Im sorry.

God, help me to love you more than I love sin.
Help me to trust instead of taking things into my own hands.
Help me to pray instead of remaining silent.
Help me to listen to you instead of walking away.

Replace my cowardliness with boldness.
Replace my hate with love.
Replace my sadness with joy.
Replace my anxiety with peace.
Replace my darkness with your light.
Replace my pride with humility.
Replace my filthiness with purity.
Replace my apathy with passion.

Take my insecurities and give me strength.
Take my down falls and give me forgiveness.
Take my messy distracted life and give me Jesus.
Take my brokenness and make me whole.
Take my hand and hold it.
Take my time and use it.
Take my mind and transform it.
Take my heart and heal it.
Take my spirit and renew it.
Take my life and guide it.

Just, completely transform me into who you created and intended me to be.

Closing remarks :(

12:00 am Kigali Time, Rwanda, January 7 2012

Hello from the future!! It’s January 7th here, and yet back home it’s only January 6th! 

This will just be a quick update because today was go go go all day and I am just exhausted. So again, excuse the lack of attention to spelling and grammar! I am also sad to say this will be my last blog update while I am in the beautiful land of Rwanda... I leave for home tomorrow afternoon. (or... I guess that would be today!)

Today I spent the whole day with Margit.... Girls day!!! It was fantastic. We slept in, had a small breakfast in the morning with the guys (to slowly accustom ourselves to food to break the fasting), then when the boys left for the day to do some things around the church, we went to another African market place to just buy some souvenirs. I bought a painting made out of poop! haha... cow poop. So sweet. I also got something for my mom and brother. (If you are reading this right now - be excited! Sorry Chubby you get SQUAT, hehe). We also walked around downtown Kigali... we got some more fruit and Margit bought some fabric. It was a bustlin’ place dt Kigali. Let me tell you! It was full of people selling all sorts of things. It was like a market only with a lot more buildings and shops. Afterwards I had the opportunity to visit a lady named Joseline (spelling - not sure). She is actually a Canadian! We went to her house for coffee and so that I could chat with her a little bit. She is an amazing lady who is a midwife here in Kigali, but she got her midwife certicifate in the Philippines where she lived before moving to Rwanda. (We talked abit about Manila too... seeing as I will be there in May!) She works in the poorest part of Kigali (the same place the bomb went off). We talked for three hours just about nursing, the health care system in developing countries, how to get started in third world medical care, she told us her story... we talked about everything! It was so informative. She gave me some great resources, books to read, documentaries to watch, people to contact, places to go. She even invited me to come work at the health and wellness clinic they are opening soon (the one attached to the church). This trip has just been great for building my contact book for when I graduate Uni! I am so thankful for this because this is opening so many doors for me once I graduate. God is just paving the way so nicely! I love our God! Right before we left her house she gave me this birds nest that she found in a field near her house... it is seriously the coolest birds nest I have ever seen. I will have to post a picture of it when I get home. After this visit we went to church for the last evening service. My dad preached on healing... and it was AWESOME. So many people were coming up for prayer and crying and just God was so there. I think I cried the whole entire time. They all prayed for my mom and it was just powerful. Margit and I had a chance to pray together and just bond some more. After the service we went for dinner (finally - DINNER!) at this super nice hotel. It was traditional African food... I was being picky tonight so I mostly ate potatoes haha. But I tried goat and it was great! Kinda chewy but otherwise normal! So see... my day was jam packed... I did not even get to take a nap today! No down time, but it was great.

I was joking with Margit and my dad that when I go through customs coming home they are going to ask me what I am brining back with me into Canada, and I will have to say well... I have cow dung, grass, a weapon, poached ivory and fruit. Haha, just kidding about the ivory and fruit. But seriously... I’m not telling them that I am bringing grass back home in to Canada. haha... That is so not allowed. Oh well. I hope they don’t have spies that scan the internet for this type of stuff... We sprayed the nest with bug spray... It shouldn’t have too many organisms in it that will harm the people of Canada... I hope. Haha.

Anyways, tomorrow we are taking a drive to see the mountain region of Rwanda before they drop me off at the airport! Dad and Kelly are staying an extra two days, but I have to start school Monday so I’m coming home earlier. I have a lay over in Addis, and a layover in London. I’m quite looking forward to London as I will sit my self down in a nice comfy airport chair and eat English Chocolate and Sweets for six hours as I wait for the next plane. :) Sounds just dandy.

