Day 4! Busy. Hard.

After breakfast we packed up gift bags for the children at the local hospital. We put in crackers, bananas, candies, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and stickers. When we arrived at the hospital we were greeted by the staff and they welcomed us with traditional Rwandese protocol. Introductions, words of gratitude for coming and time for the "leader" of the team to express our gratitude for being welcomed, etc. We then participated in their chapel service that many of the nurses, doctors and some patients come to. One of the teen girls, Kyla, gave the message and the other 4 girls performed a worship song.



They all did a great job. It was a really great service and I was very moved by their worship. It was interesting because pastor Kevin asked me before the service started if I had anything I wanted to share and there was a verse floating through my head but I told him...maybe after. The verse was the one about not growing weary in doing good. I felt like they work so hard and maybe they must need to hear that as an encouragement...but after watching them worship I realized that the message was more for me. In my life I often allow my circumstances to make me weary and it definitely has an affect on my worship. The Rwandese are amazing, they are so resilient. These believers do not allow "life" to affect their passion and energy when they worship. It's inspiring! These people always teach me something!
After the chapel service we went into the pediatric ward to give the gift bags to the children and pray with them. There was one little boy probably about 2 1/2. His name was Jimmy. He was so cute. He loved the stickers. When I would put one on his pant leg he would giggle. Then on our way out we handed out some stuffed animals to each child. JP had a small "brown" doll with nappy hair. I brought that one to give to someone and I just knew Jimmy needed to have that doll. When I gave it to him he giggled and grabbed hold of it and held it to his chest ...it was precious! At this point, Moses, our translator came in and said, "I need you to come with me to pray for a child, you will not believe this." I followed him into another ward and tried to prepared myself for what I might see. Moses was deeply troubled and I could only imagine that I was about to see a horribly injured child. We arrive at this bed with 2 women and 2 children. One child was sitting on the bed, the other was a TINY TINY baby being held by a woman that I assumed was his mama. Moses explained that this baby was born about 2 months ago and the mama died in childbirth and the child was left with noone. The woman that was holding him was a mother of another patient that was just showing compassion to this boy and holding him. This little one was beyond TINY and Moses just kept saying..."please pray for him...this is terrible....he has noone." To be honest I was speechless for a few minutes and I asked to hold the baby and I could barely talk. I just started to cry. I finally found some words Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future." I prayed that he would know a mother's love even though his mother is gone. I then started to lose it. I continued to pray that he would thrive and grow to be a strong man of God one day and that his circumstances right now would only prepare him for a bright future. I handed that baby back to this woman and Moses and I left the building in silence with tears streaming down our faces. It was hard. By the time I got in the car I wept...you know...the ugly cry...! Moses and I just cried for about 5 minutes straight. Here's a picture of Moses worshipping at the church service later that evening. I love this picture for some reason.



We had lunch at Afrika Bite..a local restaurant..all you can eat buffet of African food. I can't really even remember how anything tasted I was still a bit numb from the Angelo experience.
Next stop for the day was the orphanage. I had with me Kayla, Taylor, Liz, Kyla and Kathy. We brought hundreds of stickers to pass out to the kids to play with them..but the nuns said no...I guess I can't blame them..that probably would have been a pain to peel all the stickers off their clothes and the younger ones may have just eaten them...so we just sat on the steps and let the kids tackle us with hugs and attention. I learned to not wear any jewelry and not to chew gum. My necklace got snapped from my neck and the gum in my mouth was quite a distraction and kids were almost sticking their fingers in my mouth to get to it. Lesson learned! The head nun was not there at the time so I would like to go back to show her the scrapbook I made of JP from gotcha day to now.
We arrived home with about 10 minutes to spare before we needed to be at the next event on our schedule. We were speaking at another church and Kayla shared a word with this group. She did such a great job. I was so proud of her. We did not get home until a little before 10:00pm. I was pooped...yet I got a second wind again and was up till 2am...oops! Here's a picture of Kayla with her interpreter.