I had the absolute best birthday of my life!! (By the way, 29 and holding for those of you that are wondering. :)) Not!!!
It started with ’Happy Birthday’s’ from my 2 favorite boys, and a brilliant variety of freshly picked flowers from our garden, all beautifully arranged. Over breakfast Colton presented me with the drawing he had made for me; another one of his incredible creations, this one being the head of a lion.
Like always, we were at school before 7, and before we were even in the gate, kids were already chorusing ‘Happy Birthday Miss Rosel.’ (yes, I’m Miss, just like other married Mzungu teachers - it’s easier and faster than Mrs. The locals are Madam.) During staff devotions Isaac and Olive had some very powerful words of blessing for me. This was the high light of the day for me, because God poured so much into me.
The kids were reminding me for about 2 weeks that my birthday was coming up; they were so excited about it. I received probably 50 or more cards, and some small offerings of gifts like a little package of ‘Maria” cookies, and such. My favorite/most interesting/unique gift? A gooey, melting, sticky mess of a 2/3 eaten KitKat chocolate bar!! Now you need to understand that real chocolate bars are very rare out here, and they are stored in the meat fridges in stores to prevent them from melting. They are crazy expensive, and we never buy them. So, I had a dilemma on my hands; was I going to let all that good ‘chocolatetiness ‘ go to waste? I mean, this was the real McCoy!!! Not just flavoured wax!! True, the thought of Carol opening the wrapper with probably unwashed hands, and consuming over half of it minutes earlier wasn’t appealing to me, but honestly!!! Chocolate! And… it was a gift…! What to do…?
Well, I did the only thing any chocolate starved chocolate lover would do… I ate it! With great enjoyment!
At break time sweet Madam Olive surprised me with a party. She truly is a wonderful friend; I love her so much.
Isaac is a very gifted artist as well, and he too drew a picture of a lion’s head for me, only this one isn’t docile like Colton’s is; this one looks lethal with his teeth bared and his head back as he lets out a fierce growl. God had spoken to Isaac a few days before my birthday about something that He wanted to impart into me, and this picture was inspired by that. I’m planning on getting the 2 pictures I received from Isaac and Colton matted and framed in Canada. I’ve received many brilliant drawings from both of them, but these two have a very special meaning.
Isaac also got me a fabulous ‘igetengi’ - which is the 3 piece outfit commonly worn by women here. It’s simply 6 yards of fabric cut into 3 equal size lengths - one for wrap around skirt, one for wrap around the wrapped around skirt or to drape over one shoulder, and the last pc is the headpiece. You wear a shirt of your choice with it. I have a number of African outfits - gifts a lot of them. And yes, I plan on wearing my African clothes in Canada.
In the evening Isaac and Colton and I went out for supper by ourselves - a rare occasion to go out.
We had celebrated with some of our closest friends the Sunday before my birthday, which was also a huge blessing. Olivia (wonderful you!!) suggested that we go around the table and each one say 3 things that each one loves about me, and 3 things they like about me. Wow!! If you want to really bless someone on their special day, this is great. Thankfully, Astrid wrote as people spoke, and I have 2 wonderful pages to remind me that I am loved and special.
Because of not having had internet at our house now for over 2 months, I did not get to my emails/Facebook messages for a while, but a big thank you to all who remembered me on my birthday.
It was a truly blessed day!!!
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Christmas in May
We had the blessing of going up country with Drs. Aline and Euloge and Evariste to distribute Christmas Shoe Boxes.
Dr. Aline is the country director of African Revival Ministries, and as such has connections with many wonderful organizations, ‘Compassion’ being one of them.
We started the morning by going to A.R.M. headquarters and completely filling up 2 large SUV vehicles with 300 beautifully wrapped packages. We headed out to the beautiful mountains where the cooler weather greeted us mercifully. After a long, winding, and very bumpy road, we finally arrived at our destination - a Bat’wa village - situated high up in the fog and clouds and rain.
