14 days, 12 days in country, 8 women cooperatives, 120 micro loans, 3 savings bonus. 🇷🇼❤️

On our last full day here, we traveled east out of Kigali and over the hills to visit our dear friends in Gasarabwayi. Our team has some strong roots here and it is a visit I have personally been really looking forward to. One Church has been visiting this village for over a decade! Once a very hard to reach poor village, they are now considered the most advanced village for Africa Hope Initiatives. There were warm smiles, familiarity and lots of hugs going around.

We have seen and experienced many things in our time in Rwanda. Today our eyes were opened when we visited Ruhango. This village is the lowest level of poverty in Rwanda.

We attended Sunday service at Hermon Church in Kimisagara. We heard from 5 choirs (preschool students, high school students, women groups and a men’s group). Stephen presented a message on courage; “good courage v. bad courage.”

Today we wrapped up our time in Gisenyi learning more about the churches and challenges of this region and the academic system. Later, we were treated to a traditional Rwandan dowry ceremony.

The team visited the preschoolers in Gisenyi in the morning. There are 64 kids attending school. The school fees, uniforms and teacher salaries are paid by the parents that are able to afford to send their children to school.

Today, we traveled to the rural village of Bwiru in Gisenyi. This is unlike any village I have ever been to mainly because it is still recovering from a volcanic eruption in 2021. Just getting there is challenging.

We were up early today for our 4 1/2 hour ride to Gisenyi. What a beautiful ride winding through the mountains of Rwanda. We viewed monkeys along the road and 3 volcanoes, only one of which is considered active. We also had some great views of Lake Kivu.

Last year, on a different mission trip, we stopped in a little corner of Nyamata where some of the poorest families live and where Bishop Theo was already planning a Hope Center. It was a quick visit and and the children seemed a bit frightened of us and very reserved.

This year, the Hope Center is in full swing with two classes of young children and room to grow!

Where Do I Start?

After a couple of days in the city, it was time to drive out to the country to visit our friends in Batima- the village where Pastor Nicodem and Therese, a strong leadership couple, lead their community. After visiting for the first time in 2019, when the community was struggling and families didn’t know when they would have their next meal, you can now see the growth because of this couple’s commitment to serve God here.

What a wonderful day we had today! We visited the Child Hope Center in Kimisagara. We have made many friends there over our visits including children and their mothers.

Today was a day filled with blessings from God.

First we visited with the children from Kimironko Child Hope center. We were greeted with joyous songs, poems and all around happiness.

After a 9.5 hour flight to Istanbul, Turkey and then another 6 hour flight from there, we arrived to Kigali in the very early morning hours on Friday!

One extra hour sitting at the gate at Logan while the flight engineer cleared an engine problem of some kind! 9.5 hours later here we are sitting at our traditional Starbucks waiting to get our Kigali gate assignment.

Trip Preparation continues . . .

In addition to visiting 4 new women cooperative groups and return visit with 4 groups I met with last year, the Team will be visiting these women’s children.

Happy International Woman’s Day to strong, intelligent, talented and simply wonderful women of this world!

This year I am taking 3 other people with me and we will be visiting the women’s cooperatives in Kigali and Batima along with 4 new villages!