Ntiganzwa Family Happenings: What a week!

Last week was quite a week for us! It was busy and beautiful, just the way I like it. I have learned that it is quite easy to be busy and not beautiful or fruitful. It is easy to feel like being busy equals being fruitful but I have learned that is not always true. I want to be the kind of person who is not always busy but is always fruitful. I want to be the kind of person who always has time to stop and chat with those I meet along the path, time to hug the neighbor kids, time to hug my own kids, time to play with them and read books, time to make homemade bread for my family and neighbors. Sometimes I wonder if our definition of success and fruitfulness is quite different than God's? Just some food for thought this morning.

Last Tuesday we had a Children's day at the church. It was a blast! We had about 150-160 kids. It was hard to count because they did not stay in one place long enough for me to get an accurate count! We had so much fun singing songs, telling Bible stories with the felt board, playing games and eating lunch together. It was chaotic of course but a lovely mess! I did not want to create even more chaos by taking too many pictures (if you have ever been to Africa, you will know what I mean) but here are a few I managed to snap while they were busy eating :)

Then on Wednesday I took Ivan to Kigali for his little "reunion" get-together with the kids he used to live with in the orphanage. He had such a great time reuniting with his buddies and I could tell that he really misses them. Even though I know that orphanages are not ideal, good places for children to be raised, you can not deny the companionship and "brotherhood" that these kids have with each other.
Thursday was spent attempting to pack up our whole house! I was expect to have a little more time but I was suddenly told by my wonderful husband that there was a truck coming to help more the large items on Friday morning! Welcome to Africa, where we don't plan we just wing it!
Friday morning, early, the truck came and our "helpers" started throwing things in the truck. Meanwhile I was rushing around still trying to pack things and praying that they would not break anything! Oh and doing all this with a 15 month old in tow! Wow, it was an exhausting day but we got everything over to the new house, mostly in one piece. Of course the huge and wonderfully helpful wardrobe that we had in our bedroom (that we purchased from the landlord) did not fit through the door. But in the midst of that and other frusterations, everything got done and we are getting settled in our house.
It is such a good feeling knowing that we are here in our own house and we can really feel at home and make it our own. I love putting all my little"homey" touches on it. We are having fun trying to get organized and trying to figure out how to keep the tiles in the kitchen and living room clean! On top of that, we are at the beginning of rainy season and as we discovered yesterday during a huge downpour, we will need to fix some things. I stood in my kitchen during the storm watching the outside building filling up with water and seeing my pots and pans floating around! So we need to work on the drainage situation but we had a good laugh about it (though the tears were not far). God has been so good to us and we are thanking Him for His provision! Here are a few photos from moving day!