A lot has happened in this last week. With Thanksgiving brought joy and sadness for me along with a satisfied appetite. I was able to get the best of both worlds, eating a huge delicious meal with my friends here, AND getting to be a part or the Thanksgiving party back home via skype. No, skype isn’t as good as being there physically, but I’m grateful I was able to see my family and talk with them! Praise God! Honestly, the holidays seem a bit irrelevant while being away from family. I am a creature of habit, and although I don’t really want traditions or what I consider normal to define a holiday such as Thanksgiving, it’s hard to break that mold. But this Thanksgiving I was reminded of the many blessings I do have, and humbled by the fact that I often forget that they are blessings and begin to think I’m entitled to them or something ridiculous like that.
This weekend, I was also reminded of the sacrifices we are called to make while following Jesus. I know that what Jesus offers outweighs the things he asks us to give up, but at times my heart vaguely remembers the gravity of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. If anyone understands sacrifice, it would be the innocent guy who died a cruel death to take my place in hell, the punishment I deserved. Now that I’ve just said that, I see my small sacrifices for God as being really really petty. One sacrifice I’ve been feeling lately is being away from my family while both my sisters are going to have babies within the next few months! I know God doesn’t scoff at my grief over not being there for such a joyous time… in fact I’m sure he mourns with me.
Sunday, I made the decision to donate blood for the first time in my life. Up until a couple years ago, I never even considered giving blood because I was scared of needles and thought of it as being kind of… eh too selfless. I couldn’t come up with any good reason for not doing it. I was just chicken. But since I’m in Africa, I knew that it will be years before I would be able to donate blood in the states. So when this opportunity arose, I thought, “Hmm, let’s be too selfless today”. It definitely was not as painful or awkward as I thought it would be. It was a little sickening seeing my dark red blood filling one of those plastic sacks to the fullest capacity. I actually just 
cringed imagining it again. Afterward, my friend Jennifer and I both had slight relapses of weaknesses and hot flashes, but nothing too serious. Here’s a picture of us taking a breather on the stretchers after giving blood.
Tuesday of this week I took 20 teenagers on a field trip to the Rwandan Art Museum about 2 hours away from Kigali. Ok, let me first mention that I felt completely inadequate to lead this trip. I could list off all the reasons I felt this way, but maybe you could guess. I was able to bring 3 adult chaperones with me, which helped, A LOT. Most people think chaperones are asked to go on field trips to help direct the kids, but let me tell you they are more there for the teacher’s sanity than anything else. When 20 kids go running around a museum, it’s nice to have somebody to glance over to and shrug your shoulders with, because let’s face it; you can’t stop kids from being kids, especially on a field trip! But seriously, the trip went really well! The 2 hour bus drive there went fairly quick and we first visited the National Museum of Rwanda where the kids did the running around. Then, we stopped at a local ice cream parlor and ate ice cream and lunch. Next we drove to the main event… the place with all the Rwandese 
art. I had prepared a scavenger hunt for the kids to find certain kinds of paintings/sculpture/artwork and gave a prize to those who found the most. I wasn’t entirely sure how effective this method of motivation would go, but turns out, they loved it. After about 15 minutes I went around snatching the scavenger hunt papers from kids and some kids ran away from me! I thought it was hilarious how seriously they were taking it. So I guess the moral of that story is although you may not always feel adequate, God knows better than you what you are capable of with His help. Because you know I was praying through the whole day!
Moving on to Wednesday! This is where I get to talk about how God is making it plain as day that YoungLife will get started at the beginning of next semester! Woohoo! At Campaigners a week ago, an answered prayer revealed itself when 3 kids… ahem THREE KIDS offered their houses as a place to host club! I’ve gone up and down with believing God will provide the perfect location to host club… I’m pretty sure it doesn’t get much more perfect than at kids’ houses. I also asked our campaigner kids about possibilities of them actually being leaders… coming to planning meetings, putting together games, skits, talks etc. The response I got gave me chills. Not only did God provide locations, he provided committed leaders who love God and love the students at KICS! Halleluiah! It’s even better that these leaders go to school with the kids we hope show up to club. This week at Campaigners, we talked about prayer. None of this excitement about YoungLife will amount to anything if we don’t come to God about it. If we don’t pray about it, are we allowing God to move? Or are we just trying to build it ourselves?… which would turn into YoungLife being about us and not God. To hear these kids pray about YoungLife getting started (and not only that but for their friends to be influenced by Christ’s presence at YL) made me realize that I can take zero credit for starting this ministry at KICS. God keeps confirming the fact that these kids need to know Jesus on a more personal level by continuously blessing our minuscule efforts to get YL started. It’s like if you were planning to paint a masterpiece but didn’t have access to any supplies and you had little confidence in your painting abilities. Oh but then, while you have almost given up on your dream to paint, somebody gives you all the supplies you need and also gives you lessons. Before you know it you are painting like a pro. How can you give yourself the credit when if you weren’t given the supplies or the training, you would not have had the opportunity to accomplish anything as magnificent? And if you didn’t accept the supplies or the training, you’d be a complete fool! The art teacher in me couldn’t resist the analogy. In case it was a little fuzzy, God is the supplier of the art materials and training… and I’d be a fool to not take advantage of the way he has equipped us to start YoungLife here in Rwanda.
to express emotion! I’ve asked God how I can continue ministry in Bloomington with the kids I’ve build relationships with and you know what he’s told me to do every time I’ve asked? “Micki, PRAY.” No email I send or skype chat I partake in will transform anyone’s life. I accept that. Even if I was as good of a writer as Paul, as far as speaking clearly and lovingly, my words could only pierce a heart, not change it. Prayer is asking expectantly for God to barge in and place His arms where mine can’t reach. This isn’t just about geography. I’m just more aware of my helplessness being so far away, but I know that I’ve felt helpless even being in the same room as someone I care about whose struggles I can’t fix. 
