I have taken to waking up early to catch some quiet. This past early Sunday morning as with many others you can hear the sound of worship rising on these thousand hills. Both English and Kinyarwandan – it is actually a very moving sound. I’ve inserted a video below – not sure you can hear the music but the birds as you can hear offer up their own song every morning!

 

We are in a gated house with a night guard as most houses in the city are  – so when you are in you really are in!

Life is full now and it is lovely to see the progress little Jubilee has been making with her new adopted parents. It is amazing what love can do! Apart from co-facilitating the class and meetings I have now a full client schedule and a reminder once again that we share so much in common in our human condition. I have met some truly lovely people with some amazing and difficult stories, it is indeed always inspiring and humbling  to be in their presence. It also gives me the opportunity to walk alongside and share to some extent the burden that they carry. There is a sense of a genuine and deep faith here in Rwanda, borne out of a past that continues to lie just below the surface in many hearts and the trauma that remains, incorporated perhaps as life carries on. There also seems a wrestling with traditional values and individual thought and experience.

The video above shows the Lighthouse counseling centre sign and the road that I cross with much caution! and which was actually quite quiet that morning. The traffic is quite crazy and in the mix I saw a motorcycle with a full sized assembled baby crib on the back – yup! everything any anything gets transported that way. Needless to say, I have taken more to walking and just going with Kelly and Celo when they are out.

 

The photo above is another view of the lay counsellor’s training class. A young couple in our cohort announced their engagement this past Monday evening sharing  how he had proposed with us and the whole class  burst into song and dance in joyful celebration!  Earlier in the evening the question was how one counsels perpetrators. Very difficult and very deep reflections on that topic.

Also here is a link to a song that Celo has written and recorded – I found it very moving – I hope you enjoy it too.  Click here to hear Celo’s song

I hope everyone is well and thank you so much for your notes of encouragement and your prayers – they are so very precious to me.

Glad the cold snap is ending for everyone in Calgary!

Blessings – Jordan