I took out part of my last update (the Thursday afternoon part), because I did not want to put up anything morbid for Christmas, so now I'm just spoiling New Year's.
Our leader doesn't really want anyone to be online right now, but I miss home, and I hate not hearing from everyone back home, so I really don't care. Happy New Year's!
Outreach
We were in the village of Busanza, about 30 minutes away from Kimironko, our suburb of Kigali. We split up into groups and went around inviting people to church, which a pastor affiliated with YWAM is planting here. One group met Rosette. She's a widow. She had children, but they passed away. She's raising her grandchildren and one other orphan as well. She had surgery about 8 years ago, but it didn't go well and she ended up with the right half of her body paralyzed. She has AIDS. She's very poor, and very joyful. They told her God loves her and she said, “I know God loves me.” “Can we pray for you?” “Of course!” They prayed for God to heal her and asked if she felt anything different. She said, “Yes, my heart feels better. I'm very encouraged by you guys.”
Another group met another woman raising three children. The husband isn't around much at all. He infected her with HIV, and her three children are HIV+ as well. She's paying the rent on her housing, but she has a very hard time with it.
Elijah
Nine of us came from YWAM in Kona. We have a Rwandan teammate, Elijah who joined us and coordinates our outreaches and does interpreting. His dad was a Hutu and his mom was a Tutsi. His mom had 46 relatives, and every one of them was killed in the Rwandan genocide. That happened when he was a teenager, and he said he spent the next few years in a haze, numb to his surroundings, without hope or dreams for his future. But then, when the grace of God rescued him, he learned there is forgiveness and peace about the past, comfort and love for the present, renewal and encouragement for the future; there is life after emotional death, because God delights in raising the dead.
The Genocide
1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus murdered.
1,000 people murdered every 20 minutes.
300,000 orphans
An estimated 500,000 women alive today were raped during the genocide.
100,000 people have been indicted for these crimes.
General Romeo Dallaire estimated that 5,000 UN soldiers would have been enough to contain the militia and completely prevent the genocide. When he made that statement and request to the UN, none were given. Instead, that number of soldiers was used to evacuate foreigners from the country.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
A Week of Days in the Life
Tuesday
We went to a village about 40 minutes outside of Kigali. There was a church building with wobbly benches that could hold about 50 people at capacity. Kids were excited about the white people that arrived in a van and ran up to say hi. We played with them for a while and then got them to come inside when we started playing music. There were about 25 people, mostly kids and a few mothers. After a few songs, we had a teammate, Katie, share a few minutes about what God's been doing in her life. Then Luke spoke for about 15 minutes (30 with translation) about how God loves them. Then the pastor gave an altar call for salvation. Everyone came forward. Many of the little kids may not have completely understood what was going on, and many of them may already have some sort of relationship with Jesus. But it was still a great thing for the kingdom. They came forward, and we prayed for them for a while. Pastor Sylvan was extremely happy about the event. This was only his second week of church planting out here.
Our team had spread out and sat down so that kids could next to us. There was one kid that chose me; he sat down next to me and put my arm around him. We went forward at the altar call cause I suggested it and he was all for walking while holding my hand. I kept asking him his name but he was extremely shy and wouldn't tell me. I asked a mom what his name was, and it was Karri. Very close to “Cory.” Neat.
Wednesday
Our Rwandan teammate/coordinator is the leader of a ministry called Vida. Today was a meeting in a room about the size of a normal bedroom. There were 12 Rwandans, all between 16-22. We did the same pattern of songs, testimony, and quick sermon. Then we asked for prayer requests. A few mentioned headaches, a couple mentioned stomach aches. One girl mentioned bad dreams, involving seeing dead bodies. The genocide was 15 years ago. So a lot of young adults have lost relatives, and others were participants in the genocide, because a lot of the killing was done by youth in the Interahamwe. (Forgiveness is just as much meant for them as it is for me; to believe anything else is not the gospel). Coming into this outreach, I wanted to make sure we were providing for physical needs of a third-world country, but the emotional and spiritual needs are so strong here. Our teammate Jacinta asked anyone who wanted to make a first time decision for Christ to stand in one part of the room, and anyone who wanted to repent and rededicate to stand in another part of the room. Two girls were in the first-time corner, and four people were in the rededicate corner. We prayed for everyone for a while.
I was ecstatic about working with this age group because when people get saved when they're little kids, it's kind of like they have to get saved again anyway when they get older. I've also heard about low retention rates of converts; going from converts to disciples loses a lot of people. But I think they'll keep coming to this ministry and so it's actually sustainable.
Thursday
We taught art and music at the Christ Gospel Church. There were maybe 17 people at the art workshop; it taught the color wheel and its applications and the value scale. There were maybe 20 people for the music workshop, which split into a group for piano and a group for guitar. Both groups learned chords to play worship songs. I assisted the art workshop for most of it and then went and helped the guitar group.