We were immediately greeted by local ‘dignitaries,’ and ushered into the tiny building that was bursting at the seams with people, waiting with anticipation. Upon our arrival, the tiny choir of about 8 people started singing as we were ushered into the building to take our seats at the front of the church. After introductions and greetings, Dr. Euloge preached. He spoke on Jesus being the best gift of all, and many people accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. After this I (Rosel) had a short message about God being their provider, not man.
At this point the adults were asked to vacate the small building to make room for the 300 children. You should have heard the noise and excitement as their eyes alighted on the huge stacks of presents at the front. We separated the boys and girls, and then further separated them by age. Our piles of presents were organized into age/gender specific piles as well. We started with the smallest ones, and worked our way up to the oldest kids. They were instructed to not open their gift until every one had received theirs.
We literally tripped over presents and bodies as we worked in our cramped quarters; finally, everyone was clutching a box of blessings to their chest.
Ready, set, OPEN!!!
Imagine children that have nothing… nothing…. tear into those shiny parcels!!! The noise of the excitement was almost deafening as they began to wave little trucks and pretty dolls and bags of candy and pencil crayons and socks and stuffed animals in the air. Radiant joy!
Our team just stood at the front and watched all these precious ones. At one point I looked at our team and I’m not sure who was beaming more, the givers or the recipients, with the exception that we just quietly took it all in.
After some time I noticed that there were children that were still clutching their unopened box to their chest, as if the pretty package was the gift itself; they didn’t understand that they had to open the present for the true gift that was inside. I knelt down and showed them that they had to rip the paper off and see what’s on the inside. This yielded much more happiness and satisfaction when they saw the contents of the package.
How often, I wonder, do people accept Jesus just for fire insurance, and they never unwrap more of who He is, or of what He has to offer them.
Without a doubt, the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ is the absolute best gift there is. But, let’s not stop there; He has so many added gifts for us, if only we pursue a vibrant relationship with Him.
Dr. Aline is the country director of African Revival Ministries, and as such has connections with many wonderful organizations, ‘Compassion’ being one of them.
We started the morning by going to A.R.M. headquarters and completely filling up 2 large SUV vehicles with 300 beautifully wrapped packages. We headed out to the beautiful mountains where the cooler weather greeted us mercifully. After a long, winding, and very bumpy road, we finally arrived at our destination - a Bat’wa village - situated high up in the fog and clouds and rain.
We were immediately greeted by local ‘dignitaries,’ and ushered into the tiny building that was bursting at the seams with people, waiting with anticipation. Upon our arrival, the tiny choir of about 8 people started singing as we were ushered into the building to take our seats at the front of the church. After introductions and greetings, Dr. Euloge preached. He spoke on Jesus being the best gift of all, and many people accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. After this I (Rosel) had a short message about God being their provider, not man.
At this point the adults were asked to vacate the small building to make room for the 300 children. You should have heard the noise and excitement as their eyes alighted on the huge stacks of presents at the front. We separated the boys and girls, and then further separated them by age. Our piles of presents were organized into age/gender specific piles as well. We started with the smallest ones, and worked our way up to the oldest kids. They were instructed to not open their gift until every one had received theirs.
We literally tripped over presents and bodies as we worked in our cramped quarters; finally, everyone was clutching a box of blessings to their chest.
Ready, set, OPEN!!!
Imagine children that have nothing… nothing…. tear into those shiny parcels!!! The noise of the excitement was almost deafening as they began to wave little trucks and pretty dolls and bags of candy and pencil crayons and socks and stuffed animals in the air. Radiant joy!
Our team just stood at the front and watched all these precious ones. At one point I looked at our team and I’m not sure who was beaming more, the givers or the recipients, with the exception that we just quietly took it all in.
After some time I noticed that there were children that were still clutching their unopened box to their chest, as if the pretty package was the gift itself; they didn’t understand that they had to open the present for the true gift that was inside. I knelt down and showed them that they had to rip the paper off and see what’s on the inside. This yielded much more happiness and satisfaction when they saw the contents of the package.
How often, I wonder, do people accept Jesus just for fire insurance, and they never unwrap more of who He is, or of what He has to offer them.
Without a doubt, the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ is the absolute best gift there is. But, let’s not stop there; He has so many added gifts for us, if only we pursue a vibrant relationship with Him.
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