Life at the Speed of Light.....

Well… LORD HAVE MERCY… the last couple of months since my last post have been, how shall I put this – well… I don’t even KNOW how to put it!! I think in the interest of time and as not to write a book, although I am seriously considering that, you must know, just because WHO would really believe this is all real – I mean, REALLY!?! And I will warn you now that the amount of photos that are attached to this post are obscene, but how can one really describe things better than with pictures, so I have included a boat load!

Last I left you (sounds like a book already, now doesn’t it, although, granted, it does have a sort of soap opera-e sound to it!), we were anxiously awaiting both the Beaudin family and the container. Both arrived – the Beaudins on schedule, the container – not so much. I am happy to report that after two months on the ground, the Beaudins (along with their newly acquired Rwandan street puppy, Belle), have settled in quite nicely and have been SUCH a great addition to our MOC family! Diana is a rock star, considering the kids are twins, Mia and Aden (2 years old) and baby, Noah (1 year old)… just think about that for a skinny minute, and if you have to think about it longer than that, you are either a better person than I, or crazy, one of the two! All kidding aside, they are doing great, and we are all eating so well, it’s ridiculous! No African weight loss plans now!

The container was a completely different story. First they told us it was delayed because there was a strike in Tanzania (which there was not), and then it was because customs wouldn’t release it (which was partially true). TCBITW was, yet again, tenacious in his goal of getting that thing here and unloaded before our big groups started arriving! Did we ever make it by the hair of our chiny chin chin! As is always the case around here – when it rains, it pours, so the Beaudins arrived one night, the container didn’t arrive until the next day (and it had on it, the cribs, diapers, wipes, etc, which we didn’t completely locate until almost a week later). At least this one was on the truck facing the proper direction and we were able (since the concrete mixer and some very heavy commercial kitchen equipment was on board) to use the “loading dock” we had dug a year ago! We are always thankful for small miracles! We spent a couple of weeks putting together kitchen equipment and computer desks for the school, and unpacking all the new tools for our “Home Depot,” as we have dubbed our shop.

Within a few days, we had a group of 22 associated with Africa New Life stay just one night with us… a good practice run for our big FBC group arriving just three days later. In that group, were our friends (ok, family, really), the Clarks – Taylor, Gayle, Ryan and Cole from Austin. It was such a treat to spend some time with them and we were so honored to be a part of the dedication of the new girl’s dorm at the Africa New Life Academy over in the Eastern Provence town of Kayonza, in memory of their sweet little Riley Jane, who passed away just three months prior.  What a blessing her life was to all of us, and now, to the precious girls who call Africa New Life Academy home while in school there!

The FBC group arrived in full force just a few days later… and took the campus by storm. There were 25 of them (including fellow wolfpackers, Douglas and Camille Braswell and their boys Douglas and Luke, who were here more than three weeks), and boy oh boy, we were a bit concerned about what we were going to do with that many people for 10 days, but let me just tell you – THEY jumped right in and into action so fast it would have made your head spin! They made curtains for all the houses, organized everything from the kitchen to the laundry room, got “Home Depot” so organized, TCBITW can actually find whatever he is looking for, not to mention teaching, loving on, and mentoring the students, staff and residents of the MOC and beyond! A great BIG thank you to them all (the Braswells, Brogdons, Byrnes, Butlers, Jerome James, Jarvis’, Jones’, Millers, & Rameys)!! We were SOO SOO SOO sad to see them all go!! I personally think they just all need to move on over!! What we didn’t anticipate was the amount of extra laundry 25 people would add to the mix. Do this – go into your closet and drawers and take out EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU OWN, oh, along with all your towels and sheets… divide it all into piles on your laundry room floor, and start washing and drying and do this EVERY SINGLE DAY! You might POSSIBLY get the idea of what we were up against! Needless to say, a commercial washer and dryer FLEW to the top of the “Must Have on the Next Container – GOD WILLING” list! If you happen to have a spare $25K lying around – well, we’ll take it off your hands for that exact purpose… just sayin!

During all of that, we said goodbye to Kim and Aaron Jacobi, who had been here for three months, and were such a valuable addition to the MOC family, that there was major depression around campus in the days after they left! We are PRAYING they will come back and stay longer… in our inability to think otherwise, we have just gone to living in our own little world around this issue, and are convinced that they will, in fact, be back! THE END!

About the same time, Jim and Barb Caldwell and their dear friend, Brittany Mathias arrived for two months. Jim is the head of the John Brown University School of Construction Management and started our university level courses with our construction management students. The students have thrived under his tutelage. Barb is a true Titus 2 woman, and Brittany, a 4th grade teacher, has been great picking up where Kim left off with our illiterate student initiative.