Friday
I co-taught guitar today to 9 Rwandan beginners at church today. They're learned chords to play worship songs. Yesterday, they started to learn their first chords. Today, I had them working on switching between chords. We had 3 guitars that were circulating around the group for the two hours of class. I would kneel in front of each student and wrestle with his or her fingers to get them into place, because frets are really hard for them to reach in the beginning. It all went really well, but it was exhausting. It's a steep 15-20 minute walk to the church from our house, with a guitar in its case. I'll be teaching every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
This afternoon, I taught English to 12 Rwandans for two hours. It was our first lesson so we went through the alphabet and worked on pronouncing the sounds that don't exist in Kinyarwanda. It was really helpful to know so much Kinyarwanda but I knew what they'd need to work on. They can do “a” as in “bat” fine; they can mostly do “e” as in “bet” ok, but “i” as in “bit” is really hard them. And the English “r” is almost impossible. Even before the DTS, I've spent hours and hours reading about linguistics for fun, and I put a lot of that to use when I was describing what to do with their tongues to make certain sounds. They were really happy with the class. I'll be teaching every Wednesday and Friday afternoon.
At the end of class, we asked the people who didn't own a Bible to raise their hands. There were four respondents, including the two new believers, so we handed out four Kinyarwandan Bibles. One of the girls, when she got her Bible, gasped with excitement. I found it really moving that she was so happy to get a Bible. We asked for prayer requests and two of them prayed that they would get to go back to school. I asked Elijah about it later, and he explained that secondary school in Rwanda is six years (as is primary school) and that the drop-out rate is pretty high for various personal reasons and it's a huge barrier for high school dropouts to opportunities like a decent job.
We went to a village about 40 minutes outside of Kigali. There was a church building with wobbly benches that could hold about 50 people at capacity. Kids were excited about the white people that arrived in a van and ran up to say hi. We played with them for a while and then got them to come inside when we started playing music. There were about 25 people, mostly kids and a few mothers. After a few songs, we had a teammate, Katie, share a few minutes about what God's been doing in her life. Then Luke spoke for about 15 minutes (30 with translation) about how God loves them. Then the pastor gave an altar call for salvation. Everyone came forward. Many of the little kids may not have completely understood what was going on, and many of them may already have some sort of relationship with Jesus. But it was still a great thing for the kingdom. They came forward, and we prayed for them for a while. Pastor Sylvan was extremely happy about the event. This was only his second week of church planting out here.
Our team had spread out and sat down so that kids could next to us. There was one kid that chose me; he sat down next to me and put my arm around him. We went forward at the altar call cause I suggested it and he was all for walking while holding my hand. I kept asking him his name but he was extremely shy and wouldn't tell me. I asked a mom what his name was, and it was Karri. Very close to “Cory.” Neat.
Wednesday
Our Rwandan teammate/coordinator is the leader of a ministry called Vida. Today was a meeting in a room about the size of a normal bedroom. There were 12 Rwandans, all between 16-22. We did the same pattern of songs, testimony, and quick sermon. Then we asked for prayer requests. A few mentioned headaches, a couple mentioned stomach aches. One girl mentioned bad dreams, involving seeing dead bodies. The genocide was 15 years ago. So a lot of young adults have lost relatives, and others were participants in the genocide, because a lot of the killing was done by youth in the Interahamwe. (Forgiveness is just as much meant for them as it is for me; to believe anything else is not the gospel). Coming into this outreach, I wanted to make sure we were providing for physical needs of a third-world country, but the emotional and spiritual needs are so strong here. Our teammate Jacinta asked anyone who wanted to make a first time decision for Christ to stand in one part of the room, and anyone who wanted to repent and rededicate to stand in another part of the room. Two girls were in the first-time corner, and four people were in the rededicate corner. We prayed for everyone for a while.
I was ecstatic about working with this age group because when people get saved when they're little kids, it's kind of like they have to get saved again anyway when they get older. I've also heard about low retention rates of converts; going from converts to disciples loses a lot of people. But I think they'll keep coming to this ministry and so it's actually sustainable.
Thursday
We taught art and music at the Christ Gospel Church. There were maybe 17 people at the art workshop; it taught the color wheel and its applications and the value scale. There were maybe 20 people for the music workshop, which split into a group for piano and a group for guitar. Both groups learned chords to play worship songs. I assisted the art workshop for most of it and then went and helped the guitar group.
Friday
I co-taught guitar today to 9 Rwandan beginners at church today. They're learned chords to play worship songs. Yesterday, they started to learn their first chords. Today, I had them working on switching between chords. We had 3 guitars that were circulating around the group for the two hours of class. I would kneel in front of each student and wrestle with his or her fingers to get them into place, because frets are really hard for them to reach in the beginning. It all went really well, but it was exhausting. It's a steep 15-20 minute walk to the church from our house, with a guitar in its case. I'll be teaching every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
This afternoon, I taught English to 12 Rwandans for two hours. It was our first lesson so we went through the alphabet and worked on pronouncing the sounds that don't exist in Kinyarwanda. It was really helpful to know so much Kinyarwanda but I knew what they'd need to work on. They can do “a” as in “bat” fine; they can mostly do “e” as in “bet” ok, but “i” as in “bit” is really hard them. And the English “r” is almost impossible. Even before the DTS, I've spent hours and hours reading about linguistics for fun, and I put a lot of that to use when I was describing what to do with their tongues to make certain sounds. They were really happy with the class. I'll be teaching every Wednesday and Friday afternoon.
