I remember writing this time a year and a half ago...trying to articulate the Land of a Thousand Hills to you-- a land of contrasts and contours, where.......you feel like you have seen the deep darkness of evil yet, inside of only a day, also the very face of God.
...you hold a little one against your heart and know that the odds are against her to even reach the age of five, yet entrust her to the One who knit her together.
... you see the utter freedom and joy of your own little ones as they run and play and sing with Rwandan playmates.
... you feel the quiet majesty of being less than five feet away from a Silverback Gorilla in it's natural habitat.
Tomorrow our precious Rwandese friends will have a celebration for us, to thank us for "living among them". They will roast a goat in our honor, dance and sing and beat the celebration drums. We, the Bauman Tribe, are struggling to find a way to tell these ones what they have become to us... trusted friends, co-workers, mentors... and just how precious each of their lives and stories of suffering have become to us.. How to tell them the deep and lasting hope we have gained by living with them, by loving them. They will give each of us a Rwandese name, and at that moment we will be part of them. I think that tomorrow we will eat and dance and beat the drums with our hearts.. Maybe they will see that the day our plane takes off, we will never be the same...ever. But our plane carries us back to you all... the ones who have joined us, prayed for us, helped us. Our Rwandese names belong to you too.
