Regional Service - Kigali - October 14/12

Sunday, October 14th, 2012 marks the first time that Daddy preached in Africa!!!  This weekend was the regional service for "our" region in Kigali.  So, while we didn't have to travel to get to it, Dad did have to get a sermon ready! :-)  It was held in behind the church, in a school yard area.  It was sunny for the first few hours of it, and as a result both Mom & Dad got sunburned.  Caleb and I weren't in the front row, so we escaped!

As always, there were lots of choirs eager to present their songs:

This is our region's, Kacyiru's, choir, so we actually know a few people in it:

They had a keyboard, drums, and couple of guitars rigged up to a sound system.  Here's the tower of speakers!!

 

After being played for a while, the drums started falling apart (not
that they were together too well at the start!).

A little sound guy.

As more people arrived, they started bringing some more benches out.  Here's a couple of boys helping out:

Lots of umbrellas were out for protection from the sun!

A special part of the service was that a brass brand from Congo came to play for us!  It sounded really good, and Caleb really enjoyed watching the 3 trombone players!

Here's a picture of all the regional pastors:

Daddy preached on having hope during difficulties or tragedy.  There were lots of people who wanted to take a picture (or video) of Dad preaching...and there aren't the same cultural norms as to when and where you stand to take a picture (it was the same in Indonesia), so they'd be right up in Dad's face practically!

Those of you who are used to Dad's preaching will be glad to see that his use of props has made the journey with him to Africa:

As Dad's was preaching, the clouds came rolling in...

...and after he was done, as the business part of the service was going on, the rain started coming down!

Everyone scrambled to get our of the torrential downpour, and some men desperately tried to get the electrical stuff carried in or covered up (I guess the drums were the exception):

One bonus because of the rain was that the brass band played us some more impromptu songs:

A few other pics:

Now, to close off this lengthy post, a picture of my beautiful mother, all decked out in her Rwandan garb!  Pastor Andre's wife said that whenever her husband preaches, she dresses in tribal clothing, so she thought since Dad was preaching, Mom should wear tribal dress too!

Beds, and a Wardrobe, and Desk, Oh My!!

Saturday was a very exciting day for us!  Not only did we watch both F1 Qualifying and the last Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, but our first wave of furniture was also delivered!!!!  Here's a few pictures of mine being put to use!

And in case you can't tell that we're not sleeping on the floor anymore, here's another perspective:

And half of my wardrobe (the other half isn't here yet):

And--my favourite--the desk!!!!



And here's a picture I took after the torrential downpour this afternoon:

Language...and Life!

Life is continuing to evolve into our new routine.  That new routine includes language study for Mom & Dad, which they were able to start last week.  They each have a language helper (Juliette for Mom and Jeremie for Dad).  This experience is drastically different than what they encountered in Bandung, where they attended a language school.  With language helpers, Mom & Dad are in charge of planning and deciding what they are learning, etc, etc.  We are very glad that, while it's going to be a long process, the first steps have been taken!

Mom and Juliette:

Dad & Jeremie:

Mom & Dad are using the LAMP method of language learning, and when I saw the book sitting out, I couldn't resist trying to incorporate it into a picture.  But then Mom & Dad liked the first one, and I liked the second one....so I'll post both of them!!

Last Friday, Caleb was supposed to have a soccer game, but the other team cancelled the game.  So they had a intra-team game instead.

Here's some more pictures...mostly random or from when I was bored!

As the rains have begun in the last week or so, we are discovering plants growing in our yard that we didn't know were there!  Dad is enjoying this, and is working at pruning some diseased plants back.

Some kids playing on the side of the road after school...everyone knows the game "Toss the Back Pack Around", right?

And to finish off, some pictures from our back yard:

These smell AMAZING!!!!

And then I got following Mr. Ant:

"Hey, where are you going?  You can't escape from me!"

Our power has been off all day, but it came on around 5, and we had an unexpected surprise: our first Skype call ever from Nanny and Grampie Crummey!  So that was lots of fun, and I'm sure we'll have many more in the future (right, Nanny?).