Vineyard Mission Rwanda

Many volunteers came to help

2012-01-23T16:18:00.000+02:00

We had to cancel church on Sunday as you can imagine from this shot
late Saturday afternoon. We plan to have everything cleared up and safe
to meet again for next week. It has been great to see the whole
congregation volunteering their time to help build their church.

No more bamboo!

2012-01-23T16:06:00.001+02:00

We are so blessed with the progress at the church. Phase one is
complete and we now have a solid structure in place. We still have a
way to go but we are amazed with what has been achieved already. We are
so grateful for all the support from partners and friends to make it
all possible.

The future of the Rwandan Vineyard

2012-01-16T09:48:00.001+02:00

The work at the church has not yet prevented us from meeting on
Sundays. After worship we pray for the children before they go to their
Sunday school.

Every block will have its place

2012-01-16T09:36:00.001+02:00

Folks coming to church yesterday had to weave their way through
hundreds of concrete blocks that are being made on site to complete
Phase 1 of our Church building. The building is really taking shape and
it feels like we are working towards a great milestone in the short
history of the Rwandan Vineyard Church.

Candidates for 2012 Secondary School Sponsorship Program

2012-01-13T14:40:00.001+02:00

We are very excited to announce the start of a new program through the
Rwandan Vineyard church. Early in 2011 we had a team from Halifax and
St. Stephens' Vineyard who felt moved to sponsor one of our youth to go
to Secondary School. While school fees for elementary school are quite
affordable, Secondary School fees are sometimes just out of reach for
many despite the excellent subsidies offered by the government.
Therefore we have decided to begin a Secondary School Sponsorship
Program for some of the youth in our church whose families struggle
financially and this year we have sponsors in Canada and the US for 7
students. This is a great investment in the lives of these young men
and women and we are very blessed to offer them this opportunity for a
good education. Many thanks to all who are supporting this cause.

Leveling inside the building

2012-01-11T14:33:00.001+02:00

Sand truck reversing onto church grounds

2012-01-11T14:31:00.001+02:00

Four of the six ladies volunteering today

2012-01-11T14:19:00.001+02:00

The work on the Church Building in Muyange is moving along well. The
pillars and all the foundations are in place. The foundations on one
wall are 4 meters deep! We are encouraged by the number of volunteers
coming to help. Today six ladies walked about 5 kilometers from Gashubi
to help with moving earth. It is so important that the people have a
real sense of ownership in their church.

Blessing from Rwanda

2011-12-26T12:46:00.001+02:00

We hope you all enjoyed the celebration of our Savior's birth
yesterday and we would like to wish you all much health and happiness
in the coming New Year. We have been working on a brand new look to our
website that we hope to unveil in the New Year and we're excited to
have this new format to keep you all up to date on the progress in the
Rwandan Vineyard. Our heartfelt thanks for your continued support and
may you know the richness of God's blessed presence and provision in
the coming year.

Significant progress

2011-12-20T23:48:00.001+02:00

With 16 of the 18 pillars in place and the casing for the overhead
lintels almost complete, we feel very encouraged to be near completion
of the first main phase of the building. There is a great sense of
pride amongst the people to be part of something so significant in
their village – and all for the glory of God.

Work in Progress

2011-12-14T17:35:00.000+02:00

The work is going well with many folks from the church volunteering
their time to help with the manual labor. Please pray it does not rain
hard this Sunday as we will be a bit exposed. This is all very
exciting. Again, many thanks for your help.

No threshold church

2011-12-12T11:07:00.002+02:00

Casing for pillar

2011-12-12T11:01:00.001+02:00

Progress is being made with the construction of pillars for the church
building. We are doing 2 pillars at a time to economize on wood for
casings. Church was bright and airy yesterday as much of the bamboo
walls were set aside to dig foundations for the pillars.

Daniel at church

2011-12-12T10:44:00.001+02:00

I saw our miraculously recovered burn victim Daniel looking so happy
yesterday at church and wanted to share this picture with those of you
who supported his recovery through prayer and finance.

Making way for the first of many pillars

2011-12-09T10:07:00.001+02:00

It seems so timely that as we see a number of 'Pillars' being raised
up among the leadership of the church that we are also raising up the
first pillars of the actual building. We are grateful for the pillars
of the building but even more so for the pillars in our faith community
where the real kingdom work of our Lord is taking place.

