I Forgot my Pants

I love mornings in Kigali. The equator-sun slowly warming up the cool air from the previous night, the singing birds, the people waking and beginning their treks to work, the traffic picking up…and then before I know it, Kigali is buzzing. But, let’s be honest…I love all times of day in Kigali. The buzzing mid-mornings, the afternoons, the evenings….it’s all so great.

I forgot that we’re in the month of July now and so I went to Kimironko market today. That was a mistake. Without a doubt there were more foreigners than locals at the market because it’s July and all the tour groups are overrunning the city. They were loud and clueless and I got in and out as fast as possible. Except, I left a pair of my jeans in someone’s stall and I forgot to get maracuja passion fruit so I had to make another trip back to the market within that same hour. Oh well, at least the weather was nice….remember, I love Kigali at all times of the day.

Ever since February I’ve been dreaming and planning Injyana Camp. Injyana Camp is Rwanda’s first ever summer music camp and it’s a branch off of Injyana Ensembles and our family’s ministry in this country. 55 kids attended our camp. All 55 kids experienced the love of Christ throughout one of the two weeks of camp. One kid accepted Christ into his life and one kid came to us with a lot of questions at the end of the week.

I spent a lot of hours preparing for camp and it ended up being two of the best weeks of my life. I wish YOU had been there. I wish every single one of you had the opportunity to witness and experience this music camp. The campers had a blast, the staff had a blast…I had a blast. The music, the learning, the fun and games. But the thing is, camp was above and beyond how I imagined it to be. God did things during the camp to make it so great. If it was only the work I had done it would not have been nearly as great as it really was. I did a little bit, but God did a lot. He did far more than I ever asked or imagined.

Adam, Miles, and I are flying up to Kenya in the morning. We’ll be attending and serving at a summer camp that is similar to Young Life, which is a ministry that the three of us have been involved with all year. We were encouraged to raise support for our two weeks in Kenya, and as of this past Sunday, we’re fully funded!

Here’s a cool story: The amount I advertised was actually about $15 less than the total amount that we needed, and I figured that we could just cover the difference. But God had other things in mind. Even though the webpage showed that we only needed $35 to reach our goal, our very last supporter gave us $50. What is $50 minus $35?…$15. It is so cool how God works everything out for us, but ultimately, for His glory. And even when we try to do it on our own, God just says, “No, no...give it to Me, I’ll handle it.” And He does.

I feel like I have a lot more to say on all of these aforementioned topics, but that’ll just have to come in my next post after I return from Kenya. I’ve officially entered my last month of my gap-year and I’m at peace. Soon, very soon, I’ll be boarding yet another plane, but this time it will be to America and I’ll be saying good-bye to my beloved East Africa. I’m taking every day for what it’s worth and cherishing the moments and I’m heading out to spend the next two weeks at an adventure camp!