Monday, March 22, 2010
Official Graduation Video
This is my official Graduation Video from Compassion DTS 2009 - 2010! With wonderful words of encouragement from some of my friends. :) Click on the link to check out the video posted on YouTube :)
Friday, March 19, 2010
DTS Graduate!
Well, I have officially been done with my DTS for one week! The six month program was wonderful - I definitely had challenges along the way. The time here in Rwanda was especially difficult for me (I hadn't anticipated community living would be so hard), but I have learned tons and am grateful that God brought me through that season.
Since I stayed here in Rwanda, I wasn't present at the school graduation back in Kona yesterday. I missed seeing all the other students from my school, but have been looking through my pics from the lecture phase so I feel like I just saw them recently.
It has been nice to take some time to rest in the past week. I've been able to sleep in, spend some time sorting through tons of pictures on my computer, and best of all, read, read, read. The house is so much quieter now that there are only 5 of us instead of the previous 19. One of my housemates is a 2 1/2 year old, so I can't say that it is entirely full of peace and quiet. Hero, the little guy, is really cute though. He is at the stage where he wants everyone to see what he is doing. I love hearing, "Logan, look. Look, Logan." So cute!
The next 3 1/2 months for me are still somewhat unplanned. Gabby and I will be teaching art and photography so people without jobs and little hope can have a skill to help them earn money. We are still praying and looking for a location to hold the training sessions. Margret and Gabby have a long term goal of having a center with lots of buildings, gardens, prayer rooms, etc. The steps in the meantime will unfold in God's time.
We are also looking for funding for the Compassion Tranformation Center ministry. We have money to pay for rent for the house we will all be living in and will be responsible for paying for the rest of our own expenses. As far as ministry, we will be needing more money for supplies, and possibly renting a building to hold the training sessions. We also need money to help get a business started for the people once we train them so they can continue on.
The University of the Nations in Kona has set up a link for online donations. All donations are also tax deductible. Please consider helping out this ministry we will be starting to empower the people of Rwanda.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=10564100
Next week, Gabby, Margret, Immaculee, Hero and I plan to head south for a few days to Burundi (the neighboring country). We all want a little vacation and can combine it with a wonderful ministry opportunity. There is a hospital prison there that Gabby and the DTS team last year visited. Apparently, it is a hospital that keeps its patients as "prisoners" if they can't pay their bill. We would like to visit them, praying for them, teaching them to paint, and taking their pictures. Right now I am brainstorming ways to sell the art they create to raise the money needed to get out of the hospital. I am sure there will be more about this in the future.
Here is a blurb from the team who visited last year:
Well, I think that is all I have to update for now. Prayer requests: financial provision for the rest of the people I will be working with. God blessed me with a tax refund this year, so my needs for the next couple of months are met. Please pray for a facility that we can use to set up our ministry. On a more personal note, please pray for my parents back home in Colorado - their need is also a financial one.
Thank you for your support and prayers. God bless! Imana ibahe umugisha
Since I stayed here in Rwanda, I wasn't present at the school graduation back in Kona yesterday. I missed seeing all the other students from my school, but have been looking through my pics from the lecture phase so I feel like I just saw them recently.
It has been nice to take some time to rest in the past week. I've been able to sleep in, spend some time sorting through tons of pictures on my computer, and best of all, read, read, read. The house is so much quieter now that there are only 5 of us instead of the previous 19. One of my housemates is a 2 1/2 year old, so I can't say that it is entirely full of peace and quiet. Hero, the little guy, is really cute though. He is at the stage where he wants everyone to see what he is doing. I love hearing, "Logan, look. Look, Logan." So cute!
The next 3 1/2 months for me are still somewhat unplanned. Gabby and I will be teaching art and photography so people without jobs and little hope can have a skill to help them earn money. We are still praying and looking for a location to hold the training sessions. Margret and Gabby have a long term goal of having a center with lots of buildings, gardens, prayer rooms, etc. The steps in the meantime will unfold in God's time.
We are also looking for funding for the Compassion Tranformation Center ministry. We have money to pay for rent for the house we will all be living in and will be responsible for paying for the rest of our own expenses. As far as ministry, we will be needing more money for supplies, and possibly renting a building to hold the training sessions. We also need money to help get a business started for the people once we train them so they can continue on.
The University of the Nations in Kona has set up a link for online donations. All donations are also tax deductible. Please consider helping out this ministry we will be starting to empower the people of Rwanda.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=10564100
Next week, Gabby, Margret, Immaculee, Hero and I plan to head south for a few days to Burundi (the neighboring country). We all want a little vacation and can combine it with a wonderful ministry opportunity. There is a hospital prison there that Gabby and the DTS team last year visited. Apparently, it is a hospital that keeps its patients as "prisoners" if they can't pay their bill. We would like to visit them, praying for them, teaching them to paint, and taking their pictures. Right now I am brainstorming ways to sell the art they create to raise the money needed to get out of the hospital. I am sure there will be more about this in the future.
Here is a blurb from the team who visited last year:
We went to a hospital and were informed once we got there that the hospital is more of a prison for a lot of the people in there. In Burundi if you can’t afford to pay your hospital fees, you are not allowed to leave until you are able to pay or someone else pays for you. A lot of the people who are in that situation are kids who have no chance of raising that kind of money (many owe debts of over $200 US), so the situation is incredibly heavy and many of them are living without hope. We got to play and pray with some of those kids and our hearts were broken for them.
Well, I think that is all I have to update for now. Prayer requests: financial provision for the rest of the people I will be working with. God blessed me with a tax refund this year, so my needs for the next couple of months are met. Please pray for a facility that we can use to set up our ministry. On a more personal note, please pray for my parents back home in Colorado - their need is also a financial one.
Thank you for your support and prayers. God bless! Imana ibahe umugisha
Monday, March 1, 2010
Fun days in Rwanda! PREACHING and SAFARI
Last week was great! We all packed overnight bags and headed Up Country to do ministry in a town a few hours north of Kigali. When we got to Nyagatare we found out that we were leading an all-day conference for a group of pastors and young people from the area. I had been preparing a sermon on how big God is, so I was asked to speak for the first 2 hours of the conference. It was great! Due to scheduling, it turned out that I only spoke for one hour, but I believe that even through the huge numbers and braining numbing information I shared, God was working in people's hearts. AND I had the best day of outreach so far. It was really wonderful teaching people about God in a way that I understand (mathematically). :)
Then, the next day, we all woke up early for a wonderful surprise! The taxi (18 passenger van) was taking our team on a safari! Wooohooo! Here are some of the pictures I took on the voyage. We saw such incredible creations, and I was continually in awe of how creative God was when we created all the animals of the earth. There were lots of zebras, hippos, giraffes, impala, gazelle, baboon, water buffalo, willdabeast, beautiful butterflies, and wart hogs. It was so incredible!
Then, the next day, we all woke up early for a wonderful surprise! The taxi (18 passenger van) was taking our team on a safari! Wooohooo! Here are some of the pictures I took on the voyage. We saw such incredible creations, and I was continually in awe of how creative God was when we created all the animals of the earth. There were lots of zebras, hippos, giraffes, impala, gazelle, baboon, water buffalo, willdabeast, beautiful butterflies, and wart hogs. It was so incredible!
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