The Building Site

2011-12-09T10:00:00.001+02:00

Digging foundations

2011-12-09T09:52:00.000+02:00

Store room

2011-12-09T09:45:00.000+02:00

Silvere giving direction

2011-12-09T09:40:00.001+02:00

The church property was a hive of activity this morning at 7.30. Eight
young men were hard at it. The steps to the second level are near
completion and the Store room is built. Foundations are being dug and
the first pillars being constructed from concrete and reinforced steel.
Many thanks again to our partnering church friends for the great
fundraising work. We will keep you updated on further progress.

End wall of church building

2011-11-26T11:39:00.001+02:00

The next major stage in our Building Project will be to extend the
main building by 3 meters (10 feet). It will require building a
retaining wall about 10 meters wide and about 5 meters long on each
side. This will be a huge task but as you can see from the bamboo walls
which need maintaining after every heavy rain, we need something more
weather proof. Initially we used flour bags filled with soil as an
affordable retaining wall but again the weather has taken its toll and
this could never support a brick wall and concrete floor. Again many
thanks for every donation, big and small, that is helping to put a
place of worship and community development in this Rwandan village. We
are excited to see the work progress and to keep you in the loop as you
help to make it all possible.

First retaining wall at the Muyange Vineyard Church

2011-11-26T10:20:00.001+02:00

The first retaining wall to allow access for trucks to the main
building is now complete. It required 4 truckloads of rocks as well as
sand and cement. Six of our people worked for one week to complete the
wall. The next job will be to put stone steps in to safely get from the
main level to the Community room below where 15 women from the 'Joy
Sewing Co-op' work every afternoon. This room is also used three
evenings per week for English lessons and on Friday evenings for the
men's meeting. This is also where the Children's church meets on Sunday
mornings. The next major step in the building project will be to build
the 'great' retaining wall for the church building and to lay all the
foundations for the walls. We are so grateful for all the support from
our partnering churches to make this dream of our local community a
reality. Bless you all.

Folks from the Muyange Vineyard receiving their goats

2011-10-08T16:59:00.001+02:00

This afternoon we had a little ceremony at the Muyange Vineyard to
pass out the goats that were donated as Christmas presents last year.
It was a long process to purchase the animals and choose the
recipients. Some folks were not able to make it today and will get
their goats next week. It was difficult to choose who should get a
goat so we asked six of our small groups to choose two families who
were most needy and best able to look after a goat. For many of these
families, owning a goat or two can make the difference between a child
being able to go to school, or have footwear, or not. Many thanks to
all of you who gave each other goats as Christmas presents, you may
feel very pleased with the results.

Katie and Shauna

2011-08-11T16:27:00.001+02:00

Shauna's older sister Katie arrived in Rwanda last week to spend a gap
year teaching English. She is adapting very well to this very
different culture and we want to wish Katie much joy and success
during her stay here. Katie has been a great help in running our VBS
this week.

David being assisted by Antoine and Ernest in leading a game

2011-08-11T16:16:00.001+02:00

David Humphries first came to spend a summer vacation with us in
Rwanda 4 years ago when he was 16. This year is his third visit to us
and it has been wonderful to see this young man grow in confidence as
he shares his gifts with young people. He is so enthuastic and a joy
to have around. He will return to the UK in September to continue his
Theology studies at Queens University Cambridge.

Happy moment for Shauna at the VBS

2011-08-11T16:09:00.001+02:00

Shauna has been with us for 5 weeks and has had many wonderful
experiences in Rwanda. She did some translation work and research for
International Justice Mission who she has been fundraising for in her
school in Canada for a number of years. She also spent some time with
'Lawyers of Hope' and visited a number of orphanages and a refugee
camp. She has been a blessing and we will miss her when she goes home
on Saturday.

