Revelation in Rwanda

I went to Rwanda last week and it was glorious. So glorious! It was refreshing and exactly what I needed. The country was so beautiful!

It all started at the airport and what a nice airport it was...

When I got off the plane in Rwanda I went into culture shock. Rwanda is so different than Burundi, so different. I could feel it in the air around me. There was something so lovely-so refreshing. I had noticed that Burundi was different than any of the other countries I have been too in the past, by stepping off of that plane in Rwanda confirmed it. Burundi is extremely poor and it is noticeable. After all Burundi is ranked in the poorest 5 countries in the world.

Rwanda, is known as the land of a thousand hills...it is so true...

How do I begin to describe it, other than it was absolutely amazing, so beautiful. And for me coming from Burundi, where there isnt much western influence, stepping into Rwanda was like stepping into Europe. After Myal picked me up from the airport we went to Bourban, which is really a Western Coffee shop. I must have repeated the entire time how shocked and delighted I was as I sipped my iced mocha that tasted like something from Starbucks. After dinner Myal then took me to Naukomat which is a store that has many western items. I was jealous…jealous of Rwanda, its infrastructure, smooth city roads, organized traffic, stop lights, beauty and iced mochas. I’ll admit, my mind said—why Burundi—at least once--more than once...

It was shocking to me how much expeierncing Rwanda reaffirmed how poor Burundi is,

how difficult Burundi is. There is such a contrast between them. (Although I have been told that the Burundian countryside is even more beautiful than Rwanda's. I hope so.) When I am in Burundi I can only feel the effects of the darkness in this world. The effect of poverty, the effect of corruption... There is so much that Burundi is trying to overcome so fresh out of conflict and civil war.

I can't help but wonder, what part do I have to play in what is happeneing in Burundi. In what God wants to do in Burundi. I know that God brought me to Burundi for a very specific reason and his reason was very intentional. I am curious to see what that is because it hasn’t been easy by far.

Burundi itself and its poverty and its corruption isn’t the hardest thing for me. It’s the people around me, not the Burundians, but the other Westerners. As I have told so many of my friends back home, it has been really hard to make friends and to feel like I belong, especially when people intentionally exclude me from things. Middle School, it reminds me of middle school.

All in all, God knows my needs. It was so wonderful to hang out with the team from MBC. They were great and it was so refreshing to actually have somebody say, "Jillian how are you doing?" It was fun to be with them and very encouraging. The picture below is me after we spent the morning helping to build the foundation of a church with lava rock...