The last few months have been busy to say the least but I can surely say they have been faith building. At first I had considered using the phrase faith testing but of all the things I can say about my family is that we do not feel our faith has been tested by constant beatings but rather we feel our faith has grown from constant use. We are approaching the final 3 months of our preparations for Rwanda and I can honestly say that I have seen amazing things.
I first want all to know that I give praise every day for Glenwood for their blessings and support. Not a day goes by that I have not lifted the elders, staff and members of our family up in prayer because of the weekly encouragement we receive and the commitment they made to us in the way of our mission support. As many know Glenwood is our sending or home congregation and we could not be were we are without them.
I cannot give thanks and accolades without thinking of and telling the world how much the Rt. 230 Church of Christ in Pennsylvania means to us. They were there with us when we hurt and now they have remembered us and we give praise and give glory to God for their love and offering of support. For a small church they have stood up and committed 1/3 of our ongoing work fund. In addition great people at Rt 230 have donated almost half of our start up funds to date. We have enough money to ship our container and this would not have been possible without these wonderful people.
This month I was asked to come back to East Grand Church of Christ were I grew up and speak during mission Sunday. I love that family and I know they have prayed for me and I cannot say how much it means to me to hear them say it and to have them commit support for our startup and work fund. Because of them I was able to buy our plane tickets this week. Praise God.
The hidden blessing in our trip to Springfield to visit the church at East Grand was that we met a young lady there who grew up in Rwanda. She is the girlfriend of the young man recently hired to be East Grand's youth minister. We were able to sit down with her and show her our slides and talk to her about Rwanda. She has been a blessing for me and my mom. My mom obviously is troubled about our moving to Africa but after spending time with Fotine, she has had so much needed peace. In addition, Fotine has given the church a rare insight to the needs in Rwanda. She was 7 during the genocide and she says her family was marked for death and was on the list of people being hunted. Her father was out of the country at the time and her neighbors were saying he ran away and left his family to die. After the mob came to their house twice and were bribed with beer to go away they had to walk all the way to Burundi where they could finally meet up with her father. I asked her if she would be offended by the video I had for my presentation and her comment was that nothing I could show her could come close to what she had seen with her own eyes. After our presentation she stopped me and thanked me for what our team is doing for her country. I felt God's hand and voice in this young woman. Out of her mouth was a direct invitation to go and help.
Next on my list of blessing is the news that a wonderful friend and family will moving to Rwanda as well. In addition to our team there is another group in Rwanda. They have paved the way for others to come to Rwanda and we all owe them a debt of gratitude. My dear friends the Shrecks from Oklahoma City will be joining the other team in Rwanda. I feel so blessed by the people that God is calling to Rwanda. I cannot be in better company. I only pray that God will help me keep be an encouragement and be able to measure up next to these great workers.
Finally, we sold our house. We have been praying for our home to sell and just felt compelled to sell it ourselves. We prayed diligently for it to sell as did many of you. After weeks of frustration with very few showings we had become a little discouraged. We knew this would not be the wall that stopped us from going to Rwanda because we had come so far already. One day at lunch a friend said to me that selling our house was like David going out to fight Goliath. When David reached the battle field his brothers and even Saul said he could not face Goliath. He was told he was too small and weak. That Goliath was too big. David's answer was that he had fought against bears and lions and had defeated them by the power of God. If God had given the bear and the lion into his hands then why would he not give Goliath into his hands. Goliath would be slain for the glory of the Living God. That was my prayer after that. God has delivered greater things into our hands, we have seen him do greater things than sell a house, this would be easy for God. I know it sounds mystical but God is God and that very week God showed us the person who would eventually buy your house. She said she wanted it but could not until hers sold. We were even asked to consider renting it to her until her old house sold. We agonized over this but knew it was impossible, we could not risk being landlords while in Africa. We had to say no. As we prayed we invited her over to the house to talk about the contract and other options and while she was literally pulling up into our driveway her banker called her and told her that she could get a loan without selling her other house. She walked in the door and said, "Your house is sold". Praise to a God who has done even greater things and who's deeds are recorded to remind us of his past faithfulness and to tell us that he is the same God tomorrow as yesterday.
Well as I the title says, this is supposed to be a progress report. I should have called it "Count Your Blessings".
To date we are 16 weeks from our departure date. We have movers coming to take all of our stuff away on May 4th and the closing of our house is May 8th. Another blessing and a reminder to me is that one of my partners at work has a home that she is going to let us stay in when ours is closed. This reminds me to give thanks for all the individuals out there who make up the largest part of our start up giving and work fund commitment. Without them we would not be going to Rwanda. God please bless each of them a thousand times over for their gifts and love.
We have not yet raised the last 1/2 of our monthly work fund and are still praying for someone or a church body to raise up and commit the last 20,000 per year we need for our ongoing ministry funds.
We have raised 75% of our start up funds. Most of the money we lack is for a vehicle. God has been so gracious and we know he is providing. We are again asking him to raise up someone or a group of people to help us raise the last 40,000 we nee for a vehicle. I would have thought that a large sum (and it is to us) but I have seen great things and I can tell you, $40,000 is easy for God! An amazing story about our start up funds it the cost of getting to Rwanda has become cheaper. We were very anxious about the cost of visas, taxes and work permits. We have been praying for God to give more money for these items but instead he made them cheaper. The government of Rwanda has dropped the fees for work permits and resident visas from about $5000 per family to only $400. We also found out that it is very likely that our container will be tax free on arrival. This will save over $10,000. Sometimes God does not do things the way we expect. Fortunately!
We are still looking for someone to help us with solar equipment. This is a cost of 4000 and is needed because of the common power outages in the Ruhengeri valley. A small generator will cost less and probably run our necessary appliances like the freezer and the modem but that add the cost of fuel to run the generator. After only 6 months of using the solar panels we have saved more in electricity costs than we paid for the equipment. For you business types, our ROI is only 6 months for the solar equipment.
We are praying for God to help us raise 12,000 for our children to attend school in Kigali for the first year. This is a onetime expense and will allow us to have time to learn language full time and to prepare for our final move to Ruhengeri without having to worry about home schooling our children the first year. Some have expressed interest in this fund and we are thankful on a daily basis for that and are awaiting to see what God will do.
I know that fund raising is hard and that many are weary of our asking and we just ask God to constantly show us those who can pray and give. We ask God to give from those who pray. Thanks to those who repeatedly stop us and remind us that they are praying for us. I have to say that sometimes I wonder if I am wearing God out. I think of Gideon when he says, God, please don't be angry with me when (in the words of my children) I say, "Do it again". Just wet the fleece one more time. But you know what.
God is good and he does it over and over. I pray for so many of you and ask that God will shine his great blessing on you.
My prayers go out to Brett and Keli Shreck and their decision. They will be blessed with a stronger faith by all that is to come.