On the heels of the big FBC group leaving, were Robert & Sherard Lewis and Bill & Ann Parkinson coming! Robert and Bill were here to get a plan around our discipleship program. We met with all kinds of pastors and leaders in the communities. We now have a good, solid plan, which includes our first intensive next January. As always, it was so fun to be with these couples and great friends and after a week here, we headed off to South Africa to guide them to some of our favorite places down there. We did a short safari on a private game reserve adjacent to Kruger National Park, and then headed down to our fav, Cape Town, and spent 5 days there. It was a REALLY nice break for TCBITW and I, since we had taken to speaking only in cryptic messages and texts. Not exactly what marriage experts recommend! Just kidding – come on now… while it has been extremely CRAZY and we hadn’t had a date night in I don’t know how long – let’s not get the tongues wagging – all’s fine on the marriage in Rwanda front!

The night we arrived back in Rwanda was also the night the next group from FBC arrived… Brandon Barnard, the Browns, the Chapmans (fellow wolfpackers), Pam Ferguson and Dean Stanberry. They spent a week with us (except Dean, who will be here a month), and yet again, my heart was full from being around all these peeps!! In fact, I am terribly missing hearing Lori Chapman say “you up chiquita” every morning through my bedroom window! I have determined that they, too, just need to move on over!! While they were here we also started pouring the slab that will be our new outside patio. On the container was a very nice professional party tent, which we temporarily set up in the grass off to the side of the existing patio in anticipation of the pouring of the new slab. We poured the first of three parts of the slab while the second FBC group was here (utilizing the concrete mixer for the first time – woo hoo), and poured the second yesterday. The third, and last, will get poured on Saturday (God Willing), and the tent and outdoor kitchen in place by Monday – can I get an AMEN!?! In this process, we hired 40 extra workers, all villagers from villages that surround us! We love getting the community involved in what we are doing! They are seeing the tangible fruits of our (and their) labor!

Our students, as I said earlier, are thriving under Jim and Matt and thanks to Frances, they will all be ready to sit for the TOFEL exam (an English proficiency test that all international students must take to be accepted to any western university) in November. We also now have 100 teachers and district education officers taking English classes here at the MOC at nights and on weekends. What a difference that will make for the students in and around Musanze as their teachers become more proficient in English.

What I didn’t mention were the other people coming and going this summer – Katie Jo McGehee was back, and Kristin Scharkey, a journalism major at Northwestern is here until the end of the month. Tom Allen pops in when there is a bed available, and we always enjoy having him here! We never know who is going to show up for a tour or a meal (and this includes the Governor of the Northern Province, and the district/immigration folks)… to say that life at the MOC is akin to a goat ropin, I think would be fairly accurate!

Now TCBITW and I have to push through a busy, tough month of playing catch up with day to day things that simply fell by the wayside for two months while all the groups were here and get ready to leave the campus on a forward tract as we leave at the end of this month for the fall and holidays back stateside.  We are getting increasingly excited about Baby Cole’s birth in early October, since we are getting weekly photo updates from Brit. Not the same as being there, but she also sends us videos of Cole kicking! Priceless!!

Your thoughts and prayers are always appreciated!! Till next time - enjoy all the photos (and I want to give credit and a big thank you to Sherard Lewis and Ann Parkinson for the South Africa photos – some were taken by me, but I was a complete picture taking slacker on this trip, and many of the photos were taken by them)!! And I also want to say that these photos are in no particular order...the internet has been quite finicky today, and this represents my third try to get them uploaded - welcome to my world :-)

Kim and Frances

The honkin big - totally awesome FBC group

First run with the new cement mixer

#1 or 3 poured and beeaaauuttiiffulll......

The Bucket Brigade...

#2 of 3 gettin the finish up...

The Beaudin Famil - Matt, Diana, Mia, Aden & Noah

Newly decorated and remodeled cottage

Different View

And another....

Different View

The new tent...niiiccceee!!

TCBITW openin that container!!

Lots of STUFF!

Finally using that loading dock....

The cement mixer in the container...

The cement mixer getting moved off the container...

Workin that cement...

We shook every single villager's hand on their way out of the gate after they finished their job with us...

Finally saw a White Rhino - woo hoo!!

Dinner in South Africa with the Rwandan Ambassador to South Africa, Vincent Karega, and his wife, Netty

Discipleship Curriculum Development Meeting...

A Cheetah that looks like SOMETHING has her attention....

The gang on a game drive...

At Cape Point - the Southermost tip of Africa - can we say WINDY!!!

The Green Mamba - the most poisonous snake in the WORLD!! WAY TO CLOSE FOR THIS CHICKADEE!!!

Robert and Bill with three very respected pastors in Rwanda!

Sunday Worship at the MOC led by Robert Lewis - oh yeah!!

And pose....

Lazy afternoon....

Zorgvleit Winery at Sundown - STUNNING!!

The gang at the Cape of Good Hope!! Still WINDY!!

The guys at Rwanda Trading Company - best coffee EVER!!

Wine Tasting at Stark-Conde' - a little boutique winery!! LOVE!!

The guys at the lighthouse with the Cape of Good Hope behind them!

Lord Rainey - RR was so cold, he wore his fleece bathrobe on our morning game drive - he got kidded all morning, but the joke was on us - he stayed quite toasty!

Woo Pig Soooie!!

Hip Hip Horray!!

Thank you for visiting and ta ta for now!!