Blog

As we are here in the dry season it appears that water does not run very frequently- at least not frequently enough for a home of six people (4 of them being Americans who are used to having easy access to water)! We ran out of water again on Sunday morning (“ugh!” was my reaction). I have been hoping & praying & waiting, thinking that the water would run again to our water tank on Tuesday night, like it did last week. But there again I was using a “western” mindset- that things should run on a regular schedule. Someone from the water/electric company stopped by our place on Monday and said they would make sure we had water on Monday night or Tuesday, but here we are on Wednesday morning and no water. Living without running water is very challenging for me, and certainly extra work. Again, we do not have it as hard as much of the population here. We took our jerri cans yesterday to the public pump and filled them with water for our household use. But we did not have to hand carry them back to our place (or carry them on our head!) as most people have to, since we have a vehicle. Mike even got into the experience by working the pump to fill some of the cans (I will try to post a picture here). Is God trying to make it easier for me to be ready to go back to the US? (“I want a shower! Washing my hair in a pot of warm water is not a treat!”) 🙂 I don’t know- but I would certainly appreciate your prayers for our water tank to be filled soon!

We got a CD with illustrations of how the architect sees the development of our property looking once all the buildings are in place. We can’t wait to show you these at our banquet. Please save the date on your calendar for that night (September 27th at the Hilton in Vancouver, Washington). We will have our Rwanda national director, Simon Peter Ngoga, with us to share his story of being a genocide survivor, a former street child, and now his passion for helping the children who are still on the streets in Rwanda.

We have found an office space to rent that is not far from our property. This will enable us to set up the neccessary office equipment (computer, printer, etc.) that Ngoga will need to use here, as well as enable our family to not have to haul back and forth between the US & Rwanda things that we need while we stay here.

Please continue to pray for the progress of Ten Talents International here in Rwanda. We have not been able to do the needed paperwork to get registered here because we are waiting on God’s provision for the required funds (a lawyer has to be paid to draw up the papers). We are also waiting on the Lord for the funds to begin phase 1 of building on the Acres of Hope, including putting in a well there. What a blessing it will be for the people of the community to have easier access to fresh water. Last year at our banquet our theme was from Isaiah 49:10, “They will neither hunger nor thrist, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.” We believe this promise of God’s protection and provision for the Acres of Hope as well as for us personally!

Thank you to so many of you who are believing with us, keeping us in your prayers, and sharing our heart’s calling with us. We are indebted to you!
God Bless You,
Lisa & family

Just yesterday morning I woke up & realized it was the 14th- which meant that we are almost half way through the month- which means that we only have a little over two weeks left here. How did that make me feel? Panicked! 😉 We still have so much we want to get done in what is now very little time! Mike is working this week on the ANLM Dream Center Chapel- he is helping them get the stairs done. He did have his meeting with the lawyer about establishing TTI as an NGO here. Of course the NGO process requires money to pay the lawyer for his time, so nothing has been set in motion for that quite yet.

On Saturday we were back over to visit the Acres of Hope. We had two more boys from the Faith Home come to visit us, Michael and Jean Claude. We took them to see the property. They are all amazed at how big it is. We talked to some of the neighbors who had gathered around us there. We told them about our plans for putting in a well there that will provide water for the community, so they don’t have to make the long walk like they do now. We asked them to pray for us to find water there. We asked one of them, a grandma at least, if she had a church to go to, but she said the closest one is too far away to walk. When we talked about maybe having a church there, Michael, Jean Claude, and Christine (also from the Faith Home) all got excited. Jean Claude said he would preach the word, Michael would play the keyboard, and Christine said she would lead worship. I get excited too when I think about some of our kids, former street children, working with us in ministry someday. It would not surprise me in the least, in fact I can see it in my mind’s eye. We prayed there with them. We did not have Simon Ngoga with us during this time, so Michael (from the Faith Home) was interpreting for us with the neighbors. He did a great job!

We had a very Africa experience this last week- we ran out of water on Sunday morning. (You see everyone here has a large water tank & although we are connected to city water, that water only runs at certain times & fills your tank then, and you live off that reserve tank of water.)Thank God this house collects rain water (though it may be dirty & in an underground tank), and thank God for a portable water purifier Mike has so we were able to have enough clean water to drink, cook, wash dishes. But still, not having easy access to water was a definite hardship- especially with 6 people in the house. As I carefully measured out & used water, or had to choose not to use water for certain things (washing clothes for instance), I had to think about the many people you see everyday here who are carrying jerry cans of water back to their homes, and that is the only water they have. They will boil it if they have enough for drinking and cooking, but many times they do not. I am constantly amazed at how hard the people here work. Carrying heavy loads (on their head most of the time it seems), walking long distances (in flip flops usually). It has been said to me several times that life is hard here, and hopefully you can understand some of what I am talking about. We (our family) has things easy compared to so many (a vehicle to take us places, running water, a water purifier). Let me also say I was praising God when the city water started running on Tuesday night & our water tank began to refill!

