We pray you are able to look back and see the many blessings in your own life and allow God to ignite dreams within your own heart for where He is going to take you in the future.

God Bless You!

Lisa

Are you wondering what is on the wish list this year for the children in the Home of Innocence?

Bed sheets and bath towels. Yup, that is what they really need.  New bed sheets and bath towels.  Would you like to help give them a gift this Christmas?  One set of bed sheets costs $7, the cost for a bath towel is also $7.  You could give one, one of each, or many.  It would be nice to have 30 of each, so when it is washing day, there is another one he can use while it dries.  (No electric dryer- it has to air dry, which in the rainy season can sometimes mean a day or two.)

The other thing that is needed for the Home of Innocence is a few more mattresses for their beds.  We need to be able to add more boys into the home, and they shouldn’t have to share a small mattress!  One mattress costs $39.  Could you help us outfit a few more beds in the Home?

If you can give to these boys this Christmas, please go to our giving page.  You can select the “Where Needed Most” option and when you give your gift you can add a note that says, “bed sheets” or “towels” and if you would like us to notify the person you are giving in honor of please let us know that too.

Interested in giving towards something different?  Take a look around in our recently updated web pages where you can see information about developments going on for the Acres of Hope especially.

We pray you have a wonderful and peace filled Christmas season.  We will be hosting two different mission trip teams this month and we are going to be sharing the joy of Christmas with many children here in Rwanda thanks to these teams!

God Bless You,

Lisa

This year we will be having a team here to help us with the Christmas party (hooray!).  If you have a child in our sponsorship program and would like to send them an extra gift (something personal from your family), this team has volunteered to pack these items in their luggage and bring them along for your child.  If you would like to send something please email me- LisaM@TenTalentsInt.org and I will send you the address.

If you are looking for something “practical” to give to a family in our sponsorship program, I’d like to suggest you consider giving them a pair of breeding rabbits & a rabbit hutch, as talked about in a previous blog post (click here to read).  We also hope to share more giving ideas as Christmas gets nearer.

Please keep the ministry of Ten Talents International in your prayers.  We ask daily for God’s wisdom as we seek to follow his plan and calling for the ministry here.  We have many ideas and hopes for the expansion of the ministry, as God enables.  Thank you for being a part of it all!

God Bless You,

Lisa

It seems in the last few months that God is showing me this truth in several different cases. There are some children that we have tried to help. We have given them every opportunity and help we give other children. And yet, for a few of those children, they are unable to let go of their previous lives. I don’t understand all the reasons why. Maybe they are willing to choose “answering to no one” over following rules? Maybe they choose being high & without responsibility over the work & determination that school requires? Maybe they just find it impossible to believe that their lives really could be different from what they always thought they would be? Whatever the reasons, I grieve for them. My heart grieves for them & the bleak life now laid out before them.

As much as I grieve and my eyes fill with tears for those boys, I know our heavenly father grieves for them even more. He knows even more than I about the consequences of their choices. The other day I was reading the story Jesus told of the shepherd who left the 99 sheep to go and find the 1. God cares & longs for that one sheep that has gone astray. Only the shepherd can bring back lost sheep. All that we can do (as fellow sheep) is to pray and to be there. And oh the rejoicing that happens when that sheep is brought back! Our God is a seeker- he came to this earth seek and to save that which was lost. So we pray for those who are “lost” to this world and it’s empty promises. We pray for God to seek them out & that they choose to come back to where hope is. We pray for God to help them to believe their lives CAN be different.

God Bless You,
Lisa

God Bless You,
Lisa

An example of the rabbit hutch

For us to provide a family with a rabbit cage (hutch) and a breeding pair of rabbits it will cost $120.  If you already sponsor a child and would like to provide their family with rabbits, you can give online here, select “general fund – one time gift” and in the note area make sure to say “rabbits” and your sponsored child’s name or number (or you can also mail a check to our office).  Even if you don’t sponsor a child right now, but would like to give a helping hand to a family in our program, you can also give here, select “general fund- one time gift” and note “rabbits”.  We will then determine the family who is in need and is ready to start raising rabbits.

Please consider giving this kind of gift to one of the families in our sponsorship program.  You could even give “in honor of” someone else as a Christmas gift & be able to check them off your list early this year!

