I'm attempting to type this whilst crammed into a Ugandan bus with my knees up under my chin cause there's no foot/leg room on this seat! So please excuse any poor typing that may occur, the roads here are much less good that the Rwandan roads!
So, to continue my account of what we've been up to during our busy week in Uganda: On Tuesday we were back in the LOH office, and Egide had invited a few people to come and meet us. One of them was a guy called Jackson who was falsely accused of rape and held in prison on remand. When LOH met him in prison over 3 years later, he had no knowledge of where his case was at. The LOH lawyer on his case did some research, went to the court and so on, and found that he had been acquitted three years previously, and had therefore ended up serving 3 years longer than he should have. Thanks to LOH he was able to be released and is now working as a farmer, is married and has a daughter! It was really cool to get to meet him - his case was really influential in helping LOH get funding for their prison work, and it's such a clear example of why their work is important.
We also met one of their community paralegals - one of the big aims of LOH is to create a sustainable system that empowers communities to know their rights and to resolve issues themselves. They do this through training paralegals to know the procedure for different types of case and to work with local leaders to resolve issues.
The most inspiring person for me was Mary, one if the lawyers who works with LOH. When we asked her why she decided to work with LOH, she came alive and was telling us how she wanted to make a difference and be a lawyer that had women and children at heart. This really encouraged me that it's actually possible to practice law and still retain a passion and heart for people!
After another typical lunch of rice, chips (Always chips. With everything.) we got on the bus to Nyamagabe. This has to be one of the coolest bust journeys I've ever had, and God showed me so much of his love for me and his beauty. I was really tired and slept really well for the first hour which was very needed, and I was reminded of the verse from Psalm 27 (I think...I can't reach my bible to check!) that says 'The Lord grants sleep to those he loves'. I was then so amazed by the beautiful, beautiful countryside. Rwanda is known as the land of 1000 hills, and its very obvious why! It spoke so much of God's beauty, and it really struck me that even in a land where there has been such evil perpetrated, Gods beauty and love endures even that. It was approaching sundown, and I was really excited for sunset - there was a beautiful clear sky, and sunsets have always been something that speak so strongly of God's extravagant love and beauty - there was no need for him to make them so beautiful, or to create us in a way that can appreciate them, but the fact he did is, I think, such a sign of his love. As expected, it was an incredible sunset, but just as I was settling down to doze off for the final hour or so of the journey, the stars came out. They were so amazingly spectacular! I was expecting the display of God's beauty to end at sunset, but it's as if he was saying 'my love and beauty is so extravagant, magnificent and never ending that is surpasses all your limitations and expectations'. It was really amazing!
We were staying at another Christian guest house, but before we could go to bed we had to plan our child rights training sessions for the following day (we would have planned them further in advance, had we known about them!!). On Wednesday, after an early start, we had devotions at the world vision office, then headed out to the villages. My half of the team went to an Anglican Church to facilitate a training session for adults in the community. My particular section was around explaining child sexual abuse and the rights and responsibilities surround it. Afterwards we had a time of singing and dancing together in the church, and then headed over to join the other half of the team who had been doing a training session with the local Children's forum (a group of children chosen to represent the needs and voices of children in that community). At the end of that session was a lot more dancing, and then the children called up a family of orphans living in their village and presented them with gifts of soap, food, clothes, school books and so on - each family had brought what they could to help these orphans. It was very moving to see!
Over lunch we met some more people who had been benefitted by the work of LOH in this area, and then it was back on the bus for the 4hr ride back to Kigali.
On Thursday morning we explored the local market and in the afternoon some of the team visited a football project, working with street kids and teaching them the gospel and important skills to help get them off the streets. I was feeling pretty exhausted from the previous 2 days, and so stayed at the guesthouse with a couple of other team members who weren't feeling so well. God answered prayers and refreshed and re-energised us ahead of the student conference on Friday.
The student conference took the whole of Friday, from 8am-6pm. We had about 50 Christian law students there (and a Muslim student!) and we had 2 seminars focussing on a biblical view of law and justice, and then 2 more practical sessions on how to be a Christian law student and practitioner. We had some worship sessions too, and one of the highlights was singing 'Our God is an Awesome God' in English and Kinyrwanda. Karen and I were conference worship leaders, and to our surprise were asked several times if we'd released an album, and where people could buy recordings of us...! It was a lot of fun though, and people seemed to really connect with God, which was an answered prayer!
The conference seemed to really impact them and get them thinking, and it was such an encouragment for me to see, having worked with Claire back in Cambridge to set up a Student Law fellowship - it really reminded me why encouraging students to connect their faith and their subject is so important.
Saturday was mainly saying goodbyes to the LOH team, packing and getting ready for our travel to Uganda. Its been amazing to be in Rwanda, I've been so touched by its friendliness, by the strength of its community and the power of their forgiveness. One of the things that really impressed me, which I forgot to write in the first blog, were the community works that were going on on the Saturday we arrived. On the last Saturday of every month, all work stops and everyone takes part in community work, as directed by their local leaders. There's a focus on reconciliation, unity and pulling together for communal benefit. As a result the streets are so tidy, there's no litter and all the grassy areas on roundabouts and by the side of the road are well tended. I can't help but think we need something like this in the UK to get people working together better in community!
Prayer requests:
- that we'll settle into Uganda well
- everyone's tired and dehydrated from long journeys, please pray for health and team spirit!
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