Thank you for praying for us and for the country of Rwanda. Now is the time for Rwanda. Now is the time for a move of God on a people who are ready to receive. Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest field. And pray for the provision for the work God would have us do. We will be faithful to do it.

Together with you in Christ,
Lisa, Mike, KaLia, Nate (and Michael & Christine)

As we have entered our last month here- it is hard to believe. There are still many things we would like to accomplish in these last few weeks. We continue to pray for God to provide for the Home of Innocence on the Acres of Hope and would like nothing better than to be able to begin construction before we leave on August 1st. On Wednesday Mike & Simon (Ngoga) will meet with a lawyer who should be able to help with the paperwork required to get Ten Talents International registered as a foreign NGO (charity) here. He already met with one lawyer, but the person wanted an unreasonable amount, so this second lawyer has been recommended to us from the church. Yesterday Mike & Simon went to visit a site where a ministry called Living Water is digging a well. Hopefully we will soon be able to post pictures of this type of project for you to see. We will want a well on the Acres of Hope. One of the stipulations (besides the cost for digging the well) is that once the well is dug, water must be freely available to the surrounding community. This suits us just fine, as we want to provide water. (Currently, the man who lives on the property and is watering our trees for us has to walk down a steep hill & back up again, a distance of about two miles, to haul water, as do many others who live in the ares surrounding the property.) Perhaps God will put it on someone’s heart to finance the cost of the well.

Last Thursday we picked up two boys from the Faith Home (Sprian & Peter) as well as Christine (formerly in the Faith Home, now in secondary school). The boys had a long weekend because of Friday being a holiday, and Christine’s school is out for the rest of July. We enjoyed having our sweet kids with us last weekend (a treat for Nate and KaLia as well). We took them to see the ANLM Esther Home (named after one of the girls from the Faith Home, a home for young women in university), the ANLM Dream Center property (where the feeding program for street children is held now- Peter came to the second feeding program ever held and was brought off the streets that day, 4 years ago now). We also took them to the Acres of Hope. It seemed very fitting for these kids to be there, in these humble beginnings, and to pray for what God would do there. I am sure that seeds were planted that day. Towards the end of the weekend one of the boys told us that he would want to give us something, to thank us, but that he sees that we already have things so he said that he prays heaven for us. We responded that the one thing we would like would be for him to pray for God to enable us to bring more kids off the streets- because there are still many more kids who are out there on the streets waiting for a home. For him to pray that for us would make us happy, and we told him that we know God hears his prayers.

It was hard to send the boys back on Sunday, but they have exams this week and had to go. All the kids in the Faith Home would appreciate our prayers for them to do well on their exams this week. These exams determine who passes to the next grade level, as well as their ranking in class. Many of our kids are continually at the top of their class, and strongly desire to do well.

I always have to thank you for your prayers for us. I know God has been very gracious to us this whole time because of so many lifting us up in prayer. I am reminded of an old hymn,
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His word
Just to rest upon His promise, Just to know “Thus saith the Lord.”
That’s what we do and the life we receive in return is so very sweet (not always easy) but very sweet.

Trusting God for great things in the days to come!
Lisa

Hebrews 10:23-24, 35-36, 11:1
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Sorry for the long delay in updating here. We moved on Friday into our new place (staying in a house we are renting instead of the Missionary Guest House). We do not have internet access yet at our new place. And you are going to have to bear with me, but several people have asked to see pictures of our new place, so I am going to post pictures here. (Plus this is for those of you who may be wondering if we are staying in a hut or not.) We thank God for the blessing of this great place to stay (even though it is very dusty here- as we are fully into the dry season & have a well traveled dirt road in front of our place)!

This is the master bedroom (looks out on the back yard).

The kids room…

My favorite part of the house, the back patio looks out on the private & lovely back yard
(and the kids with the dog, Nora, whom they have been having lots of fun with) the sitting area and dining area…

The kitchen… and that is all I can post right now, as the internet connection is too slow!

