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

Silvere reads the Christmas story for the children

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

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

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

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

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.