GREAT HOPE IN JESUS I love stories. A vast portion of my childhood was spent reading novels and I progressed to researching real life stories and events as a student. Unsatisfied with the realisation that I only knew about the past, I finished my history degree and flew over to East Africa with Tearfund. My naivety was all too evident, “Jemimah you’ve brought everything.” Stationery, rain coat, string, migraine tablets (to this day I’ve never had one), washing up liquid – I hadn’t just packed; I’d planned for every eventuality. I maintain that there is nothing wrong with organisation but looking back on my packing lists now I laugh. They reek with anxiety, my desire to control and a knee jerk reaction to fear: an attitude of self-preservation. During the drive from the capital up the mountain to our placement community the poverty around us was so evident. We drove past slum areas and barefoot street children playing by the road side. Immediately I was uncomfortable and this was just the start of feeling out of my depth. My English possessions and Western worldview were of little use! I adopted a new motto, ‘take one day at a time’, and despite how uncomfortable I was with this option I placed a bit more trust in
God. And He provided! Opportunities arose to get deeply involved with the community that we couldn’t have expected. My team and I worked in a school that provides catch up education or vocational training for vulnerable children. At art club we got out the paint, glue, crayons, fabric…and it was chaos! Cultural differences emerged as no one touched the water pots I had put out for the brushes – such clean water would normally only be used for drinking. But we began to learn names and together we drew, often laughing at my attempts to converse in Kinyarwanda. We asked the children to express their dreams for the future on sacking. Oliver wants to be a journalist and Felix an artist. When we asked the children to draw the problems that stopped their dreams, repeatedly we were told stories of struggle because they were an orphan. To try and support yourself without a strong family network in Rwanda is very difficult.
‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’ (James 1:27)