Update 3

9:15 am Kigali time, Rwanda, Sunday January 1st 2012!

Happy new year everybody!! It’s about 12:15 Jan. 1st in Calgary right now! I made it to the new year before all you did! I hope it was great! 

Yesterday was one of the best new years days I could ask for! We left the mittelstaedts at 6 am after breakfast and head out on the road. It was a two hour drive across the country to the game park. On our way to the park we drove through remote villages while tons of cute kids would chase our vehicles screaming and waving at us. It was cute. I was telling the girls that I haven’t seen an ugly kid yet! They are all so cute! haha. Once we entered the game park, it was a rickety road, we drove around for 10 hours just looking for animals. It was so sweet. We saw so many animals... hundreds, way more than I could count. Giraffes, zebras, hippos, alligators, wart hogs, tons of cool birds and butterflies, baboons, these deer like antelope things, and other animals I don’t even know the name of... all in their wild natural habitat! It was amazing. We didn’t get to see the elephants that were there because they were hiding because of the rain. Unfortunately there were no lions or gorillas in this particular park, but I am sure I will see them one day! It was such a long day! We had two vehicles, a forerunner and an old fashion Land Rover... very safari looking. I felt so legit.  We didn’t have a guide with us because all the guides were already booked for people currently doing safaris. So we had Marty and my dad looking at a map, trying to not get lost. Of course, we did get lost.  We didn’t exactly know where we were in this huge park, and our forerunner was running out of gas. Needless to say, it was an adventure. We made it out of the park and into the first gas station we saw just in time for the gas light to turn on. Thank goodness! But since the day took longer than we had expected, it was dark by the time we got home. When we got back to their house, we had some dinner... since we hadn’t eaten all day (we only thought we would be gone for a little while... not 10 hours, and we hadn’t brought any food!). It was Katelyn’s 20th birthday so we celebrated a little bit with some cheese cake. I then fell asleep at around 9pm Kigali time... I slept right through the new year. Haha, oh well... it was a great day.

5:30pm Kigali Time, Rwanda, January 2 2012

Greetings. Yesterday, Sunday, I went to church at CLA - Christian Life Assembly. It was remarkably a lot like our church back in Canada, only a lot bigger... and a lot less white people haha. My dad spoke on prayer and it was really, really good. He talked about the book of Acts and how every time something happened it was because of prayer. I really hope that this year, 2012, will be a year drenched in prayer. This week is the week of prayer and fasting at CLA. It is exactly what I need to start off the year. 

After church we spent our last day with Katelyn and Mike (her fiance!) before they headed on their way home. We watched a christmas movie and took a toast to the new year (sparkling white grape juice). The Komants came over for some pizza and we just relaxed and fellowshipped together. This week will be a little more low key, but it is really exactly what I need before I head back to school. Spend the week just praying, fasting, reading the word and worshiping. It’s perfect really. Like a God-Vacation.

During this week at CLA, the church is always open for people to come and pray. At noon hour there is a more structured devotional and prayer time lead by Kelly. I will probably be doing a little devotional one of the days this week.... I am still thinking and praying about what to say. I am not good with public speaking at all... I get so nervous. God help me. During the evenings my dad will be preaching and there will be a time of worship followed by prayer. It feels kind of like camp... it reminds me of that with the structure being similar. 

During the noon session today, I just made a list of all the things I will be praying about during this week. I brought with me a note book, and I like to write down my prayers because I feel as if I can articulate myself better in writing, and I get distracted less easily. I will share with you all these prayers at the end of the week. I like to write them down also because then I can go back and read them again, and see how far we have come, and if they have been answered, it will be clear. After the session, I went to the prayer gardens. They are stunning and beautiful. They are on the CLA grounds. I just walked through the rows of trees, green grass and flowers. I brought the lap top, sat down in the sun and worshiped on my own, did some drawing, prayed, read and wrote some. It was beautiful. This is exactly what I need... rest. It is refreshing. 

I am excited to see what God will do this week in Kigali, in CLA and in my own life. Know that I will be praying for you guys while I am here. Be blessed.