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We all got into Kigali, Rwanda yesterday- and were very tired! We’re still a bit jet lagged today- but we had a great first day of ministry today. We went to church in Kayonza where the Faith Home (as well as 4 other orphan homes and the New Life Junior Academy) are located. Picture a large hall, filled with 90% youth. By the time we got there the preacher was already passionately addressing the crowd about avoiding temptation. After this message was concluded the choirs began to sing. Young people moving, dancing, and exalting the God of all the earth. It was wonderful. The worship continued and they began to cry out intensely to the one and only Savior- Jesus! We were blessed to be apart of it. Then the second preacher came up to talk about the meaning of communion, and we shared in this with them. In the afternoon we went to each of the orphan homes, each member of the team giving a short greeting and encouragement to the kids, and then we all prayed together. At one home we laid hands on a boy named Fred, 6 years old, for dizzyness and periods of weakness. We are believing for his complete healing! We prayed God’s blessings over every child and we felt their love and sweet spirits from just being around them. We also had them pray with us for God to provide for the Home of Innocence. We held hands and agreed together for our mighty God to do mighty things- he is awesome!

Everyone is healthy, just tired. One need that we have is that Mike’s suitcase did not make it to Kigali, as well as two bins that have our family’s supplies in it. Please pray for them to show up at the airport tomorrow!

Tomorrow (Monday) we will go to the ANLM Dream Center to participate in the feeding program for the street children. We will also go the Kanombe Home to visit the children there and work on a water purifier.

Thank you for your prayers for the team- you have a share in the great day we had today! Keep it up! 🙂

God Bless You,
Lisa

This year’s first outreach team to Rwanda is leaving on May 1st- Thursday. We really appreciate your prayers for this trip and the team members. Our team consists of our family: Mike, Lisa, KaLia, & Nate; as well as Julia (Lisa’s mom), Jill, Darcee, Bev, and Jerid. Your prayers for each team member, as well as the family members they leave behind, is an important part of our success! God chooses to move through prayer, and so we ask for you to remember to pray for us.

The outreach team will be in Rwanda until May 17th. Our family will be in Rwanda until August 2nd. Some specific requests for the start of our trip:

**pray for provision- both for The Acres of Hope and Home of Innocence, as well as for the personal needs of team members, many of whom are making personal sacrifices to come on the trip.

**pray for spiritual protection over each member, protection from attacks of all sorts, whether emotional, physical, financial, etc.

**pray for mercy as we travel- it is 30 hours on an airplane, a couple of days of little sleep and lots of sitting, sweating, waiting. Pray for us all to have patience, grace, be flexible, to get sleep on the plane, and especially for Nate who doesn’t always understand & in normal circumstances doesn’t sit still for long!

**pray for all our luggage to make it there on time & safely, for protection over all of our belongings & team supplies (especially over the water purifiers, we have had bulbs broken on those in the past)

**pray for us all to start this trip healthy & to quickly adjust to the different time zone & to have extra energy needed for our busy days

**very important! Pray for God to be at work – to make this trip effective & productive for his kingdom. Pray that our hearts would be full of the love of God and that this would overflow to everyone we come in contact with. Pray for God’s power to go with us & to touch lives. We want His kingdom to come & His will to be done!

Thank you for your prayers & for being with us in this ministry. You are a part of this team & because of your prayers you share in the glorious things we believe are going to happen!

God Bless You,
Lisa

It is coming up fast! The date we leave with the team for Rwanda. The team will be there until May 17th and get to spend lots of time loving on kids there! Our whole family will be going with the team but when they return we will remain in Rwanda until August 2nd. We will continue to post information on this blog while we are in Rwanda so we can keep you updated on what’s happening. We appreciate your prayers for the trip- that it would be very productive, that we would all be healthy and well, for all of our traveling/going through customs/etc. would all go smoothly (mercies for keeping Nate occupied during the looong plane rides- or for him to sleep a lot!). Please pray for the kids to transition well to being over there & for everyone on the team to be flexible!

Blessings,
Lisa

We are believing for God’s continued provision for the desires he has placed in our hearts. We are moving forward with our plans for staying three months in Rwanda, starting May 1st. Praise God – He is in control! Thank you for your continued prayers & believing with us for God to do amazing & great things- like he has already in so many ways! He will provide for the trip, for the Acres of Hope, the Home of Innocence, and so much more that he has placed in our hearts.

God Bless You,
Lisa

We would really appreciate your continued prayers for God to provide for this upcoming trip (leaving May 1st). We still need God to provide significantly in order for the whole family to be able to go at this time. It has been our intention to spend several months (as a family) in Rwanda ever since we left there last year. As of right now, that is a little bit up in the air. As well, we are still trusting God for the Acres of Hope property to be paid off, and the matching funds are still in place to make those donations go 50% farther. Beyond that we need God to put it on the hearts of people to give towards the Home of Innocence being built as well. We wait upon the Lord, and trust His plan. Please pray for the avenues of God’s provision to be opened up. If there are those that God has been prompting to give, but have hesitated, or not done so yet, please pray that they would respond. Our life in Christ is always a life of faith, whether we are giving or going, and we know that God is good & will lead us.