At the end of class, we asked the people who didn't own a Bible to raise their hands. There were four respondents, including the two new believers, so we handed out four Kinyarwandan Bibles. One of the girls, when she got her Bible, gasped with excitement. I found it really moving that she was so happy to get a Bible. We asked for prayer requests and two of them prayed that they would get to go back to school. I asked Elijah about it later, and he explained that secondary school in Rwanda is six years (as is primary school) and that the drop-out rate is pretty high for various personal reasons and it's a huge barrier for high school dropouts to opportunities like a decent job.
Monday, December 20, 2010
The Long Blog Post
Hey guys!
We stopped in Brussels for three hours. It's really cool how energy efficient Europe is. The escalators don't start until you step in front of them. Everything was really expensive so we didn't buy anything.
In the US, you're allowed 2 oz. of fluid, so I drank all buy 2 ounces of water from my water bottle. At the security check point, they saw the water and said they allow 0 oz. I asked if I could drink it or if we could just pour it out. They said I first had to go through again and then they directed me to an exit, so I walked around and spent another half an hour going through security with my empty Nalgene bottle. I wish we just did profiling.
We are staying in a really nice house. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and living room.
I saw what looked like a crow, except it was white-breasted. The rest of it was black though. Neat.
Kinyarwanda. It's been awesome. There was a little bus with four Rwandans in it that picked us up from the airport. Elijah, Pastor Claude, Jazelle, and Eric. I started chatting with them in Kinyarwandan. They understood and answered my questions, which is awesome. “Have you been to Rwanda before?” “No.” “It seems like you've been here before.” Sweet. They were all interested in how I learned, and a bunch of them knew Gabi and Margret (my Rwandan teachers).
We're living with Elijah and Sam (Bizimana).
Sam and Jazelle are both 20, but anyone would have guessed their 13.
Gabi and Margret didn't come with us because Margret was having a baby, with the due date in mid-December. The day after we got here, one of our Rwandan contacts said he heard from Gabi, and Gabi was really sad, because the baby was a still birth. They were really looking forward to their little girl. We were crushed to hear that and prayed for a while.
-----------------------------------------
That was all written on Friday. It sounds really upbeat. That jumps out at me more now that we've had four days of jet-lag. I also have hayfever- itchy, watery eyes and itchy, runny nose. I've had a cold for three weeks. It's better now in that my voice is back, but I keep coughing. I think it might be because of the pollution. It smells like exhaust downtown.
I got a bunch of mosquitos on the second night, so our leader gave me her mosquito net. I was pushing for us to buy mosquito nets for the team, but she disagrees, but we're going to talk about it as a team soon.
We're eating really well here. The fruit is really good here. Mangos, amazing passion fruit, fresh bread, great tea. We're making our own meals here, and we have great cooks on our team.
We even have toilets. Most places have squatty potties here. Just a hole in the ground.
Me and a couple other leaders went shopping on Friday and couldn't take a bus, so we each took motorcycle taxis. I hear Portland driving is a bit crazy to some people, though I don't think so, and I am a very moderate Portland driver. Seattle driving is crazy compared to Portland driving. But people who take taxis in third-world countries know that Seattle driving is actually extremely cautious. But these taxi drivers are extremely skilled so the actual risk was extremely low.
We went to a wedding on Saturday. It was soooo weird. The bride was a white Norwegian marrying a Rwandan. She did not look happy at all. At all. They served Fanta in the middle of the wedding. There was no pastor, just an MC making jokes and telling stories. Then we went through a crowded room to dish up awful food and returned to our seats to continue the wedding. We were all hoping that they had already gotten married in Norway and this was just for his family.
On Sunday, we ran Sunday school. We acted out the story of Jonah. I was Jonah. We had a great time with it. Then we broke into age groups. Katie and I had the 4- to 6-year-olds. We reviewed the story and did songs, and then had them draw, and then did more songs with dances. Then we were introduced to the main gathering at Christ Gospel Church, and then we met back with all the kids again. We did more songs with dances, and then sat among the kids. I had a couple on my lap, and I was putting my sunglasses on them, which they really loved. These kids think we're awesome. They loved shaking our hands. I think they're going to think very highly of white people when they grow up.
We're running workshops of music, art, and English this week. I don't know any of the details though.
We did a whole lot of worship and prayer for the first few days. We had a neighbor come over and pray for him. He's a Christian named Eric. He said he was extremely blessed to be prayed over by us, and that he's always wanted that and he feels changed now. Sweet.
