Rwanda

It is now T minus 10 hours. Tomorrow morning my sister Polly and I are boarding a bus to Montreal, and after a few days training we're flying to Rwanda, a small and troubled country in central Africa. We'll be with 16 other Christians, nine of whom are teenagers, bringing the love of Christ and the sympathy of the North American church to our brethren in Rwanda. Our activities are highlighted by a lot of day camps that we'll be running in cooperation with local ministries for orphans and widows. We'll also be praying with churches in Kigali and Butare and at genocide sights, where we'll pray for national healing.

I'm as much interested in what I'll learn as in what I'll teach. Having grown up in such a phenomenally sheltered culture (I, like the Buddha, have reached age 20 without ever seeing a corpse), I feel far inferior in experience and the faith that comes from enduring trials to Rwandans, and I'm hoping I can gain some of what they've developed through pain. I do feel somewhat guilty for living such an easy life, but more than that I feel the weighty imperative that "from everyone who has been given much, much will be required" and the desire to translate my advantages in life into something more than cash.

I will be returning home on August 26th or so, and until then I'm hoping a few of my friends and loyal readers can update this site occassionally, with their own views and gripes. Thus, anything that may be written here until late August is probably not me (and I'll ask them to sign articles). Blessings!