Rwanda 🇷🇼 Devotional

 Life in the Village

I recently had the opportunity to visit a close friend, Kaylee, and her husband, John, in Rwanda, Africa for the last 3 weeks of my summer break. 

Before I left, I honestly didn’t really know much about Rwanda other than a little bit of background about the 1994 genocide and a handful of other things told to me by my friend Kaylee.  

On my 3rd or 4th day there, I had the chance to visit the Rwanda Genocide Memorial. Before I went, that morning, my friend’s husband warned me that it would be one of the hardest things I would ever do, and he was right. There is so much evil in the things that happened, but at the end of the museum, you see the hope, compassion, and generosity that came out of such a horrible time. Rwanda is one of the safest countries in Africa now because they have made a commitment to never allow such an event to happen again. They even have an event every last Saturday of the month called Umaganda where everyone has the morning off and engages in community service projects. 

Kaylee and her husband John live in a small village about an hour outside the capital,  Kigali. They run a ministry called “Arise Rwanda.” 

Village life is much simpler with fewer distractions. Here are a few examples and how I reflected on the intentionality that comes with village life: 

• Most people don’t have running water. Each day, they walk to the well with big containers and carry water with them back to their home and place of work. Do we go to the well each day and seek to be filled up by the Lord, and carry him with us throughout the day? 
• Most people in the village don’t have electricity or light, and since Rwanda is so close to the equator, it is only light out from 6am-6pm most of the year. Yet they still find ways to light their homes and markets after dark. Do we carry God’s light with us and let it shine before others? 
• Without electricity, people in the village cannot have a refrigerator. Each day, I went to the market with my friends and purchased only what we needed for that day. Do we purchase only things that we need, or do we buy in excess? 
• One day when we were at the market, the power went off and on 3x in the less than 10 minutes that we were there. My friend assured me that this was a typical thing that happened in Rwanda. We take SO many things for granted in America. What are some things that you are taking for granted today? Remember to thank God for all the little things, because you never know when you might have to live without them. 
• Most children in the village only have 3 outfits: their daily clothes, their school uniform, and their church clothes. Some of them cannot afford church clothes, so they wear their school uniform on Sundays. In America, we have SO many clothes and SO many things. Do you worry about what you will wear, or do you allow God to provide for you? 
• My friend and most of the villagers do not have mirrors in their homes. Many of us spend a long time in front of the mirror each morning getting ready, but do we spend time looking at our interior, at our heart, allowing God to circumcise our hearts and examining the posture of our hearts? 
• Most people in the village do not have cars. Some have bikes, and many walk everywhere. They carry heavy loads in their arms, on their heads, or using their bikes. Sometimes you will see people helping one another with their loads. How do you help others carry their load? 
• While I was there, I had extremely limited access to wifi. I maybe had access 1-2 hours every 2-3 days. I could have paid to get phone service while I was there, but I chose to take a break from technology, and it was so good for me. I realized how often I am on my phone, communicating with others, quickly googling an answer to a question, or just mindlessly scrolling. After the first week I noticed on my screen time report that my phone usage was down 70%. Yikes. What are the distractions in your life, technology or otherwise, that are keeping you from growing in relationships with God and others? 
• Almost everywhere we went, we saw mamas with their babies wrapped around them on their back with a simple blanket. The adage, “it takes a village to raise a child,” is very true in Rwanda. If a parent is at work, a neighbor or friend helps care for the children, helping pour into them. Whether or not you are a parent, do you have a village surrounding you and pouring into you, supporting you and your family when you need it? 

So many people asked me before I left why I was going or what I was going to do while

I was in Rwanda. To be honest, I wasn’t totally sure. I knew that I wanted to do a safari and serve with my friends in their mission, but more than anything, I knew that God was calling me to go. I learned so much in the simplicity of village life. 

While I was there, I listed to a podcast called “Pearls” by Kristi McLelland. Episode 4 is all about Peter walking on water with Jesus. The speaker, Kristi, talks about the Jewish culture of discipleship. She says that students of rabbis, disciples, strived to follow their rabbi so closely that the dust of their rabbi’s sandals gets on them. When Peter was walking on water, we can imagine him intentionally trying to get close to Jesus. When I was in Rwanda, everything was so dusty and so dirty all the time, like a track record of everywhere I had been.

My challenge for you today is this - are you willing to follow Jesus so closely on the adventure He is calling you to that you have the dust of His sandals all over you?