I'm in charge of finances for the team. I keep track of every expense and how much money we have and can spend. The team money was dumped into my bank account before we left. I asked if they were sure they wanted me to be the person that both has the money and keeps track of where it goes, which I think is a ridiculous system, but the school leader was all for it. It's harmless this time, but that's a terrible system to have for the long run. Anyway, the staff leader, Mikaela, designated two student leaders, Luke and Michelle, and they're great leaders. Mikaela said she didn't want to add any burdens to me since she says I have the hardest job, but since I'm making all the team purchases and she consults me for decisions involving money like if we can eat out or not, maybe it would have been more consistent to have me in the meetings where Mikaela takes Luke and Michelle aside to pray and plan, but it's just a title so it really doesn't matter at all, cause I think “Accountant / Financial Consultant” is already a really awesome thing to put on my resume when I get back to Portland.
My team gets along great. It's a lot of fun.
I'm really looking forward to how much I'm going to get to do for God here. God is worth it, and plus we get rewards. Sweet deal.
That's all I can think of to write right now. A bit scatter-brained, but pretty candid. Hope you liked it.. :-)
We stopped in Brussels for three hours. It's really cool how energy efficient Europe is. The escalators don't start until you step in front of them. Everything was really expensive so we didn't buy anything.
In the US, you're allowed 2 oz. of fluid, so I drank all buy 2 ounces of water from my water bottle. At the security check point, they saw the water and said they allow 0 oz. I asked if I could drink it or if we could just pour it out. They said I first had to go through again and then they directed me to an exit, so I walked around and spent another half an hour going through security with my empty Nalgene bottle. I wish we just did profiling.
We are staying in a really nice house. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and living room.
I saw what looked like a crow, except it was white-breasted. The rest of it was black though. Neat.
Kinyarwanda. It's been awesome. There was a little bus with four Rwandans in it that picked us up from the airport. Elijah, Pastor Claude, Jazelle, and Eric. I started chatting with them in Kinyarwandan. They understood and answered my questions, which is awesome. “Have you been to Rwanda before?” “No.” “It seems like you've been here before.” Sweet. They were all interested in how I learned, and a bunch of them knew Gabi and Margret (my Rwandan teachers).
We're living with Elijah and Sam (Bizimana).
Sam and Jazelle are both 20, but anyone would have guessed their 13.
Gabi and Margret didn't come with us because Margret was having a baby, with the due date in mid-December. The day after we got here, one of our Rwandan contacts said he heard from Gabi, and Gabi was really sad, because the baby was a still birth. They were really looking forward to their little girl. We were crushed to hear that and prayed for a while.
-----------------------------------------
That was all written on Friday. It sounds really upbeat. That jumps out at me more now that we've had four days of jet-lag. I also have hayfever- itchy, watery eyes and itchy, runny nose. I've had a cold for three weeks. It's better now in that my voice is back, but I keep coughing. I think it might be because of the pollution. It smells like exhaust downtown.
I got a bunch of mosquitos on the second night, so our leader gave me her mosquito net. I was pushing for us to buy mosquito nets for the team, but she disagrees, but we're going to talk about it as a team soon.
We're eating really well here. The fruit is really good here. Mangos, amazing passion fruit, fresh bread, great tea. We're making our own meals here, and we have great cooks on our team.
We even have toilets. Most places have squatty potties here. Just a hole in the ground.
Me and a couple other leaders went shopping on Friday and couldn't take a bus, so we each took motorcycle taxis. I hear Portland driving is a bit crazy to some people, though I don't think so, and I am a very moderate Portland driver. Seattle driving is crazy compared to Portland driving. But people who take taxis in third-world countries know that Seattle driving is actually extremely cautious. But these taxi drivers are extremely skilled so the actual risk was extremely low.
We went to a wedding on Saturday. It was soooo weird. The bride was a white Norwegian marrying a Rwandan. She did not look happy at all. At all. They served Fanta in the middle of the wedding. There was no pastor, just an MC making jokes and telling stories. Then we went through a crowded room to dish up awful food and returned to our seats to continue the wedding. We were all hoping that they had already gotten married in Norway and this was just for his family.
On Sunday, we ran Sunday school. We acted out the story of Jonah. I was Jonah. We had a great time with it. Then we broke into age groups. Katie and I had the 4- to 6-year-olds. We reviewed the story and did songs, and then had them draw, and then did more songs with dances. Then we were introduced to the main gathering at Christ Gospel Church, and then we met back with all the kids again. We did more songs with dances, and then sat among the kids. I had a couple on my lap, and I was putting my sunglasses on them, which they really loved. These kids think we're awesome. They loved shaking our hands. I think they're going to think very highly of white people when they grow up.
We're running workshops of music, art, and English this week. I don't know any of the details though.
We did a whole lot of worship and prayer for the first few days. We had a neighbor come over and pray for him. He's a Christian named Eric. He said he was extremely blessed to be prayed over by us, and that he's always wanted that and he feels changed now. Sweet.