Thanks again guys for all your prayers and encouraging notes while we have been here! I am excited to come home, but also so sad that I am leaving. I am definitely leaving part of my heart here in Africa. :( But I have a suspicion that I will be back.

See you guys soon!

Love, 

Emilie!

Update... I'm losing track, what number is this?

9:30pm Kigali time, Rwanda, January 5 2012

Hey guys!!

I just want to start off by saying, thank you! I have been so encouraged by all the messages everyone has been sending me, they have just totally lifted me up. I feel so loved and blessed by you. Like... really, I have the best friends in the world (the whole world).

Just an update on the bomb attack... unfortunately it turns out that two people have died in hospital so far. Please continue to send your prayers for the injured and the families of those who have lost their loved ones. 

I have already had some people asking me if it is safe where I am and if we are safe. The answer is yes. Rwanda is one of the safest countries in Africa, according to Margit. Because of what happened in ’94, the government does not tolerate any movement that will disturb the peace that they have worked so hard to attain. So... it is really safe here, no need to worry!

Yesterday I spoke at the noon hour session! It went great! I was shaking and so nervous, but it all went over great. :)

Today was amazing. Really, truly amazing. This morning we visited the YWAM base here in Kigali. It was beautiful. I sometimes wish that I did take a year before going into University to do a DTS with YWAM. It was sweet to see what they are doing there with a  preschool and primary grade school for local kids, a vocational school for the locals, along with the DTS programs that they run. They even have a HIV-Aids and widows ministry. It’s a super sweet. Even to hear how they got started. One man really felt like God wanted him to start a YWAM base in Rwanda, he moved here right after the genocide in 94 with only a hundred dollars. Praying and trusting in God to provide, one donor committed then to donating enough money each month for them to build the whole base that they have today. So cool what God puts on peoples hearts and how everything comes together! So neat! We serve such a big God indeed!

This afternoon, after the bible study at the church, we went to a real African market. There were merchants selling all kinds of fruit, beans, nuts, rice, and so much other food. Even a meat section with huge animals hanging upside down bleeding all over.. haha it was gross. Good thing I am fasting or I probably would have lost some of my lunch. There were so many fabrics that they were selling too. So many amazing colours and patterns! They wear the coolest patterns here! I love it!!

Afterwards I went with Margit and a few ladies from the church to help them in their hospital ministry! It was the highlight of my week. I got to visit another hospital and learn a whole lot more about the health care system here in Africa. We brought porridge, tea, bread and cookies to hand out to the ladies on the “maternity ward”. Before we left we also put together some packages with a baby blanket, some onesie baby outfits and some baby hats to bring to the newborns. I was absolutely blown away by the way the hospitals here operate. All the patients have to bring everything from home. The hospital rarely will even supply them with sheets on the beds. There are so many beds in each room... this is what they call a ward. Sometimes there will be more than one lady in each bed even. Lots of people here don’t have health insurance for financial reasons, and if they cannot pay for medicine or even supplies like bandages... they don’t get any. And if they cannot pay their hospital bill... they are not allowed to leave. These moms who have just given birth are discharged from the hospital (so they no longer have a bed) but they cannot leave until they pay their bills. So they are discharged with a brand new baby, sometimes pre-mature, and have to sleep on the ground of the hallways and in the court yard of the hospital on the cold concrete with no blankets, sometimes even the babies have no clothes. It is so sad. We met many ladies who were so scared because the doctors don’t tell them anything about their conditions. We met ladies who were in so much pain but just could not afford medication. We met ladies who were so hungry because they have not eaten for days. How someone can expect to get better and get well in a place like this I do not know. With a translator we talked to this one woman who just lost her baby and was she thought it was because she had the baby out of wedlock... she expected that was why the baby died. It was so sad... I wanted to say, our God is not like that! We got to pray for her and many others. We prayed in each room that we went into. It was so touching. We even visited the children’s burn room. I fell in love with this one little girl who was covered in bandages because she was burned by hot beans and water that fell on her. She had been there for two weeks. I wanted to just hug her, but she just stared at me with such a vague expressions. It broke my heart. There is such a huge need here for health education. Many of these women don’t even know about baby development, what is normal and what isn’t. One lady was so scared her baby was so sick, but all it was is that the baby was too hot in his blanket. It was also so hard to be there because you just want to help everyone... but we only had so much food, and so many blanket bundles. We couldn’t give them money for medicine or to release them from the hospital because its frowned upon. If people keep feeding them money, they will become reliant on it and the system that they do have in place will collapse. It’s hard to explain all this. I learned so much over the few hours that we were there for. It was so different from Canada. The power even went out once. There are no monitors in the rooms, no materials... there is barley anything there! It was just so eye opening. I was so blessed that I could go an experience that today. If I lived here, I would spend so much of my time going there with these women. They go every week. It’s amazing.

