Well, Ben arrives back from Africa this afternoon. Here are some excerpts from his emails. This is sort of a long entry, and somewhat repetitive, but it will give those of you who wonder what Ben's job involves, exactly, a peek into the life of Ben. I've added a few explanatory comments.
[Ben was in Tanzania for a few days before going to Uganda. He was able to call me from there, so no emails to include here...]
April 22
I've arrived in Uganda without a hitch. The flight was quick--reading Supper of the Lamb made the short flight seem like moments. Enos picked me up. He was right there, holding a sign that read "Ben Norquist, Enos Ekato." He is such a happy, smiley person! I'm having a great time with him. We stopped in Kampala for Ugandan lunch, local fare that's just like I remember, and we ran right next door to the bus terminal and purchased tickets for tomorrow morning. We'll leave the house at about 6:30 tomorrow morning to fight through traffic to our bus leaving at 8:30.
I'm trying to figure out what to give to Enos and his family, with whom I'm staying, as a gift of thanks...I'm going to notice if they have a CD player in their truck. If so, I'm going to give them a copy of John Piper's "Fire and Light" CD, of which I've brought several copies. By the by, I listened to Pipers latest sermon podcast--"We are to be Midwives in the Second Birth for Other People."[Who else would title a sermon that way? Ha!]
April 23
I just arrived in Kigali, not too road weary, but certainly glad to be out of the bus, and now with friends, anticipating dinner at Emmanuel's [Emmanuel is an administrator in the Episcopal Church of Rwanda, and our close friend and contact there. He has visited Bryan twice]. Emmanuel picked Enos and me from the bus station upon arrival an hour ago, brought us directly to his office to show Enos (a good friend of his who has never been outside of Uganda in his life).
The bus ride was nine and a half hours--quite a long trip admittedly, but it felt to me more like two hours. Supper of the Lamb hurls me through hours without my really noticing. We bought water off a hawker who boarded the bus and rode with us from one town to the next (and, I bet, jumped on the next bus heading in the opposite direction from the town we dropped him in). The view, especially in southern Uganda, is majestic, just jaw-dropping. God is gracious to give us such overdone grandeur to enjoy.
Mary, Enos' wife, is a kind, a spiritual leader in her family (at her instigation we sat in the living room for a full half hour of prayer and scripture reading before dinner), and soft-spoken. She is quite the person. I will look forward to showing you the picture I took of Enos and Mary on their front steps early this morning as we readied to pull away to catch our bus.
Yeah, it's April in Rwanda [the anniversary of the beginning of the genocide and time of the mass panic and horrific killings]...that occurred to me as well, yesterday, as I watched the Kampala news and the anchor mentioned the date. Yes. Please pray for the church to do a good job of offering God's comfort. Please also pray for me:-That I'll be able to simply fellowship, connect on a human level with Emmanuel and our other friends - I'm afraid that I could easily be all business and end up failing to strengthen the relationship. It could even feel worse--like I'm using people.-That we'll be able to construct a vision for the interns for this summer that Emmanuel, ministry hosts, Bryan, etc. can get excited about.
April 24
Today was wonderful! I say that because my meeting with Michael at MOUCECORE [a Rwandan Christian organization that does community development and reconciliation work. We stayed at their guest house last October. Two Bryan students will be interns there this summer.] was so successful. We had a great time connecting on a personal level (I've shown our picture to many people already today). We talked about having children, naming children, and other family-related items. We also got to business, which was pretty good. There may be some internship costs (hiring a translator, fuel for several/many special trips throughout Rwanda), but Micheal said that MOUCECORE would be willing to share the costs with Bryan, which will be helpful.
April 25
Hi, baby,I'm quite ready to come home now--I've completed the business I came for with great success. I had a wonderful meeting with John, the director of Solace this morning [a Rwandan Christian psychological counseling and community development center], who was full of ideas as to how Bryan and Solace could partner. I think I'm going to enjoy John's company whenever I'm in Rwanda, same with Michael of Moucecore, both wonderful men, easy to get along with, and passionate about their work.
I also had a great time with the IJM staff today. I met two of the interns (actually one fellow and one intern Alistaire and Marissa) for lunch at the Novotel (four star restaurant) [Poor Ben...] . Great fun. Hey, Marissa is a student at Bethel U! Who'da thunk it. It was just us for lunch, but after we went to their offices which were abandoned for lunch, so we went to where they were finishing lunch. They were celebrating two birthdays for two of the Rwandan lawyers. It was fun chatting with them all there, but it was even better when they finished up. I walked with the whole staff to their offices, got the tour, sat with Dieter, the director for a while, talked with the director of programs, and really, just made friends with them. I won't feel uncomfortable calling them for lunch now any time that I'm here. Dieter and I spoke about their internship needs here, which was helpful. And Merissa, the one intern, is excited about connecting with our students this summer, orienting them to Kigali, and introducing them to an ex-pat Bible study that's been meeting recently! Oh, man. Very good.
April 26
I'm so pleased with how my visit has gone--I'm coming home having truly connected on a personal level with Micheal, Emmanuel, John, the American team here, a few staff from Solace, Enos and his wife from Uganda, and several staff and interns at IJM! Oh, man, I've seen that God has been generous in the last few days. But I'm so glad to be starting my long way home tomorrow morning!
I finished The Supper of the Lamb, so I'll spend a good bit of time in the Bible, sleeping, reviewing notes from the trip, and, once I board my transatlantic flight, watching some films I bet. I reason I've e-mailed again is that I think that once I check out of Solace in a few hours, I'll have passed to the dark side of the moon until I get to Amsterdam, where I may have a chance to find an Internet terminal.
