Life Goes On

As some of you may already know, most of our time here will be spent working at the Peace House. There are many wonderful programs that have been started through ATN (Africa Transformation Network) and the Peace House ministry.

One of these is the Street Boy program. This is obviously for boys that have been living on the streets and trying to survive day by day, whether they no longer have a family or their family could no longer take care of them. So, the Peace House takes in these boys and provides them with food, clothes,  shelter, and the opportunity to return to school. They are also expected to work and do their part in the home to keep it a sustainable living space. This serves as a transition house for them as those working at the Peace House work with the boys to help them re-integrate with their families or into a stable long term home. All of this is a large part of this program, however, the main objective is to help build a spiritual relationship and to help form a Godly community.

The other program we will be working with through Peace House is with ladies that have been living on the streets and in some cases have had to resort to prostitution. When they enter the program they are given a job where they make jewelry, bags, pillows, and blankets for a steady income, they are given English lessons, and are taught about God. We have spent several hours with these ladies the past two days and I think I can speak for all four of us interns when I say that these women have already made a huge impact on our hearts. After helping them make some necklaces and bracelets, we spent a couple hours listening to these young ladies stories. Most lost one or both parents in the genocide, several were the oldest and had to take care of their younger siblings, one was sold to a man and forced into marriage, some ended up in prostitution, and most of them had children by the time they were 16 or 17. When these women were introduced to this program they felt worthless and now through the love of God they have hope and talk about how God has blessed their lives with friendships and opportunities. Even through the language barrier it is crystal clear how passionate they are about God and how thankful they are that He brought them to the Peace House. It's amazing how we have already began to form friendships, even though we speak different languages.

These girls are beautiful from the inside out

and so incredibly funny! Good thing laughter is a universal language.

Here's Brook and Josie Ann

and Darian and Josie.

Other things we've been up to:

• Kenyarwanda language lessons (We know all sorts of greetings and different kinds of foods and drinks!)
• Bible studies with Chris
• We were a part of the monthly ATN prayer meeting
• We went to dinner at the Des Mille Colline Hotel (This is the famous hotel that you may remember from the movie Hotel Rwanda)
• Helped teach english at English Club
• Spend some of our down time with our crazy host families and their crazy children

Blessings!

-Becca