Welcome
Welcome to the blog website for First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue. Below you will find the most recent posts from all of our blogs. Learn more about blogs or contact us.
Most Recent Posts
March Update
Posted to Your StoryI am thankful for good health, no further trouble with mystery headaches! Also am continuing to progress in Kinyarwanda, should be fluent any time in the next 5 years!! It IS hard, but I continue to learn, which is God’s grace. Much love and thanks to all of you, and may God richly bless you! Jean .. (Read More)
What was I thinking!?
Posted to Your StoryMy house continues to challenge me. It’s WAY too big for me, and I am now wondering why I decided to come here. I am hoping for a roommate to share with me, but meanwhile I feel embarrassed and lonely. Embarrassed when Rwandese friends come and see where I live, and alone. I should have foreseen this, but was perhaps blinded by my own desires and pride. Now I am praying for wisdom. I may.. (Read More)
Village Challenges
Posted to Your StoryMy Sam had to go unexpectedly to his village to dig out his kitchen and bathroom from a mudslide. His house was not damaged—these structures are separate—nor was anyone hurt. Otherwise he’s ok, but challenged by living so far away from his pregnant wife (due in July). There is no health center near where they live, so when she is due, she will walk for three hours to the nearest health center and stay there.. (Read More)
Tensions
Posted to Your StoryThe situation now in Rwanda is somewhat tense, and complicated. On the one hand, there is tremendous progress in terms of business and development at some levels, and in terms of international relations (Rwanda is now a member of the British Commonwealth, as well as of the East African Union, and has begun to thaw its relations with France), but on the other hand, widespread poverty continues in the countryside, and political.. (Read More)
Folks in need
Posted to Your StoryPlease continue to pray for my discernment and God’s provision as I help my various students through high school, university, or special training. Francine (English), Claudine (Senior 5), four other high school students, Belyse (last year at university), and Alexis and Zed at university. Also please pray for Safari, whom I’ve written about before. He has responsibility for his sisters’ many children, for his mother, and for his younger brother at university with a scholarship, but.. (Read More)
Trust deficit
Posted to Your StoryMy network recently went through a day workshop on the subject of “Trust in a culture of suspicion”—put together and led by my friend Kristine Bresser, of Le Rucher/Mercy Ministries. It was a day of carefully unfolding and revealing attitudes of distrust among our members, such that leadership teams cannot be built well because of fear of betrayal or undermining of trust. This is a very real problem: One of our members, Pastor.. (Read More)
Hope Disappointed
Posted to Your Story: I continue to put one foot in front of the other. Last week I worked hard, collaborating with four AEE field coordinators and our central coordination office, writing a proposal to submit to United States Agency For International Devellopment USAID. I became engaged in this project to a greater degree than I’ve experienced since coming here. It was to strike a major blow at diminishing the rate of domestic violence in Rwanda.. (Read More)
Mud Ministry
Posted to Your StoryOn Sunday, I wound my way up the very steep road to Mt. Kigali to give the sermon where I had been invited by one of my AEE friends. The church was surrounded by mud, and as I gingerly picked my way across, my shoes picked up rather a lot of it. Once inside, I scraped as much as possible off and went to the seat I.. (Read More)
Windows On Heaven
Posted to Your StoryFour small and very dirty faces peered over the passenger’s side window of my car to see what I wanted to talk to them about. I was on my way to work at AEE, down a very muddy road where these boys had been playing at something like marbles in the mud. As I approached them, they acted as most such children do upon.. (Read More)
...the best Friend we can ever have!
Posted to Your StoryJanuary, 11, 2010 Dear friends: What could possibly account for a two-month gap in writing to you? Well, procrastination (5 syllable word for laziness!) and a few distractions: a health-scare necessitating a whirlwind flight to Nairobi, a move to a new house, and Christmas! So: Merry Christmas And Happy New Year! The Nairobi trip was to get an MRI of my brain, which turned out to show signs of aging (duh!) and nothing more sinister, although we were suspecting dire things like.. (Read More)