I'm in charge of finances for the team. I keep track of every expense and how much money we have and can spend. The team money was dumped into my bank account before we left. I asked if they were sure they wanted me to be the person that both has the money and keeps track of where it goes, which I think is a ridiculous system, but the school leader was all for it. It's harmless this time, but that's a terrible system to have for the long run. Anyway, the staff leader, Mikaela, designated two student leaders, Luke and Michelle, and they're great leaders. Mikaela said she didn't want to add any burdens to me since she says I have the hardest job, but since I'm making all the team purchases and she consults me for decisions involving money like if we can eat out or not, maybe it would have been more consistent to have me in the meetings where Mikaela takes Luke and Michelle aside to pray and plan, but it's just a title so it really doesn't matter at all, cause I think “Accountant / Financial Consultant” is already a really awesome thing to put on my resume when I get back to Portland.
My team gets along great. It's a lot of fun.
I'm really looking forward to how much I'm going to get to do for God here. God is worth it, and plus we get rewards. Sweet deal.
That's all I can think of to write right now. A bit scatter-brained, but pretty candid. Hope you liked it.. :-)
I'm Alive and Well
I wrote out a blog post on my laptop, but right now I'm not on my laptop cause I'm at an Internet cafe that has computers but not wireless right now and doesn't serve coffee. So later I'll have another blog post that's a lot longer. For now I'll just say that this is our fourth day in Rwanda out of 51. It's been packed. I love my teammates.
We ran Sunday school yesterday. It was awesome.
Rwanda has the highest population density on continental Africa. And we're in Kigali, the capital and largest city. It's definitely a third-world country.
We get Internet access once a week. For Christmas, I want to get online next time and see lots of social networking activity- emails, Facebook notifications and messages, and blog comments. Even reading other people's blogs is awesome. Pretty please. Thank you. I miss you guys a lot.
I'm going to go try to get online with my laptop.
We ran Sunday school yesterday. It was awesome.
Rwanda has the highest population density on continental Africa. And we're in Kigali, the capital and largest city. It's definitely a third-world country.
We get Internet access once a week. For Christmas, I want to get online next time and see lots of social networking activity- emails, Facebook notifications and messages, and blog comments. Even reading other people's blogs is awesome. Pretty please. Thank you. I miss you guys a lot.
I'm going to go try to get online with my laptop.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Just a Quickie...
I just looked at Google maps and learned that our airport (Washington Dulles) is not in DC. It's a half hour drive into Virginia. We have a 12 hour layover. That would be enough time to go look at the Washington Monument / Clinton Memorial, but most my team is sleeping right now. I don't think anyone else would go, and I'm not that motivated myself to do any sightseeing.
Our first flight was 1:40 PM Hawaii time, we landed in LA at 8:40 PM Pacific time, left at 10:40 PM, arrived in DC at 6:00 AM local time. I slept really well on the plane so I'm going to go walk around and get food.
Our first flight was 1:40 PM Hawaii time, we landed in LA at 8:40 PM Pacific time, left at 10:40 PM, arrived in DC at 6:00 AM local time. I slept really well on the plane so I'm going to go walk around and get food.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Pre-Update
I recorded a video for the purpose of posting it here, and I've tried uploading it over the last couple days. It's failed probably 5 times here because the Internet is not fast or stable enough. I intend to conquer this giant eventually.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Drinking the Cool-Aid
YWAM is more charismatic than most everything. Every day you hear, "God gave me a word/picture/vision for you." I've always said, "Sometimes I think of neat things to share, but should I say God put that in my mind?" It's so easy to say, "Hey! I thought of this..." But it's so much more spiritual to say, "Hey! I FELT this..." or especially, "I felt led to share this..." Then there's the compromise way "This came to mind..." cause that could totally be from either me or God, and they pretty much assume I mean from God. But how do you know?
One friend suggested to just share it anyway, and if it strikes the receiver as meaningful or if other people have shared the same thing, then it's probably from God. Makes sense. I also figure if it's something I thought up purely on my own, it's still nice to share it.
As a bit of background, I spent a lot of the weekend praying and reading the Bible over the weekend, so I was a much better Christian and ready to hear from the Lord. Heh.
So I tried it yesterday. Our lecturer stopped talking and said to pray and then go bless someone. So I prayed about it, and I felt like blessing Michelle, and I prayed and thought about what to say, and then I went and prayed for her, and as I was praying, she started crying because it was very moving stuff for her. Neat.
Then today I misunderstood our lecturer. He had all the staff leaders come up for prayer. Turns out, it was so that they could pray for other people. I thought it was for them to receive prayer. So I prayed about who to pray for and then I saw my small group leader was standing there without someone, and I prayed and thought about what to say. And then before I went up to him, I saw all the leaders were the ones doing the praying, and I went up to him anyway and explained to him my misunderstanding and can I pray for him anyway and he said yes. (I didn't think it's funny at the time, but now that I'm writing this, it sounds funny. Imagine people being told to come up to receive prayer and then someone comes up to pray for the prayer minister. Heh.) Anyway, he said he was blown away by what I prayed for. Sweet. This was at the end of worship.
At the end of the lecture (which is after worship) he had us stand back-to-back with someone, wait on the Lord for a word to share with them, and then share it. I grabbed our school leader Dawn cause she was right next to me. Her youngest son is leaving for college next year. My word for her was about one of the difficulties of empty-nester-ness, the transition of identity for the mom who has always said, "I see who I am as a mother raising kids." The word was three-fold...