[Ben was in Tanzania for a few days before going to Uganda. He was able to call me from there, so no emails to include here...]
April 22
I've arrived in Uganda without a hitch. The flight was quick--reading Supper of the Lamb made the short flight seem like moments. Enos picked me up. He was right there, holding a sign that read "Ben Norquist, Enos Ekato." He is such a happy, smiley person! I'm having a great time with him. We stopped in Kampala for Ugandan lunch, local fare that's just like I remember, and we ran right next door to the bus terminal and purchased tickets for tomorrow morning. We'll leave the house at about 6:30 tomorrow morning to fight through traffic to our bus leaving at 8:30.
I'm trying to figure out what to give to Enos and his family, with whom I'm staying, as a gift of thanks...I'm going to notice if they have a CD player in their truck. If so, I'm going to give them a copy of John Piper's "Fire and Light" CD, of which I've brought several copies. By the by, I listened to Pipers latest sermon podcast--"We are to be Midwives in the Second Birth for Other People."[Who else would title a sermon that way? Ha!]
April 23
I just arrived in Kigali, not too road weary, but certainly glad to be out of the bus, and now with friends, anticipating dinner at Emmanuel's [Emmanuel is an administrator in the Episcopal Church of Rwanda, and our close friend and contact there. He has visited Bryan twice]. Emmanuel picked Enos and me from the bus station upon arrival an hour ago, brought us directly to his office to show Enos (a good friend of his who has never been outside of Uganda in his life).
The bus ride was nine and a half hours--quite a long trip admittedly, but it felt to me more like two hours. Supper of the Lamb hurls me through hours without my really noticing. We bought water off a hawker who boarded the bus and rode with us from one town to the next (and, I bet, jumped on the next bus heading in the opposite direction from the town we dropped him in). The view, especially in southern Uganda, is majestic, just jaw-dropping. God is gracious to give us such overdone grandeur to enjoy.
Mary, Enos' wife, is a kind, a spiritual leader in her family (at her instigation we sat in the living room for a full half hour of prayer and scripture reading before dinner), and soft-spoken. She is quite the person. I will look forward to showing you the picture I took of Enos and Mary on their front steps early this morning as we readied to pull away to catch our bus.
Yeah, it's April in Rwanda [the anniversary of the beginning of the genocide and time of the mass panic and horrific killings]...that occurred to me as well, yesterday, as I watched the Kampala news and the anchor mentioned the date. Yes. Please pray for the church to do a good job of offering God's comfort. Please also pray for me:-That I'll be able to simply fellowship, connect on a human level with Emmanuel and our other friends - I'm afraid that I could easily be all business and end up failing to strengthen the relationship. It could even feel worse--like I'm using people.-That we'll be able to construct a vision for the interns for this summer that Emmanuel, ministry hosts, Bryan, etc. can get excited about.
April 24
Today was wonderful! I say that because my meeting with Michael at MOUCECORE [a Rwandan Christian organization that does community development and reconciliation work. We stayed at their guest house last October. Two Bryan students will be interns there this summer.] was so successful. We had a great time connecting on a personal level (I've shown our picture to many people already today). We talked about having children, naming children, and other family-related items. We also got to business, which was pretty good. There may be some internship costs (hiring a translator, fuel for several/many special trips throughout Rwanda), but Micheal said that MOUCECORE would be willing to share the costs with Bryan, which will be helpful.
April 25
Hi, baby,I'm quite ready to come home now--I've completed the business I came for with great success. I had a wonderful meeting with John, the director of Solace this morning [a Rwandan Christian psychological counseling and community development center], who was full of ideas as to how Bryan and Solace could partner. I think I'm going to enjoy John's company whenever I'm in Rwanda, same with Michael of Moucecore, both wonderful men, easy to get along with, and passionate about their work.
I also had a great time with the IJM staff today. I met two of the interns (actually one fellow and one intern Alistaire and Marissa) for lunch at the Novotel (four star restaurant) [Poor Ben...] . Great fun. Hey, Marissa is a student at Bethel U! Who'da thunk it. It was just us for lunch, but after we went to their offices which were abandoned for lunch, so we went to where they were finishing lunch. They were celebrating two birthdays for two of the Rwandan lawyers. It was fun chatting with them all there, but it was even better when they finished up. I walked with the whole staff to their offices, got the tour, sat with Dieter, the director for a while, talked with the director of programs, and really, just made friends with them. I won't feel uncomfortable calling them for lunch now any time that I'm here. Dieter and I spoke about their internship needs here, which was helpful. And Merissa, the one intern, is excited about connecting with our students this summer, orienting them to Kigali, and introducing them to an ex-pat Bible study that's been meeting recently! Oh, man. Very good.
April 26
I'm so pleased with how my visit has gone--I'm coming home having truly connected on a personal level with Micheal, Emmanuel, John, the American team here, a few staff from Solace, Enos and his wife from Uganda, and several staff and interns at IJM! Oh, man, I've seen that God has been generous in the last few days. But I'm so glad to be starting my long way home tomorrow morning!
I finished The Supper of the Lamb, so I'll spend a good bit of time in the Bible, sleeping, reviewing notes from the trip, and, once I board my transatlantic flight, watching some films I bet. I reason I've e-mailed again is that I think that once I check out of Solace in a few hours, I'll have passed to the dark side of the moon until I get to Amsterdam, where I may have a chance to find an Internet terminal.
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