Where is Home?

by Sophia Jenkins

Is it where I was born?
Where grow fields of corn.

Is it where I grew up?
Where I drank tea by the cup.

Is it where I lived for a year?
Where I made friends so dear.

Is it where I moved to?
Where I must begin anew.

It is way up above,
Where in the end I’ll fly to like a dove.

Four Month Update

Thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers. It has now been nearly 4 months that we have been in Rwanda. On one hand it seems like we have been here only a few days. On another hand it feels like we have been here for years. On one hand we feel very at home. On the other hand we feel completely lost. I guess these are the paradoxes of cultural adjustment. We are very thankful to be here. The opportunity to be in Rwanda is an answer to years of prayers. We ponder what each new opportunity may bring. The simplicity of our lives seems to call us to deeper cravings and simpler joys.

This month we ask your prayers for the following matters:

1. Thanksgiving for new friends: After our interns left in August we spent several weeks struggling with loneliness in September. Then I remembered my dad’s words that I could make friends where ever I went. It boiled down to a choice. Over the last few weeks we have been developing a surprising number of friendships not only with Rwandans, but also with American families living in Rwanda with children a similar age as our own. Holly Hixson, one of our friends at Quail Springs remarked before we left that maybe our family would be the answer to other family’s prayers for friendships. It seems that the Lord is bringing us to other families, and hopefully we are the blessing to them that they are to us.

2. School: Our 4 oldest children have started school at Green Hills Academy. It is Rwanda’s “Premier English School.” It is a British style school with uniforms, and chalk and talk teaching style. Caleb thrives in the environment of fact memorization. Our more creative children struggle. Most of the other students are the children of Rwanda’s leaders in government, education, and business. Also, the children of diplomats stationed in Kigali attend here. Our children are making many friends. In fact, they are probably the best connected Jenkins’ family members. However, this is a completely different world from attending a private Christian school in Oklahoma. Most days require a “debriefing.” Please continue to keep their adjustment to Rwanda in your prayers.

3. Our Shipment: All of our possessions from Uganda arrived yesterday in Kigali. We have been without everything for 16 months. Our lifestyle has been very simple. There are a number of documents that will need to be processed before it can be released from customs. We are eager to become more settled in Rwanda. Also, we are eager to have our furniture so that we can feel more comfortable practicing the grace of hospitality. Though it seems self-absorbed we ask your prayers for our shipment to soon be cleared with minimum expenses.

4. Wisdom: We continue to be in need of great wisdom. There are many opportunities before us. We desire to make the most of each one for the glory of God. There are also many pitfalls to avoid. May our Rwandan learning curve not be too severe. May our early choices be ones that will bear spiritual fruit generations later. May we hear God’s voice, have His heart, see with His eyes, and our words and deeds be the expression of His character.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

Imana ikurinde (May the Lord keep all of you),

Dave Jenkins

P.S. This year’s Oklahoma Christian Lectureship will feature a Prayer Breakfast on Wednesday, January 25 that will focus on Rwanda. If you will be in Oklahoma City on those dates please make plans to attend. (Thank you Bob Young, OC Lectureship Director for organizing this prayer breakfast.)

Round Up

Our furlough year was blessed by a wonderful group of 14 students who came to Rwanda with us this summer. They were delightful to renew our spirits. On occasion we would hear their affirmation, but we always thought they gave to us much more than we gave to them. Thirteen of them were with us as Let’s Start Talking interns. (They did a tremendous job of opening doors for us with faculty and students at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, but we wanted to write not about their productivity, but their character.)

Several times we had an experience that left us shocked. We went out to eat as a large group. (With our family we sometimes had 22 people in a group.) Our Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, and French are rather poor, and we struggled to understand our order. Then we were presented with the infamous bill. As we started to count the money collected and the bill presented we found that our interns were in the habit of rounding up. We were rarely left short.

Jana and I remember a multiple of times as college students in which we took responsibility to collect the cash for a group’s bill, and came up short. (I’m sure it has happened before to many of you.) This is followed by the awkward moment of trying to find out who has shortchanged the group. Usually, this is followed by a series of complicated arguments that we find impossible to follow. Finally, in exasperation we relent, and just pay the balance so that there can be peace. I hear the voice of my father telling me, “Life is not fair.” One memory of my parents was their continual life decision to round up. It was the reason our home was always full of guests. They never expected life to be fair and thus responded to it by being generous.

