Happy Birthday, Rebekah!

We’ve pretty much decided to attend the Friends’ church which is up the road. There are several reasons for going there, not the least is that we can walk to it. Also, our workers, a couple of people from FATER and our language helper, Joyce all attend church there. Other reasons: 1) it’s in Kinyarwanda and we want to listen to the language; 2) it has been by far the friendliest church we’ve attended with complete strangers coming up and greeting us; 3) we have found that many churches with sound systems don’t know how to use them properly and turn them up WAY too loud so the sound is distorted and very annoying. This church maintains an appropriate level for their sound which makes sitting there for a couple of hours more pleasant; 4) the people there seem to really like being there! They are lively, laugh a lot, sing vivaciously, dance with joy and just have fun worshipping and fellowshipping! So, that is where we went to church this morning. We heard a few words we understood and even one song was sung in Swahili! We aren't sure if the sermons are good or not but the pastor definitely uses the scripture and almost everyone, it seems, has a Bible with them. Today about 10 people went forward to pray at the end of the sermon - again, we're not sure what the call was for but it seems that they were listening and heard a call on their hearts!

Melissa lives in one of the missionary houses on the compound of the Friends’ Church so we decided to walk over and see how she was feeling. She said she had slept until 11:30 that morning and was feeling a bit better but still didn’t feel like eating. We encouraged her to get some lab work done tomorrow.

Remember those ditches I saw being dug on Thursday? We found out what they are for today! The city is putting in some new water pipes in order to give our part of the city a better source of water. We’ve heard that they are tapping water from a different lake or someplace for our district. Again, a lot of muscular men moving a lot of heavy pipes and moving dirt – all by hand. A task which would have been completed by heavy machinery in the US. We watched them for a little bit on our way to and from church.

Well, today is Rebekah’s 26th birthday! We are thinking about her and hoping she is having a nice day. It is always good to be able to call on Skype! We also were thinking about her 1st birthday which we celebrated at Kijabe, Kenya in the home of our friends Phil and Bonnie Bustrum. Genelle Knopf was there as well. We had just arrived in Africa on February 3 and were still getting over jet lag. I remember sitting in the Bustrum’s house in a daze – not really knowing how to help or what to do next. Having jet lag with a baby who doesn’t understand what jet lag is extremely exhausting. I really, really appreciated being able to crash at the Bustrum’s for a week before heading off to Rethy!

Tonight we had our AIM team prayer meeting at the Bonvallat’s so in honor of Rebekah’s birthday and the 25th anniversary of our arrival in Africa, I baked a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing to share. It was yummy! We also had a good time of prayer.