Update 4: Please pray.

9 pm Kigali time, Rwanda, January 3rd 2012

Hey guys. Please be praying, even now. Today was a heavy day. I feel really heavy hearted. About to cry at any moment.

God is doing so much here in Kigali, in the people of CLA, and in my own life. I feel like God is bringing together so much for me. He is connecting the dots right now in my life. It seems like everything I read in my quiet time with God is re-stated in church, by something someone says, by a conversation with others. I feel like there are tons of what I call "God coincidences" going on right now. I still have to ponder and think and meditate on what God is doing in my life... I am not yet ready to write about it here. It is more like God is teaching me about the quiet times with him. The secret place with me and God. I feel like this is being renewed and strengthened in my life. I know God is talking to me... I feel him and hear him. Every scripture I have read in the past few days has been brought alive and relevant. It has really been amazing. It is so crazy to think that God had to bring me half way across the world to get my attention.

This afternoon I had the opportunity to go with pastor Komant to visit a member of the church in the hospital. It was cool because we all got to pray with him, really felt blessed by this today. Also, it was cool because I got to see a hospital. It was so, so different from the hospitals we have back home. It was basically a motel with small rooms with a bed and an Iv hanging. There were no monitors, no emergency gear, nothing else. It was wierd, with a peice of paper on the door saying that it was 'room A'. From what I hear, the health care system here is not good at all. I had many day dreams today about how I could come and nurse here in Rwanda. How I saw a need and how I could help meet that need.

After we went to another Genocide memorial. This time, it wasn't a museum-type, it was a real genocide site. We visited a church where more than 5 thousand people were murdered. They seeked refuge inside the church thinking that the killers would not kill them in a church... but that was not the case. The bodies of most of the people still remained in the church. So many skulls and bones... more than I have ever seen. Baby skulls too. It was so hard. So hard. The clothes of the people still remained, soaked in blood, ripped and torn. I even saw a little girls dress. There was also original weapons left behind by the murders. Blunt clubs and machetes. There were holes in the walls from the grenades thrown into the church. There was a seperate building of the church - oringinally used for sunday schools - that was half destroyed because the murders burned people alive in that building, colapsing the walls around it. Everything was kept in its close to original state from after the genocide. In another sunday school building, clear and dark blood stained the walls... this is where they would smash the babies against the walls. This was the worst part of the whole thing. The blood was still there... still dark, still screaming. It is so hard to see all this. It's almost like I can't belive this happened. Why? Why,  How could people do such a thing. I don't understand at all. So evil. I feel so empty and void... I cannot even begin to relate to this kind of horror.

Tonight during our evening meeting, my dad was interrupted during his sermon by someone coming into the church with very bad news. Not even half a kilometer away from where we were, there was a grenade attack. It was in the neighboorhood just down the hill, the poorest part of Kigali. 28 people were injured we found out later. It was amazing to watch how the church just stepped up to the plate. We immediatly began praying. We had people praying in the mike, we then broke off into small groups and prayed... we prayed all night. Praying for all the injured, for the people who threw the grenades, for salvation, for the doctors and nurses who would help them, for everything. We also prayed that the injured would have enough money to pay for the medical bills. In Rwanda, people have to pay alot of money for healthcare, and if they cannot pay - they will not get treated, even in an emergency. We took an offering. The baset was full of money by the end - it was amazing. It is not a coincidence that we were having a prayer meeting the same time that this event took place. Thank God.

Tonight was draining, yet amazing, yet sad. Again, please be praying for the country of Rwanda today.

Tomorrow I speak - Pray that I will have strength to do so. Pray for boldness.

Love and miss you guys. Many of you are on my heart today. Know that I care about you all.