Sunday

This morning our team was "dressed" by John Paul's wife, Judith, in preparation for the three hour church service.  Peggy, we missed you and your smiling face as we began our day - we pray you have arrived home safely.

Sing Band, you would have loved the singing, dancing, and hand motions taking place all at the same time! The service was filled with joyous praises!

We have been surrounded by the Joy of Jesus in . . .
  the church
  the Shalom Clubs
  the women's groups
  the orphanage
  and in our new Sunday best outfits!  (Thank you, Judith)

Dukundumurimo (We love what we do) Youth Traditional Dancers
vulnerable youth who come together for dancing. They do paid performances and use their income for health insurance and school fees and supplies

Aphrodise, a young dancer for whom we built a small home when he and his family were living under a leaky tin sheet. He is a bright light among youth in Rwanda in spite of all he has faced

The Shalom Girls Football (soccer) team
We had such a good time with the boys team, junior boys team and girls team hearing about how participating in Shalom Football clubs has helped them to get off drugs, reconcile with family members and work toward better health and scholastic effort. The roof came off the room when we showed them the new red SHALOM uniforms, with shorts and socks, we were giving to them.

No one would even guess we were Americans, right??

Reconnecting with old friends is such a joy to me in Rubavu. This is Leah, who was in the first reconciliation women's group we met in 2010. She nearly died from HIV-AIDS, but is now doing well on her medications. She is a talented seamstress but has no access to a machine. Our plan is to work with her church to give her a machine of her own, with the understanding that she will train two other young women to be tailors. We're eager to see how this concept of passing on the gift works.