Rwanda Update 5...

Hello family and friends,

I hope that everything in your lives continues to be going well and that you have enjoyed your last couple weeks of the summer months. The ending of August has come about quickly and with it, my second month here in Rwanda is coming to a close as well. This month was kept busy with my work with the widow’s ministry.

The widow’s ministry is involved in 4 areas of the Kigali area. Some areas we concentrate more on small businesses or income generating things like goats, and in other areas, one area in particular, we are starting to concentrate more on working with their children. Many of these widows are raising their own children as well as opening their homes and lives to care for children who are orphans. Many of the widows cannot afford to send these children to school. We have recorded 300 children so far into our documents by taking their pictures and writing their information down. The prevalence of HIV among these children is also disturbing and heart breaking. These children are so precious and desperate to get an education, but the finances just aren’t there. We are presently looking into ways to raise support for these children’s school fees. If you have any ideas or have heard about things that have worked for others please feel free to contact me with that information.
In all of the areas we visit we share a time of preaching, discussion and worship with the women. In the upcoming weeks I will likely be taking on a larger role in this area, as the woman I am working with, Jackie, will hopefully (for her sake, not mine) be going to a school in Montana until next March, providing her visa and finances work out. We are hoping that 1 or 2 YWAM staff will step up in the next week or two to volunteer their time with the widow’s ministry, especially for the time while Jackie is away and ideally long term. Please be praying for that situation.

Living in community on the YWAM base is a good time. For work duties everyone on the team helps make a meal or two a week and helps with cleaning the dining hall and kitchen area. The kitchen here consists of three charcoal run fire pits and big silver pots for the food to cook in. The base doesn’t having running water except for 2 taps where we get all the water on the base.

Along with living in a community come wonderful friendships with the people you live amongst. We lost a member of our YWAM community 2 weekends ago. Since the beginning of this YWAM base there has been a man working here, who was both deaf and mute. He still managed to communicate using his own version of sign language and was very funny as well as a wonderful help around the base. He was here working on the Saturday morning and around lunchtime he was starting to complain that he had pain in his stomach. He was taken to the hospital in the afternoon and by the evening he had died. It was all very fast and shocking to all of us here on the base.

Thank you for your continued love, support and prayers for my time here in Rwanda and for reading this update even though it was a bit long. Continue sending those e-mails and calling me. I love hearing from you! Until next time…

Be blessed,
Trisha