Hi Everyone! It’s Ben again. I wanted to share with you about the worship that I got to experience here at the orphanage on Sunday morning. Being a worship leader, I always look for new ways to worship and how people react to the songs that they are singing. Let me tell you something… there is nothing like worship here in Rwanda. All of their songs are acapella with only a drum playing to keep the beat. In America, sometimes we get too caught up in the little things of worship like if the guitar is in tune or if we do a certain amount or hymns and contemporary songs when we are forgetting the purpose of what we are there for. We are there to sing to our God, to thank him for creating us and blessing us with so many things that we don’t deserve. Here, all of these people dance and sing at the top of their lungs because they remember why they are singing and who they are singing to. They have fun singing their songs. We must remember were our hearts are in worship. If we have angry hearts and we’re singing praises… it defeats the purpose of singing praises in the first place. Thank you all for reading this and please take something from it. Thank you so much for your prayers as well, they have helped so much. God bless you all. –Ben Ikeler
Hi, this is Vicki & I agree with Ben. Worship this morning was awesome, no holding back in Rwanda. Everyone just kept taking turns leading in song after song, not worrying about the clock. In fact, we have come to learn that everything here is in ‘Rwanda time,’ that means the schedule is always subject to change! We have witnessed that first hand almost every day. Our original ‘plans’ usually did not take place, although we did complete the projects we came to complete in record time, trying to get the supplies for the rest of the projects has required a lot of patience. We intended to start painting the inside of the Joe-Joe Family house last week (they are a family of six who work here and live in their own house here at the orphanage.) That will probably not happen now until Tuesday, due to holidays Friday & Monday and just not being able to get to the store during the hours they are open.
Sadie & I opened the library for the kids today who didn’t go to play soccer. We had a great time reading to them out of the English books, putting puzzles together and looking at pictures we brought from Pennsylvania. The kids love saying, “Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania” and are getting very good at it!
We have been a little spoiled by Serena’s cooking. She made a delicious pasta dish with chopped tomatoes, veggies & spices on top. We thought we would be eating all of the meals with the kids, so eating at the house with the Tyrrell’s and Viola has been quite an unexpected blessing. I liked some of the food the kids eat (like rice with vegetables), but the last time I ate with the kids, it was kasava with meat and I really do not want to experience that again! I am not sure how to describe kasava, but it is a gelatinous texture (kind of reminds me of the ‘blob’) and they rip it off in pieces and dip it in a meat sauce. Some liken it to play doh, but personally, I like play doh better!
We had a campfire tonight & roasted the marshmallows we brought. It was the first for the kids and they figured out the whole campfire thing right away! After we passed out marshmallows we roasted for them (we decided 65 kids with hot marshmallows on a stick was not a good idea,) the kids broke into song and then started dancing. They loved the marshmallows and everyone was a sticky mess! Definitely a hit! Ben played guitar and we all sang some songs with the children. It was a great day—and night—here in Africa!
AMEN!
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