By Aaron Sivertson
Hello all. Aaron here. It is my privilege to help keep you up to date on our time in Rwanda.
I’ve been recording lots of video that I hopefully can share with many of you upon our return. I’d like to begin with the night of Saturday the 17th. We as a team have drawn closer and closer together as the days go by, which has allowed us to share more openly with each other about life from the funny to the serious. On this occasion it was on the more serious side. We had a very good and powerful prayer time following our devotions (led by Katie and Jessi). I’m very thankful for what God is doing in my life, and how the team has continued to encourage me, and push me to take new steps of faith. But I’m still learning to trust in God, and expand my faith and become ever dependent on him for my security, strength, life, and refreshment. A passage I thought I’d share: Philippians 3:7-11 (But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God depends on faith — that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.) To what levels or degrees am I/are we willing to go to follow God’s prompting, leading, and plan for our/my life?
Well anywho (anyways)… back to the blog at hand and to today’s events (Sunday the 18th).
We continue to eat fairly similar meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I’m thankful that it is all prepared with no work on my end, and no clean up… in that way I have been plenty spoiled. Though some members on our team decided they could get their hands on the ingredients for guacamole, so we had that as a bonus part of our lunch today.
We got to attend a local Rwandan mega church, Restoration Church. To me the new building they are in, based on the time and the way things are typically built in Rwanda, is a huge feat. We were given a tour, so of course I needed to observe and check out as much as possible, plus get some video clips.
I was surprised by the way the service was conducted. I expected it to be a lot like many other Rwandan church gatherings, and be really loud and boisterous. But it was really quite similar to being back home. Though we all were trying to get used to having to try to listen to the translator through the speaking of the preacher. The worship and preaching were good, and it was cool to see a small kid walking along the front step passing back and forth praising God with his hands lifted high.
The rest of our day has consisted mostly of relaxing, eating, laughing, talking, playing games, and lots of prep for the days to come. Many of us are tired, but we continue to stay up to late, wake up not always rested, and head out on a long day filled with “plans” and lots of surprises. So here’s to God being our daily bread, and what sustains us each day as we press on. To God be the glory!