Beginning our 3rd week in Kigali...

Week three here in Kigali has started off well. Katy and I were able to lead our first Saturday bible study at Esron's church this weekend. It was so cool to get to see the ladies taking notes and studying papers translated into their own language! Such a blessing to get to experience. We even assigned them homework for next week and look forward to being with the group again. The next day, Sunday, we attented church service. There was a visiting choir performing (choirs and singing in church are a HUGE deal here in Rwanda--much of the service consists of this, and all the songs tell stories using scripture and actions, I absolutely love it) and at one point Katy and I and another Mzungu (white person) named Christine working with World Relief whom we met, were invited to join in the dancing (Yes, dancing and lots of it! I was just imagining people at Woodsedge busting out with some of that one Sunday;) at the end of the service. My little buddy Gad (one of the pastor's son--who he and his wife name their boys after the 12 tribes of Israel--they have 3 tribes so far;) came and danced with me! It made my day, he is a precious yet mischevious little boy who has become my pal. He is such a funny kid, always smiling and laughing and going off at me in Kinyarwanda--he is so full of life and joy. Love him! It was a really good Sunday.

This morning we began our second official week of teaching in the school. As we pulled up we could hear the kids shouting with excitement. We are now in the second class of 4 and 5 year olds, and they are SO well behaved. All 36 of them were quiet as mice when we entered the classroom sitting still in their desks, it was pretty amazing. There is a wonderful teacher named Providence who leads this class and I am in awe of here unbelieveable control of the class of such young kiddos. The students began by suprising us with singing "God Is Good To Me", a song Kristen and I taught them last year, in French! This week we were thinking some of the novelty of being a Mzungu might have worn off a bit--but no, we are still mobbed when we go outside of the classroom! They call out our names and run away laughing, or some just stand and stare at us. It is so funny to see their reactions. Theophile (our translator at the school) has a two year old daughter who covers her face and runs away everytime I look at her! Some kids (usually just the little bitty ones) think Mzungus will eat them! It is just such a joy to be with them. I am hoping our relationship with students and teachers will deepen even more with us being here for such a long time.

Katy and I are feeling really well and are getting pretty good sleep at night. We hope tomorrow to visit our friends Sarah and Sylvan at the Anchor of Hope office and I am excited to get to see the kids there again. Kristen and I hung out with them a lot last year.

Prayer requests:
1) Esron, our close friend, acting as our dad while we are here. He is such a busy man and wears so many hats, yet is helping us so much and is joyful and full of laughter as usual. Tomorrow he asks for prayers as he deals with more church issues. He also had to take care of another issue today at the government offices and is just SO incredibly busy with meetings and other business as CEER, Community Evangelical Church (Eglise) of Rwanda, president. Please pray for our friend to remain strong and healthy and for his family. Kezia' his wife has been sharpening her English by translating for Katy and I at church and during the Bible studies--it can be a very intense and tiresome thing to be a translator. We are also very close with his children James, Mami' and Gladys and ask for prayer for them.
2) Continued health for Katy and I --we have been so blessed!
3) our friend Mary who may need to travel to the Congo this week to be with her family
4) this week's Bible studies, Wednesday we hope to start a study on prayer with our small group of ladies and go into our second lesson with the other 2 studies.

Thanks to the faithful blog readers! Missing all of you!
:) Melissa