By Katelyn Steaffens

One of the highlights of Rwanda for me was definitely forming the relationship I did with my World Relief buddy Clemence. She assists the Program Director and is also the primary interpreter on the staff. By far my favorite day was with her when she took me to her church, which was a four-hour service filled with dancing, clapping and a lot of translation-not for the faint of heart.

Afterwards she took me over to her house, which was quaint but beautiful. There I met her older brother. We spent an hour talking about our heart for missions in the Middle East as he’s currently training to be a missionary to Kuwait. I told him about my time in Egypt and both of us were thrilled to be talking to another person with such a clear and similar calling. Once lunch had been prepared her two best friends came over to have lunch with us. One of them spoke incredible English and she asked me all about my time in Rwanda thus far and my first impressions. We then went to talk all about the American church’s involvement in Rwanda and discussed in length Rick Warren and Joyce Meyer’s heart and vision for transforming Rwanda. These girls had both been to events with thousands of people welcoming both Christian figures. It was fun to realize just how much I had in common with my new Rwandese friends.