Mike has received the plans drawn up for the Acres of Hope. It is great to be able to look and see plans and envision what the Lord would have us do there (4 homes for children, a missionary guest house with conference center, a mechanics & wood shop, and more). We are continuing to look into our options for getting Ten Talents International registered here in the country. I titled this “Liberation Day” because this week there are two holidays this week, Independence Day is July 1st and Liberation Day is July 4th (when the capital city was “liberated” from those who were orchestrating the genocide in 1994). Let’s pray for the spiritual liberation of this country, for God to move in a mighty way in this country.

We want to just take a moment to remember why we’re doing what we’re doing- that there is a real need to take care of these street children, the “least of these”. On Thursday Mike visited the feeding program for street children. Once there he came across a teenager (18) who had a very serious cut on his arm. Two days prior, someone had taken a piece of glass and slashed this young man’s arm. The wound was very deep. Mike took him, along with some others in leadership at the feeding program, to the local clinic. However, the clinic confirmed that it was too serious for them to deal with, that he needed to go on to the hospital to be stitched up. They had someone trustworthy that they sent on with the young man, along with some funds for the care he needed.

The danger that this teenager faced on the street is the same as what faces many other kids living on the streets. Besides the other troubles of finding something to eat, where to sleep, and more, nighttime can be perilous, as they are open to attacks and abuse. It does not have to be this way, and it should not. We are following what we believe is God’s call to take care of these children, his children. We can not simply turn away, but we choose to see the situation with open eyes and open our hearts to what God would have us do. Please pray with us that others would do likewise, and respond to God’s call to put their own resources (talents) to work.

Thank you for your prayers for our family also, we are all well. We will be moving from the place we have been staying at (to a different home), the end of this month. God has been very good to take care of us. When I was praying for our next place to stay I was reminded of the verse in the Bible, “He gently leads those with young”. I have stood on that as a promise and have seen God show himself faithful.

This week Mike was able to meet with the architect and tomorrow will be picking up the preliminary drawings to check. We are also wanting to get the necessary travel visa from the US Embassy for Simon Peter Ngoga (He has been helping us since Mike first went to look for property in Rwanda. Mike also knew him before that because Simon used to work for Africa New Life with the street children). Simon is a treasure and has a wonderful testimony of what God has done in his life. We want him to make a visit to the US so he can be with us for our annual TTI banquet (September 27th). He has submitted the application to the US Embassy, and they have now asked for more documentation. We pray that God will provide the way for Simon to come visit the US to share in his unique way the needs here in Rwanda.

We are continuing to check into how we might register TTI here as a foreign NGO (non-governmental organization). The government is in the process of changing the rules surrounding that, so they are not registering any new NGO’s right now. We will see what God does in that regard.

We are thankful for the opportunity to be here and to just be available to however God directs. We truly consider all of you to be our partners with us in this endeavor. We appreciate you and are thankful for you also.

God Bless You,
Lisa

Mike was able to get back the plot paperwork for our property yesterday. This in itself is a praise because we had been told that can take months to get back sometimes! Another praise is that it is zoned “social” which means it is OK to put a church, orphanage, school, etc. there. Here is a verse I was reading this morning that I think applies to the Acres of Hope:
Zechariah 8
12 “The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. 13 As you have been an object of cursing among the nations… so will I save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.”

Thank you for continuing to pray for us, for the work here, and for God’s provision for the work he wants to do. Mike has a meeting Thursday with the Minister of Family (person in government). Thank you for praying for God’s blessing on that meeting & to give Mike/Ten Talents International favor.

God Bless You,
Lisa

That is a little bit of a play on words, you see we spent today (Sunday) at Pastor Saturday’s church. Let me back up to say that yesterday we did get to go out to our property & check on our trees, and we got checked out in the process. A whole crowd gathers when the “muzungus” (non-Africans) come bouncing down the road in our vehicle! This morning I was reading in Zechariah 4:
6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
7 “What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ “
8 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.
10 “Who despises the day of small things?”
It was a witness in my heart of what God would say about the Home of Innocence & Acres of Hope. I shared it with KaLia and she pointed out how it’s also like the trees we planted there. They are very small now, just beginning, but they are going to be very fruitful, in her words, “They are going to have huge fruit- the biggest fruit ever! God knows!” Can you, like me, hear a little girl prophesying over the lives that are going to be changed there & become so “fruitful”?