I feel like I have been crying a lot while I have been here... haha. Just everything here makes me want to cry! Tears of joy, tears of sadness... a mix of both sometimes!

The prayer times here have been so great! (I really wish there were more words in the english language to say great and amazing!). I have just had times alone with God where I have just cried and prayed and just opened my heart to Him. I am loving this. I will not let this die when I get home.

Things have just been put on my heart while I have been here. Things that I need to do when I get home, things I need to fix in my life, things I need to get right. This has been such an encouraging and learning time for me. 

I am missing home though. I don’t want to come home because I love it here so much, and yet I miss home so much. It’s a weird combo. I don’t really like standing out so much as I do here. Because of the lack of white people here... I do stand out. I miss that about home, its a comfort that I take for granted so often. I will miss the green here... because it is SO green. So many beautiful trees and flowers. I do not want to come home to snow! haha! Gross!

I did not listen to my travel consultants advice... I ate fruit not knowing who washed and peeled it... haha oops. I did it twice! I also have many mosquito bites and I am not taking anti-malarias... haha. I really am hoping I don’t come home with every bad sickness I could get. Oh well...

Please excuse all my spelling and grammar mistakes in this entry. And if some of it didn’t make much sense... haha sorry. It’s late here and I am pretty much falling asleep on the lap top... but I just had so much to say, I had to get it off my plate!

Peace and blessings.

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.

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. 

Update 2

9:15pm Kigali time, Rwanda, December 30th 2011

Re-reading my previous memoirs regarding the past few days, I feel as if I could have written a bit better. I noticed many mistakes, and things that I missed. I think if I had more time to sit and reflect and write and edit, I would have given a better picture of what is going on. But I realize that no matter how well I write and depict my time here in Rwanda, no matter how many pictures I show you, or how many stories I tell... it’s never going to be the same, it’s really only a glimpse into what I am experiencing here. A photograph cannot even begin to show you how beautiful it is here. A story cannot even begin to make you feel how I feel about this place. It’s hard to explain it. You should just come here. Really, you all need to go to Africa at least once in your lifetime. I know that this will not be my last time here in Africa... I can promise you that.

