Merry Christmas everyone!

I want to thank all of you who have written Christmas greetings this year while I am in Africa; it is nice to know how you and your families are doing back home in America.

From what I have heard, there is a lot of snow back in Portland, which is always exciting to see on Christmas day. Unfortunately, I am missing out on one of the few times it snows in Portland and the excitement that comes with it. Oh well, maybe there will be snow next year.

This year I am celebrating Christmas with the Jones family in Nairobi, Kenya; they are a missionary family partnering with the Kenyan church in the greater Nairobi metropolitan area in church planting.

Two mutual friends of mine Franci Jones, the daughter of the family I am visiting in Nairobi who currently lives in Portland, and Noel Thurston, a friend I met at Imago Dei in Portland four years ago, both decided to fly out to Nairobi to spend Christmas with her family. They both graciously invited me to join them in Nairobi and celebrate the holiday season American style—Christmas tree, turkey, wrapped gifts, candy, etc. In Rwanda, Christmas is not a major holiday, so it is a nice opportunity to get away from Kigali for a few days at the half-way point and get some rest and relaxation with a few fellow Americans.

I look forward to seeing what God has in store for you and I this next year 2009.

I also am looking forward to getting back home in another three months and talking about what I have found in here in Africa so far. Even with my limited perspective at this point, there is so much I want to tell you about what I have found in Rwanda so far. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to write down everything I want to communicate with you on the blog so far, since limited time and energy do not always allow for the ideal.

I do, however, realize my perceptions of what I see in Rwanda continue to change as I hear ever more increasingly honest stories from people I continue to build trust with. Rwanda may be “the land of a thousand hills,” but it seems to me it is also “the land of a thousand secrets” as well; I have learned over a short period of time that what my eyes see happening in Rwanda from an outsider's perspective is not always the reality of what is happening from the people's perspective. I am sure my perceptions will continue to change over the second half of my trip as they have with the first half of the trip.

Again, I thank all of you who have made this trip possible and pray that God will give us all greater vision for what he is doing in Africa and how we can join him in the work of the kingdom.

Blessings to you all this Christmas 2008.

Andrew