blue toenails

okay so i had a meeting with the women who i will be playing soccer in about 2 weeks with. The first lady i met... don't think she is actually going to play... is a pediatrician at a hospital here in Kigali. she is also the director of the w omens council of Rwanda. she was nice.... owait lets start over
so i left the house a little early so i could find the place where the meeting was taking place. I drove around in a large cul-de-sac for a while until i decided to sit and think. i knew the place was close by but the lady wouldn't answer her phone. so finally i decided ..that's it.. i am going to go where i think it is a force my way in. so i drove up the the prime ministers office and said to the military police again ( i did about 4 times) i need to come in. there are gates and military guys guarding the gate. of course none of them spoke english or french so i was getting frustrated. as i was forcing my big ol truck in they asked me what i needed. as i was explaining to the woman in charge another lady said she was with me. okay so she probably didn't say that b/c it was in kinyrwanda. so anyways i parked my car, met another lady and began to go to the meeting spot.
so here i am walking with the nicely dressed professional ladies and all i can think about is ..don't look at my toes... don't look at my toes. here i am in a casual dress, hair in a ponytail and blue toenails that need to be repainted. oyeah and my big huge bag that didn't really match. owell heehee
so during the meeting i found out that this is really a bigger deal than i thought. apparently it is being advertised on the radio and tv and the tv station will be there on game day. they also said they are trying to work with BBC and CNN. Ha this is going to be interesting
so early today i cut up a pumpkin, boiled it and made it into a paste. tomorrow i will make pumpkin pie. ummmm yummy
okay so bye for now i love all yall and remember... when wearing flip flops make sure all your toe nails are painted!

worm like thingy

okay so don't laugh when i tell you that i am going to be playing in a soccer game in just over a week. HA it is a fundraiser for some orphans here and i will be on the expact team playing against the Rwandan Parliamentarian women. it will be fun and i am sure spencer will take lot of picures.
so today was s good day. we went to lunch at a pretty good buffet today. ha well i say pretty good b/c it was good BUT as i sat down to take a bite of these green like tomatoe things (i was pretty excited about them so i piled my plate full of them) i realized after i ate some that there was a worm like creature in one. ewww so i just descretly moved them to the side, swallowed and enjoyed the rest of my non-worm like food. all for the low price of $5 a plate. haven't decided if we will go back... have to think about it guess :)
had a PTO meeting tonight... it was good... actually it was my first ever pto meeting. i am now the K and 2nd grade rep. heehhee
okay so now i am goona take a long hot shower.... mainly because we finally got our water back yesterday, or was it the other day... anyways when we are out of city water the showers are not fun. you just stand there with the showerhead in your hand dripping the water over you.. not that you needed to know
so anyways love all yall and remember... gosh- i just can't remember tonight!
april

what's your latest news?

okay so i guess i just feel like writing today. never really been a big writer! i actually remember my teacher in highschool teaching me how to write. maybe i should just call it scribbling our typing for that matter.
so on my computer internet browser or what ever you call it, i have a tab that says "latest headlines" when i click on it it is a listing about things that the BBC thinks is worth reading or knowing about. my thought is this... i think we or someone should create another tab that says "latest headlines" but this tab would not be about trauma or the latest bomb coming your way... it would be a tab about miracles. wouldn't it be awesome to see miracles across the world rather than the messed up things that happen! for me the headline would look like this:

Jennifer Finch Showlater healed!
Sam Green healed!
5 year old Kate healed!
the hundry are fed!
the poor are rich!
the lost are found!
families are reunited!
families are healed!
THE WORLD HAS BEEN DELIVERED!


okay just saying... love all yall and remember share your latest headline...
april

standing on the promises of God

Okay so i have 2 thoughts this morning. Not sure how much they will mean to you or if they make sence so here we go.

1 - being delivered - as i sit here starting to work some, i am worshiping through music. right now i am listening to the new album that Selah has put out. I stumbled across it the other day on itunes and downloaded it really fast. they are my favorite group.
so anyways being delivered. As i listen to a particular song on the album all i can think about is a friend of my Jennifer who is going through a surgery today to remove her cancer. I am also thinking about a little girl Kate that is 5 and is suffering from a brain tumer. I am thinking about a father of 3 and Nazarene pastor who is going through cancer treatments in Nashville. I wonder what it feels like to not be able to go on. Trying to feel some sort of feeling that I need to be delivered. why is it people suffer so much in this life? why are some people delivered and some not. is it a matter of faith? surely not especially for a 5 year old girl. as i sit here and have tears streaming down my face i pray for deliverance. pray for healing and comfort for these 3. i also pray that their lives be touched with a since of delivery from sadness and pain. O Lord deliver them today! Help us stand firm on your promises. even if the promises are for this complete delivery when we meet with you in heaven.
For me i ask for delivery of worry and stress! i ask God to choose me to be lifted up his arms and carried through whatever comes my way today.