1: You're still a mom, even if the roles have adjusted.
2: The next chapters in your story are good too. Keep looking forward.
3: God never intended a church community to be a single generation of peers, so it's providential that you're caring for these kids here.
She said that I was echoing things Joy Dawson had told her the previous day and these issues have been on her heart, so she was going to write down what I told her. Cool. I'm pretty sure I only thought of what to say cause my mom would be an empty nester without Molly and Mia, and the third point came straight from Ian Nelson, but God still can get credit for those circumstances, so I won't worry about how supernatural my word of encouragement was.
One friend suggested to just share it anyway, and if it strikes the receiver as meaningful or if other people have shared the same thing, then it's probably from God. Makes sense. I also figure if it's something I thought up purely on my own, it's still nice to share it.
As a bit of background, I spent a lot of the weekend praying and reading the Bible over the weekend, so I was a much better Christian and ready to hear from the Lord. Heh.
So I tried it yesterday. Our lecturer stopped talking and said to pray and then go bless someone. So I prayed about it, and I felt like blessing Michelle, and I prayed and thought about what to say, and then I went and prayed for her, and as I was praying, she started crying because it was very moving stuff for her. Neat.
Then today I misunderstood our lecturer. He had all the staff leaders come up for prayer. Turns out, it was so that they could pray for other people. I thought it was for them to receive prayer. So I prayed about who to pray for and then I saw my small group leader was standing there without someone, and I prayed and thought about what to say. And then before I went up to him, I saw all the leaders were the ones doing the praying, and I went up to him anyway and explained to him my misunderstanding and can I pray for him anyway and he said yes. (I didn't think it's funny at the time, but now that I'm writing this, it sounds funny. Imagine people being told to come up to receive prayer and then someone comes up to pray for the prayer minister. Heh.) Anyway, he said he was blown away by what I prayed for. Sweet. This was at the end of worship.
At the end of the lecture (which is after worship) he had us stand back-to-back with someone, wait on the Lord for a word to share with them, and then share it. I grabbed our school leader Dawn cause she was right next to me. Her youngest son is leaving for college next year. My word for her was about one of the difficulties of empty-nester-ness, the transition of identity for the mom who has always said, "I see who I am as a mother raising kids." The word was three-fold...
1: You're still a mom, even if the roles have adjusted.
2: The next chapters in your story are good too. Keep looking forward.
3: God never intended a church community to be a single generation of peers, so it's providential that you're caring for these kids here.
She said that I was echoing things Joy Dawson had told her the previous day and these issues have been on her heart, so she was going to write down what I told her. Cool. I'm pretty sure I only thought of what to say cause my mom would be an empty nester without Molly and Mia, and the third point came straight from Ian Nelson, but God still can get credit for those circumstances, so I won't worry about how supernatural my word of encouragement was.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
A Full-On Rant
It's been a good experience, but I would not be able to commit to YWAM forever, and I have absolutely no desire to do so. Here's my critique.
This week was the celebration of YWAM's 50 years of existence. They didn't say this overtly all the time, but a lot of it was about how great YWAM is. It reminds me of Ancient Egypt, in that the Pharaohs might have thought the pyramids were symbols of how great Egypt was, when really, it really just told you a lot about their workforce. In the same way, the whole base has worked really hard to put this gala together, including working on the weekend of Thanksgiving. It's different than the Egypt analogy however, because we're paying them to work here.
The 50th Celebration had a 3-hour morning session and a 3-hour evening session. Our school leader has been very emphatic about how mandatory they are. There's optional sessions throughout the day too. What the sessions have lacked in substance, they made up for in long-windedness. To give you an idea, yesterday's evening session was a graduation ceremony. Like graduation ceremonies for a real college, the long ceremonial formalities were a complete waste of my time, and I'm not insulted, but I think it would be reasonable to be insulted that they would have such a long mandatory session that I had no connection to. Yet the whole thing didn't feel any different than every other session. They were all that bad. David Hamilton makes Jose Zayas look like a great, concise speaker. The other night, I had a headache, which I dubbed a "David Hamilton headache."
The food situation has taken a turn for the worse this week too. We used to be limited to one portion of meat for lunch and dinner. Now, they're limiting the rice too, to just one scoop. They've also stopped setting out peanut butter and jelly sandwich stuff at lunch and dinner, so it's even harder to get filled up. So after the night session, we've all been going to McDonald's. Except tonight we went to Jack in the Box, and it was the best trip to Jack in the Box I've ever had. I had 4 tacos, a Jr. bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and 2 leftover portions of a girl's Oreo milkshake that they couldn't finish.
While I'm at it, I might as well mention a few other shortcomings of the YWAM setting in general...
Everything is over spiritualized here. Everything does involve God in a way, but our school leader has guilt-tripped us about keeping our rooms clean and not being late to anything. As I've been saying, "It sounds like they don't want us to break any of the big commandments. You don't sell drugs to children; you don't commit murder; and you keep your room clean."
