A holy God who answers prayers

Muraho!

I am sitting here at Ninzi Hill in Kigali, one of my favorite places to go and hang out with friends, talking with Laura about the challenges of having your first official teaching job be on another continent. I got to visit her classes yesterday and it is clear that God gifted her to teach but all the same God can gift us to do something without making it easy to do.

The two things that I have been learning a lot on the past week would seem to contradict each other when you think about. But then I guess that is part of what makes God awesome; that He can be both. Some of my friends are in a book group together and I am going to join in while I am here. So I decided to read the book they are studying right now. It is called 'The Holiness of God' by R.C. Sproul. I would warn you to read it and be prepared to get scared and uncomfortable. As the book talks about God is absolutely holy; that is to say He is utterly pure and wholly set apart from us. So much so that we can not ever fully know Him or look upon Him as a result of our sin. Any relationship between us and God must be initiated by Him. It just seems incredible to me that He does initiate with us.

Which bring me to my next topic. This holy God who could very understandably choose to have nothing to do with us actually invites us into direct communication with Him and then He even answers us. He has answered my prayers far beyond what I deserve. On Sunday I got to visit with Selassie! He met me after church and we came here to Ninzi and talked for hours. When we left he said he would accompany me back to the base but that he didn't want to go in. Last year when he left the school he was not on the best terms with everyone and he has not been back to the base since that day. Well he came back with me and he stayed all evening to attend Heart of Worship. HOW is a group of young Rwandans who meet every week just to worship God for who He is. They sing mainly music from Hillsong so it is mostly in English. They recently began meeting on base. Selassie had such a wonderful time that he is coming next week and he said he never wanted to miss another one. I am happier than I can say to be able to see God redeeming him in this way. He has seen deep and wide hypocrisy in the church here and it has distorted his view of God so for him to be able to tell me that our God is amazing or to be able to lift his hands in worship is a true renewing of his mind. God is reinforcing in my mind the truth that He can heal all hurt.

Well, I am leaving for the book group soon so I will say bye for now. Talk to you later!

Isimbi Johanna