The blessings of being home

I am so happy I am able to be home for a few weeks before I go back to Rwanda this summer. I know the time is short and wish I could be home longer, but God is truly blessing me so much while I'm home.
The biggest blessing of all is being able to spend time with my family and being able to see at least part of the growing up process of my little bro Jesse (7) and my little cousin Gideon (6 months). The are the cutest kids and I enjoy every moment I have with them. I'm also happier than words could desribe to be able to deepen my relatioinship with my parents. As a teenager you just dont realize how important that relationship really is. Then you go off to college and all of the sudden you remember that you need them, not only financially, but you need their love more than anything. I enjoy feeling and experiencing that love firsthand, and not from the other side of the world by means of a skype telephone call.
Another cool thing I got to experience the first saturday I was home was a dutch speaking ladies day at our church that my mom organized. I got to see a lot of women who have been rolemodels throughout my whole life, true friends and sisters in Christ. I also got to experiene that story I've heard from so many preachers/missionaries...you know, they tell you they were just visiting a church when all of the sudden someone asked them to preach, or lead singing, or stand up and give a 10 mnt testimony....you visit a church and you should always be prepared for something! Well, mom asked me to lead the singing at this women's day. It felt so great to be able to just come home and jumo right into helping out the church.
I've also been privileged to help my cousin Luk both with his evangelization project in Ghent and working on his new house there. I distributed flyers for the Let's Start Talking campaign, attended their first church meeting at his house and even served as a secretary for the LST campaign by answering his phone while he was driving. I also helped him put up a plastic roof for the weekend while the roofers were gone and Luk waited for them to come back and finish putting up the roof.
I've had some great times here at home and am really going to miss it when I leave...but I know God plans on using my for His work in Rwanda, so I am also very excited to see that all come together in a little over a week! (I leave Belgium on May 23rd!)
oh, the picture here is of my dear little cousin Gideon. For more pictures, click the link to go to my Flickr picture account.