2. - famous - okay so spencer has always laughed at me when i told him years back that I really felt like the Lord was gonna do something with me. okay so he didn't laugh because of the thought of being used just the part of when i said i was gonna be famous. HA so yesterday i felt like God was really trying to speak to me again. WHAT IS IT? where and how am i gonna be famous or i guess i should say used by God in a way that everyone see it. sees Him working through me.
maybe just maybe i am just seeing Gods face clearer and i am suppose to share that he is famous! HA or maybe i will be on TV heehee

okay love all yall and remember when making hashbrowns it is easier and faster just to grate the potatoes not cut them into little bity pieces.
april

birds on my window

This morning I woke up to the sun shinning, birds chirping (right outside our window) and a nice cool breeze. After opening all the curtains and enjoying the setting i made coffee and got on the computer. Of course checking facebook to see what has happened while I was sleeping.
FB can sometimes be hard on me. I see posts like... went to a highschool football game, ate at a great resturant with my husband or had a girls night out. Being reminded of such a life sometimes gets me in the mood to go home. Go to a place where life is filled with family and friends. So why, why is it I still like to see what everyone is up to? Who knows maybe I just need to be reminded that life is what you make of it. No one or place can make me happy forever. These things are temporary and at the end of the day it is gone. memories are still there but the event is gone.
Today I am gonna try to abide in the things that are present here. Enjoy the life here. Listen to the African birds. Love my family and love this setting.
love all yall and remember... add a little milk to your tea... yummy

april

no water but still Praising God!

I can feel your prayers. I can tell when someone is praying for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Living in Rwanda is more different than you can imagine... but also the same in many ways. We live differently than we would in the States but God is the same here as he is in the States. Even though we can go days without city water or hours without electricity, God remains the same. I have come to realize that loving God and serving Him should be the same whether or not we are comfortable with what life gives us each day. He reigns through the storms and He reigns through the days filled with sunshine and no problems.
Is it easy?... of course not but I realize that when life gives us bumps in the road we just have to jump over them, just strap on the load and take off... run with joy and Praising His name.

So today I breathe a breath of fresh air... this air completely filled with the spirit of God. I blow it your direction so you can feel this refreshing breath with me.

love all yall and remember... make sure your water tanks are full for days like this : )

April

yummy juice and no fuel for the truck

Note to self.... never rely on the fuel gauge to know if you have fuel. Okay so we ran out of fuel this morning. O-well just one of those days here. I think though i have come a long way. I always thought that when something happens at the Eby's (missionaries in Senegal) house they seem to take everything so good. When their car broke down... o-well it happens. When someone broke in their house 3 days in a row... we are doing fine they said So i think i am getting better - i just try to remind myself that someone else has it worse. Someone else doesn't have gas in their house let alone in a car.

The kids are back to school today and I am suppose to have a skype meeting with another missionary. Opps she must have forgotten. Or maybe she ran out of gas too : )

Yesterday I went to the market with Abewe and Luke. Luke went because Abby went to a friends house, they had the day off of school. The market was a little different than the ones in Senegal. It was cleaner and a little more orderly (if that's a word). We bought cooking bananas, onions, sweet and regular potatoes, tomoatoes, rosemary, egg plants, rice, and some casava flour. Abewe made this paste stuff out of the flour for lunch. You are suppose to dip it into the sauce that she made. It was interesting and we told her she can have the left over flour. Ha! She said she would just keep it here and make it for her and the guard. I said okay! you go for it. Even though she speaks some english my little phrases are a little hard for her to understand. She usually just responds with a "not a problem".
Okay all for now. Sorry that i haven't posted many pictures lately. It takes forever to upload here. We are in the process of receiving our computers for our district learning centers and then once they are up we may be getting satellites for the Internet which will give us better internet. Yay!
So if you remember pray we can get everything worked out to get this up and running! Not only for better upload speed but for your pastoral training that is much needed.
Love all y'all and remember... when making homemade pineapple juice... don't add too much water... there's no going back... well unless you just go get more pineapple.
april

