Was the sound that woke Mhairi, Daisy and Michael up on Monday morning when their feet hit the floor. Their beautiful hotel rooms at Solace Guest House were flooded with water when a hot water tank burst in the middle of the night. It was a comical morning and the staff at Solace were incredibly helpful in getting their rooms and belongings dry in the shortest time possible.

We had spent the day before worshipping with the congregation at Four Square Church in Kigali, led by Bishop Masengo - a lawyer and member of Lawyers of Hope. The team were blessed and delighted to worship with the local community, singing songs in their mother tongue - Kinyarwanda. We were also introduced to prayer by dance and music only - a common way of worship among the Mulenge community in the Democratic Republic of Congo - who have a significant representation at Four Square Church. Healings and miracles happen when the Mulenge community pray like this, we were told.

We spent Monday morning at Nyamata Genicide memorial. Nyamata was a church in Bugesera, Kigali where a significant number of the Tutsi community fled to obtain refuge during the genocide war, only to fall into the hands of brutal killers. It was painful to learn the facts of the genocide war as narrated by survivors of the war in Bugesera. The team was incredibly moved when we offered to pray for our memorial guide who, despite all she may have witnessed as a Rwandan citizen - including being orphaned by the genocide war, only stated that she wanted us to pray for her faith to remain strong so that she can have eternal life with Jesus which is the most important thing.

We later visited a training project that educates vulnerable women on their rights, with a particular focus on succession rights. Liliane - a lawyer and Lawyers of Hope staff member conducted the training session. Chelsea shared greetings from CLEAR Australia (who partner with Lawyers of Hope, alongside LCF) and shared a word of encouragement reminding the women of God's vision that women would be treated with respect and dignity. It was inspiring for the team and Lilianne to see that the attendees showed a great deal of conviction when they understood how the Bible valued their identity as women, through Chelsea's talk.

We had our first Bible study of the trip over dinner in the evening, and then retired to prepare for a 3 hour drive out of Kigali at 6am the following day.

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