Burundi Team Update (6/27/09)

Saturday morning, June 27, from Matt Macy:

We arrived to Kigali, Rwanda yesterday morning, only slightly behind schedule and everyone is well! We actually had a super close call in Chicago, nearly missed the plane because our Wichita flight was delayed due to thunderstorms in Chicago. They held the plane for 20 minutes for our team because one of us ran to the terminal and held the plane while the rest of the team waited for the plane-side luggage (carry-ons). We had a really wonderful time in London – saw several sites and enjoyed using London Underground – the subway system. There are 20 of us on the team all together in Kigali, Rwanda, several meeting us (those of us who started in Wichita) in London who came from Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, and L.A. We are still working on our jet-lag. My mind is not very clear this morning and writing this paragraph seems to be a difficult task. Our first day in Kigali was good. In the morning we unloaded trunks, sorted through a few items in the trunks, and worked with the airport in recovering some luggage. We had 7 items not arrive with us to the airport; 2 of them were Megan and Jen’s personal carry-on bags that they made them check last-minute in London, but then we received these 2 bags later in the day, thankfully! I’m actually writing this from the airport while Brad Carpenter and Ryan Kendall are working on retrieving 2 trunks for the missionaries that came in late (both happened to be checked under Ryan’s name, which worked out smooth this morning). We had a great lunch (great cooks at the new Friends Church guest house we are staying at) and spent the afternoon seeing around Kigali, and doing a little souvenir shopping. For supper we met with the Rwanda Friends Church ‘executive council’ of sorts. We had a really special blessed time sharing with them and hearing from them. Willard Ferguson introduced our team, then we had a few brief greetings from our team and from Rwandan leaders. Chuck Mylander closed with a word on how special all of these Rwandan leaders were with a promise to share stories about each of them – which we look forward to (certainly a part of their stories will be their sacrifices for the church, and their experiences during the 1993 genocide in which their lives were in threat and they would have lost large numbers in their families).

Looking forward: We have a couple of very cool days ahead. Today we will spend the morning with David & Debby Thomas touring and hearing about their work with the church in Discipleship for Development and Business as Mission! Then this afternoon we will visit the genocide memorial museum, which will then be followed by some debriefing time. Also, a few of us may visit the orphanage where I adopted our 4th child, previously an orphan: Caleb Ndanga Jean Claude Macy. This, of course, is my first time back to Rwanda since we adopted Caleb in September 2007, and I have been caught off guard with emotions in pondering Caleb’s life and how his life and our lives would be different if we hadn’t adopted him – we are very thankful for God’s gift of all our children to us and for God’s grace to Caleb to give him parents and 3 brothers. Tomorrow, Sunday, we will split up and visit 5 churches. Monday we will travel all day, going to Burundi by bus, with a few on the team going to Congo (Willard, Sue, Donnie, Ryan, David Thomas) for a few days before joining us again back in Burundi when a second group arrives from the U.S. for us all to be together as we celebrate Burundi Friends’ 75th Anniversary.

We are sorry it isn’t logistically possible for us to send reports more often, and for you to hear from more of us! I’m hoping that we might be able to send notes a little more frequently once we get settled in Burundi – we’ll see. Thanks for praying for us – we are praying for our families and churches at home, and our Saltshaker Aguascalientes Team who just left for Mexico from Houston.