I would also like to update you since my last post about “sharing the burden”.  I am so thankful that God has brought several new Rwandan volunteers to Ten Talents International!  They are helping us to meet with families on Saturdays as well as visiting the homes of families in our program to check on their living situations.  We have also come up with a new schedule/plan for meeting with families, so instead of dividing them into two groups & meeting every month, we have divided them into four groups so we are not trying to meet with so many at once.  Our volunteers are also helping us to add more structure and ministry to those gathering times.  After meeting with families we gathered them for a few worship songs (which they really enjoyed) and then had the parents meet in one group and the children in another.  The parents were led in a discussion about showing love to their children.  The children were led in a discussion about what it means to live like a Christian.  It went really well!

listening during their class

We will meet again with families this Saturday and pray for God to continue to help us make our work here effective and for him to work in the hearts and lives of the people we minister to.

Thank you for being a part of what God is doing in Rwanda.

God Bless You,

Lisa

This past Saturday was our first time meeting with these families since May (because we left the 1st of June).  As we sat there meeting with families I made a conscious effort to look at each of them and to see them as a whole person.  I didn’t want to just see “the mom of a child in our program”, but a whole person with dreams, hopes, abilities, desires.  I felt the love of God for them as I looked into their faces.

However, it made my whole day emotionally, physically, and mentally draining.  Our program seeks to help the poorest of the poor, so that means that when we meet with the families and ask them how we can pray for them, we hear about how they are struggling to feed their families, how they can’t find work or stable housing, and how they have problems in their bodies.  We can not be their solution, we offer help in the ways that are part of the program, but for the needs that are beyond that they need to look to God as their source and for his help in becoming self-sufficient.

This is hard on me.  I have a very strong mercy personality.  Here is a definition I found for the gift of mercy: “The special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to feel genuine empathy and compassion for individuals (both Christian and non-Christian) who suffer from distressing physical, mental, or emotional problems, and to translate that compassion into cheerfully done deeds which reflect Christ’s love and alleviate the suffering.”
This gift is a practical gift. Those with this gift find themselves visiting and assisting those in need, and often feel the pain of the person they are helping within themselves. People with this gift find it extremely difficult not to help those who seem less fortunate than themselves.

I think it is very difficult for someone who is strong in mercy to have to tell people all day long, “I know you’re struggling, and we will pray for God to help you, but I can’t do anything else for you right now.” As we were leaving the office after our 4+ hours spent meeting with families I was reminded of a scripture I had recently read in Numbers 11 about Moses.  He was leading the nation of Israel across the dessert.  The people were crying out for the meat they didn’t have:

¹⁰ Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. ¹¹ He asked the LORD, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? ¹³ Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.

That is how I felt.   We need help.  Please pray with us for God to provide someone(s) to come alongside and help us here in Rwanda.  There is so much of our time that is spent in administration, while we would like to focus more of our energies on ministry.  We need an administrator.  Someone who loves God with all their heart, is honest, hard working and faithful.  Someone who loves people, but who understands that it is not always in a person’s best interest to give them a hand-out.

Next Saturday we meet with the families of unsponsored children.  Pray for strength & grace for us.  Pray for all the families in our programs that God would give them favor to find jobs and creativity to find ways to provide for their families.  I heard yesterday the unemployment rate in Kigali is 40%.  It is not easy to find jobs.

We believe our God is greater & bigger.  He is faithful to provide for his children.  When Moses cried out for help, God provided elders and said, “I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.”

We are believing God for this!

God Bless You,
Lisa

We have many new plans and ideas that we want to work on in the upcoming 9+ months that we will be living and working here in Rwanda.  We look forward to sharing them more with you as they develop.  We also appreciate your prayers for God to lead us to invest our time and energies in the areas he wants us to focus on, and for God to make those plans succeed.

Thank you for being a part of this with us!  What an adventure!

God Bless You,

Lisa

Please keep our family in your prayers during this time.  It has been a very busy summer as we try to squeeze in adequate time with family, friends, churches, as well as ministry and family details.  Pray for us to be able to accomplish all we need to, to get ready for our trip & to still enjoy the time we have left in the states.  Also pray for God to use our remaining scheduled speaking events to expand the ministry of Ten Talents, so we can do more for his kingdom.

No matter what your level of involvement with the ministry, whether it’s joining us in prayer, or in financial giving, or in telling others about this ministry, we appreciate you.  This is not just our family, but all of us working together to accomplish God’s will.

God Bless You,

Lisa

Our next scheduled service is July 10th at Trinity Life Center in Seattle.  On July 17th Mike will be sharing at our home church, Heritage Church, in Vancouver, Washington.  Please join us if you are able!

It is good to be back with our home church, our friends, and family.  We have missed them all very much in the last 10 months.  This summer is going to go by very quickly, but we hope to accomplish what we need to and make some re-connections as well as new connections.  For God’s glory and to further his kingdom work!

God Bless You,

Lisa