the Executive
Director of the Higher Education Council of Rwanda and they, too, have been in
our home in Pittsburgh in 2011. All this
time Bruce and Crystal have been working together and our families spending
time getting acquainted, we never knew or remembered that we first were brought
together at University Baptist Church, where Rev. Wayne Rogers dedicated our
little girls to the Lord—on Father’s Day, 1979!
Little did we know then, 33 years ago, that we would all be
brought back together to serve the Lord together in Rwanda. We are all ready for whatever He has for us
to do. We were in His hands then and
will continue to be so in the future… whether here or there. God’s plans for our lives are indeed mapped
out long before we ever have a clue! As
Richard Halverson says,
“We go nowhere by accident. Wherever we go God is sending us!”
A picture is worth more than a 1000 words! I’m so glad we found this picture so that we
would have the “rest of the picture” at least up to this moment. Who knows what He will do next!
Thanking him for his faithfulness and assurance,
Margie Krogh
AND NOW… THE PICTURES!
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| THEN |
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AND |
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| NOW NONE OF US HAVE CHANGED A BIT!! When I told this story to my girlfriend, Jeannie… she said.. "OK… I didn't want you to go to Africa..but if this is all true.. then you must go….You are destined to be there if this was all set in motion over 33 years ago." Indeed! PSST and in this picture Crystal is carrying twin little boys to be born in August.. (they were born and are healthy little guys) We had a great day preparing for Heather and Crystal to meet because you see…until Heather and Colin came to Africa…. THE GIRLS HAD NEVER MET. So we made zebra cake….  |
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| And Heather's baby, Katherine helped me clean the bowl!! |
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| Sorry girls, I should have taken 2 pictures of you because this one is a little fuzzy…but here you are together on the couch, in Kigali, Rwanda and out of Pastor Wayne's arms! I'll simply close by saying…. if the Lord speaks to you about something.. .something you may even think is insignificant…. LISTEN!!! You'll never know all the places you'll go or all He has to show you, teach you and bless you with until you do!! love, margie |
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