I wasn’t sure what to expect from my trip to Rwanda. I had never traveled to Africa, and I had never traveled for two weeks with Andrea, my teenage daughter. I had hoped that she and I would learn an appreciation for how blessed we are, and I hoped that I would feel like our trip helped make some small difference to the people we met. I also hoped it might help her and I build a special connection. I wrote Andrea a letter just before we left. In that letter I said in part “it seems to me you have been wandering a bit in your life, waiting and wanting to see what your purpose is. I don’t know that you will find that in our journey. But I pray that this journey will at least help you start moving in the right direction towards that purpose”. Looking back, I would say that the trip exceeded even the greatest expectations that I might have had. Andrea and I shared amazing experiences, and got to peer through a window to the world through which few are blessed to see. We don’t know yet exactly where the journey we started in July 2009 will take us, but we are both moving in the right direction!
The seed for this trip was planted almost 9 years ago, when I attended an Amy Grant Christmas concert. During intermission, Amy pointed out that a brochure for Compassion International had been placed under each seat. Compassion is a faith-based organization that provides spiritual, educational, and financial assistance to disadvantaged children all over the world. For a monthly donation, individuals sponsor a child that is selected for them by Compassion. After that concert, our family asked to sponsor a girl from India that was the age of my oldest daughter, a girl from Africa that was the age of Andrea, and a boy from South America that was the age of my son. Based on those requests, our family became the proud sponsors of three beautiful children, including Umuhoza Clementine, a young girl from the rural village of Marumbi in Rwanda, to be the sponsored child for Andrea. Andrea and Umuhoza corresponded over the years, and Andrea said that some day she had hoped to visit her. After years of talking about the visit, we decided that Andrea and I would try to visit Umuhoza the summer before Andrea’s senior year in high school.
As the summer of our hoped-for visit approached, I asked William Mwizerwa if he or his wife Ebralie had planned to visit Rwanda that summer. William and Ebralie were natives of Rwanda that had moved to Brentwood and lived just down the street. I had met William through cub scouts in 2002, when my son and his son were both in the same den. William and I began to talk, and I learned about his family. They had escaped the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, spent six years in Kenya, and finally found their way to Brentwood. William works for African Leadership, an organization that helps with many projects to assist the people of Africa, including spiritual and financial help in Africa. It also helps assist the African refugee population in Middle Tennessee, with William serving as director of refugee missions. I told William then about the girl we supported through Compassion, and he told me more about the work he did with African Leadership. We became friends, and I became a supporter of African Leadership.
Fortunately for us, Ebralie had planned to visit Rwanda this past summer, so Andrea and I were able to begin planning our trip with Ebralie. The fact that she was going to Rwanda was an amazing stroke of good luck for us. To say that Ebralie was instrumental in the success of our trip would be a major understatement. Our ability to travel with her was just the first of many blessings we discovered on our trip. We met with William and Ebralie to make arrangements for the trip, and our excitement grew. Also, Andrea began tutoring African refugee children under the African Leadership program. The children were from Burundi, the small country just south of Rwanda. Through that program, Andrea really began to make a connection to the people of Africa and the challenges they faced. Our trip was planned, the flights were booked, and Andrea and I were going to Rwanda!
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