Games at the Muyange VBS

2011-08-11T15:59:00.001+02:00

Today was the last day of a 4 day Vacation Bible School at the Muyange
Vineyard. What a great week! We had on average 65 children every day
and 6 guys from our youth group helped lead the week's activities.
Katie, Shauna, David, Joel and Brendan brought messages each day and
helped to lead the games. The theme for the week was the heart. Monday
was the Soft Heart, Tuesday the Forgiving Heart, Wednesday the
Believing Heart and today the Happy Heart. Everyone gave themselves
wholeheartedly to the skits and much fun was had by all. This morning
in the final session there were about 75 kids and 5 came forward and
made decisions to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior. Thanks to everyone
who prayed for our VBS this week, God is so good.

Guitar class

2011-07-27T07:20:00.001+02:00

With a view to bringing some more musianship to our worship team we
have started giving guitar lessons on Saturday afternoons. There are 6
beginners who are learning and we were blessed recently with a
donation of a new guitar brought to us from friends in Nairobi by a
visiting team from a Vineyard church in St. Louis.

Daniel in orange at home with parents, siblings and grandmother

2011-07-26T13:00:00.001+02:00

Daniel's family are so blessed to have him back home. He has been able
to manage the one hour walk to church with his family on Sundays and
join in Children's church. The skin graft has taken well and there are
no physical handicaps as a result. Unfortunately the trauma of 4
months pain and suffering have taken its toll on Daniel's personality.
His Dad tells me he is eating dirt and that he gets quite hysterical
from time to time. Please pray for his emotional healing. Many thanks
again for all the support for Daniel and his family during this
crisis.

Update on Daniel

2011-05-28T11:14:00.000+02:00

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.

Strength for today and bright hope for Rwanda's future

2011-05-16T15:36:00.000+02:00

Ernest in red working with guys from 'Ten Talents'

2011-05-16T14:42:00.000+02:00

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?

2011-05-16T10:34:00.000+02:00

Our first Children's Meeting

2011-05-16T10:07:00.000+02:00

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!

The morning sewing group in session

2011-05-10T14:15:00.000+02:00

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.

Turn aside once in a while

2011-05-06T08:53:00.000+02:00

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.

Daniel

2011-05-01T11:23:00.000+02:00

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

2011-05-01T08:04:00.000+02:00

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.

10 people make a public confession in the living God

2011-04-23T16:53:00.000+02:00

Much fun had by all at our baptism service in Niboye today. 10 people made a public confession of their faith in Jesus and we sensed his presence and pleasure with us. Sorry Antoine could not be there as he is sick (with malaria he thinks). We pray for his recovery and for a blessed day tomorrow as we celebrate the Kingdom life we have through our Lord, Friend and Savior Jesus.

Celebrating Passover and Kathleen's birthday

2011-04-23T11:23:00.000+02:00

Last night we celebrated a Passover meal with some Canadian and Rwandan missionary friends. There were 17 of us in all and it was a very enjoyable evening. It was also Kathleen's birthday. Thanks for the awesome cakes Jen.

We have been celebrating Passover for the past few years and it is a great way to trace God's amazing work of redemption through his chosen people and ultimately through his Son Jesus Christ. It is hard to even begin to comprehend how much we have to be grateful for as children of our loving heavenly Father. A very happy Easter to all!

Joel arriving back from his adventure

2011-04-18T12:54:00.000+02:00

Last Thursday while we were at a Mission cabin on Lake Kivu with some other missionary families, we heard a commotion outside our cabin and the guards were all in an uproar about something that was happening on the Lake. I went down the hill with them to the lake and heard two people shouting in the water. As I am not a very good swimmer I ran back up to our cabin and called the others to come. Joel was first to the lake and the guards, who do not swim, had carried a SeaDoo out of the shed. Joel jumped in the SeaDoo and began to paddle out to the people in the water who were about 100 meters from shore. A dug-out canoe was coming from the far shore at the same time. Joel managed to drag the woman he got to first into the SeaDoo and she was coughing up water and in shock. The dug-out reached the other person, a young girl who was also quite distressed.

It seems the ladies had gone to the weekly market in a small dug-out. The wind was up and the water a bit choppy and on the way back to their island their fully loaded boat sank. The rescue dug-out took both women on board and headed off to their island. When Joel got back in the seadoo we all felt so bad for their loss that Joel asked if he could follow them and give them some money. I gave Joel 5000 francs (about $10) and he took off after them in a kayak this time. It took him a while to catch up with them and give them the money. The women were still crying but were very grateful to the young white boy who helped prevent their day from being a complete disaster. We prayed that the women would be sympathetically received back in their village and that our donation would help to cover some of their losses.