At home, I'll get to do engineering and entrepreneurship. I fix computers and cars. I do skilled stuff! Here, I'm a peon of the masses. It may be humbling/character building/good for you to do labor that would normally pay minimum wage, especially when you're not actually getting paid at all, but still, it'd be offensive to God to throw away the ability to do more in the world. Even if I got invited to be on staff, I'd be underutilized.
The minimum wage job is a really good comparison because it also hits on the supervision aspect of things. Some managers really suck. YWAM's philosophy on putting people in charge seems to be based on the verse "My strength is made perfect in weakness." ("No qualifications? You're perfect! We're just going to trust God.") I think a big part of it is what I mentioned in the previous paragraph about being underutilized. YWAM can't hold onto skilled guys because they move on.
Lastly, related to being productive, I would make a much, much better supporter than a supportee. Money/lifestyle are limited here, which I can do really well, and I live simply anyway but not to the extent of people living on a missionary base. Here's what I mean for the luxuries that everyone currently not living on a missionary base gets to enjoy.... It's annoying that I can't get any white shirts clean-looking at all cause the washers here don't use hot water. I wouldn't choose to have 6 roommates for an extended period of time. I don't like having to walk to Walmart; I miss having a car. I don't like having my food as rationed as it is. I would almost be tempted to just cave in and flat out ask for a care package with snacks in it to be sent to me, but we're only going to be here for 11 more days, so it'd be too late anyway.
This week was the celebration of YWAM's 50 years of existence. They didn't say this overtly all the time, but a lot of it was about how great YWAM is. It reminds me of Ancient Egypt, in that the Pharaohs might have thought the pyramids were symbols of how great Egypt was, when really, it really just told you a lot about their workforce. In the same way, the whole base has worked really hard to put this gala together, including working on the weekend of Thanksgiving. It's different than the Egypt analogy however, because we're paying them to work here.
The 50th Celebration had a 3-hour morning session and a 3-hour evening session. Our school leader has been very emphatic about how mandatory they are. There's optional sessions throughout the day too. What the sessions have lacked in substance, they made up for in long-windedness. To give you an idea, yesterday's evening session was a graduation ceremony. Like graduation ceremonies for a real college, the long ceremonial formalities were a complete waste of my time, and I'm not insulted, but I think it would be reasonable to be insulted that they would have such a long mandatory session that I had no connection to. Yet the whole thing didn't feel any different than every other session. They were all that bad. David Hamilton makes Jose Zayas look like a great, concise speaker. The other night, I had a headache, which I dubbed a "David Hamilton headache."
The food situation has taken a turn for the worse this week too. We used to be limited to one portion of meat for lunch and dinner. Now, they're limiting the rice too, to just one scoop. They've also stopped setting out peanut butter and jelly sandwich stuff at lunch and dinner, so it's even harder to get filled up. So after the night session, we've all been going to McDonald's. Except tonight we went to Jack in the Box, and it was the best trip to Jack in the Box I've ever had. I had 4 tacos, a Jr. bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and 2 leftover portions of a girl's Oreo milkshake that they couldn't finish.
While I'm at it, I might as well mention a few other shortcomings of the YWAM setting in general...
Everything is over spiritualized here. Everything does involve God in a way, but our school leader has guilt-tripped us about keeping our rooms clean and not being late to anything. As I've been saying, "It sounds like they don't want us to break any of the big commandments. You don't sell drugs to children; you don't commit murder; and you keep your room clean."
At home, I'll get to do engineering and entrepreneurship. I fix computers and cars. I do skilled stuff! Here, I'm a peon of the masses. It may be humbling/character building/good for you to do labor that would normally pay minimum wage, especially when you're not actually getting paid at all, but still, it'd be offensive to God to throw away the ability to do more in the world. Even if I got invited to be on staff, I'd be underutilized.
The minimum wage job is a really good comparison because it also hits on the supervision aspect of things. Some managers really suck. YWAM's philosophy on putting people in charge seems to be based on the verse "My strength is made perfect in weakness." ("No qualifications? You're perfect! We're just going to trust God.") I think a big part of it is what I mentioned in the previous paragraph about being underutilized. YWAM can't hold onto skilled guys because they move on.
Lastly, related to being productive, I would make a much, much better supporter than a supportee. Money/lifestyle are limited here, which I can do really well, and I live simply anyway but not to the extent of people living on a missionary base. Here's what I mean for the luxuries that everyone currently not living on a missionary base gets to enjoy.... It's annoying that I can't get any white shirts clean-looking at all cause the washers here don't use hot water. I wouldn't choose to have 6 roommates for an extended period of time. I don't like having to walk to Walmart; I miss having a car. I don't like having my food as rationed as it is. I would almost be tempted to just cave in and flat out ask for a care package with snacks in it to be sent to me, but we're only going to be here for 11 more days, so it'd be too late anyway.
Friday, December 3, 2010
A Tribute
Madi had to be put to sleep this week. Few people know it's life story...
