By Charlie Oglesby
Happy Independence Day USA! July 4th is a holiday in Rwanda as well – Liberation Day. It’s been a very restful day today as we acclimate to the time zone difference and gear up for the coming week.
We had a great team devotional time this morning with elements of prayer, worship, sharing from the Bible and ministering to the Lord and each other. Lydia kicked things off by sharing about Zechariah and Mary both being visited by Gabriel with the message that God was going to give each of them children despite their unusual circumstances. They both responded by saying, “how can this be?” but their hearts were different. Zechariah was lacking faith but Mary was simply asking for clarification. Her further response is “I am the servant girl of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say.” She had a heart that was full of faith and ready to be used by God no matter what. It’s our desire that we have hearts like Mary while serving in Rwanda and following our trip.
Another highlight of our devotional time was Tim leading us in worship and sharing prophetically. God was working in all our hearts this morning in a powerful way. We were especially blessed to have another volunteer with us – Erica from Toronto. She is a teacher in the Middle East, but will be serving in Rwanda with FVA through the end of the month. We are enjoying our time with her.
It’s early in our trip and for the sake of brevity I’ll just share a few highs and lows.
Highs: no flight delays, dinner at Sandrali and Immaculee’s with their children, and excellent team devotional times.
Lows: two team bags didn’t arrive, some unsettled stomachs among team members, and I’m struggling to neutralize a case of poison ivy that I brought along from MN.
Please pray for the health of our team that we’d be used by the Lord in a powerful way during our time in Rwanda.