Bible day

Friday we finished off our lessons and then passed the Bibles out to the women. You should have heard the cheers! Each Bible had their name in it so when they were called forward, we got a big hug. They were so excited and appreciative to have Bible of their own! I watched as they paged through them and saw one girl raise her fist with a "Yes" when God's word must have spoken to her.

And they sing of God's goodness, His power, His love for them. They dance to glorify His name. The even sang a couple of hymns that we recognized. Then we did our song and dance routine... which they thought was hilarious (in a good way).

From there we were off for Nyamagabe. It was a beautiful drive in green, green mountains. Rwanda is the land of a thousand hills, and I think I have been up and down at least half of them. These are not like our Idaho mountains with their tall craggy peaks and wide valleys. Here the valleys are narrow, maybe a quarter mile wide. They are filled with rice paddies and other crops in small fields. I could identify banana fields, lots of them. I saw a few cows who all had herders. But there were lots of goats tethered alongside the road. It is amazing that they can grow anything with the torrential rains.

We passed one river that was boiling with red run off. I was told there were crocodiles in the waters. It was a favorite place for people to be slaughtered during the genocide. So many were thrown in the river that the crocodiles couldn't eat anymore. How can mankind be so sick? I can't understand, nor do I want to. Holocausts happen worldwide. Why? It seems evil is rampant in this world. And yet God reigns in the hearts of his people. And there is so much good to counteract the evil. Africa New Life educates the people in so many ways. Hygiene is high on the list, as well as education. They love and care about the people.

The Rwandan government is all about accountability and transparency. All people in authority are held responsible for their actions or lack thereof. And the price for their actions is great. The people can take even the smallest thing to the top. Remember those clean roads and streets I told you about? That's because anyone who needs financial assistance can get a day job cleaning, weeding, or sweeping to keep their country looking nice. The government pays them for this service. Yes, it's government assistance, but they earn it. This grandma was hoeing weeds beside the road.

Below are fields of cabbage, corn, bananas and who knows what else. One thing I have yet to see is any farming machinery, or any machinery at all. I do see lots of manpower and hoes. They have dump trucks that are filled by hand with a shovel. No backhoes or loaders. Cement is carried in a hod on their heads as they scramble up very questionable scaffolding to build brick buildings. But they are an industrious people, working hard in whatever they can find to do. We might take a few tidbits from their playbook in the US.