The Adventures of Paul and Sue

Paul and I have been dreaming of living in Africa since we were dating. Sharing stories of our separate trips to East Africa, but never having traveled there together. We are so excited to move to Africa together as as a married couple!

On September 27th we will be moving to Rwanda to work with the YWAM base in the capitol city of Kigali.We have no idea what we’re getting ourselves into. The information we have about where we will  be living is: “we have a self contained of one room 9No furniture), small kitchen, seating room which is 120.000Rwf = $150 per month, but we don’t have running water in the Base which means that we all fetch water in our water tank but within the Base.” so…no idea what that looks like. There is limited electricity throughout the base, we will be taking bucket showers, cooking over fire and doing laundry by hand. These are the things that we love about Africa. It feels so right and is so relaxing to take your time to do the things that you need to live. We become so disconnected with these things at times. We are looking forward to getting back to this way of life.

Known as the “the land of a thousand hills” Rwanda is a small tiny beautiful country in the heart of East Africa. Kigali is a growing city, now home to 1 million people. The language most commonly spoken is Kinyarwanda, most people also speak english and French as well. (we don’t speak Kinyarwanda or French!) Dance, art and tea are central to Rwandese culture. Bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, The Congo and Burundi Rwanda is landlocked but only a few hours from Lake Kivu.

Sadly, Rwanda is most famously recognized by the genocide of 1994. However, the rebuilding process has been an amazing display of redemption.

“Rwanda is often internationally praised for the remarkable progress the country has made since the 1994 genocide. Without a doubt, the genocide is the saddest but best remembered milestone in Rwandan history. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in just a three month period.

After the genocide Rwanda started rebuilding the country with a focus on national unity. Amazingly there was no major revenge responses between the two main ethnic groups, the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s. Over the years a major reconciliation took place and is still taking place between the ethnic groups. This truly can only be the work of God.

Rwanda has one of the fastest growing economies of the African continent showing that Rwanda is moving forward to what it can become. Still there is a lot of poverty and there are many orphaned youth as a result of the genocide. In an ambitious plan called “Vision 2020” Rwanda aims to reduce poverty and have a strong and healthy country with a stable and growing economy. – YWAM Rwanda BaseWe will be living and working with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) Rwanda. For more information about YWAM, check out one of our previous posts with videos explaining what YWAM is and the work that they do.” -YWAM Kigali

YWAM Kigali is a growing base that has several ministries. They hold Discipleship Training schools (DTS) throughout the year as well as run a elementary school for the community on base. They also have a King’s Kids program, which is a worldwide ministry through YWAM working to disciple young people in the community. They continually have village outreach programs as well. When we first arrive, we are going to volunteer around the base with general maintenance and upkeep, mentoring DTS students, working in the kitchen and in the school. We hope that in January we will start working directly with the DTS program, but we could work with any of the mercy ministries on base. We are still praying about where we want to serve specifically. The base itself is beautiful and growing all the time.

Most of all, we are so excited to be right where God wants us to be. We have such peace about this huge decision that only comes from God. We can’t wait.

However, there are still so many things to be done before September 27th! We have been busy making money we need for this trip, seeing friends and family, getting vaccines and so many other details that the time is flying by. We will be sending support letters to friends and family as well as an e-mail newsletter once we arrive. If you would like to receive either, sign up using the contact form at the bottom of this page.