By Natalie Bingham

I secretly think that my buddy Louise never sleeps. She takes care of her family, and oversees a number of areas in her world at World Relief in Rwanda, and makes time to spend with the Lord. She is always going somewhere, and I had a blast running alongside her for a week. The Tuesday we were there Louise took six of us to see the water project in action. Their big, audacious goal is to see 100 families using sand filters. Pause: did you know that you can make a water filter using just sand?! When I discovered this, it gave me a whole new perspective on God and how He’s so perfectly created this world of ours to work together in such a majestic way. While we were there, we got to install 2 filters in 2 houses, and Louise introduced us to two of the families who are raising cows and rabbits and pigs as part of the community project. Raising the animals is just part of the job, but it is doing something powerful in the lives of the people there. It’s giving them a sense of worth and responsibility in their community and it is a unique way to reach people with the gospel. On Sunday, I got to spend all day with Louise and her family. I met her three beautiful children, Tina, Teetee, and Teta (good luck keeping those names straight). We were heading out to take a tour of the soccer stadium and Louise wanted to tie little Teta on my back in true African style. Did I participate? Duh! We tied her to my back with nothing more than a towel to secure her life to mine. (It’s actually really effective because my hands were still free to sip on an orange Fanta.) After that week I was blown away by this incredible woman of God who loves her family fiercely; works diligently to spread the gospel; and has a deep concern for the development of Rwanda.