Silence, storm and now what...?

While hanging over the engine of my car, trying to assist my husband as the steering once again stopped working (thank God we were in a parking lot when we discovered it!!!), I receive a phonecall..."I think it is all stolen..." a sad and shaken voice tells me, ..."What do we do now?"

"Nothing"is my reply. Really what would be the thing to do? Here we are trying to fix our car, 2,5 hours away from home. We would be the ones who had to identify what was stolen... nothing could be done until we would get home.

disappointment, anger and sadness flooded our emotions as we drove home, knowing what was ahead.... we thought.

A bright rainbow appears in front of me. I am immediately reminded of God's covenant with menkind, with me, if you will. As we continue our drive we come to the start of the rainbow... the Rwaza village centre. the arc of the rainbow bends north... I am awestruck, in tears, as I know what this means.

The Lord has told us before to move north, there he will fulfil his promises, where we will build our fine houses. (Deuteronomy 3 and 8).

As we drove on we went through the rainbow as you would go through a door into another place. The doorway to the fulfilment of the promises of god, his covenant. in this case his covenant with the Rwaza children, it is coming, we went through the door...

Coming home we learned that our office was completely stripped and that our personal electronical items were also stolen from our home. The damage... around $12,000.

While cleaning up the mess made by the thiefs I heard myself singing:

"Jesus, Jesus, how I love Thee,

how I prove Thee over and over.

Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus,

oh for grace to trust Thee more."

And a joy flooded my heart in the midst of loss and chaos.

While all this is going on a big miscommunication happens as we were asked to leave the country in 48 hours. This news did not surprise us but caused us to act like whirlwinds, re-arranging our lives, packing like maniacs, organizing many logistical issues and delegating responsabilities while deciding which cloths to take.

Many friends from all walks of life jumpd up to help, and shared our load. We are so blessed!!!

An hour before leaving to the airport news came that this message had been a great misunderstanding, we did not have to leave and were welcomed back when we decided a break would be appropriate at this time, after almost 3 years non stop working in Rwanda.

So here we are. In a very cold the Netherlands, surounded by friends and our home church whom has amazed us with their open arms of service and help. My dear friends, you make us all feel so loved and precious! Your acts of love to us are of indescribable value to us!

We will come to the U.S. beginning of May, where we will share about the wonderful things God is doing in Rwanda and the role SoZo Ministries Africa plays within that.

I am enjoying the luxeries and blessings that come with living in a 1st world country, but my heart is at home... in Rwanda.

I am curious to see what is coming as God so clearly spoke about his promise coming... i can't wait to tell you more about the Lord's heart for Rwanda, for Africa.

I hope to see you in the Netherlands or in the States.

When life gets shakey.

Take the title of this blog literaly. You may have heard on the news about the earthquakes in our part of the world. Many people died and even more were injured. During our weekly bible study I received a phonecall from the Dutch Embassy, at the same time people received phonecalls from the German and South African embassy. All sending warnings to their citizens: There is a large posablility of another large earthquake or heavy after shocks. You are adviced not to be in your house between 8 pm and midnight. Fill your bathtubs in case the quake cuts of water supply to the city. Stay with your children, by the time you would be able to gather them from their rooms it may be too late.... ...Camping next to our house...

Taking it as a big adventure we pitched our tent next to our house, blew up the airmatresses and got our first aid kid, water and a few personal items in the tent. We found rocks to put behind the tires of our car to prevent our car from rolling down our steep drive way.

Though Jasmin and Yaida loved the adventure, Nani and Zoey had picked up on some of the information and cried as they feared to die. Reminding them of the promises made by the Creator of Heaven and earth himself, praying with them and singing songs, they fell asleep peacefully.

Do we try to get some sleep, do we stay up, how far do we go to get ready in case of disaster, how many times do we have pray for safety and protection, how do you prepare for the unknown?

...Zoey and Nani...

Though every little sound made us sit up straight in our tent we tried to sleep with the kids. When we woke up at the early day light we all laughed as we realized no earth quake had come.

You know you serve an amazing protecting God when...
We come to the office and receive word from a fellow missionary; at 12.20 last night another earth quake hit and Kigali was shaking for a while, about 300 people are believed to have died from it.
Yet we did not feel a thing nor was there any sign in our house of damage!!!

I am amazed at our Creator. This event caused me to fallin love with him even more than before! Another God-story to add to our book!

An Unforgettable Christmas... continued

Lots of dancing!
Opening of the gift boxes. Cheers of joy and amazement were heard throughout the room! The buddies helped to children to understand that you do not eat lipgloss even when it smells like strawberried and that playdough is not a lotion for your skin!

Erin and Beatrice looking at the pictures of Erin's parents who are part of the church sending the boxes.
New cloths. Every child received new cloths. This boy came in a dress to the party as they had ran out of clean cloths that morning. Now he looked the way he should: a handsome young boy.

An Unforgettable Christmas... cont.

These children were looking like VIP's in their new outfits, and they knew it!

Thank you Julie and your team that came to Rwanda earlier this year and blessed us with cloths for the children!

The Team helping us with the children were such a blessing to us and the kids! Thanks Guys!

After watching a slide show about Jesus' life and why we need him, we ministered to all the children. All of them gave their lifes to Jesus, including our 5 service staff that work with the children!

An Unforgettable Christmas... continued.

After much more singing and dancing a buffet was ready for the children. Fish, French Fries, Meat, vegetables, soup and soda's as much as they wanted! These children of the King ate a royal meal! Just as they deserve!