Once a upon a time, there was a group of people mining into the mountains of Moria, and they dug deeply and greedily. They awakened something in the deep, something not fit for the surface of the world. But it came out into the world and then came upon a hideous creature addicted to the One Ring. These two beings got together and had offspring. Amazingly enough, the first one to come out was even rejected by its parents. It lived as a homeless, abused creature, until one day, this Mother Theresa figure, henceforth just referred to as Mom, received a call about a missing cat. Mom answered the call, trying to find her own moderately ugly lost cat, but instead was just presented with this thing. She took it in and cared for it more than most people care for creatures that have not escaped from Tartarus. It haunted that house for a handful of years, until its equivalent of a heart stopped beating. My theory is that it ran out of food, since it only feeds on the souls of small children. In the end, we tried to cremate it, but the fire had no effect. Looking on the bright side, even though it has passed away, it has become much more pleasant to be around ever since.
Once a upon a time, there was a group of people mining into the mountains of Moria, and they dug deeply and greedily. They awakened something in the deep, something not fit for the surface of the world. But it came out into the world and then came upon a hideous creature addicted to the One Ring. These two beings got together and had offspring. Amazingly enough, the first one to come out was even rejected by its parents. It lived as a homeless, abused creature, until one day, this Mother Theresa figure, henceforth just referred to as Mom, received a call about a missing cat. Mom answered the call, trying to find her own moderately ugly lost cat, but instead was just presented with this thing. She took it in and cared for it more than most people care for creatures that have not escaped from Tartarus. It haunted that house for a handful of years, until its equivalent of a heart stopped beating. My theory is that it ran out of food, since it only feeds on the souls of small children. In the end, we tried to cremate it, but the fire had no effect. Looking on the bright side, even though it has passed away, it has become much more pleasant to be around ever since.
The Computer Conundrum
My laptop wouldn't turn on a couple days ago. It sounded like it was powering up, but the monitor stayed black. So I learned about 808 Computers. It's a 30-40 minute walk away, and it does free diagnostics.
A day ago, I learned the verdict. The motherboard is busted. That's the most expensive part in the computer. It costs a bit over $200 to get a cheap one online. I read online that motherboards can overheat. I think the heat did it in because the "room temperature" is so high here, it's had the sun shining on it before, and leaving it on just makes it hotter.
So here's my options...
Get the cheap motherboard online. Except it would take longer to deliver to Hawaii than the time that I will even be in Hawaii. The same goes for buying a laptop online.
Go to Rwanda without a laptop. Then I'd get a better deal on a laptop when I do buy one. Except I want to have a laptop in Rwanda. I might do a lot of writing while I'm there.
Buy a used laptop. I realized that I only use a computer for low-demand tasks. So there's no point in me buying a really nice laptop. I just need it to do the basics. Alas, the laptops available on Craiglist were crappy deals on laptops of dubious/worthless quality. But thinking along the same lines, I looked into buying a little netbook. But the sizes of the keyboard and monitor annoy me enough that I think it's worth spending the extra hundred dollars to get a full laptop.
Buy the best deal for an entry-level laptop at the closest superstore that sells computers. This is the winning option. I pretty much only ever use the computer for Wikipedia, Facebook, blogging, Skyping, writing, and studying the occasional language. More powerful computers were made for gamers, which I am not. Costco mainly deals in nicer laptops, but Walmart has what I want. I found that Walmart is just as good as various computer company websites for having the price and quality that I'm looking for.
Also, I think I'll get the motherboard I need in March for $200, get the information out, and then sell that laptop for $300.
A day ago, I learned the verdict. The motherboard is busted. That's the most expensive part in the computer. It costs a bit over $200 to get a cheap one online. I read online that motherboards can overheat. I think the heat did it in because the "room temperature" is so high here, it's had the sun shining on it before, and leaving it on just makes it hotter.
So here's my options...
Get the cheap motherboard online. Except it would take longer to deliver to Hawaii than the time that I will even be in Hawaii. The same goes for buying a laptop online.
Go to Rwanda without a laptop. Then I'd get a better deal on a laptop when I do buy one. Except I want to have a laptop in Rwanda. I might do a lot of writing while I'm there.
Buy a used laptop. I realized that I only use a computer for low-demand tasks. So there's no point in me buying a really nice laptop. I just need it to do the basics. Alas, the laptops available on Craiglist were crappy deals on laptops of dubious/worthless quality. But thinking along the same lines, I looked into buying a little netbook. But the sizes of the keyboard and monitor annoy me enough that I think it's worth spending the extra hundred dollars to get a full laptop.
Buy the best deal for an entry-level laptop at the closest superstore that sells computers. This is the winning option. I pretty much only ever use the computer for Wikipedia, Facebook, blogging, Skyping, writing, and studying the occasional language. More powerful computers were made for gamers, which I am not. Costco mainly deals in nicer laptops, but Walmart has what I want. I found that Walmart is just as good as various computer company websites for having the price and quality that I'm looking for.
Also, I think I'll get the motherboard I need in March for $200, get the information out, and then sell that laptop for $300.
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