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