I think if I went home now I would be so satisfied with my time here (thats how great it is here). But of course, I don’t want to come home yet! Today we all enjoyed a huge breakfast of fruit and pastries and juice. Margit just totally blessed us with food. :) After we ate together with the mittelstaedt, we headed to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It was very sobering. It took us about two hours to walk through the whole thing. You go through and read and look at pictures, it was basically a museum. First it shows Rwanda before the genocide, then during and then after and currently. It was built on the tenth anniversary of the event. After you walk through the part with the descriptions, you walk into a series of rooms with real photographs of the victims. Families of the victims come and hang the photos of their lost loved ones on the wall. There was three huge rooms filled with countless photographs. Sometimes they left the last photograph that they had so that other people could see what the genocide did to their family... to the people of Rwanda. I thought that was so hard... and then I got to the last room in the memorial. The personal stories segment. You would walk through this hall with huge pictures of really cute kids on the walls, and you would read their biography. There was this super cute kid with a huge smile and big eyes... just oh, so adorable, pretty frowly looking. And under the picture said his favorite food: milk, favorite animal: cat, personality: daddy’s boy, remembered by: his laugh, death: by machete to the head. Story after story, burned alive, killed in mother’s arms, smashed against a wall, shot in the head. It really stung. These are stories and pictures that families have sent to the memorial, so they are factual and real. If you know the story of Rwanda, you will understand why this stood out to me; one of the biographies said that this little boy’s last words were: UNAMIR will come for us. This really just shocked me for some reason. After studying this situation in Rwanda in 1994, I really have had my views changed on global aid, on organizations like the UN. I encourage you guys to read up on it. It is a powerful, and really sad story. Rwandans here are still dealing with the consequences of what happened years ago... but they are also healing. Rwanda is not a place with tutsi’s and hutu’s, they are all the Rwandan people. I have seen it written in various places today, on a building, on a sign, on some flowers left at the memorial, on plaques in the memorial... the words “Never Again”. I think that speaks for itself. Never again, we pray. They also had a room where they talked about genocide as a whole, what it is, and showed other examples of genocide in the past. They showed the holocaust, the genocide in the balkans, in cambodia, they talked about pol pots reign, and many more. It’s crazy to think that genocide exists, let alone that it happened again and again. I just don’t understand fully. For some reason, I just felt so empty and void... I think I just could not fully understand that this thing happened. It almost didn’t seem real to me. In another room in the memorial they had glass cases with hundreds of skulls, bones and old clothes covered in dirt and blood. I sat in this room for quite a while just thinking. I imagined the people in front of me. I could see them, their faces, smiles, they were talking with each other, laughing, sharing life together... when all of a sudden others came in with machetes and guns and clubs... and beat, shot, raped and mutilated them to death, every man, woman, and child was dead. It said on one of the plaques that they used blunt objects on purpose to inflict more pain and suffering on their victims. Just... I don’t even know. I envisioned this happening in front of me, I saw them reaching out to me, screaming for help and I did nothing but stand there... it was like a nightmare was unfolding before me. And was it ever a nightmare. Then I saw them pile the bodies one on top of each other in mass graves. I had to leave the room at this point because I just couldn’t take it. Too real. It became even more real when we walked to the outside portion of the memorial where they had real mass graves for the victims. I had the opportunity to place a rose at one of the graves. It was so, so sad. I just kept thinking, what if it was me. What if the world was a different place, and us in Canada experienced Genocide to the scale of the one experienced in Rwanda. I also kept thinking, what if the genocide didn’t end? What if the holocaust didn’t end? What would the world be like today? What if there really was only one race in the whole world... I don’t even want to explore that idea any further. I love different cultures, learning about different people and places... I can’t even imagine.

After this really awful yet powerful and amazing experience at the museum memorial, we went for lunch at a tiny restaurant called Mr. Chips. It was great food... Like all food I’ve had so far. We talked and debriefed about what we saw and shared fellowship over some french fries and coke. The restaurant was owned by a Canadian, so cool, go Canada!! After lunch we went for coffee at a place called Burbon Cafe, and just had a relaxing afternoon. I fell asleep on the Mittelstaedts couch, no surprise there, still kind of jet lagged. I’m getting worried about what it’s going to be like when I get home and have to actually go to school when I am super jet lagged! It will be an experience in itself. We had dinner at the Komant’s house - the pastor of the church here (Christian life assembly) and it was great to sit and talk with the girls a bit. I really have missed them. I am secretly hoping that they end up coming back to Calgary someday (hopefully while I am still there). Driving home from dinner was frightening as my dad tried to drive a standard jeep in the “land of a thousand hills” (thats the nickname for Rwanda)... terrifying. But we made it back safe!

So that was today in a nutshell... we went to the memorial, and basically spent the rest of the day eating. I tried this fruit that was delicious, I have to write about it so I remember what it is called so I can maybe buy it in Canada. It was called a tree tomato, or a Japanese plum. Mmm mm good. I’d say this was a pretty fantastic day. I need to get all the food in I can before the fasting begins on Monday. I can’t wait for the safari tomorrow. We are leaving at 5:30am! Au revoir mes amis, a demain!

Update from Overseas!

8:30pm Frankfurt time, December 27th 2011

Hello from Germany!! Guten tag! We made it! After a very long, 10 hour flight, we finally landed at our first stop... Frankfurt, Germany. Where we had an 11 hour layover before we continue on to Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. 