Thank you for your faithfulness & we pray God blesses you!
Lisa

Ten Talents has a new mailing address- PO Box 873685. We continue to plan and meet as we prepare for our next trip, coming up April 30th. We pray & praise God for his designs & desires for this trip. God has been so faithful to lead and direct us, and we know he has amazing things in store. We are still raising the funds required to pay off the Acres of Hope property. We have a matching donation opportunity that enables each dollar given to be worth 50 cents more. We’ve had people take advantage of this great opportunity, and we pray that more will. We had our pastors and business leaders luncheon last week. We had a great turnout and enjoyed spending time meeting new people as well as old friends. We pray that God will use that luncheon to enable us to partner with more people so that they may be blessed to be a part of healing Rwanda.

Please join with us in prayer for all these things. Our God is great and we love to serve him!
Blessings,
Lisa

Mike shared an update about the Acres of Hope at Grace Community Church in Woodland, WA on Sunday. We had a great time with that wonderful congregation. They are very supportive and several people are interested in coming on a future mission trip.

Our January newsletter is in your mailbox or on it’s way to you now! In there you will see an article about a wonderful opportunity we have- a matching donation. I love a good deal- and this is for sure a very good deal! Right now, all gifts given towards the Acres of Hope property will be matched 50 cents on the dollar. So, your gift goes 50% farther! A donation of $50 would become $75, or $500 would become $750, and put us that much closer to being able to pay for the property & build the Home of Innocence. God has indeed blessed us with this property and we know he has big plans for it!

We have a pastors and business leaders luncheon coming up on February 11th. We are asking them to come, no cost & no offering, so we can introduce them to Ten Talents International and talk about how we can network together. Please pray for God’s hand to be on the event & for it to be fruitful.

If you do not receive our newsletter, but would like to, please send us an email. We would love to keep you informed about what is going on with Ten Talents International.

Blessings,
Lisa

As of right now, that is the name that keeps coming back up for the property, so although it is not set in stone, that is what we are calling it right now. We had the first informational meeting for the upcoming trip today. It is going to be a great trip with lots of time spent with the kids there, as well as opportunities to serve. The cost is $3200 with $1800 due by March 1st (and $200 payable at time of application). If you feel prompted to go on this trip please do not let the cost be the reason that holds you back. We have seen time and again how God will miraculously provide what is needed for the work he calls us to! Our next informational meeting is February 17th at 4pm. If you are interested in going please call Mike or email us.

We will be having a Pastor’s Luncheon February 11th at the Heathman Lodge. Please be in prayer that God will prompt pastors to attend and they will open their hearts to what God might speak to them about their involvement with Ten Talents International. We are looking for God to open doors so that we can share with more congregations about the opportunities available through TTI. God is allowing us to be his hands in Rwanda & we need more partners in this work!

Praise God!
Lisa 🙂

Hooray! We have a newly updated website- it is so cool! Many thanks to Matthew Farnell who made the website just what we had been hoping it could be for so long! Matthew also worked on the Empress Palace website & is wonderful to work with. Come and play & see all the new things on our site!

Other news- dates have been set for our next outreach. The team leaves April 30th and returns to Portland on May 17th. There is an informational meeting on January 20th. For more info look under the “Get Involved” tab & click on “Short Term Missions” (on our website).

We appreciate your continued prayers for the new property (as well as a name for this property) and the Home of Innocence. God has big plans & we plan on being a part of it! Pray for the provision of funds & all that is needed.

Thank You!
God Bless You,
Lisa

If you were around back then (early 80’s?) you can hum that song, but it does feel good! 🙂 Mike was able to get most of the paperwork for the property done on Friday and was able to fly home (arriving Saturday night) like he was originally scheduled. Praise God! He was able to be in church Sunday morning to see KaLia & the kids perform. Yeah! He has a friend in Rwanda, formerly with Africa New Life Ministries, that should be able to complete the rest of the paperwork to complete the sale this week.

Another exciting bit of news: we found out the property is actually 7+ acres! Truely a miracle that we were able to purchase it for such a low price, and we thank God for that.

The task before us still remains to raise the remainder of the purchase price ($25,000) and then the funds to begin building. Right now we do have cattle stalls on the property but that is it! (The previous owner used to have cattle there.) God has so much in store for this property & it is so good to know that He is at work & we can not even begin to imagine the plans He has- they will go far beyond what we can dream. Our God is good!

Let’s dream together, pray, give, & believe that there are no limits on our God!
Together With Him,
Lisa