Miracles

This trip, like many before, has been one of special memories that will forever be etched in my mind. Each team experience is as unique as the individuals themselves. I love watching their excitement as they experience and anticipate each new moment, but I especially love watching their God-given gifts come to surface.

I arrived in Rwanda about two weeks ahead of the team in order to work on some things that needed my undivided attention. I was blessed to be able to stay with my precious friends, Kim and Jock who head up the national cycing team here, Team Rwanda. They were preparing to take one of their riders, Adrien Niyonshuti to London as he has qualified for the 2012 Olympics. While staying with them, I also met one of their volunteers, Jo, who was here to teach English to the team of 18 riders.

Jo, never having been to Rwanda or Africa was also thrilled with every new experience. Her sense of adventure built as each new day passed. I invited Jo to come and meet the ladies, and see our 2 farms at Susa and Kinigi and she kept telling me “how huge” our work is here in Rwanda and kept asking me how I had done all of this… I was clear to let her know it was not me but God’s power within me and our organization that is changing the lives of hundreds of people in Northern Rwanda. Jo and I had long talks about Christianity and the difference between religion and a relationship with Christ. As the days passed, we became good friends and when the TVM team was arriving into Kigali, Jo joined me to greet them.

Everyone instantly loved Jo and enjoyed being around her so the following Sunday afternoon we invited her to go to Imbabazi Orphanage with us. Imbabazi is famous for it’s founder, an American woman, Rosamond Carr, who died here at the age of 94. Carr is the author of Land of a Thousand Hills. We had a glorious afternoon…full of adventure…until our taxi ride home.

As I have seen in many parts of Africa, little vans that are meant to hold 16 people are jammed with 24 or so and this taxi was no different. The team, along with Jo was sitting on the back two seats with other Rwandans. We think we were going about 40 miles an hour when the van struck a little girl about 4 years old.

Unfortunately, this was my second time to be involved in a pedestrian accident here. It was horrific. As we looked back through the back window, we could see the little girl’s lifeless body in the road. Women were screaming and instant panic filled the van as our team began to pray. When I went to grab my phone to call for more prayer, I heard God telling me to pray so I put my phone away and begin calling out to God with the rest of the team. I kept thinking about Don Piper’s amazing testimony that he delivered for True Vineyard back in May. No, Diana. You pray.

Jo was hysterical. Hands of local Rwandans came up to the windows from outside trying to comfort her to no avail. The team also began praying for Jo to have comfort. I realized at that moment, as a believer, I will have peace and acceptance no matter what happens to the little girl. She will be with Jesus or she will live…but either way…she will live.

As the van backed up, her mother scooped the little girl into her arms and jumped in the front seat. The van, still full of passengers rushed off the main road in search of a clinic that was about 5 kilometers away in a very rural area. We continued to pray and Jo continued to sob. It’s hard to understand but our hearts were breaking for Jo.

When we arrived at the clinic, the driver helped the mom out of the car with the little girl. When we saw the child, she was conscious and there was a large scrape on her face but there was no blood. I am certainly not a doctor but I assumed that she was in shock…but I was surprised to see her eyes opened. Where we witnessing a miracle? Was God truly answering our prayers?

The taxi driver returned to the car and drove us back to the main road and put us on another taxi to return home to Musanze. All we could do was pray that she was going to be okay...but would we ever really know? Rwanda is so densely populated and 98% of the population do not own a car…thousands walk the roads everyday which is why there is such a high rate of pedestrian accidents.

We continued on to Musanze with very heavy hearts but still in prayer. Before Jo got out of the car, she reminded me of a story we had heard of a young man in Musanze conversing with a lady from South Africa. The boy had told her “that his English had poverty”, which meant he felt is English was poor. Jo told me that her faith “had poverty” and it broke my heart. We dropped Jo off and continued praying for the little girl and for Jo to find peace.

That night, all of us laid awake at night praying. The next morning we continued to pray but specifically ask God for us to miraculously find out the little girls condition. Not knowing the name of the rural clinic where she was taken would make it almost impossible. When I ask my contacts in Musanze for help, I was told that she would have been transported to the hospital here if her injuries were serious. The team continued to believe we would not find her at the hospital but we were motivated to find out. Honestly, we believed we needed to know the truth so we could show Jo the miracle that we believed God for.

When I told Simon (our staff manager) where we had been…he thought he knew the clinic and after the ladies went home that afternoon, we went to the Musanze Hospital. We were so fortunate to find an administrator who was willing to help us search the hospital. The large community hospital rooms were full of people but no staff member remembered the little girl arriving. We were so hopeful.

The administrator was so helpful and truly wanted to help us find her. He started making calls and in his Kinyarwanda language we heard him say something about mzungus (white people) in a taxi. He had located the clinic and was told the little girl left the clinic that morning, uninjured.

I can’t tell you the joy we had at that moment…but now to tell Jo. As it happened, it was Jo's last night in Rwanda and it was her birthday. We had invited her over for dinner and to celebrate but the best celebration was telling her we knew the little girl was fine.

As horrible as the incident was…it was such a testimony to how God answers those who pray. I think not only about the testimony it was to Jo but the testimony it must have been for the driver and all of the others on the bus that day. It will continue to be only part of the story of how we saw God moving in Rwanda this week.