Alright, so working at the set was two weeks ago on Thursday. The day after, I was in downtown Kigali, just walking around by myself and minding my own business, when this group of Rwandan guys crowded around me, and this one guy grabbed my arm. Then suddenly they all dispersed and were gone. With them, went my wallet... What I should have done was yell and shout and say that they'ed stolen from me, but I suppose I was in shock and didn't realize what had just happened. I thought maybe I'd actually left it somewhere or something. Yes, I am rather dumb. I think often about what I could've done differently, but alas it is gone and past and there is nothing gained by worrying about it now. There'd be no point in going to the police though. What would I say? 6 Rwandan guys stole my money. Can you describe them. They were black and wearing clothes... anything else? Not really... They had hair. Short hair... And that is if the police even understood me that far as they all speak pretty much only French and very little English. Oh well, I figured I learnt my lesson. Be more careful, and keep important cards in my bag, not my pocket. So I lost my driver's lisence, my credit card, care card, sin card, airmiles and bank card. But I have been functioning just fine without them. In fact I have been learning to pray for those that have robbed me, and so I have been growing because of this greatly. Where the enemy has tried to knock me down and discourage me, I have grown ever stronger and more faithful in God's provision. Besides, Im sure they thought robbing a muzungu they would make loads of money, where I only actually had about 2000 francs in there, which is about 4 dollars Canadian. I tell people the truth that I have very little money and they almost never believe me. Well there you go. Im sure they opened up my wallet and just dropped their mouths because of receiving so little money for their efforts.
A team has come to Rwanda for three weeks from Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Surrey, and I have had the honor of getting to work along with them everyday to help build this new playground at the new school that is being built near the new Church site. The new school is called Wellspring. The playground is almost done now, and it looks awesome. I will send some pictures of it with my next newsletter. Be sure to sign up for it, let me know you want to be on the list and Ill put you on my list. But the awesome part has been getting to spend time with all these people who are essentially from my home. Though of course their random talking about how they can't wait to get home to have a tim hortons ice cap and to do all these other things you can only do in Canada gets a little annoying. They have a week left until they go home, I have a little more than a week left until I get home. About 10 months actually. But yeah they are all awesome anyways. So I have often even been just sleeping over at the new site with all of them, and have been very rarely at my own place.
I have just found out that my next door neighbors, Gary and Cindy, who have been such a blessing to have right there will not be leaving in November like planned, but on August 2nd, which of course is much sooner than expected. They have run out of money or something. There are some complications, but anyways, they're going home. So that really sucks. I believe I will need to move into their house once they go, as the Church has a lease for their side of the duplex, not mine. So I'll be going over there. Ill then be a little more alone than ever before as well, and my transportation will be that much more difficult, so we'll see how this goes.
So much more is happening and coming up so quickly. Things are happening so fast and I can barely keep up with it all. It's kind of like a wild, crazy rollercoaster that is swinging me left right and center and I can't help but miss boring times in Canada when almost nothing would ever happen. But I am definitely being kept on my toes and I can never say life serving God is dull in the least. Rather it is always incredibly interesting. But on this mad rollercoaster that at times makes me feel sick it is going so fast and almost seemingly out of control I just thank God that He is the safety device that keeps me buckled tightly into the seat. I can never be tossed out or hurt, but I will get to the end of the ride safely one day, because God is with me watching over me and protecting me on every turn and stretch that may come. In Him I put all my faith, because literally if it were not Him, I would have been flung out of this seat a long time ago. I never would've been able to even get on the ride if it wasn't for Him. Praise the Lord from whom all blessings and provision flows.