Small groups help to build Florida's house

2011-03-05T14:32:00.000+02:00

Florida is a widow and lives with her 2 children in Gashubi and is part of the Muyange Vineyard small group there. As part of a government development plan Florida had to replace her thatched roof house with one of metal sheeting. Six folks from Muyange and 8 from Gashubi spent the day helping Florida to build her house. Brendan and Pat went to help out for a while and enjoyed the fun atmosphere. Afterwards we all got together and gave thanks to God for the blessing of community that works together to help those in need and prayed for blessing on Florida and her family in their new home.

Antoine interpreting for Robert on Sunday morning at Muyange Vineyard Church

2011-03-02T09:41:00.000+02:00

For the past 2 weeks we have been blessed with a visit from our friend Robert Stovall who pastors one of our partnering churches in St. Louis, Missouri. Robert's visit was primarily a Pastoral visit. The wise and gracious way that he helped us evaluate our lives on the mission field was very beneficial. Robert also presided over a 3 day visioning and strategizing time for the Muyange Vineyard and the Rwandan AVC with Antoine, Florence, Val and Pat.

We had a training session with our leaders in Holy Spirit ministry which Robert helped them to put into practice during the Sunday morning service. It is exciting to see what God does when we invite His Spirit to come and minister to us.

Thanks to the Hope Vineyard and Robert's wife Kim for allowing us to 'borrow' him for two great weeks.

2011-03-02T08:54:00.001+02:00

In February Pat and Antoine attended the week long PAVLN (Pan African Vineyard Leaders Network) conference in Nairobi. It was a great opportunity to connect with Vineyard Leaders from many other African countries and hear about the great things that God is doing through the Vineyard around the continent. We had great times of prayer and discussion about the way forward for the Movement in the coming years. New friendships were forged and old ones renewed. The week ended with an excellent teaching on the Kingdom of God lead by Derek Morphew. Thanks to the Kenyan AVC for hosting a wonderful conference.

Brendan and Amore handing out cards

2011-03-02T08:27:00.000+02:00

Silvere reads the Christmas story for the children

2011-03-02T07:50:00.000+02:00

Children at the Chilliwack Vineyard made cards with the Christmas story in Kinyarwandan to go in the shoeboxes at Christmas. Unfortunately they arrived late so we passed them out last Sunday. The kids were all very excited to receive the cards and enjoyed comparing the coloring of the lovely pictures of the birth of Jesus. Thanks and blessings to the Children's Church at Chilliwack

Eager participants in the Community Health Seminar

2011-03-02T07:00:00.001+02:00

Sorry for the long silence but this year has been so full of good thing happening that I have hardly had time to get anything on the blog page. In January we had a team from the Maritimes come and do some very cool stuff with the people in the Muyange Vineyard Church. More than 90 people turned up for 3 days of great teaching on basic hygiene and health care. The folks took it all in and had many relevant questions for the trainers. We also had a marriage seminar and ministry times with our small group leaders and youth group. What a blessed time it was and we are most grateful to Beth Wood and Sheryl Darrow from our home church the Halifax Metro Vineyard and Rick and Wilma Coates from the St. Croix Vineyard for all the hard work they put into making it a successful and enjoyable ministry trip. There is much follow up to be done and the people in the village are very excited to learn more and teach others the practical things they have learned.

Meals and Drinks being served during Christmas Party

2010-12-25T21:39:00.000+02:00

It was a day of great celebration at the Muyange Community Church despite a number of setbacks with transportation. On Christmas Eve the starter motor on the car died and we had it replaced. On Christmas morning with food for 350 people prepared and ready to take to the village our car died again. We found a mechanic to come and patch a broken hose and take it away to repair it. Meanwhile we rented a truck to take the food to the village.

There was a great spirit of Joy and Celebration as more than 300 adults and countless children gathered to Celebrate Christmas in our new building. The atmosphere was wonderful and impossible for me to describe in words. The toddlers went to our old building while the adults and older children were treated to a very entertaining sketch about someone getting coming to know Jesus. I had no idea we had such great actors. Our worship team sang for everyone and afterwards food was served. Antoine and Florence and their families and folks from the church spent all Christmas Eve and Christmas morning cooking and the party was a great success.

