Ministry in the Village

I'm sure Kigali is hard to imagine unless you've been here.  The city is made up of many hills (all with different names) and then the villages are scattered on the outskirts of the city.  On Saturday I had the awesome opportunity to go to Gatega, which is only about 20 minutes away from our hill of Gachuliro (or Gachoriro, since Rwandans use r's and l's interchangeably... as in I'm either Kerry or Kelly... it is the same to them!).  Douglas and I got to go there with Eddie, who is a pastor at our church.  He is Rwandan, but has spent time in many countries in East Africa, along with Canada (his wife is Canadian and used to be the kindergarten teacher at KICS). 


So we started on our journey not knowing what to expect.  The three of us, plus Justin (don't you love how American sounding names these Rwandans have?), who is sometimes involved with worship band, went off in Eddie's car.  We really didn't know what to expect, except for the fact that Eddie and his family had kind of adopted this village and started soccer teams there.  We drove out of the bustling city and onto horrible dirt roads that would have made me carsick, had I been riding on them for an extended period of time.  We came to a clearing in the trees where Eddie pulled in and we could see that part of the land had been cleared and sure enough... there was a dirt soccer field with bunches of kids on it!  As we came up, some of the kids called out "Manager!" because that is precisely what they call Eddie, who literally manages many things in their village.  Many of the kids came up to the car to greet us, but the ones who were in their practice remained with their team.  


We met a few of the kids, and they mostly went on with their routine.  Eddie showed us around this community property, which consisted of the dirt field and a wooden structure with benches inside.  Eddie talked to us while we watched the soccer players, the very young children who were siblings to the older kids, and many supporters (all children) on the sidelines.  He told us how he had come to this village and the children had nothing to do and hardly anyone to care about them.  Only 3% of children in this village come from families with two parents.  They are all very poor, having an extremely difficult time paying for food, school fees, and uniforms.  One of the first times he came, he brought a soccer ball and the kids were stoked!  They were excited to play with a real ball, but skeptical about why he was coming to spend time with them and help them.  He faced a lot of that before they began to trust and respect him.


Eddie started his ministry with soccer and showed the kids that he really cared about their well being!  He found a Rwandan guy who used to coach soccer and quickly got him involved.  In the months following they had four teams, including one for just girls, made up of kids from the village.  They have really come to depend on Eddie and trust him.  He also shares God's Word with them and is in the process of buying each family a Bible in Kinyarwanda.  They listen to him and are interested as he talks about Jesus, which is so awesome!  Now, on top of soccer practices, they have worship and ministry time each week.  They built the temporary structure for this purpose because the government wouldn't let him build any permanent buildings on the property.  It is awesome the way that Eddie listens to God's calling and he truly discerns how God wants him to do things.  Eddie is not at all a sports person, but through prayer and listening, he knew that soccer way the way to teach them about Christ.  


So, sorry that this is all over the place, but it was an overall really cool experience.  I've been praying about what my role should be in this place.  Currently, three of their teams have jerseys and many kids have soccer shoes.  These all have been donated by people who have come over to visit Eddie and support his ministry.  They still need so much but it  awesome to see what God has provided for them over the last year and a half.


This is a good reminder that we can be disciples, no matter the situation.  I know in the States it is not okay to talk about in schools and many workplaces, but that doesn't mean we aren't allowed to show God's love wherever we go.  So the challenge for today is like the song... "They will know we are Christians by our love!"   


Will they know?

And I think to myself... what a wonderful world!

Surprise!  After 97 days of teaching first grade it is still quite the challenge!  Ha! J The awesome thing is that I love what I do, and I have constant support from God in all of it.  I feel spoiled that my first job is teaching at a Christian school.  We have staff devotions on a weekly basis, unplanned worship time together and chapel each week with the whole of elementary.  Despite the environment, I of course have students that teach me patience daily.  Sometimes I want to scream and but instead I have to somehow keep my composure and say, “And how did the fact that there was gum under the lunch table make you think it was okay to start yelling about it as loudly as possible?”  I love the fact that after kids miss part of their recess (as part of the discipline procedure) we can pray together and they can ask God’s forgiveness.  I so appreciate that when we talk about being nice I can refer them to this week’s memory verse: Hebrews 13:16.  I am filled with joy when we talk about how to treat one another and someone says, “Miss Dembowski, it’s like one of our memory verses: ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other as Christ forgave you.’”  They are six years old and God is working through them in awesome ways!!!  This is not to pretend that my class is full of children who are only quoting the Bible and doing nothing but pouring God’s love out, but it is awesome that I don’t have to hide any Truths, or say them in a neutral kind of way.  I am so blessed to be at Kigali International Community School in Rwanda teaching first grade! 

I’ll leave you with a conversation from two of my kidlets:

“Miss Dembowski… why in the Bible do they always say men instead of men and women?  Do you think it’s because Jesus was a man, not a woman?
“I think it’s because men are more popular… I mean… men are presidents and stuff…”

The first and second grade girls conducting their own ballet lessons at recess.

In line for the bake sale that the fifth and sixth graders set up to raise money for local orphanages

My precious students hanging out during snack time.

Snowmen in Rwanda

As I hear about all the snow in the US, I thought I'd share the only type of snow we'll be seeing in Kigali...

Back in Action!

It is hard to believe that we've already started the second half of the school year!  It is even more difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that I will be home in four and a half months at the end of May.  I've made the decision to come back to Kigali next year and teach for another year at KICS.  Although this year has been challenging, God has taught me so much!  I really know that I can directly use what I have learned from Him as a first grade teacher here for another year.  There are heaps of things that I'm excited to improve upon and do differently.  Where better to implement them than in the very classroom where I began learning?