It was a rocky start as I forgot my bible at home... I had it packed days earlier, but took it out to read the Christmas story with the fam on Christmas day. I was so disappointed when we got to the Calgary airport to realize my bible was sitting on the kitchen table! I was devastated really... I may have even cried a bit... ANYWAYS... I made a quick rebound when we arrived at Frankfurt. It’s a really beautiful city. From the cobble stone streets to the old buildings, bridges and architectures, it really was a sight to see. We hopped on a train and headed out of the airport into downtown Frankfurt. It was so different from our plain old CTrains back at home. It was extremely fast and there were so many different trains, tracks and platforms... it weaved a complicated web of transit. We found this out very fast as we accidentally got on the wrong train and ended up in a random part of the city, lost, with hardly anyone speaking English and all signs in German, it really made for quite the experience. We eventually figured it out because of the picture of a plane on a sign... we followed it, thinking plane = airport... we were right. I really thought about how it must feel for those minorities back in Calgary who don’t speak any English, it really gave me some perspective. I’ve never experienced this before. While walking around downtown, we enjoyed some authentic German sausage... It was the best hot dog I have ever had! Okay... way better than a regular old hot dog. We had the opportunity to visit some of the many old cathedrals. The churches were stunning with old wooden pews, painted portraits and stain glass windows. In one of the churches, swastikas lined the stain glass. Outside a different cathedral they had a statue of a man with a list of all of the concentration camps in Germany carved into the base. It was crazy for me to be there in Germany, looking at history like that... insane. We walked down one street that was just lined with brothels and sex shops... I’ve seen it in documentaries, but to see that in real life... was, well, sobering. Sex trade industry is defiantly not hidden. 

All in all, Germany was amazing. I need to make a shout out to the fashion here, I love their sense of fashion. Really stylin’. I want to go back one day for sure. It was a great country to add to my list of places I have fallen in love with. 

9:30 pm Addis Time, December 28th (I think? I don’t even know anymore) 2011

Greetings from Addis Ababa, the great country of Ethiopia, continent of Africa!

After flying over Egypt, making our decent into Ethiopia, my heart was so excited! We landed at 6:30am local time, I had the opportunity to see my first African sunrise as we stepped off the plane this morning. The sky was painted with shades of orange, yellow and pink... it was stunning, outlining the mountains and hills in the horizon. We spent about an hour and a half in the Ethiopian airport, trying to figure out our visas, while some woman, at some desk took our passports and boarding passes and took off... it was worrisome, but she returned, thank goodness! We met with our contacts here, the Ruttens, PAOC missionaries here in Ethiopia. They are an amazing family... so kind and just great people! I am so thankful for them today. We had an opportunity to just sit, and hear their stories. We met this one man, who is one of the head men leading the revival on the University campuses here in the country. There are around 40 Universities, and the rate of salvation has been going through the roof. The way the education system works here, I learned, is that if someone receives a pass in high school to attend post secondary, the government will assign the individual to a specific university, and a specific faculty or profession. The government here is not communist by title, but communist in action. People have choice about daily living, but when it comes to post secondary, they are assigned to a school. Because of this system, Christians are being assigned to attend school in places where there are no believers. It’s not even something that someone could plan, but this revival is simply a move of God. These students are going into places where they other wise would get persecuted for sharing the gospel. There is much persecution here as the Ruttens told us. The Orthodox church is prominent, Muslims are second, and then what they call “Pente” the evangelical born again Christians. The Orthodox church is not tolerant of the Christians or the Muslims from what I understand. People will be killed here by upsets over religion. So it really is an amazing thing that these students are going into the Universities and have the opportunity to be open about faith. The government of Ethiopia has told these strict Orthodox communities that if they are to have a University in their town, they must be tolerant to other religion expression. Giving opportunity to students to create their own congregations... they are not allowed to meet on campus to have church, but they are church planting near, or just outside theses schools. Really quite amazing to hear about all this... it is so encouraging. It was neat to hear also about their personal stories of coming to Christ. This one man, native to Ethiopia, was very orthodox growing up, came to Christ from a friend who shared the gospel with him simply by sharing a few verses and scriptures. Once he gave his life to Christ, he was very persecuted, by his own family. The Orthodox church would command his family to kick him out of the house and to alienate him from everybody... he was only 17 at this time. It was so encouraging to hear that one by one, over the years, because of his family just watching his life, and how his life has turned out, and how he lives out the gospel, each of his family members have come to Christ. Amen!! 

We went for lunch at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant. A small place in the upstairs of a building... it was the best food ever! Delish! We ate with our hands, all sharing from a big bowl... my dad said when we were done the meal that he was proud of me for eating so much! I am usually a picky eater, but I guess God really helped me out on this one! haha. I didn’t even know what I was eating, but it tasted great! They eat everything with this fermented bread... at the word fermented, I almost didn’t try it, but my dad reminded me of sourdough back home, and sure enough it was similar. I can’t wait to seek out an Ethiopian food restaurant back home to share this experience with some of my friends, mom and brother too. 

