You may not believe this, but as I am writing this update, I am wearing a sweatshirt & jeans in the middle of the day here in Rwanda! We have been having very unusual weather for June here. This is supposed to be the beginning of the dry season, but instead we have been having a lot of rain and it has been very cool. The roads are very messy here when it rains. Only the main roads are paved, the rest are packed dirt. When it rains, it rains hard. And the ground can not absorb all the water at once so you have muddy rivers everywhere. In the parts where the roads get soft the mud packs into the tires & Mike said it is like driving on ice! Thank God that he provided a four wheel drive vehicle for us to have here. It has definitely been necessary & thank God we didn’t have to trudge our family up to the public bus station in the rain for church today!
Thursday morning Mike taught at the feeding program. There were a lot of kids there and they broke them into two groups, with Mike teaching those over age 10. He had a question and answer time and ended up having a very good discussion with them about AIDS which led to talking about purity before marriage. He also talked with them about forgiveness, forgiving those who have hurt you and how that sets *you* free.
That afternoon Mike was supposed to have the meeting with the Minister of Family, but it ended up getting moved to Friday morning. They had a good meeting and discussed the issue of street children in Rwanda. In 2005 the government and UNICEF together produced a booklet of the strategic plan for children in the streets. We now have a copy of this too. It outlines the causes of children taking to the streets, and the different strategies the government & other groups are using to address the problem. They estimated at that time the number of street children to be 7,000. Of those, they believe one third are orphans. The rest are on the street due to poverty in their family, or abuse. The government has dealt with the issue of street children by having police officers round them up and take them to a government care center. This report admits that because the children are forcibly detained they come to view these centers as prison and only want to find a way to escape. The street children we have talked to have told us that these centers are not very nice places to be. The report goes on to talk about the different approaches and the country’s goals. Mike & Ngoga were also invited to a meeting on the 10th of this month between different organizations who are working with the street children.
Mike has been putting together the TTI Strategic Plan for working with the street children here in Kigali, specifically those in the district where the Acres of Hope property is. It has been a very good exercise for naming goals, beliefs, our methods, etc.
In regards to the Acres of Hope, there is one part of the property that juts in like a tooth. This is about 1/4 acre that belongs to someone else. It looks like we can purchase this parcel for less than 1,000 US dollars, and it would make the building of a wall around the property much easier, instead of having to jut in right there. We are also going to find someone to make a topographical map of the land (the different elevations and such) and then bring that to an architect to draw up the plans.
Saturday we got to go up to Kayonza and visit some of the kids from the Faith Home. We know Christine’s birthday is in June, and we had missed Michael (boy in the Faith Home)’s birthday in April, so we brought them to a restaurant for birthday cake and sodas. This was a special treat for them. Most of the children who have come from poor families or who have lost their families, have no idea when their birthday is. I asked one of the other kids how they know when to change their age, since they do not have a birthday and they told me that in January they change their age, since that is when the year changes. We had a nice time in Kayonza and thankfully the rain held off while we enjoyed our time right on the lake there.
Thank you for remembering our family and the ministry here in your prayers. We are all well and I know it is the grace of God that has enabled us four to share one large bedroom for the last month +, with stuff in closets, Rubbermaid tubs, and any other surface we have! Please continue to pray for God to use our time here, that he would enable it to be fruitful and productive. Please also pray for God to provide all that’s needed for the ministry at the Acres of Hope and Home of Innocence. I was reminded again in church today that God provides for the things he calls us to! And I know that he is able to do exceedingly & abundantly above what we could ask or think!
Believing Together,
Lisa & family