stuff

Friday was a half day for the kids at school. It was some sort of accreditation day for the school. So we got invited to a friends house of Luke and Abby. This family has a girl Abby's age and a boy Luke's age so it was perfect. So all the kids piled in our cruiser and i followed the mom to their house. The kids were talking a mile a minute and were having fun in the bigole truck we have.
The kids played while Juliet and I chatted. It was so nice and I felt right away that we could beome good friends. Jackie speaks english so our conversation was great : ) I also met 2 of her sisters and had a good time getting to know a little about their family. They are Rwandan but grew up in Uganda.
So this is what I came away with... we Americans have too much stuff. I realized that this family seems to be doing well (according to their home). They have a nice house and 3 house workers (that i know of). But they do not live like we do. We americans have too much junk. After leaving her house and walking into my house i though man do we have a lot of stuff. I was a little embarrassed and though imediately that we needed to scale down. It could be embarrassing to have her to our house. When we sold most of our belongings before we left the states i thought we scaled down. Nope we have got more to do. I have decided that I do not want anyone to envy us. Envy can be very bad and I do not want that.
Although i do have to say this may take some time for me. I like my stuff and sometime wish for other stuff. I also have to say that I do not want the new shoes they have in the Target ad this morning. wow they are not something to envy : )
Anyways just a thought..
love all yall and remember....... tea does actually taste good with milk.

a journey

so what is my life as a missionary? what is my perspective? well tonight I am grateful that i have been called to be apart of something bigger than me. something sometimes hard and sometimes easy. my perspective changes everyday. actually it changes every time i get in the car and ride down the road. some days i think what in the world are we doing? but most days i think how awesome it is to be used by God. to be used in a way that i can not do or be anything on my own. I need Him to help me smile at the people who just stare at me. I need Him to help me be Christ to everyone without saying a word. I am glad I am here on this mission road.

love all yalll and remember... everyone is one a journey, where is your road leading you?
april

ahhh rain!

growing! as a child i am not sure if i ever thought much about growing. yes i know at some point as a child i thought i would be a doctor or an actor but i am talking about the growing deep in the relationship with our heavenly father.

o-wait need some mosquito spray...........
okay now i smell like a can of sportsmen Max Repel Formula - o-well it has a long lasting protection

okay so as i live a different life here in another country and another culture i begin to be forced to go deeper. i am wondering though if i am being forced to go deeper because of the challenges and frustrations of living such a life... as a missionary. or maybe just being a christian we should expect these challenges to happen. I am convinced that if life was easy I wouldn't be forced to rely on our Father for guidance. I probably wouldn't be constantly asking Him why things seem the way they are. why is life difficult for the kids on the street? why can i not buy regular sandwich bread that last more than 1 day? today i am thankful that i am talking with God daily. forced or not i am talking. could i chat more? sure thing...
maybe i will stop asking why and just know that He is in control over everything.

yesterday it rained a little. grass is getting greener and the smell of clean is in the air.

i wonder what the roots look like in the ground of the brown grass. isn't awesome to know that once we drink of the water life can come back! our lives can begin to grow and the roots are restored.

just saying...........

i love you guys and gals.... and remember always keep your computer battery charged in case of poweroutages!

april

a dog and a Toyota!

Okay so now that we have our"official" assignments we are ehasdkjfoa (that was exhausted). Don't get me wrong we enjoy being busy but life is going at a fast speed right about now.
Kids are enjoying school. Spencer is also enjoying school but stays busy with the job responsibilities and school. SO if some of you don't know he is attending NNU and his edu tract is MDiv. So now i have 3 kids to say "did you do your homework?" lol

Anyways we have had a great week. Not only did our car sell in Senegal but we found one here in Kigali as well. FInally no calling James the taxi guy early in the moring to wake him up to come and get us for school. No more moto rides carrying my groceries speeding down the road. Although I may still have to take a moto every once in a while for the fun of it. I loved it... well i like it after i was on it. walking to get one was no fun.

This week we also got Beauty. She is our dog. It is funny to see our guard with her. He is trying really hard to act like he is fine with her and for the most part i think he is but he is still a little nervous. Actually Beauty already really likes her. As soon as he leaves an area she is right behind her. She will be a good guard dog and a friend to luke and abby.
Okay really i am tired so this is all for now.
i love all ya'll and remember.... life is too short come to Rwanda... it is beautiful here!

me