The family was kind enough to drive us around the City and give us a tour. I noticed a lot of UN vehicles, when we asked the Ruttens about them, they said that the UN isn’t really doing much help... the Ethiopians call them the “United Nothing”. This was interesting to hear about. In Addis Ababa it is estimated at 8 million people living here in the only real City in Ethiopia, so much poverty around us. People coming up to your car window begging for money. It’s illegal here to hand out money from a vehicle, you actually have to get out of the car. Speaking of driving, the roads here are crazy! The streets are flooded with people all the time, walking everywhere, there are people driving in every direction... I don’t know how we didn’t get in an accident, but our driver was an expert. I would be so stressed to drive here. 

Back to the poverty, It is weird for me to be staying in a hotel while across the street people live in little tin houses. While I’m talking about our hotel... let me just say... Cockroaches. Yes, cockroaches. I made my dad kill a few, but some crawled into my bed board... I don’t know how I am going to sleep tonight. The only thing that will probably help is the Jet Lag... I am sooooo jet lagged. I have been exhausted all day, trying to get adjusted. I have never experienced this before! It sucks! The power here isn’t very reliable. While at the Ruttens they told us that they have power, maybe half of the time. We ate to the light of some candles that they lit, and even at the hotel the lights flickered on and off a few times. But... Ethiopia is worth the jet lag and the power outages. I love this place. The Ruttens invited me to come work with some of their contacts in Somalia in a hospital when I graduate... apparently they need nurses. The spark has been started... I will keep their contact information, who knows, maybe in two years when I’m done at the University of Calgary, I will end up in Somaliland. With Gods guidance of course. :) With all this missions talk... I have forgotten how much I love missions... I feel as if my calling is being, not renewed because it has always been there, but I am being reminded of my purpose and of how big and great our God is all over the world. Off to Rwanda tomorrow morning! It’s around 12:30pm back home now, hope you are all enjoying your lunch hour! 

9:44 pm Kigali time, Rwanda, December 29th 2011

So we arrived safe and sound in Kigali, greeted by the Mittelstaedt. It was so great to see them. They took us to the church and showed us where we are staying. We are sleeping in a building in the back of the church used for guests and missionaries. We dropped off our bags as it started to pour rain. Margit could hear the rain coming minutes before it started. Most of the houses here have tin roofs, so when it rains, it is very loud and you can hear it coming miles away. I love the weather here, it reminds me of Vancouver, yet a lot more humid. It is quite humid here... not as much as Singapore from what I remember, but more than what I am used to. We spent the day at the Mittelstaedt playing games and eating dinner together. It was a blast. Apparently the whole power outages thing is not just for Ethiopia, it happens here too. The power went out and we continued playing games in the candle light. Early in the afternoon, Allyson showed me the hammock in their front yard and before I knew it, I had been sleeping for two hours... jet lag hasn’t quite worn off yet. It was beautiful, I could not believe I was having a nap in a hammock, surrounded by greenery, in Africa with some of my favorite people ever! So great! It is way more green here than in Ethiopia. Ethiopia was more brown and had less trees, and Addis was actually kind of cold for the most part, I had to wear a jacket and a scarf, but Kigali is way more hot... because it’s closer to the equator. On our way here, our plane had to stop in Entebe, Uganda for an hour to let passengers off... even there, I noticed more green. My dad said that years ago in Uganda there was a coup d’etat and many people were killed at that airport that we stopped at. It is so interesting to hear of all the history here in Africa. Tomorrow we are going to a memorial for the 1994 genocide. I am very much looking forward to this... seeing as I read many articles, and watched a few documentaries before coming here about the Genocide. Matry also said he would take us to some of the original genocide sites, as well as hotel mille collines (think the movie hotel Rwanda). Saturday we are going on a safari in the southern part of the country... so excited about this!!! 

As the evening is coming to a close, I realize I will probably not get much sleep... I thought that there were bugs in Ethiopia... no, no... there are bugs here. My dad found a cockroach almost ten times the size of the ones in our hotel in Addis. It was about the size of my palm... I don’t know how I’m going to be a long term missionary one day with this intense fear of bugs. God help me. Please. Seriously. We are sleeping in mosquito nets here... I am very happy about that. Margit told us also to watch out for these things called Nirobie Eyes... they are insects that if you squish them on your arm, they will release a very painful poison that eats away at your skin... greeeaaat. This is going to be a long night. Peace and blessing!