Day to Day life

What does our day look like at the Gilead House?

We have loads of fun, especially now that the children are on school break. The Rwandan school year starts in January through mid-November. A wonderful opportunity now to get the children far ahead in their English and creativity skills.
Breakfast is served at 7 am. (a little later than normal due to the school break) Travis and I make the breakfast, a bulgar (wheat) porridge with sugar and milk. We start cooking it around 6 am. It is delicious and extremely healthy.
After clean up Stella starts teaching English class at 8.30 followed by an African Chai, tea break. At 10 we start Bibleclass, where we read a passage of scripture and discuss it together. The children are starting to learn to use their imagination and picture themselfs as one of the disciples of Jesus now that we study the book of John. It has been great to hear their responses!
After bibleclass we do creative expression class with the children. This can be anything from acting out what we read in bibleclass to drawing, singing or dancing. Just anything that will help the children to express what is inside of them and to use their creative skill. (photo 1: Erika during expressive arts. photo 2: laughter - one of our prime ingredients -
After lunch we have a hour of rest followed by umuganda, a time where we work together in the field for cultivation or work on projects together like the one in the photo above where Travis and some of the children are finishing a pathway.
Vedaste poses by the pole of one of the soccer goals, one of the projects the boys worked on.

While we are working together or in class we enjoy the smells coming from the kitchen where our wonderful cook makes delicious meals. He is not only a blessing to us for his skill, but is also wonderful with the children. The children rotate in duo's to help the cook with meal preperations in the afternoon, as a result laughter comes out of this kitchen allmost all afternoons.
Meal time and dishes go hand in hand. Teaching individual responsability in community living, means to take care of what you have or are responsible for. This includes dishes. With a good system in place dishes for 18 people only takes 8 minutes!
With full tummies and brushed teeth we join for Circle Time. Many of us look forward to this time of the day. We have a circle leader (a different person every night) who asks every child "How was your day, what was good and what was bad." It is a time for speaking and listening, a time of forgiveness and reconcilliation where necessary. It is a time for stories.
The time is closed of by a time of prayer and intercession. Sometimes this means we have music in the bachground and the children just close their eyes and listen to God (soaking). Other times they spontaniously start interceding and asking God to come and heal them, to touch thier nation. Just the other night, one of our boys spontaniously received the gift of speaking in tongues. It is a time where we see the Lord pouring himself out on the children. A time where we see Jesus healing the whole man (John 7: 24) Those are the true times of restoration and inner healing.
Due to the intense experiences the children have with the Lord we see wonderful breakthroughs in their lifes. This is SoZo(healing of body, soul and spirit)... resulting in Gilead (heaps of testimony).
Yes, we do take volunteers...