Kigali 2012

Kigali, Rwanda

This past week, we traveled to Kigali, Rwanda, for the first Guardians of Hope Leader's Conference with the Baptist Associaton of Rwanda. 70 Guardians leaders and regional pastors gathered for the three-day conference at the Alarm Centre on the out-skirts of the city.

Erica and Kathleen Soucy

We are blessed to work with such a great team in Rwanda. Together, they have been supporting the ministry of the Guardians of Hope in 29 projects in every corner of this small Central African country.

Aaron and Reverend Gato

We were delighted to have such a strong turn out of women from the leadership of Guardians groups. Women play a key role in bringing about grassroots change.

The conference has been a great opportunity to share best practices from all of the Guardians of Hope projects in Africa. It was a fantastic time of mutual learning and sharing.

Aaron and Michel speaking to the gathering

Erica with Ernestine, who is serving as a development intern

with CBM's project in Rwanda with the AEBR.

Isaie training the Guardians of Hope leaders

on the principles of food security

Erica with one of the younger members of the group

(Several of the women GOH representatives brought their young children and nursing babies to the conference -- this little guy is a dancer!)

Integral Mission in Rwanda

Bruno & Kathleen Soucy with the Development Team in Rwanda

(Lawrence, Esperance, Sam, Andre, Gato, Isaie)

One of our joys in being a part of Canadian Baptist Ministries, is the great family of coworkers with whom we have the pleasure of serving with. I just returned from a week in Kigali, Rwanda, where we are helping with the Children of Hope and Guardians of Hope projects with the Rwandan Baptist Association.

It is exciting to see the holistic impact the church is having upon communities throughout Rwanda. Please uphold the Rwandan team in prayer as they prepare for 2012 ministries and anticipate the arrival of the Bustin family who are being redeployed by CBM to Rwanda where they will be involved in rural pastor training and Integral Mission projects.

In Prayer:

* Pray for the work of the Guardians of Hope as it seeks to strengthen home based care for people living with HIV and AIDS. This is an important component in each of the 29 GOH groups in Rwanda.

* Also in prayer this week, please remember the Christian churches in Garissa still reeling from the grenade attack on a Pentecostal Church this past Sunday that killed two people and injured three others. Insecurity in Northeastern Kenya has escalated over the past few weeks and has resulted in the withdraw of several international and national organizations. CBM will not have personnel in NEP until the situation improves.

May 2011 Podcast

Erica meeting with Jean

Our May Podcast is up on the podbean site -- this month the podcast features an interview with Kampundu Tedy, a Guardian of Hope living in a rural village of Rwanda. Kampundu shares part of her story of becoming a guardian for five AIDS who were without a home. Her youngest adopted son, Jean, who was left for dead in the forrest when she rescued him, is now a happy and thriving young boy.

Kampundu taking her youngest son, Jean, to school

Through the Guardians of Hope, Kampundu and her family have experienced support and care from a loving Christian community. They have received assistance for schooling and micro loans that have enabled their family to feed themselves.

Aaron with Kampundu Tedy, May 18, 2011

To listen to Kampundu share her story download our latest podcast at www.fivekennys.podbean.com or subscribe for free on iTunes.

The Children of Hope

Walking up a narrow alleyway in Kigali

Nothing is flat in Rwanda -- you are either on your way up or down in this "land of a thousand hills". There are no easy paths to follow. I think the same can be said of life here, as the country struggles with incredibly high levels of poverty and need. It is a constant challenge for those who seek to care for the marginalized. There are no easy answers, no simple solutions.

Children of Hope Manager, Esperance, with AEBR development director, Gato Munyamasoko

In January, Erica and I began giving oversight to the Children of Hope program in Rwanda that was started by the AEBR with Laura Ward and Patty Card in 2007. The Children of Hope is a joint ministry of Canadian Baptist Ministries, the Danish Baptist Churches and the Association of Rwandan Baptist Churches that serves over 1500 orphans and vulnerable children within Kigali, and the Southern and Eastern provinces of Rwanda.

For anyone coming from a place like Canada, it is incredibly difficult to wrap our minds around the idea of a "child-headed household". Yet, tens of thousands of child-led-households are a reality in Rwanda and the countries of sub-Saharan Africa where over 12 million children have become AIDS orphans (and that number doesn't include the untold number orphaned from conflict, war and genocide). In our travels throughout Rwanda, it has been heart breaking to meet young children, not much older than our own three kids, caring for one another in a shack without running water, electricity, nor even a bed. These are children without anyone to protect them, provide for them, guide them, or love them. Kids who have been left to fend for themselves after the trauma of watching their parents die.

Children of Hope has been the churches response to hundreds of child-led households. Unlike the Guardians of Hope who are able to bring AIDS orphans into their homes as part of their family, the Children of Hope must continue to live on their own for the lack of a guardian -- the need is just simply too great and there are not enough guardians to care for these children.

