Yesterday I actually got to go to the brand new mall in downtown Kigali. And I have to say I was fairly impressed. If you have ever been to Kigali you would understand. This is basically the first mall, in Rwanda. It is big and white, it has two floors and even a food court kind of thing on the first floor all around the stairs. Fully awesome. Now many stores I have gone shopping in here generally tend to be very small, and have as little light as possible to save on the electricity bill. I went in to this one store called 'city market', and wow, seriously huge! It was probably about the size of an average to slightly small size grocery store that we are used to in North America like Safeway, Save-On-Foods, or whatever, but for what I have been used to since I left it's absolutely massive. Every kind of food I have seen in any food store in Rwanda I saw seemingly limitless supplies of all of it on shelf after shelf. I was really pretty stunned. I know this is just commonplace in Canada and probably not very interesting, but come spend some time doing your own shopping in Rwanda for a while, and then go to this store and we'll see how you react to it.
But I get very excited to see the advances that Rwanda and especially Kigali is making all the time. Im not sure if i have mentioned this before, but Rwanda seems to have the goal in sight to become the main leading technological power of central Rwanda. As Rwanda is not very big and cant really compete with the bigger countries that boast so much huge agricultural capabilities, Rwanda is trying to make it's own claim to success through being the leader in technology in the whole area. And they are doing a good job too. Kigali was one of the first cities in central Africa to have a good cellphone system I believe. Many people have cellphones here. It's very common, so that shows something. There are technology schools and stores popping up everywhere, and well this excites me because Rwanda is moving into the future with great strides and I love that at least for a little bit now I get to be part of it. And yeah, have a tiny little mall with a huge store, that just adds to my excitement.
So things are getting better for me all the time here. God is blessing me hugely in my finances, in ministry, and many other ways. I mentioned before that I havent received as many emails from home as Id like and I wouldnt mind some more. That is still very true, but I think about two weeks ago I finished what was about a month of severely missing home. I kind of recognize that it was probably more of an attack of the enemy than me just missing home. If the enemy can keep my focus on myself and how much I miss home and wish I was there, then I become pretty much completely useless here in Rwanda. Now I still miss Canada and all my friends and family very much, but that is not my focus or main stream of thoughts anymore. I am learning with God's help to really focus on the task at hand so I can do the best job that God would have me do here in Rwanda. I still intensely miss home now and then, but I am much better now at not letting that prevent me from being fully effective here in Rwanda. I have been here four months, and I believe I am still just getting to how effective I can potentially be for God in the work He has for me here. That doesn't mean I have been slacking off or anything either, but just that God is teaching me bit by bit how to function and work as a leader and be effective overseas, and unfortunately it is not something you can pick up perfectly the moment you step off the plane, though that would be nice. I was actually kind of hoping it would be like that for a while before I left I think. But no, alas, it is a process which God is moving me through in an awesome way. I also am not saying here by the way that I don't really need those emails from home anymore. Email me definitely! The more I can get the better, and Ill always respond just as soon as I can.
I should have some pictures coming very soon. Possibly tomorrow hopefully. So tune back into DrewinRwanda.com very soon, and see new non-military type pictures! Thankyou all for reading and for your prayers and for eveything. Thankyou and God bless! Bye for now
