From Rwanda again....
It took me about 10 minutes to log into my own blogspot here in the busy little internet cafe on the main road close to the YWAM base. At the YWAM base itself there is no telephone - so the only way to get onto the internet is to see if someone is going towards town and hitch a ride. The 4 kilometer road to the YWAM base would be a challenge to a rally race car driver - amazing pits and dust bowls to navigate.
The C2W will end on Friday - 2 days from now. Yesterday and today I taught in the mornings on spiritual battle and worship leadership. They were powerful sessions! The kind that make you think you're somehow in the flow of the Holy Spirit and making history. The students were asking all sorts of questions and the air was alive with revelation as their hearts were so teachable. It was great!
Somehow I believe that God is saving the best for last.
Tomorrow we'll go around the YWAM base compound and have communion to consecrate the base and it's staff to the Lord in a new way. Friday afternoon we'll enjoy the new songs the students are writing this week - songs in their native language and (a big challenge) in their native cultural way. Most of these young people have idealized the western way of worshipping and so their songs sound much the same as those in Holland or USA or Australia (Darlene Zschech and team were just here in July). They are capturing the vision of valuing their own expressions of praise as a people. You would absolutely LOVE to hear their songs. I'm recording some of them - so let me know if you're interested.
Okay, I have to go - time is up and my lift is here.
Thanks for reading, for praying, for sharing in the inheritance and harvest here in Rwanda.
Love and blessings,
Belinda
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Friday, August 18, 2006
Kigali, Rwanda Call2Worship
Warm greetings from Rwanda!
I'm sitting in the room adjacent to the classroom we're using for the Call2Worship course. The course started last Monday and continued to add students until today when we have 26 students from Rwanda, Burundi and DRCongo. The ages range from 12-29 years old, all of them involved in leading worship in their churches: Anglican, Apostolic, Assemblies of God, Catholic, and Pentecostal churches.
Today one of our C2W students from 2 years ago, Esperance, is teaching on "Hindrances to Worship" and she'll include a workshop on that this afternoon. I found out that since the C2W in 2004, she has been regularly teaching the things she learned to different groups in her church. In fact, a number of our 2004 C2W students have been teaching what they learned. This is the way of Africa - you never keep what you've learned for yourself - it's multiplied, photocopied, and passed on from heart to heart in ever-widening circles.
Richard Gasana, my long-time Rwandan friend and the C2W leader this time said it was easy to get students to come to the C2W this year because so many had heard about the first one. On both Fridays we'll have an Open Day for those who couldn't attend the full 2 weeks. I think the YWAM base will actually close down all of it's other activities so that all the staff can come!
Tomorrow we'll close the first week with a Praise Party in which each participant is encouraged to bring an offering of praise to share with the community. Desire (a 2004 C2W student and YWAM staff) and I taught on Songwriting, so now all the students are busy writing songs in their native language (KinyaRwandese) to share. It's wonderful to see a new generation of creative songwriters sprouting before my very eyes.
Didi Companjen, a dear friend and Psalmody teacher from Holland who travelled with me, taught yesterday on the Hebrew words for praise. I'm telling you, these Rwandans have no insecurities about a word like "halal" (which means to celebrate, dance and rejoice). Then Hilde, my colleague and friend, taught on King David and his heart-choice for worship, and led all of the students into a deeper level of worship with understanding. Richard, of course, opened the course with a lively and humorous Biblical teaching of worship and knowing God.
It's a thrill to my heart to taste the hungry hearts of the students but to see others released in the ministry of worship through teaching, etc.
Okay, as for a personal note...
Of course you'll remember that I asked specifically for prayer for my health; I couldn't forget my last adventure in a 3rd world country and how ill I became in Indonesia. I'm pleased to say that I'm feeling quite fit and healthy and I'm thanking God each day for my health. I'm taking some extra vitamins and getting good rest. Didi, Hilde and I stay in a nice, clean room - we have mosquito nets (tho it's dry season and there are very few mozzies around) and we boil our water twice and have bought bottled water for drinking. Richard and Pera have gone out of their way to make it nice for us and we're so thankful for that! Last Monday I did have a short bout with diarrhea, which is fairly unavoidable in such a drastic change of environment... but it hasn't come back.
We don't have running water here, but a small Rwandan man on maintenance staff here keeps two large containers filled to the brim with water for washing and flushing. The electricity has been running about 85% of the time and the base kitchen cooks nice hot meals of banana, veggies, sauce and sometimes meat. We have two warm meals per day and for breakfast we have bread and bananas. The meals are all cooked on coal fires behind the dining hall by a man named Fidele and a couple helpers.
If you'd like to find out more about the YWAM base here you can always do an internet search on YWAM Kigali and their website should pop up. When I get back to Holland (August 27th) I'll try to update my website with a few photos.
I'll close for now and check my emails at the internet cafe in town, which is where I'll post this onto my Blog for you to read.
Thanks for checking up on me and... thanks for your prayers!
Blessings,
Belinda
I'm sitting in the room adjacent to the classroom we're using for the Call2Worship course. The course started last Monday and continued to add students until today when we have 26 students from Rwanda, Burundi and DRCongo. The ages range from 12-29 years old, all of them involved in leading worship in their churches: Anglican, Apostolic, Assemblies of God, Catholic, and Pentecostal churches.
Today one of our C2W students from 2 years ago, Esperance, is teaching on "Hindrances to Worship" and she'll include a workshop on that this afternoon. I found out that since the C2W in 2004, she has been regularly teaching the things she learned to different groups in her church. In fact, a number of our 2004 C2W students have been teaching what they learned. This is the way of Africa - you never keep what you've learned for yourself - it's multiplied, photocopied, and passed on from heart to heart in ever-widening circles.
