Some days are for tears

Some days are for tears.

Today was one of them.  Some tears are for joy, others for sadness.  Some are for overwhelming sorrow, others are for hope and love.  And still others are for anger.  I had them all today. 

The sadness tears began with an email from home.  I love to hear updates from home, but they often bring sadness as I realize how much I am missing out on at home.  My best friends are growing and maturing and taking new adventures that I can’t be apart of in a day to day kind of way.  And so I cry tears of sadness.  I’m sad about the things I’m missing, but excited to see how God is at work and the good he has for those I love.  I not ready to come home, but I wish home could come to me. 

And then there were tears of overwhelming sorrow, mixed with hope and love.  Today, we had appointments in Grace’s adoption process.  Grace is a 6 month old, happy and thriving Rwandan baby girl.  It’s by the grace of God that she is alive today.  She was abandoned the day she was born, but fortunately, was found by a shepherd.  He took her to the local hospital, hungry, covered with insect bites, and with a dangerously low body temperature.  Through a series of miraculous events, she recovered to full health and found her way into Brad & Kiki’s home.  While attitudes are changing, it is still common for unwanted babies to be abandoned or killed after they are born.  It is a miracle that she lived through her first hours, that the shepherd acted with compassion rather than turning away, that she made her way into the loving hands of the hospital staff, and that God had moved Brad & Kiki’s heart to take her in despite all of the unknowns that lay ahead.  Her story is one of overwhelming sorrow, as it reminds us of the harsh realities of life in this fallen world -  realities that kill and destroy innocent children.  But her story is one of hope and love.  So many people extended God’s love to Grace because of their hope in the God of all hope.  And there are many others here in Rwanda who share that hope.  We met two more of them today at our appointment.

Jocelyne and Josephine are Rwandan/Canadian twins from a pretty amazing family.  Most of their family still lives in Rwanda - 4 of their brothers are currently serving in the Sudan as a part of the UN peace keeping mission.  Out of gratitude for the life they have been given, they have started a charity (shelterthem.com) that serves orphans and street kids.  The stories of these kids brings overwhelming sorrow.  No child should have to endure the kinds of suffering many children around the world face.  But, the story of Jocelyne, Josephine, and their family provides hope -  hope in the power of God’s love and how it moves ordinary people to do extraordinary things.    It was an honor to have the twins stand as witnesses in Grace’s adoption. 

And then there were tears of anger.  There are some aspects of Rwandan life that are infuriating to a critical analyst from a western culture.  After 5 trips to the immigration office, 3 phone calls, 2 emails, and 2 text messages, I found out that my Visa is still pending because one of the documents for my application is missing.  Infuriating!!  So tomorrow I will return with the missing document and hopefully have a Visa soon.  Most things are much more complicated (to someone who doesn’t quite understand the system or the culture) and take much longer than they need to.  But that’s just a fact of life in a developing country that’s rebuilt everything in 15 years since the genocide.  It’s also a fact of life in a culture that values community and relationships over time and efficiency.  All of life is at a slower, less efficient pace.  There are days like today when it’s infuriating, but there are other days when lingering with new friends is refreshing.