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.

Banana Republic

Banana Republic

As you enter Rwanda's Eastern Province, banana plants stretch out over the rolling countryside as far as the eye can see. Green banana's are the staple of diet in this region of Rwanda: "Green banana for breakfast. Green banana for lunch. Green Banana for supper," shared Rev Gato as we drove by truck along the main route through Eastern Province toward Tanzania. "And of course, banana juice to drink!"

Erica with Children of Hope manager Esperance

enroute to Rwanda's Eastern Province

Mubago, Rwanda

During our monitoring visits, we were delighted to meet with the Children's of Hope mentors in Mubago in Rwanda's Eastern Province. The mentors, many of whom are Guardians of Hope, come alongside 134 orphans and vulnerable children who are living in households headed by an teenaged sibling. These child head of households benefit from the support, encouragement and wisdom of local adult mentors who watch over the children of hope!

Through the help of Canadian Baptist Churches, the mentors are able to ensure that the children have basic needs met and are attending school and vocational trades. The children are also provided with health insurance, training and seeds for kitchen gardens, livestock, and life skills training.

Aaron with Pastor Rutozi Vedaste

in front of the Mubago AEBR Church

As the work of the Guardians of Hope and Children of Hope reaches into the community, the evangelistic impact of the church has grown. Over the past three years, the Mubago Church has been transformed from a congregation of 20 people to now 150 believers. They are now making bricks and building a solid church structure.

Children of Hope Mentors

Erica speaking with Seraphine

Seraphine Ngarise is a mother of three and a mentor with the Mubago Children of Hope. Through her mentor's association she is saving 200 Rwandan Francs each month. Through the saving and loans program, she has able to buy and sell sorgum grain for a profit. Her business has become five times more profitable thanks to the help of her access to micro credit.

Children living near the Mubago AEBR Church

Rabbits like these provide an important source

of meat and income for families struggling

to overcome poverty in Rwanda.

Gikongoro, Rwanda

Aaron and Isaie mapping out our trip to visit

Guardians of Hope Projects in rural Rwanda

Guardians of Hope

Matekaya AEBR Church, Gikongoro, Rwanda

Amasezerano Y'Imana

"The Promises of God" sung in Kinyarwanda

"The Promises of God

When you receive them

Just pray and wait

It WILL BE completed!

Wait it will happen

WAIT IT WILL HAPPEN!"

To listen to the women singing in Kinyarwandan

please follow the link to our audio podcast site at

www.fivekennys.podbean.com

Erica receiving a basket of grain seed

from Therese Kampundu, a Guardian of Hope

Walking the steep roads of Matekaya, in Gikongoro,

to visit the homes of several Guardians of Hope

The Original Rwandan Scooter!

One of our delights during this visit was to see small children riding home made scooters down the steep mountain roads that criss cross this region. Kids will be kids!

Therese and her husband, Frodonard, have four children as well as five AIDS orphans whom they are caring for in their small home. Therese has been living positively with HIV since 2006 when she joined the Guardians of Hope. "I was scared and without hope," she shared with us. "My heart was so sad. I was really poor and now I had the problem of sickness without drugs. With the help of the Church, I started treatment with others in the church. They accepted me! I started the hope for living!!"

The Guardians of Hope in Gikongoro has 5 cooperatives working together in 12 churches with over 400 Guardians. Together they are strengthening their communities through literacy projects, livestock, agro-forestry, home-based care, school scholarships and savings & loan programs.

Therese's family benefitted from a small loan to buy sheep and pigs. Through the loan program, she was able to repay the loans for her livestock and raised enough money to purchase materials to build a home with her husband. With the home loan now repaid, she has taken loans to purchase two cows. With healthy livestock and rain for their gardens, they are feeding their family and blessing orphans within their community.

Maize continues to be a food stable for much of Africa

Through the small loans used for livestock,

families like Therese's are building a better life!

Isaie, Manuel, and Aaron

stopping for a tea break at a road side cafe

Please be praying for our Rwandan partners as they encourage their churches and support the various programs and projects throughout the country. The roads they travel are not easy, nor are the challenges they face. Their sacrifice and dedication to caring for their neighbours is a testimony to the power of God's Spirit!