This morning we set out for Pastor Saturday’s church. It is not far from where we stay, but you must turn off the main road and travel over several narrow packed dirt “streets” (they would seem more like wide trails to most of us). This is the “land of a thousand hills” and so many of the roads travel up and down the hillsides. We bumped up and down along these roads, rutted and full of giant holes from the rains washing them out. We weren’t sure of exactly where the church was, but we had the windows down & heard it before we saw it. There was only one other car there besides ours (and no one else came in cars later either). The building was a simple rural style- cement floors, cement walls, corrugated tin roof attached to timber trusses. The light inside came from a window or two that had it’s wooden shutters open, and two open doors. There was also a single flourescent lamp at the front of the church (but it flickered on & off, almost to the beat of the keyboard being played). It was 9:30am, and even though Pastor Saturday had told us that service was at 10:30, there must have been a pre-service praise & prayer time already in progress when we got there. For an hour they sang and the song leader threw in some preaching too. It was all in the Kinyarwanda language, but when they began to cry out to God at once, I could feel the Spirit of God there & knew we were all one family. Then at 10:30 they had some more praise. They had a worship team of about 10 people up on the platform, and they began to really praise Him. They (along with the congregation) started clapping, then moved onto jumping, and then dancing. A couple little kids got up there to dance along, and we tried to coax Nate into joining, but he was not feeling comfortable doing that today- although he did a few dance steps at our seat. It was around 11:15 or 11:30 when Mike got up to preach. He shared with them some of his testimony, how he came to know Christ and then later to really live for Christ. He pointed out to them some basic but powerful truths from God’s word for them. We praise God because at the end of the preaching 12 persons came forward to pray to receive Christ. We are so grateful to God for drawing those persons out of darkness and into light. I am also grateful that my kids were fairly behaved (Nate had a few moments of not-so-behaved) during our 3 hours of church, much of it in another language. I didn’t even have to take Nate out this morning (he eventually fell asleep at noon).

Just wanted to bring you into our world this morning. Your thoughts and prayers toward us keep us together in our hearts, and we thank you for being partners with us in this work. God is so good to bring you alongside us- thank you!

God Bless You,
Lisa

I, along with some in my home church in Vancouver, WA, http://www.experiencebethel.com/, am putting a special emphasis on prayer today. My pastor says, “Prayer will precede, promote, and protect our progress”. That is so true. I pray for Bethel daily, and one of the things I pray for them is that our attendance would grow. Why? Because more people in Vancouver need to be there! They need the healing and hope found only in Jesus, and you will not find better teaching or truer hearts than those in Pastor Dav and his wife Laura. (We love you guys!)

Would you also join me in praying for the country of Rwanda today? I have been reading a book written by a fourth generation missionary to this country (her great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and now she herself, have all been missionaries in Rwanda). It goes into some of the social, political, and spiritual history of this country. As I was reading this I was also listening to music. One of the songs was based on the prayer of Jabez and had the refrain, “Bless me! Bless me!” I had to turn it off. Not that I haven’t prayed that kind of prayer many times in the past, but I have a different perspective right now. I am so very, very, very blessed. If I were to sit and write down all of my blessings my list would be very long. Right now I pray, “Lord bless the land of Rwanda. Bless it’s people.” Pray with me that God would bless this land and bring healing. Pray that the light of Jesus would fill this land and displace all darkness- in minds, hearts, and spirits. There is a song that came back to my mind a few days ago, one that we used to sing in church some years ago. I am going to tell you the words so we can together make this our prayer for Rwanda:
Lord, the light of your love is shining. In the midst of the darkness shining. Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us. Set us free by the truth you now bring us. Shine on me. Shine on me.
Shine Jesus shine, fill this land with the Father’s glory. Blaze Spirit blaze, set our hearts on fire. Flow river flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy. Send forth your Word, Lord and let there be light.

The pastor who works with the feeding program, Pastor Saturday, has invited Mike to come preach at his church on Sunday. Mike has also been helping with some of the planning for ANLM’s Dream Center construction that is going on right now (same property as the feeding program). Let’s pray for those kids who attend the feeding program & have given their hearts to Christ, but still find themselves searching for some food each day as well as a safe place to sleep. God has not forgotten them. He sees them and cares for them, and they have faith that He will be their refuge. Let’s pray for the Acres of Hope and the Home of Innocence, that God would prompt his people to be his conduits of supply.

Bless you today. I pray you walk in the fullness of all God has for you. Thank you for walking the walk of faith with us & believing God for great things at home and in Rwanda! Praise Him!

Lisa