When the children had eaten the shoeboxes with Christmas presents were given to more than 100 kids from our church. There were biscuits and candy for all the visiting kids as well. A very heartfelt thanks to all of you who made this special event possible. What a brilliant way to 'christen' our new building. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the friends and supporters of the Rwandan Vineyard Mission.

The Building is ready

2010-12-25T07:24:00.000+02:00

Christmas Eve and the building is ready for the big party tomorrow. We have so much to be grateful for. "Unto us a child is born". We are forever blessed.

Joel and Brendan loading shoeboxes

2010-12-25T00:17:00.000+02:00

We spent Wednesday evening with Antoine Florence Esprence Innocent and Veronic getting 120 shoeboxes ready for handout to the kids in our church on Christmas morning. We had a lot of fun putting the boxes together. Each one contains some jotters, a pen, biscuits, candy and some items of clothing. We look forward to a great party on Christmas day in our new building. Blessings to all our supporters and may the Lord's sweet presence be with you this Christmas and throughout the coming year.

Praise is rising

2010-12-11T12:19:00.000+02:00

The roof is finished

2010-12-10T16:19:00.000+02:00

The roof is on and we are another step closer to completion. With almost 300 people expected for our Christmas party it is good to know that come rain or shine we can go ahead. The fence will be completed within a few days. We are very excited and blessed.

The roof goes on

2010-12-06T14:31:00.000+02:00

After a few days of setbacks with generators that would not work, the roof is finally going on. We hope to have it finished with the iron sheeting on by the end of this week. The fence is coming along nicely also with volunteers digging holes and putting the metal posts in concrete. We are very pleased with the progress. We are looking forward to a great Christmas party with much to celebrate.

Work has begun on the Community Ministry Center

2010-12-02T10:04:00.000+02:00

Work has begun on building the Community Ministry Center. The uprights have been in place for 5 days while the concrete bases set and the girders for the roof will go on today. With many volunteers helping out we hope to have our first meeting under a new roof within the next couple of weeks. Thanks again to all who have supported the work of God's Kingdom in this village.

Leveling the Land

2010-11-20T18:21:00.000+02:00

Upper level where Community Ministry Center will stand

2010-11-20T17:20:00.000+02:00

Work has begun in earnest on levelling the land in preparation for the construction of a Community Ministry Center in the village of Muyange. Thanks to a donation from the St. John Vineyard we hope to complete the building around Christmas time. The local congregation are donating materials and labour to the project. We are excited to be moving ahead with developing this land that we feel very blessed to be able to further God's Kingdom work in Rwanda.

Ernest, Val and GAKO trainer on a tour of the Demonstration Garden

2010-11-02T17:17:00.000+02:00

Ernest was very excited to start his week-long training at the Organic Farm Training Center in Kabuga, about 20 minutes drive outside Kigali. The center is called GAKO and they offer regular training sessions to groups from our region. The center has become very busy lately especially since the Rwanda Government has wisely seen the benefit of the majority of the population providing for their own food needs through small scale farming.

The plan is for Ernest to pass on his newly acquired skills to others in our village. In the near future we intend to begin our own Demonstration Kitchen Garden on part of the church land.

Joel and some buddies watching a game at RVA

2010-10-15T08:26:00.000+02:00

Many thanks to all who have been praying for us, and for Joel in particular. The surgeon was pleased with the repair of the ACL and recovery seems to be going well. Brendan and I returned to Rwanda on Tuesday and Brendan is back at school. Joel started with a few classes on Wednesday and expects to be back full time by Monday. He sees the surgeon on Tuesday next by which time we hope he will be off crutches and back in the dorm. Val is due to return to Rwanda on Tuesday. We are very thankful to the Lord for making it possible for us to be together as a family through this time. Thanks to Rwandair for their half price deal, to the small group at Valleygate Vineyard for their faithful support, to friends at Karen Vineyard in Nairobi and to Rift Valley Academy for providing an apartment for us during our stay there.

"We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." Rom. 8:28