The children had no space in their tummies left, they all ate so much. Tired but happy they waved goodbye as the bus brought them back to Rwaza. They sang all the way home:"Come to Rwaza and see, see the good things that are happening to us, come...."

Still hearing their shouts of joy, their laughter and songs in my head we drove back home also. It has been a a very long, but unforgettable day!

Those who have bought SoZo Bags; this party was made possible because of you! Thank You!

Rest at Kumbya 1

The day after our break down we tried again. This time we succeeded. W took the necessary coffe breaks and had a beautiful drive to Kumbya. Coffee break in Butare at the national museum.The cabin we rented has no running water nor electricity. The nights were cold, a good excuse to start a fire and lite many candles.

Rest at Kumbya 2

When the rain went we quickly headed out to the beach area and enjoy the sun. We relealized we were all exhausted and needed lots of sleep.

Our 12 hour breakdown

When I think of a vacation or break, I think of a smooth transition from home to the place of destination. With snack in the car, excited chatter from the kids, regular stops for little ones so they can get rid of their energy.... When this does not happen it definately crashes the party! Here some pictures of our 12 hour breakdown in the midle of nowhere a good 2 hours outside of Kigali.

In order to get to the broken waterpump many parts were taken out.
The attraction for the local community.

We would still have drive another 4 hours to our destination part of which would be through Nyungwe rainforest where militia is known to still be hiding. We had no choice but to return to Kigali where exactly at midnight we entered our home.

1998-2007

Remember... 9 years ago around this time we were having lunch with our wedding guests... Remember... Around this time we were at City Hall... Remember, remember, remember.

Happy memmories filled our day as we revisited our wedding day. We thought of all the people that were part of this special day. We thought of our emotions, thoughts and desires for our "Marraige-carreer". And concluded that we are truly amazed at what we have been through, what we have experienced and how we have grown to become who we are today.

We had decided to go on a date to celebrate today. As a lack of things o do in Kigali we wanted to go for a nice workout then dinner at Indian Khazana. After our workout Travis looked at me and said; "Hey I have a surprise" And he showed me the keycard to a hotelroom. Surprised he told me how many of our friends in Kigali had put their money together to bless us with this gift! In the room was a beautiful bouquet of roses and a note from all our friends. We just cried as we wondered what do they see in us that they would bless us like this. They had the care for our kids completely covered and told us to come back whenever... We watched CNN, (we had not seen any world news in over 2 years!) and concluded that we really do not miss anything in the world, the same old news items as always, just with different people. We really enjoyed ourselfs and woke up in the morning because we wanted to, not because we had to! This was after all our first night away from all our children in over 2,5 years!

Thank you Tupo, Ali & Joel, Jean, Lisa & Jeff, Tineke, Shannon, Meredith, Adriaan & Lisette. You guys have no idea how much you all mean to us. Thank you for being our friends!

Kumbya 1 Missionary retreat

Kumbya is a little peninsula in the south-western corner of Rwanda. A peninsula that has been used for missionary retreat since the 1950's. A beatiful place at Lake Kivu.
We went for a 9 day missionary retreat. We saw many of our missionary friends there and made many new ones. Jim Copeland, a former Promise Keeper leader spoke to us on Shepherd Leadership and seriously challenges all of our leadership styles based on biblical principals. We had times of worship, VBS for the big girls and lots of time for games and lake side fun.
I did not realize how tired I was until people around me asked if I was ok 'cause I didn't look all that good... scary when that happens. It took about two days before we all had settled and rest started to enter all of our lives. Though it was not per se a relaxing time (really what would that look like with little children) it was a good time. I did worship with my friends and just enjoyed being there. No agenda, no obligations. Travis and I were asked to share our testimony. During the course of the week many people came and thanked us for re-fireing their vision for Rwanda and their heart for the lost.
We drove through the Nyangwe forest. A rainforest with incredible beauty. Nani counted 27 monkeys on the way through it. Everywhere we went military marched the roads keeping the area protected from the malitia that is still believed to be hiding in this thick forest.
Our camp site. We used our tent (thanks Corrie & Daniel & Fam.) which was big enough for all of us to sleep in. We also had a grass hut build for shade and storage. We came prepared with tarp as we heard stories of people beig washed out of their huts last year.Up until about the 1950's these grass huts were the houses of many Rwandans. Even the King would live in a grass hut, though much bigger and fancier, but with the same concept. We were surpised how nicely cool it stayed inside during the hot hours of the day. It was quite the experience!

Kumbya 2

Jasmin and Yaida
Most of our afternoons were spent at the beach by the Lake, to great enjoyment of all the girls. There were also movie nights with popcorn!!! at the beach and the Vacation Bibleschool would do slip and slides there also. It was such a fun time!

Nani and Zoey during skit night.

We laughed so hard that night! People who are normally reserved and seem very concervative in their thinking came up with skits about the "missionary long drop training" now the long drop discibes the toilets and the training was a demonstration of how to aim properly and what not to do!

Others wrote songs inspired by the beauty of Kumbya and after a sweet and touching introduction started their song with the skreetching sound of the crows. We jumped from our chairs only to roll on the floor in laughter!

Kumbya 3

Jasmin and teacher Amanda

Nani
Nani and Zoey with some of their friends

Zoey and her new friend Danny from Tanzania.

And off we went, back to Kigali.

We thank the Lord for the new friendships build, the fun times we all had, the teaching and the encouragement we all received from this week. Thank you to all who helped us with finances and to all who worked so hard at Kumbya and blessing us in so many ways!