Erica and Kathleen Soucey, Kigali, Rwanda

We want to share a huge thanks to Bruno, Kathleen, Ben, and the entire AEBR development team for the support and wonderful hospitality that you have shown us this past week. As we move together into 2011, we are very excited about our shared plans and commitment to serving the Lord and His Church through outreach to people living with HIV and AIDS, caregivers, orphans, and vulnerable children.

We would encourage you to be praying for the Soucey family and the ministry of CBM in Rwanda. To learn more about the ministry in Rwanda or to contribute to the support of the Souceys, please check out the Canadian Baptist Ministries website at www.cbmin.org

Land of a Thousand Hills

GUARDIANS OF HOPE

RWANDA

Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills. As we travel this week through the seemingly endless vistas of steep mountains covered in terraced farms and sparse forest, we have been blessed by the songs of the Guardians of Hope and their testimony to God's grace.

As Canadian Baptists, we have been serving in Rwanda over the past five years working in partnership with L'Association des Eglises Baptistes au Rwanda (AEBR). This Association of Baptist Churches began in 1966 and today consists of 30,000 members worshipping in 183 local churches and approximately 300 chapels throughout this small country in central Africa.

Our friends and Canadian Baptist Ministries colleagues Kathleen and Bruno Soucey with Farming God's Way instructors Carl Shmidt and Willhelm Els from South Africa.

We have had the joy of staying with our CBM team mates, Bruno and Kathleen Soucey, and their son Ben. From their home in Kigali, Rwanda's central capital, we have made day trips into both the Eastern and Southern provinces bordering Tanzania and Burundi.

The Soucey's joined CBM at the same time as our family, and it has been such a gift to finally be able to visit them in their home and see first hand the great work they have been doing through integral mission with the AEBR. One of our highlights, has been getting to know pastor Gato and the AEBR development team who work with the Souceys in strengthening the work of the church in reaching out to the physical and spiritual needs of the poor.

This week, Bruno and the team are hosting Carl and Willhelm from Farming God's Way in helping improve agricultural practices in Rwanda's Eastern Province. Canadian Food Grains Bank has recognized the spiritual and practical impact of this ministry as it has been an effective ministry throughout Africa. We look forward in seeing the difference this makes within the communities benefitting from the training.

Kigali, Rwanda

One of the visits we made earlier in the week was to a homeless family living in Kigali Rural. Much of Rwanda lives in poverty, surviving on less than a dollar a day, but even among the poor you find people struggling at the margins. Often it is here that we encounter single mothers and widows living with HIV and AIDS. Anne Marie Kankera, was abandoned by her husband after discovering that she was HIV positive. Frightened for her own life and for the future of her seven children, bad turned to worse when their small house collapsed, leaving the family without anywhere to live.

Anne Marie had become a member of the Guardians of Hope in her AEBR church, she was encouraged by the prayers and concern for her family. The small congregation is made up of people like Ann Marie struggling to improve their lives and looking to Christ for Hope. They meet in an dusty stone building on the outskirts of Kigali. It so happened that the congregation had been constructing a small barn for pigs and goats. When they learned of Anne Marie's need, knew there was a more important use for this small stable, and so they converted the small adobe barn (only 6 feet by 12 feet), into a two room house for the family.

Life is not easy for Anne Marie, or her children, but she gives thanks to God and to the Church for the compassion and grace they have shown her family.

Anne Marie and six of her seven children

(if you look close, you can see the babies feet peeking out behind the eldest sister's back).

Please pray for both Anne Marie and young daughter who have AIDS. Through the Guardians of Hope both mother and daughter are receiving medical treatment and support, and the family is benefitting from a kitchen garden and rabbits which they raise for meat. Their family has been growing beans all around their home. Through odd jobs, Anne Marie is working hard to feed and keep her children healthy. Through the Children's of Hope program the kids are receiving school fees and basic help.

If you would like to hear more of her story, we have an interview with Anne Marie that we will be posting on our podcast site early next week.

What's Around the Corner?

Travelling along narrow mountain tracks in the back of a truck with the always jovial Isaie Gakwerere, the Guardians of Hope program officer for AEBR Rwanda. Isaie brought us to visit Guardians living in Gikongoro in Rwanda's Southern Province.

Once we return to Kenya next week, we'll be posting more stories and podcasts of the work of the Children of Hope and Guardians of Hope in Rwanda. Thank you for keeping our family and these ministries in your prayers!