If I had to make one observation about our intern group’s character it would be their generous spirit. They were a group of young people who chose to continually round up. I hope I don’t offend anyone, but I don’t think it was a personality trait. They were extroverts and introverts, feelers and thinkers, etc…. They brought a wide range of spiritual gifts from leadership to service. They ranged from athletes to scholars in talent. I think that somehow in their lives they had learned the lesson my father spoke concerning an unfair life can only be approached with a generous spirit. Life is best handled by rounding up. A concern for fairness and rights will only lead to selfish conflict.

I would like to thank this wonderful group of students for the grace of generosity they gave our family. However, I recognize that the grace of generosity they expressed was not developed by the year we spent together. Instead it was learned in their homes and churches. We only received a sacred responsibility to cultivate the habits their parents, teachers, and church leaders had already established in their lives. We would like to thank all of you who invested in the lives of the delightful 14 who spent the summer of 2005 with us.

Imana ikurinde (May God keep all of you),

Dave and Jana

Cravings

Thank you for all the prayers that so many of you gave for Timothy’s health. He has been back to his normal healthy self for seven weeks. He continues to display a great amount of joy mixed with an extraordinary strong will. The thing I enjoy most about two year olds is their ability to show our humanity in its truest forms. I find in Timothy a reflection of myself that in my adult world I frequently keep hidden.

All of our kids eat two good meals per day. Timothy fits right into the Jenkins’ family tradition. In this tradition the children will have three meals placed before them each day, but will only choose to eat two well. We are left guessing which ones will be well eaten.

Also, as true sons of man the children suffer from food cravings. Usually it is for candy, popcorn, potato chips, cookies, and soda.

Timothy’s physical size has never matched up with his strength of will. (Or maybe I should just say he is small for his age, but “small” just does not seem to ever represent anything about Timothy.) At his best he only weighed about twenty-two pounds. During Timothy’s illness it was almost impossible to get him to eat. His weight began dropping. In fact within a few days he lost three pounds, or fourteen percent of his body weight. We began to become frantic parents – Would he ever get better? How much weight can he afford to lose? What could we do to help him improve?

In our frenzy we tried to force feed him. However, the force feeding usually only resulted in Timothy vomiting upon us.

Then the day came in which Timothy’s fever broke and his health began to improve. At first, he only ate a small amount, but soon the tide turned. He began to eat everything in front of him. For a season, he ate three good meals per day, plus a number of snacks. All of our worries and fears for his health were resolved.

What caught our attention most was his cravings. Timothy usually will ask for snacks and candy. However, for this season he craved something more. Timothy craved fat. He ate one spoon of guacamole after another. He begged for more margarine and peanut butter on each piece of bread. When we tried to serve house guests a fancy Italian meal, Timothy focused on dipping bread in olive oil. His earthy sense of humanity craved all the fat he could find to regain weight. Soon his weight was back to normal, and in fact began to grow and exceed previous weight. Rwanda provided a great environment to observe Timothy’s cravings. Candy, cookies, and soda were rare at home. There were few sweets to distort his cravings.

I was left pondering cravings. How did his little mind conceptualize the need for fat? He had never taken a nutrition class. Was there something within Timothy that knew his greatest earthly need and craved it? Had the Lord created within Timothy a craving for his greatest physical need?

As Timothy’s father I concluded that the cravings were from the Lord. God had guided him to crave his greatest earthly needs.

My two year old son reflects my truest humanity. He abundantly display who I am when all the pretensions of adult life are stripped from me. The question I needed to ask was what cravings does the Lord cultivate in my life? Am I sensitive enough to know what to crave? What sweets distort my ability to know my deepest cravings?

Cravings come in seasons. When I am cluttered I crave solitude. When I am lonely I crave community. When I am discouraged I crave joy. When I am exhilarated I crave somber reflection. Cravings call me to balance in life. If my spirit is sensitive to God my cravings are his.

What distorts my cravings? What is the sugar in my life? Is it entertainment? Or is it patterns of gloom, doubt, and anger? How do I remove the sugar from life to crave the deepest needs?

Rwanda has not been easy. From a fleshly perspective we will live simply and sleep on the floor for some time. Earthly necessities like running water can become a luxury. We never seem to be able to manage life, and our best plans continually lead us to admit our poor judgment and perceptions. As we make friends we listen to many painful stories. We hear stories of complete loss and brokenness. Many times a depression settles over our lives. Yet we are thankful for the call of God to Rwanda. It has stripped away much of the sugar of life, and cravings are easier to feel. We are thankful for all God has given us to lead us to the cravings of today.

Imana ikurinde (May God keep all of you),

Dave and Jana

P.S. We are sending out own journal items. Due to us being without a phone line and computer for a month they are dated. We hope they are still insightful. For those of you waiting for personal replies from us, we hope to be caught up by the end of next week.