Rwanda Trip Part 3

Our third day of clinic was in Kayonza. It was much closer to Kigali than our previous clinic day (only 1 and a half hours, and those on much better roads). Africa New Life Ministries has an orphanage, school and medical clinic in Kayonza in addition to some other ministries. Our clinic was very full. We had a couple more people to help us triage patients, the entire evangelism team was able to help talk to people, and one of our nurses was able to help see some of the more straightforward cases. This meant people coming non-stop to the pharmacy area. Thankfully I had some help this day. Libby, the lady I mentioned whose suitcase of eyeglasses was stuck in the Kigali airport, was helping along with Pam. The few eyeglasses Libby was able to carry with her (including the ones around her neck) were gone by day’s end. I didn’t personally have a lot of interesting things that I saw, but the other clinic workers did. There was a lady who was 39 weeks pregnant that we were almost certain was having contractions. She didn’t deliver while we were at clinic, but it couldn’t have been much longer. There was a young guy who had a broken leg. We really didn’t have anything but Tylenol and Motrin for pain, so unfortunately he had to endure the long ride to the area hospital with just some anti-inflammatory medications. One of the saddest parts of the day was when a mother and her young child were informed that they had HIV. That was pretty difficult.

The road to Kayonza. This is about the clearest picture I had of this, but all of the hills throughout our drives were similar to this. Mostly leveled and cultivated by hand with basic tools.

There were lots of opportunities to witness to people in Kayonza. Everyone was so excited to have the Kinyarwandan booklet on the four spiritual laws. Several of the people that were saved in Kayonza couldn’t get enough of the booklets. They would just go around with handfuls of them telling their neighbors and friends. I think that is where I got the most joy out of that last clinic day. In reality, we only had 3 days of clinic. In those three days we probably treated less than 600 people. And really, some of the diseases that we treated will require long-term therapy that we could only initiate (with hopes that the clinics in the area will be able to continue after we left). But God will remain. The people whose lives were changed by His Spirit will be able to share Him with others. Those people who thought they had to try to be good or do good things to gain God’s favor were able to find out about Jesus. They now know He is the only Way, the real Truth, and the Life. And they couldn’t wait to tell others. Would that I were so bold and excited here, where I serve every day.

On Sunday we went to the church service at the ANLM Dream Center. They have an English then a Kinyarwanda service. I helped with a puppet number and some other teammates did a skit. The services were scheduled to last about 2 hours, but went a bit longer. I have always found that describing a worship service is one of the most difficult things to do. What I can say is that it was clear that God was present, and that I am glad and humbled to have been a part of it.

A picture taken during the Kinyarwandan service

That afternoon we travelled back to Kayonza to do skits and puppets for the children at the orphanage and share testimonies throughout the program as well. I probably hadn’t done puppet ministry since high school, and my arms reminded me of that. But it was so much fun. There were SO many kids there. I asked one teammate how many children she thought were there. To which she responded, “All of them.” I have always had a special place in my heart for children’s ministries, so this was another of my favorite things for the trip. After the hour of puppets and skits we brought out all of the kickballs, basketballs, and various sport equipment that our group had brought in a couple of suitcases. Needless to say those that weren’t participating in skits and puppets got their own arm workout blowing up all of the balls with hand pumps. This was followed with handing out about 1000 of the tracts and talking with the kids. They would each ask the four or five English questions they knew and I would say hello or how are you in kinyarwandan. Thankfully they all stuck pretty well to the script with their responses.

This is probably about a fourth of the auditorium where we had our program

Sweet girl holding one of the Kinyarwandan tracts. I promise the inside is not in English.

The next day was the saddest: the day we left for home. Several of us walked to the local market that was just a short walk from our guesthouse to buy some gifts to bring back home. Then we all left. Way too soon. I will probably just take up one more post talking a little more about some final thoughts and also about the group our church partners with in Kigali.