Rwanda!

Hey all!

Apologies on my negligence when it comes to updating this...the past year has been kind of insane but so very awesome at the same time. God is truly good, and during these past few months, He has continuously revealed His loving grace and guidance to me in many areas, including the area which this post concerns.

Last year, I traveled to Ethiopia and Uganda with Visiting Orphans to reach out to the people there and bless them with God's love. My whole team, however, would most likely readily agree with me if I said WE were the ones that came away blessed. We might have changed their lives by giving them the Gospel, but the African people most definitely changed our lives tenfold as we experienced poverty many of us acknowledged in our heads but none of us knew poignantly in our hearts. The sick, the dying, and the orphaned were a daily sight. Dirt roads, houses smaller than our bedrooms, children left to fend for themselves on the streets, fighting for survival in a world plagued with hopelessness. But among the ashes of a world scorched by destitution, we found a well brimming with with an emotion none of us expected: joy. Joy that defied all circumstances. Joy that decried the supernatural love of Christ. Joy that grasped our hands, that skipped down muddy alleyways with us, singing of the ultimate joy; knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. In all of the years I have spent amidst piles of riches, I had never found true happiness in anyone. It's ironic then, isn't it, that I discovered it in the faces of school children who have almost no hope of escaping the poverty cycle, in the heart of civil war-torn Uganda, and in a believed to be cursed Ethiopian community, where AIDS is a common household guest and the trash dump is the local grocery store? My heart broke for these people. I think God worked just as much in me as He did through me. I spent many moments afterwards longing to be back in Africa, which I have so fondly dubbed "the home of my heart".

For awhile, I feared I might never return, even though I wanted desperately to do so. If any of you have traveled to another country and have experienced what it's like for any significant amount of time, you know what I mean. You're experiences just don't go away. Everything you saw that opened your eyes to a broader picture of reality fastens itself in your memory , leaving an indelible mark on your being. You not only want to go back. Sometimes, it feels like you simply HAVE to go back. Often, that's how I felt with Africa. Unfortunately, I was about to be going off to college, so I didn't want to try to suggest fitting another mission trip into the budget. But then my dad (aka Mr. Financial Planner Extraordinaire) pulled an unexpected and asked (three times to be exact) if I would like to go to Rwanda this summer. And, well...need I mention what my reply was :)?

But there was a problem. I felt for some reason that the trip was, well, a little more incomplete than the last one. Before, I was fine with just going by myself, and even though I would have done it again this time if I had to, I had inkling that my mom was also supposed to be going with me. I don't know why...it just felt right. And then we started receiving all these signs. My dad said she could go. Our team manager randomly asked her if she was interested. That same day, plane tickets (which had just raised the price a ton) fell back down to just $300 more than mine (which was pretty good, considering this was several weeks closer to the actual departure day). My mom has had a huge heart for Africa ever since I returned home last year, even though she has never been. So when she announced that she had booked tickets for herself, I was overjoyed that she would finally be able to experience firsthand what God is doing in a land that we have both come to love!

I praise the Lord...He has been sooo good to us! We leave in two short days (June 22nd), and I still simply can't believe I'm going back to the home of my heart, and that this time, my mom's coming too!!!

Well, better go!

Love,

Brittany