What COH does, instead, is match a cluster of child-headed households with an adult mentor from a church (often the mentors are already Guardians of Hope themselves). The mentor looks out for the children and is there to give support, advise and protection. Through the charity of the church, the children receive assistance with school fees, uniforms, access to health care, and the tending of a kitchen garden. Life is not easy. The path is not simple. But by God's grace none need walk it alone.

Esperance with Rev. Nkuyemurugero Japhet, Regional Minister for the AEBR in the Eastern Province of Rwanda

Over the past year, Canadian Baptist Ministries has been coming alongside the AEBR in alleviating a crisis in shelter for over a hundred vulnerable households. With new laws in Rwanda requiring all homes with traditional thatched roofing to be demolished and replaced with ones constructed with at least iron sheeting, there became an urgent need to house the poorest of the poor. "They destroyed so many homes without preparing the people!" explained Rev. Japhet. In his community hundreds of families had no place to go as they were drive from their homes as they were demolished.

As the church banded together in response, the highest priority was obvious -- within their community were several child headed households -- homes where a orphaned children were left on their own to care for themselves. "With the support of Canadian Churches who gave $20,000 dollars, we have built one hundred homes for families who were homeless," shared Esperance."We cried, but Canadians heard our cry!"

According to Rev. Japhet, "In our region 20 child-headed households have received new houses with iron sheet roofs.... we are so thankful!"

"Thank you all for helping us!"

In Prayer

* Please remember Esperance and her family as they travel this weekend to Burundi to be with her father who is in the late stages of his battle with cancer. We also think of her mother who is too ill to make the journey to be with her husband in hospital there.

* We continue to pray for the Children of Hope in Rwanda and for the funds to continue supporting this important ministry.

* We give thanks for the way that God's love and compassion is being seen through His church in Rwanda through their response to the dire needs of widows and orphans.

Isaie in Kigali

Kigali, Rwanda

This week, Aaron is in Rwanda to serve our partners in the Association of Rwandan Baptist Churches (AEBR) with the Guardians of Hope (GOH) and Children of Hope (COH) programs.

Isaie Gakwerere, Guardians of Hope Project Manager

We have had the great pleasure of serving with Isaie who is now entering his second year as the Guardians of Hope project manager for the AEBR. He is very encouraged by the progress of many of the GOH groups as they care for HIV and AIDS orphans throughout Rwanda. Over the past month, he has been very involved in distributing health kits for caregivers within the 29 Guardians projects which he manages. Isaie's deep spiritual commitment, his joyful spirit, and unflagging optimism make his leadership one of great encouragement with the churches and groups he serves.

Isaie with his fiance, Laurence

Today after work, I had the joy of walking with Isaie to meet his beautiful-bride-to-be Kabatesi Laurence. They have been friends since they first met in secondary school back in 1998 in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, near the Tanzania border. Since finishing school and college, both Isaie and Laurence moved to the capital city of Kigali where they are both now serving with the AEBR. They will be married in their home province on July 23rd this summer.

In Prayer

Please uphold Isaie and Laurence in your prayers as they continue to serve their church and community in such a humble and selfless way. Also remember them as they plan their wedding and prepare for marriage!

Gisenyi, Rwanda

Visiting families in Gisenyi, Rwanda

Patrick (17), Mutesi (16) and Clementine (19) in their small room

There are so many orphans and vulnerable children in Rwanda, that there are not enough Guardians to care for them all. Clementine is a member of the Guardians of Hope group in Gisenyi called "Taking Care of Our Health". After the death of her parents from AIDS, Clementine and her siblings had no home. Through the help of the church, they found a small room and a Clementine received a loan to start a small business.

Please pray for Clementine as she supports her two younger siblings with her business of selling potatoes. She cannot go to school herself, because she has had to become their mother.

Entrepreneuring Rwandese carrying goods for sale into the sprawling city of Goma, just a few hundred meters over on the Democratic Republic of Congo's side of the border.

Starting a business is not an easy venture anywhere, especially in areas of poverty. For Guardians of Hope in Gisenyi, it has meant looking for every opportunity where they can turn a small profit. Given their proximity to the Goma, the capital of the strife-torn Congolese province of Nord-Kivu, the people of Gisenyi have access to a market of around 250,000 people (a population larger than any Rwandan town other than the capital of Kigali).

