Emma's Big Month has Begun!

Our beautiful Emma!

Today marks one month until Emma graduates from Rosslyn Academy. It is a big month with AP exams, senior trip, end of school events, parties, baccalaureate service, and graduation. 

We are so proud of Emma, who has shown leadership and service both at school, in the theatre department, and with the National Honour Society. This summer she will be working as a lifeguard and medic at the Canoe Cove Christian Camp on Prince Edward Island. 

In September, Emma will start her freshman year at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she plans to major in psychology.

Isaiah and Emma

Best friends since they first met in kindergarten some thirteen years ago, Emma and Isaiah will be graduating with their class on May 29th. We are so thankful for the amazing friends and families that have been a part of Emma's life growing up here in Kenya. There is so much to celebrate as we journey with her through this big month.

Emma and Erica in the Rosslyn Prayer Labyrinth

Easter 2019 Update

South Sudanese Children Parading in the Kakuma Refugee Camp

Over our years of living in Africa, we have witnessed many parades. Unlike the commercial floats and fancy cars that we are used to seeing in Canadian parades, here the community marches are usually simple and, more often than not, religious.

This past Sunday, our street was filled with hundreds of children waving palm branches on the way to  worship at our local community church. Seeing families and groups beating handmade drums and waving threadbare flags is not an uncommon experience.

Good Friday is another special day in Kenya where congregations will march in song and prayer as they share with their neighbourhoods the joy of their faith. As we celebrate Good Friday with our family, we are reminded of the hope that beats throughout the Church today is a hope that is for all of the world.

Parades of children are one of the many things that we will treasure from our time of life and ministry in Africa. Earlier today we sent out of final official Canadian Baptist Ministries update letter to our partners in mission, where we reflect upon the gift of being a part of the work of CBM in Africa.

To read our final update letter, please use this link.

Emma's Junior/Senior Formal

Emma and her friends heading out for the Rosslyn High School 

2019 Junior-Senior Formal

As we celebrate Emma's big year, the Junior-Senior is certainly a highlight as she nears the end of her senior year. She and her friends had a wonderful evening of celebration at the Lord Erroll.

Parents aren't allowed inside, but here are a few pre-banquet pictures.

Rainey, Emma, and Karisa

Isaiah and Emma

Emma and Caroline

Lydia, Emma, Nicole, and Caroline

The pre-party in Runda

Back on Stage

Rosslyn Academy Theatre Presents 

Imaginary

A New Musical by Timothy Knapman & Stuart Matthew Price

This past weekend, Emma and her friends completed their two-week run of this year's Rosslyn Academy High School musical, Imaginary. This was the first performance of the new musical outside of the UK since it was commissioned in 2017 by the National Youth Music Theatre in London.

Emma played Beth, the mother of Sam (played by Tyler Davis), in this Roald Dahlesque children's show about a school where a wicked headmaster wants to rob children of imagination.

Now that the show is over, we are excited to share with you a few pictures. Over the years, Emma has played many roles on this stage including Sneeches, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Les Misérables, Annie, In the Heights, and Nooses Off. We are so proud of our girl!

Rwanda, 25 Years

Photos from the National Genocide Memorial, Kigali.

On this Sunday, Rwanda will mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide, commemorating the lives of more than 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, slaughtered in less than a four-month period in 1994.

An entire generation has now grown up in a country deeply scarred from this dark time of hatred and fear. This is a generation that has never used the former ethnic labels of Hutu and Tutsi, now banned in Rwanda. Each April they have stood in day-long services with relatives and neighbors to commemorate the memory of loved ones lost. They have witnessed the process of their communities naming evil, sharing the grief, demonstrating forgiveness, and celebrating reconciliation. These have not been an easy twenty-five years, but for this generation of young Rwandans, this is all they have ever known.

Darrell, Justin, Emmanuel, Berthe, Ernestine, and Laura Lee

As Canadian Baptists, we have had the privilege of walking with the Baptist Churches of Rwanda through these past years of healing. We are thankful for the young leaders whom we have watched demonstrating humility and compassion for their communities. 

Among this generation of hope-filled Rwandans is our friend Ernestine Kamarora. Over the past six years, we have come to know her as she managed the HIV and AIDS projects, as well as the ministries for orphans and vulnerable children with the AEBR. Since last September, Ernestine has come to serve as the director of community development for the AEBR. Under her leadership, the outreach projects continue to integrate faith and good works as they draw people to live together in peace. This month is both a time to look back with lament and to step forward with confidence and faith.

Ernestine and Erica

Please join us in praying for the Association of Rwandan Baptist Churches, for young leaders like Ernestine, and for our embedded Canadian field staff Rev. Dr. Darrell and Laura Lee Bustin who continue to serve in the areas of leadership development, pastoral training, and hosting short term volunteers.

Happy April 1st