Church Visits

Two weeks ago, I jumped in MC and started to head out to church in Ruhere, a poor area about 30 minutes' drive from the compound.  I was sad to be going alone, but Tim had an emergency surgery and Sam wasn't feeling well.  As I started the engine, suddenly I saw a line of South Alabama medical students headed out of the compound with Bibles in hand, obviously heading to the neighborhood church.



"Hey, y'all want to go on an adventure? I'm heading out to a church a ways away from here, and I can guarantee you'll love it if you want to jump in. There's plenty of room, as you can see!"

They had an impromptu pow-wow amongst themselves, and within about 2 minutes, they'd decided to come along, and were piling into the back of our Land Cruiser.

And sure enough, they did have a wonderful time!  This is the sweetest church, way up on top of  a mountain!  I'm always amazed when MC climbs those "roads" and actually gets me there in one piece.

Just about now, you might be wondering, "Who is MC?".

I'm so glad you asked!  I was planning to link you back to an earlier blog post about MC, but as I searched the archives, I realized I never wrote a blog about her!  What was I thinking?!

Well, here's the story (and then I will get back to the story about visiting this church, I promise.)

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There is this awesome family from Boston. (Click HERE if you want to read about the Neil's visit in November.)

Yes, our Southern friends, there ARE nice people up North, and I am about to prove it! :)

 This family, the Neils, have been coming to Rwanda to visit and to help wherever they can for much longer than we've been here.  The Dad of this crazy group, Mark Neil, grew up in neighboring Congo as a missionary kid.  So, he speaks Swahili and knows the territory well.  We met up with them in April of 2013, and hit it off.  They kept in touch and let us know they were coming back for a visit over Thanksgiving.  We made plans to visit when they came.

And then Mark emailed and asked the seemingly innocent question,

"Can you drive over to meet us in Kamembe when we come?  
Do you have a vehicle to do that?"  

I explained to him that we could rent a taxi, but no, we didn't have a car.  He wrote back:  "You don't have a car??"  I clarified that no, we didn't, but it was no big deal really, as we didn't need to go many places anyway.

Next thing I know, we got an email from the Neil family saying they had decided to purchase a car when they came to Rwanda for us to use for as long as we are here.  In case you missed it, let me say that again:  They decided to BUY A CAR FOR US TO USE.  They would use it when they were in country (roughly two weeks a year), but the rest of the time, we could use it however we wanted or needed.

Incredible.  

Even typing it now, 4 months later, I can hardly believe this happened.  Sure enough, a few weeks later when they arrived, they were sporting this beautiful baby!

A Land Cruiser that can basically drive ANYWHERE.  And they handed us the keys and said, "Just treat her like she is yours."  And that was that!  Since then, we've had a fantastic car and boy, has it ever been put to good use.  Now we don't know how we survived the first 18 months without a car.  WE really don't.  We've transported a sick, early 20's, Peace Corps volunteer to a home with running water when she was down with a bad stomach bug, we've taken many people to church many times, we've taken a dying patient to a cancer hospital, transported specimens to lab work, picked up and delivered people to the airport and a hundred other things.  It's been awesome having her with us.  WE call her MC because she is our MIRACLE CAR.  She is an answer to prayer, and way better than we could have imagined. We were praying for funds to buy a car - instead a car was flat out given to us to use.  This family not only bought the car, they even pay for the insurance and for its maintenance.  Right now, MC is in Kigali getting a thorough once-over, oil change and paint job (due to someone - ahem - hitting a low hanging tree limb).  What could be better than THAT?

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So, anyway, as I was saying before I went on that side story.......all the medical students piled into MC and we headed for church at Ruhere.  I actually don't have a picture of them for some reason, so this one of a previous group will have to suffice! It was almost this crowded, but not quite.

Here are pictures from our time at church.

They are a poor congregation, but they are rich in love towards God and their neighbor.  And look at what they did!  Even though they had no idea that more than one of us was coming, they managed to cook a delicious lunch for us and fed us ALL after church.  The hospitality here is so amazing. And tasty!

The pastor and his wife

And, by the way, this sweet Methodist congregation is trying to add on to their building, needs a new generator and amplifier (theirs was rained on due to a leaky roof and was broken) and need new choir uniforms.  If anyone wants to give to their building or improvements program, please comment below.  You can donate to us and have it earmarked (by telling us) for this church and we will be sure 100% of your money gets to them!

The medical students took up a collection after church and gave it to me to give them.  They were so happy!  How cool is that.....?