It's almost a year since I arrived in Rwanda - I spent five weeks there working with a team to provide water and sanitation and to see that come to fruition was an amazing buzz. But even more of a buzz was to be part of a community - the people where so warm and inviting, they could have been defensive and wary, (they had every right to be), but instead they invited us strangers in, they shared the little they had - but perhaps most profoundly they shared their stories and their lives.
Whilst there I also had the privilege of investigating the possibility of building houses and a community centre - when I left it was just a dream, a paper vision.
So when the Major told me that the community centre is finished and the houses started, I was thrilled. But despite the thrill of the tangible and essential necessities of life that are being provided you know what excited me most?
The news that today, as a result of the relationships built between local Salvationists and the community there are 19 new senior soldiers and 16 new junior soldiers. We went there to transform lives through the provision of essential material needs - but through mutual friendship, trust and respect lives are being transformed in much deeper ways.