It is such a blessing to get to serve in this country!  I was reminded, once again, that without schools like KICS, many missionaries wouldn't be able to serve around the world.  It is such an honor to get to serve others who have such a passion for sharing His Word.  There is a family at our school who works with teaching Rwandan pastors.  90% of pastors in Rwanda haven't even completed secondary school, but they're still working to spread God's love.  This ministry works on training pastors four times a year, 3 weeks at a time, so that pastors can still be working regularly at their churches and quickly apply what they learn.


I hope to share more about missionary families at KICS so you can learn more about the types of ministries that are happening here!

More pictures!

Holidays in Uganda

First, we traveled on a bus (Kampala Coach) for 12 hours to Jinja,Uganda.  First we spent the day in the little town that is home to the source of the Nile River.  The next morning, we started our two day trip and I rafted down the Nile River, and even boogie boarded through some of the rapids. Imagine being on a huge river in the middle of Africa with only a raft protecting you from the rough waters.  It was an awesome experience, going through grade 5 rapids and getting the chance to do some river boarding (boogie boarding) as well. 

Next we went to Sipi Falls and hiked to three waterfalls. . .

I spent nearly four hours on Christmas day in a rural African village church where there were about 4 sermons, a dance party, balloons, visitors from Kenya, and songs in three languages.  They also had us get up in front of the congregation and introduce ourselves.  Quite the Christmas!  

From there we went to Kampala, the capital, where not only did they have skittles, hair conditioner, and cereal (They have cereal here, but it is honestly about $15/box!  It was only about $5 there), but also BOWLING.  I got a great score of 68 and we got stared at for being the only white people in the alley.  They also had motos that fit two people and monkeys running around the outside of the place we stayed.  It felt weird coming from Sipi Falls (we stayed at a lodge with no electricity) to a city that felt nearly like America.  It felt awkward and kind of unsettling, but fun to stay there for a night.

Next, we went to Queen Elizabeth game park where we went on a driving safari and one on a boat too!  I saw elephants, hippos, water buck, alligators, awesome birds and a pride of lions.  We also saw hedgehogs, buffalo, and mongoose (mongeese?) in the our hostel area!  Nothing like starting the morning walking out the door to be greeted by hedgehogs and then have little mongoose friends run by your feet while eating breakfast.  Although we stayed at a cheap hostel, there was a beautiful lodge just a short walk away where we spent most of our time.  We learned that you are not supposed to drive through game parks at night (the man told us he was risking his life by letting us in) and that they don't like if you leave 45 minutes after your 48 hours is up.   The gate people didn't like us much, but we really enjoyed ourselves.

Finally, we ended our trip at Lake Binyonyi, where we stayed one night in tents on stilts on the mainland, then another on Bushara Island.  It was here where we stayed in dorms and in our room, there also lived a family of birds in their nest.  They flew in under the door when we were sleeping.  I guess when it’s $10/night you get what you pay for. 

I will try to load more pictures soon... the internet has just been SO slow lately!


As usual, thanks for the love and support!

I'm back!

Well, I just returned from an incredible trip to Uganda where I backpacked across the beautiful country for two weeks!  Before I share about that, I realize that you are all in need of a pre-break update!

I think it was November when I was meeting with my Bible Study (young adults who all attend CCR—my church here) and we were talking about learning God’s Word, doing something about it, and then receiving joy.  We are reading through the book of John and discussing the way Jesus treated people and then we moved on to how we could apply this to our lives.  We live in a place where there are countless opportunities to serve.  We decided to throw a Christmas party for a boys’ home called Hope for the Future.  A few weeks later our group met after church and drove out of Kigali to a little house where 25 boys shared one room for studying/eating, and two bedrooms for sleeping (6 bunk beds in each room, with no space in between, two boys sharing each mattress).  

The boys were ages 12-18 and all were attending school and learning English.  They were so polite and appreciative of everything!  It was awesome how God was working in that home.  The man who was the overseer of the home was obviously a good Christian influence who cared so much about all of those boys, and obviously gave them his heart!  After they showed us around we shared a meal together, and then sang Christmas songs in English and Kinyarwanda in the hot African sun.  This was quite the musical experience because they didn’t really know the tune, and we couldn’t read the words so well, but I’m sure somehow God found some glory in it!  Next, we taught them some games and they helped us learn some of their favorites.  We all had such a great time running and laughing with some healthy competition. 

Old Soccer Ball

New soccer ball

The last big event was giving the boys Christmas gifts that we had gotten for them.  They were completely thrilled with notebooks, school supplies, toys, and soccer balls.  Their joy was genuine and touching.  If you gave these gifts to many children their response would be, “Okay, what’s next? “ or “Can I trade?” or “This is it?”  But these boys were full of so much love and appreciation!  To end our beautiful afternoon together one of the boys prayed, and one of the Rwandans in our Bible Study group translated for us.  He said that although they could not something like we did for them, he prayed that God would bless us in return. 

The last few weeks of school were pretty busy!  We had a Christmas Chapel led by the sixth graders where each class sang a Christmas carol.  I had great conversations with my first graders throughout the week and I loved hearing their insights on the birth of our Savior, Jesus.  We were talking about Mary having Jesus and one of my little girls asked, “How come only women lay babies?”  Holding back my laughter at the idea of women, like chickens, laying babies, I simply responded with “That’s how God made women!”  and she was satisfied with my answer.  We also had a special morning where the Kindergarteners through third graders rotated through each class to partake in a Christmas activity.  I taught each class the song “Children, Go Where I Send Thee” and they acted it out as a play.  They really enjoyed it! 

Check back soon for more updates on my trip to Uganda.

Love&hugs,

Kerry :)