Isaie and Aaron with Bernadette

in her charcoal business

For the chairwoman of the Gisenyi Guardians of Hope, Bernadette, a small loan of of about $25 Canadian dollars enabled her to purchase bags of charcoal, a precious fuel source for cooking food and boiling water, from outlining rural communities and sell it for a higher price in Gisenyi. As her business grew, she repaid her loan and was able to take a second loan to expand her business and rent a small room on the Congolese border where she could sell her bags to merchants interested in carrying it into Goma where it would fetch an even higher price. Now she sells a minimum of ten 70 Kg bags to Goma each day. The heavy sacks are hoisted onto the heads of local men who walk the great weight across the border and over 3 kms to the Goma market. With this steady income, Bernadette pays rent for a room, feeds her family, and sends her children to school.

Erica and Patty with Bernadette

Please pray for Bernadette, as she desires to expand her business to also selling bags of "Irish potatoes". Pray for her health and the health of her children. "I can not miss a day in my business" shared Bernadette. If I do not work today, my children will have nothing to eat."

In Prayer:

Please continue to pray for the Guardians of Hope in Rwanda. According to Rev. Damascene of the Gisenyi Church, the border town of Gisenyi, like most urban centres in Rwanda, are rapidly expanding: "Our town grows up daily and life is hard". With more and more poor rural families turning to large towns, issues of employment, shelter, and access to food are deep concerns.

The Guardians of Hope are banding together to pool their little funds to help each other start small businesses, but according to the pastor "their profits are so low" and the business are extremely vulnerable.

"We will continue to hope things will be more better," shared Rev. Damascene. "We pray for a better future!"

Ruhengeri, Rwanda

As we continued in our travels with the Guardians of Hope in Rwanda, we visited with a group in the Northern town of Ruhengeri.

This AEBR Secondary School just North of Ruhengeri

was built by Canadian Baptist Churches

Community members taking care of the upkeep of their school

sorgum fields under the shadow of the Sabyinyo Volcanoe, home of the great silverback mountain gorillas.

Some local boys showing us their moves as storm clouds quickly descended over us from the volcanoes

Erica sharing with the gathering of Guardians about the strength of working together and the power of God's love seen through their lives.

Patty Card sharing words of appreciation to the Guardians

Some of the members sharing their harvest of organic pesticide that they both use and sell as an income to help HIV and AIDS orphans within their community.

Erica and one of the group members

Three barefoot neighbourhood children come in out of the rain to join the dancing and singing of the Guardians of Hope.

The clapping and drumming of the Guardians joined with the rhythm of the rain and the crashes of thunder as the storm rolled over the village.

The little dancers dry and out of the rain!

Guardians of Hope, Rwanda

Lake Kivu, Western Rwanda

Visiting the Guardians of Hope in Rwanda

This week, we are travelling through Northern and Western Rwanda with Patty Card and Isaie Gakwerere. It has been a great opportunity to gain a broader understanding of the genesis of the Guardians of Hope program in Rwanda, with Patty, and to come alongside Isaie as we encourage the ministry of the Rwandan churches in serving people affected and infected by HIV and AIDS.

Over the past five years, since the GOH was established in Rwanda, thousands of families have been impacted by churches and individuals coming together to care for the sick and vulnerable. Thousands of HIV and AIDS orphans are now being cared for by families who are heeding God's call to protect the widows and orphans.

Thanks to the generosity and sacrifice of individuals and congregations in Rwanda and in the West, resources are being used to transform hopeless situations! Each day we have met with more and more people who are sharing with us the impact God has made upon their lives and the way that God has used the Guardians of Hope to bring them back into the life giving community of the Church. Over this next week, we'll be compiling many of these stories to share with you.

A proud boy with his goats and sheep

given to his family by the Guardians of Hope.

It all started with a sheep and a loan of $10.

Mother used the loan to buy rabbits that multiplied from 5 to 35.

They sold the rabbits for meat and bought a second sheep.

The sheep had a lamb.

She returned this first born lamb to the church to give to another family.

The sheep had two more lambs and the rabbits kept multiplying.

Mother and children now have a home with a good tin roof,

four sheep, three goats,

manure for their garden, and food to eat

and not only have they repaid the $10 loan

mother is now investing their little money into

her children's education

Aaron with children in a small forest village along Lake Kivu

Erica and Patty with members of the Gisenyi Guardians of Hope

The town of Gisenyi on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Within the town a group of 20 Guardians meet to share how they are supporting one another in the care of HIV and AIDS orphans within their community.

Erica with Bernadette, president of the Guardians

of Hope group in Gisenyi town

In Prayer:

Please continue to pray for the ministry of the Guardians of Hope in Rwanda. In particular, please remember our national coordinator Isaie Gakwerere, serving with the Association of Rwandan Baptist Churches. Isaie is providing direct leadership for 29 projects within Rwanda. With a background in agricultural management, Isaie is passionate about helping groups become self sufficient, especially in the area of food security. We pray for his safety as he criss crosses Rwanda; for his health; and for wisdom as he supports the community and church leadership as they draw people together in caring for the marginalized within their towns and villages.