Richard Gasana, my long-time Rwandan friend and the C2W leader this time said it was easy to get students to come to the C2W this year because so many had heard about the first one. On both Fridays we'll have an Open Day for those who couldn't attend the full 2 weeks. I think the YWAM base will actually close down all of it's other activities so that all the staff can come!
Tomorrow we'll close the first week with a Praise Party in which each participant is encouraged to bring an offering of praise to share with the community. Desire (a 2004 C2W student and YWAM staff) and I taught on Songwriting, so now all the students are busy writing songs in their native language (KinyaRwandese) to share. It's wonderful to see a new generation of creative songwriters sprouting before my very eyes.
Didi Companjen, a dear friend and Psalmody teacher from Holland who travelled with me, taught yesterday on the Hebrew words for praise. I'm telling you, these Rwandans have no insecurities about a word like "halal" (which means to celebrate, dance and rejoice). Then Hilde, my colleague and friend, taught on King David and his heart-choice for worship, and led all of the students into a deeper level of worship with understanding. Richard, of course, opened the course with a lively and humorous Biblical teaching of worship and knowing God.
It's a thrill to my heart to taste the hungry hearts of the students but to see others released in the ministry of worship through teaching, etc.
Okay, as for a personal note...
Of course you'll remember that I asked specifically for prayer for my health; I couldn't forget my last adventure in a 3rd world country and how ill I became in Indonesia. I'm pleased to say that I'm feeling quite fit and healthy and I'm thanking God each day for my health. I'm taking some extra vitamins and getting good rest. Didi, Hilde and I stay in a nice, clean room - we have mosquito nets (tho it's dry season and there are very few mozzies around) and we boil our water twice and have bought bottled water for drinking. Richard and Pera have gone out of their way to make it nice for us and we're so thankful for that! Last Monday I did have a short bout with diarrhea, which is fairly unavoidable in such a drastic change of environment... but it hasn't come back.
We don't have running water here, but a small Rwandan man on maintenance staff here keeps two large containers filled to the brim with water for washing and flushing. The electricity has been running about 85% of the time and the base kitchen cooks nice hot meals of banana, veggies, sauce and sometimes meat. We have two warm meals per day and for breakfast we have bread and bananas. The meals are all cooked on coal fires behind the dining hall by a man named Fidele and a couple helpers.
If you'd like to find out more about the YWAM base here you can always do an internet search on YWAM Kigali and their website should pop up. When I get back to Holland (August 27th) I'll try to update my website with a few photos.
I'll close for now and check my emails at the internet cafe in town, which is where I'll post this onto my Blog for you to read.
Thanks for checking up on me and... thanks for your prayers!
Blessings,
Belinda
Monday, August 07, 2006
Norway
Reaching toward the heavens
July 24th 2006
N.Etnedal, Norway
Being in the mountains naturally draws my gaze heavenwards..."Your love, o Lord, reaches to the heavens; Your faithfulness stretches to the skies; Your righteousness is like majestic mountains..."
On vacation in a comfortable cabin in the Norwegian mountains. It's a gift to be here with my friends, Hilde and Marcia (and, of course, Honey!). Fireplace, outhouse, scenery, no running water, reading and talking, no electricity, relaxing and not looking at the clock, hiking trails up high and moose-lookouts early in the morning and at dusk. It's light most of the night - none of us can remember that it was really dark-dark at any point during the night. Middle-of-the-night trudges to the outhouse are easy to navigate in the perpetual dusk/dawn.
This is Hilde's family cabin - gracious people who have welcomed us to make use of their private and quite isolated forest palace called "Sjeggebo" (named for the beard-like moss hanging on the trees). Hilde is gone for the weekend to celebrate her father's birthday close to Oslo, leaving me and Marsh to enjoy this hideaway.
Yesterday Marcia and I took a walk on a small road next to a brook when we encountered sheep. The sheep run loose here in these hills and wear bells on their necks like their bovine counterparts in Switzerland. In fact, when you're driving you really need to keep on the lookout for these sheep because they like to lay down in the middle of roads. Honey has made it his duty to be the sheep-lookout and he's pretty good at it. And so, when we came upon this ewe with her two lambs, Honey ran point position. He was loose, as he often is in the hills, and edged towards them. I'm sure the sheep wondered what this little white animal was! At first the sheep seemed curious but as the mother ewe picked up Honey's scent she switched to defensive mode which included stamping her hoof and lowering her head. It was a toss-up who was going to be the dominant figure in this scenario. First Honey was in the lead and the sheep backed up and then started to run away. Well, this kicked in Honey's hunting instincts fully and we laughed to see this small white terrier chase the three sheep down the road at full gallop for about 50 meters. It was then that Honey realized his short little legs could not catch them and he slowed to a stop. The sheep also stopped and the ewe then started trotting towards Honey. I called Honey back to me and he soon realized why: He had become the hunted! They ran all the way back and Honey hid behind my legs. The sheep was not at all deterred by a huge human - her focus was entirely upon that little white wolf behind me. In fact, I had to shoo and then shove the ewe back from me. At that point, Honey skirted off to the side of the road and the ewe closed in and lowered her head, butting Honey! Honey tumbled and recovered and was soon out of reach. Then and only then did the ewe relent and leave. It was quite an adventure!
Blessings,
Belinda (and Honey - the sheepdog!)
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