Saturday 28 May 2011

Update on Daniel

To all who have been praying for young Daniel, many thanks! You prayers are being answered. A friend of a friend here in Kigali has some medical contacts in the US who send surgeons to Rwanda periodically to work for a few weeks. Following a phone conversation with this lady we sent her Daniel's story and some pictures of his wound. She forwarded them to her contacts in the States who have a colleague working in Rwanda right now. He is working in a hospital run by Partners in Health about 2 hours out of the city and having seen the pictures of Daniel's thigh has agreed to do a skin graft next week. It will involve about one month of hospitalization for Daniel but will almost certainly insure his full and speedy and much less painful recovery.   Praise God once again for his provision.

Monday 16 May 2011

Strength for today and bright hope for Rwanda's future

Ernest in red working with guys from 'Ten Talents'

As part of our ongoing project to get rabbits into as many 'back yards' as possible, we set Ernest up to build a rabbit hutch with the guys from 'Ten Talents International'. Part of what this organization has done is to train a number of underprivileged Rwandan boys to build and sell rabbit hutches. The hutches are top quality and Ernest is really enjoying the opportunity to learn carpentry skills that we hope he will eventually be able to pass on to some of the guys at the Vineyard.

Could someone go find the key?

Our first Children's Meeting

After worship on Sunday we blessed the children to go to their own meeting. They were very excited to have a children's meeting that is geared to their level of interest. So the sewing machines were moved to one side and the new benches set out and 3 of the ladies led the meeting with songs and stories. It certainly made preaching to the adults a lot less disruptive. Another win-win situation!

Tuesday 10 May 2011

The morning sewing group in session

Today 15 women from our community began a month long intensive sewing class. Some are learning to use a machine for the first time and others are more advanced and already learning to make crafts from African gatenga fabric. The teacher Flora has her own business and produces quality crafts  herself. When the ladies are trained and producing their own creations we would like to find markets in the US and the UK for their products. Hopefully we will be able to post some pictures of the finished work at the end of the month. It is such a blessing to see the church buildings used to benefit the community. This is truly becoming a community center.

Friday 6 May 2011

Turn aside once in a while

While walking to my friend Antoine's house yesterday morning, I turned aside from my stressful mindset to see the most beautiful blue flowers growing over the Carpenters wall. At that moment God 'spoke' to me that as He is the creator of this beauty, He is also in control of all His creation. Life threw some fairly stressful stuff at me yesterday but I was somehow at peace through it all. Thank you Lord for those little things that you put in our way to help us turn aside for a moment and realize that you are indeed Lord over all.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Daniel

Little Daniel was badly burned 3 months ago when he fell in a cooking fire. Last week Thursday we transferred Daniel to a small 7 day Adventist hospital which is so much closer to his parent's home. They still have to bring food every day for him and his aunt, who stays with him. It seems that the healing process and the possibility of a skin graft have been impaired by Daniel's anaemia. He is now on B Complex with iron. His midriff has healed well and it is now just his left thigh that remains to be healed. His dressing is now being changed daily. Please pray for complete healing for Daniel.

Muyange Vineyard worship team

Worship practice was fun yesterday with Florence and the team. These guys are blessed with beautiful voices and the drums and shakers add to a very authentic 'African' sound. Now that we have power at the church we would like to start saving for a simple sound system and some instruments. Four of the team showed an interest in learning guitar and we will start lessons next week.