Surgery and Family reunion

In June Val was in Nairobi for surgery. The procedure went very well and Joel was able to come down from school to look after her on her first weekend out of hospital. Pat and Brendan came later to take over the home care when Brendan's school was out. After 3 weeks recovery Joel's school year was finished at RVA and we all returned to Rwanda. We were so blessed with the accommodation provided for us by friends from the US and Canada. We were also thrilled that circumstances allowed us to have Joel home for school this year. The Kigali International Community School is up and running and Brendan and Joel are both attending. They are both really enjoying their new school.

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Seven good friends from the US

In May we had a team from the St Louis Vineyard come to visit. They came to see what God was doing through the Vineyard here and to see how they could join us in the work. All but one of the team had missions experience and they came well prepared to minister to the church. We had times of worship, Kids ministry, Training sessions etc. While they were here we moved house and it was great having all the extra hands.

We made some wonderful new friends and look forward to developing a long and blessed relationship.

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Our new rented house under construction

Following lengthy discussions over many months with our landlord about rent hikes, we finally found a smaller but nicer house at a reasonable rent in our neighbourhood. We ended up living in 4 different houses over a 2 month period as our new house was behind schedule but it was worth the hassle and we moved into our new house in June.

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Dempseys and Finnertys helping out in the fields

Our internet has refused to attach files this past week so here is the picture that should have accompanied the piece below.

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Visiting a Farming God's Way project on the outskirts of Kigali

Sorry for the long silence on this Blog site. The past 6 months have been full and busy that it has been difficult to find time to report on it all. Let me give a brief summary of the main events.

In April we had a visit from Linda, Michael and Izzy Dempsey from our home church. It was good to connect with folks from home and we enjoyed giving them a taste of daily life on the mission field. Together we visited a number of the development projects that are happening through the local Vineyard church and spent some time working in the fields with our 'Farming God's Way' teams.

 

 

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Rwandan Vineyard's Discipleship for Developement

The weather has been strange here in Rwanda lately. We seem to have missed out on a dry season altogether. Two of the small groups from our church have embarked on a very ambitious business scheme. They have rented more than 5 acres of land and are preparing to plant beans as a first crop. Not too much profit but safe. It is hard back breaking work to get the land ready for the first planting but future crops will be much easier as 'Farming God's Way' does not require digging again. We are praying for the rain to hold off another few days to get the rest of our 80 kg of beans planted. We are short on fertilizer so we are fertilizing with prayer also. Please add your prayers to ours that this aspect of God's kingdom among us will bear as much fruit as the lives that have been changed through faith in Jesus. The picture shows 9 members of our Tuesday group preparing the soil for planting.

Coventry Vineyard Visit

For the past week we have been blessed with 2 visitors from the UK. Germain Ndaruhutse who is a Rwandan living in England and Nick Sutton who pastors the Coventry Vineyard with his wife Vicki have been checking out our development projects and doing training with some of our small groups. We've been to visit 3 genocide memorial sites and have had some great times of fellowship. Our Sunday service ended with a time of real celebration where most of the congregation including Germain danced in the traditional Rwandan style. Afterwards we got together for a group photo with Nick in the center. We look forward to developing a lasting relationship with the Coventry Vineyard.