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On the road in Rwanda heading to DRCongo. As you can see, the people cultivate the ground all the way up the sides of these mountains. You see this everywhere.

This was the cake that I asked for to surprise Michelle on her birthday. The World Relief staff at the office surprised her with a little party. It was a lot of fun and the cake was fantastic.

Toyota Land Cruisers. The only type of vehicle that could navigate where we went. Goma was flooded by a volcano in 2002 which has left the streets pure lava rock.

Due to the amazing work by the WR staff. This logo on these vehicles let the people in the villages that this truck is doing good work and trying to help. We saw the many people waving to our leader because of his efforts in his home country.

IDP camp. All of these people have been displaced from there home due to war and are forced to live in a place like this.

Kids are all over. Full of life and full of responsibilities. Kids were responsible for taking care of each other. You would see kids as young as four or so carrying their brother or sister on there back.

Kids love the cameras and the option to show them their picture with digital cameras.

This guy was a little bit older and a little suspicious at first but didn't hesitate getting his picture taken.

This was a very neat church that we gathered at on our first day on the ground. We were interviewing and documenting pastors in this area. The burden these pastors carry is huge.

This church was constructed out of volcanic rock and these kids were having fun being sneaky.

Part of our job was to collect these pastors bio and prayer requests so our church could begin praying for their churches. This is one of the pastors in Nyiragongo.

Makes me wonder what these kids have seen and what they think of the live they have been given.

Saw a lot of beautiful smiles full of joy and happiness.

There were probably 100 kids around us wanting there picture taken just so we would show them on our camera screens.

Another pastor in the Nyiragongo area. This is a really rural area with an IDP camp close by. Thousands of people all trying to survive with little resources.

Pastor in Nyiragongo

Lauren, World Relief intern based in Kigali, Rwanda, kept that smile most of the trip. She had only been in the region for two weeks prior to this trip.

We were following up on the teaching of our pastor at FMC, Joe Johns, from about a month prior to our trip on Servant Leadership. I spoke to the pastors about the teachings. I helped wash their hands as an illustration, which would have been a woman's job or a hired hands job.

You wouldn't think this kids had it very tough with smiles like these.

Youth pastor Michelle. She had kids attached to her the entire trip when we were out in the villages along with that huge smile of hers.

These guys were putting the framing logs into place on this house. Bamboo will be tied to these logs and then packed full of mud.

Combi (rope in Swahili). Some houses received twine and some use banana tree leaves. You must be resourceful.

All the kids on the outside of the house wanting to see the "mizungus"

What a wall looks like prior to mudding. These homes will be some of the best in the neighborhoods. They all received metal roofing which is a luxury due to the cost.

Cheryl also had kids hanging on her the whole time. She's a teacher, so we kind of expected it.

These kids decided to help with the mud and are getting cleaned up in this barrel of water.

We had goats roaming around in our compound in Rutshuru. This guy decided that being in the wheel barrel of scraps was a good place to be.

These guys putting on the last bit of mud on the outside. It was about 2pm at this time and this house was started early that morning. They worked very hard.

Guys working with the mud. You just create a mud hole right next to the house construction.

A group of girls sitting close to us waiting for something exciting to happen.

Brother Ali here had the screen on the camera flipped towards the kids so they could watch themselves being taped. They loved it.

This is one of the widows and her children. Her husband was killed in the fighting that's been going on for many years. Her sons worked harder than anyone on this house. She also showed up at every other organized event for the time we were there.

Here is a child carrying a child. This kid was maybe 5. African babysitting.

This is a 3-room palace compared to the nothing that she had and what the people around her have.

Kids loved running behind the vehicle and jumping on the tire and going for a ride. We all thought it was funny at first, but grew annoyed as the week went on because were were bouncing all over and didn't want them to get hurt.

Lauren playing with the kids where she would scare them and they would scatter and then come back.

Team photo with this widow. This house is located in an area that just months prior rebels invaded forcing people to flee. Put in perspective how real the threat is. Her and her teenage daughter fled just a day or so before her home was burnt down.

Emily, Michelle, & Megan sitting as we were interacting with the pastor's committee in Rutshuru. We were in the open aired brick walled church. We were just getting introduced to the pastors at the beginning of our time there.

Gives you an idea of what a nice church looked like. This was one of the bigger church buildings we saw. One team went to a church on Sunday that had no roof.

One of the groups interviewing a pastor for the prayer cards we worked on. The pastors have no one to confide in and carry huge weights placed on them. One pastor is worried that he'll be kicked out of his church because he and his wife haven't been able to have a child and adopting your first child is looked down upon.

Elouise is the committee president. This guy is a natural leader and showed it the entire time we where there. Has been through more than you can even imagine including having a gun held at his head when trying to protect a congregate from being raped.

Phillipe. Full of life and joy. He was probably the most vulnerable of the pastors. Many of the other pastors had multiple suits that they wore to the various events and Phillipe wore this outfit every major event.

This guy is head of a compassion ministry. Funny thing about this guy is that he would turn his head in every photo throughout the week. Became a bit of a joke.

These woman worked through the night preparing the food that was intended to be distributed at the general hospital. Shortly after this picture was taken, the hospital would not let us distribute there and forced us to leave. God had a bigger plan as the food was distributed at a prison, police camp, and a health clinic. The prisoners had not eaten in 3-days and there were many new believers as the gospel was presented to everyone at these places. Everyone at the prison bent to their knees. These women took it in stride and were full of life everywhere we served together.

During all the transitions with the food, the woman ended up at our compound waiting for the plans to be made. We couldn't speak to each other, but Gwen broke the silence with pictures of her family. These woman were so excited to be shown the pictures of our teams families and kids.

We were walking to the field to cultivate. This kid was following Ali hoping to be video taped.

This is Myal. Myal wanted this kid's hat to wear. So Marcel who spoke the language asked the kid for the hat and Myal wore if for a little while. This kid wasn't sure he was going to get his hat back and watched Myal pretty closely for awhile until Myal gave it back here.

We decided to take the 15 minute walk through a village to the field and it was a good choice. It was so fun walking with all the kids and seeing all the homes and being welcomed along the way. We had hundreds of kids gather as we walked down and they stayed with us as we cultivated.

This is a photo of us getting started with the field cultivation. There were probably 75 or more people shoulder to shoulder hoeing, majority of them women at first and balanced out shortly after getting started.