GREAT NEWS: THE TERMITES (WHITE ANTS) HAVE HATCHED!!!!!!

Yes we have lost it. In America all of these flying termites in your home would seem like the 11^th Egyptian Plague. Here they are a sign that the rains are here to stay. They are everywhere. My neighbors are gathering and feasting. They taste somewhat like roasted peanuts (not chicken as commonly believed by Non-Termite eaters). I like them over rice. Our dogs gorge themselves on this high fat and protein diet.

Rainy season has truly begun.

Pray for Rwanda’s spirits. Some have a hard time believing the rains could come early and be plentiful. I think it reflects a spiritual condition that has many times lost hope. Pray for the courage to hope again.

Pray also that these rains will be long and plentiful. Rwanda’s lakes and rivers are at a 5-year low. One of the reasons our water and electricity have been erratic the last few months is the low water level.

Thanks for indulging both my twisted humor and earthy spirituality.

Dave

KIST Bids Farewell to American Volunteers

By Fred Bazatsinda
THE NEW TIMES, August 22-23, 2005, pg. 5.

The Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) fraternity recently bid farewell to a group of thirteen American students from Oklahoma Christian University, who have been voluntarily teaching the English language at the institution.

The Americans led by Dave Jenkins and his family marked the end of their stay in Rwanda in a send-off party that attracted students and lecturers alike.

In an interview with The New Times, Jenkins said that the 1994 Rwanda Genocide resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of orphans in society, noting that such young people needed a lot of care.

“Starting activities like music, dance, drama, and other games in churches during weekends will do this. Our target is character development to reduce on the number of idlers,” Jenkins said.

He added that such activities would not only strengthen their Christian faith but would also strengthen the culture of the nation.

Some of the students at institute lauded the work executed by the group. “They performed their responsibilities and used their own money to show us Godly love and care. We hope they will come back soon as they promised,” Joseph Ndayisaba noted.

We're Back!

We have just discovered that Columbus was wrong. The world is flat and our journeys have taken us over the end of the earth. However, in a remarkable turn of events we returned.

In reality: We traveled for 2 weeks, but returned safely to Kigali. Our limping computer completely ceased to function so we bought a new one. We moved to a new home, and are in the process of settling. Our phone line at our new home was out since June, but has been restored. Our electricity was out so we bought a generator and found that Belgium style wiring is different from British (thus Dave did not know how to make it work.) Thus we found a Rwandan technician to install it. Our new computer had a few hiccups in e-mail set up, but again a helpful Rwandan technician guided us along.

So we have been out of e-mail contact for about a month, but now seem to be functioning. We apologize for the backlog of letters that need a response. We hope to catch up in a week or so. Please be patient with us. Our slow response is in no way a reflection of our concern. In fact as we finally starting to sort through the hundreds of e-mails from all of you we found great encouragement.

If you are in need of immediate responses please feel free to call us but remember that we are 7 hours in front of Central Time and have both sleeping babies and puppies at home at night.

E-mail and internet are a wonderful way to stay in touch, but require a working computer, phone line, electricity, and working internet server – ordinary occurrences in the U.S., but sometimes an exception here. In Africa the ordinary is the extraordinary, and we are thankful that our lives now seem a bit more ordinary.

God bless,
Dave and Jana

From Bryan:

It was great to hear from the Jenkins yesterday and hear how God continues to bless their work in spite of many barriers the devil continues to throw in front of them. Their laptop and phone service have been down and continue to be down. They hope to have a good means of communication again soon. They are struggling some with loneliness as they are really without other workers for the first time since they arrived in Rwanda. This is expected with a major cultural transition, but doesn't reduce the struggle. I'm sure that they would appreciate our prayers.

More Photos from Rwanda

Here.