Sunday, June 8, 2008

Trauma Workshop

Hi Guys, its Rob here again. The last couple of weeks have been full on. We have done a lot of visiting including spending a day with John Mihigo and the community up on Mt Kigali (a very poor area but where their church is doing great stuff spreading the gospel and HIV awareness). I was asked to preach (but had warning this time) and ended up not only preaching but dedicating a baby aswell. Had a great day with John and his family and the hundreds of kids up there. We brought clothes, soccer balls, mosquito nets with us and so we kind of felt a bit like Santa. Getting up the mountain was a bit hairy and at one stage the old corolla had to reverse back down and then gun it to get up.

We also visited a community deep in the bush who are promoting the plight of youth who are struggling with traditional school. They are teaching craft skills, especially woodworking and the results were awesome. Connecting their youth with youth overseas as pen pals is also an important part of what they do as a form of encouragement and growth. So we took photos of all the kids, got their names and said we would offer the pen pal option to youth in Oz as well.

Spent a day with our Compassion child (2.5hr journey to get there) and his family. That was just an awesome experience. We were able to bless them with gifts and necessities. The blessed us with a school performance, a visit to their home, lunch with the local compassion rep and pastor and with many home made gifts. They were so grateful. His mum cried when we left.

We were invited to spend an afternoon with Frida (a survivor with the most amazing testimony of God's protection) and her family. She had been a key note speaker at the conference and we had such a blessed time with them.

For the rest, we have been flat out trying to organise and prepare for a 3 day trauma workshop in which we will present the trauma healing program we brought with us and evaluate it for the Rwanda context. We cant believe how it has come together, with 4 separate organisations wanting to be involved and sending delegates, plus managing to organise accomodation, meeting rooms, transport, materials, projectors etc etc for the whole thing. Funding is a major issue here with no one having any funds for such a thing. Thanks to VISA we have been able to get enough money together to go ahead with it (we couldnt let money be the thing that stopped it). The trauma need is huge. Its everywhere, so I am hopeful that God will use this program to great effect, being able to train up lay workers to reach the thousands and thousands who are suffering.

Well please pray hard for us over the next week. Kellie was as sick as a dog last night with gastro. Today she has had to rest and tommorrow we travel so we need prayer for her health in particular. The kids are doing OK. Brandon had some gastro the other day (in fact we have all had a bit here and there) but Kellie copped the worst. Pray also that God stretches time for us. We are trying to cram an 8 day programme into 3...and then there is the African time concept. So its going to need God's intervention.

Anyway, gotta Go.

Love you all and looking forward to sharing more with you all in person. Thanks for the prayers, emails, blog replies and the knowledge of your support. It helps heaps.

Rob, Kell and the kids

2 comments:

Ray Rus said...

Hi Rob and Kellie.

Thanks for the update. When you left we knew you had a few things organized but the rest seemed very loose. Now it seems as though there is almost too much to do! Amazing how it has all developed and how the Lord is paving the way.
The guys came back from Uganda last night. They are now a registered NGO and have bought some land. The Lord is good, for (probably as you know) it was not smooth sailing at first.
We hope the trauma workshop goes well for you. It's hard for us to imagine the need that must be there, but the floodgate of interest that has opened around the workshop says heaps. We will pray that you will have the strength and health to be able to impart something truly beneficial for the people there.
We had a great baptism service yesterday. Half the church was made up of the families from Steve and Sam, Callum and Micelle. Sam and Michelle had a beautiful testimony with a clear message of salvation through faith in Christ. I trust the Lord used the service in someone's life. Michelle and Sam's brother Matthew has now also turned to the Lord recently. What great news for Kathy. It's amazing to see how the Lord is working in that family.
We would like to help you guys financially for this work. We've transferred a little to your account.
We hope Kellie is feeling better. Pass our love to her, Christi, Brandon and Janie.
Love and prayers. Ray and Wendy.

Ray Rus said...

Small group is happening tomorrow. We'll be spending some time meditating on the phrase, "The Lord is my Shepherd." Thought you guys could join us. It's such a loaded word picture! I'm praying that God would speak to You in Your situation, through your thoughts and experiences, if you can.