Ten Talents International Blog

Sorry for the long delay in updating here. We moved on Friday into our new place (staying in a house we are renting instead of the Missionary Guest House). We do not have internet access yet at our new place. And you are going to have to bear with me, but several people have asked to see pictures of our new place, so I am going to post pictures here. (Plus this is for those of you who may be wondering if we are staying in a hut or not.) We thank God for the blessing of this great place to stay (even though it is very dusty here- as we are fully into the dry season & have a well traveled dirt road in front of our place)!

The kids room...

My favorite part of the house, the back patio looks out on the private & lovely back yard
(and the kids with the dog, Nora, whom they have been having lots of fun with) the sitting area and dining area...

The kitchen... and that is all I can post right now, as the internet connection is too slow!

Mike has received the plans drawn up for the Acres of Hope. It is great to be able to look and see plans and envision what the Lord would have us do there (4 homes for children, a missionary guest house with conference center, a mechanics & wood shop, and more). We are continuing to look into our options for getting Ten Talents International registered here in the country. I titled this "Liberation Day" because this week there are two holidays this week, Independence Day is July 1st and Liberation Day is July 4th (when the capital city was "liberated" from those who were orchestrating the genocide in 1994). Let's pray for the spiritual liberation of this country, for God to move in a mighty way in this country.

We want to just take a moment to remember why we're doing what we're doing- that there is a real need to take care of these street children, the "least of these". On Thursday Mike visited the feeding program for street children. Once there he came across a teenager (18) who had a very serious cut on his arm. Two days prior, someone had taken a piece of glass and slashed this young man's arm. The wound was very deep. Mike took him, along with some others in leadership at the feeding program, to the local clinic. However, the clinic confirmed that it was too serious for them to deal with, that he needed to go on to the hospital to be stitched up. They had someone trustworthy that they sent on with the young man, along with some funds for the care he needed.

The danger that this teenager faced on the street is the same as what faces many other kids living on the streets. Besides the other troubles of finding something to eat, where to sleep, and more, nighttime can be perilous, as they are open to attacks and abuse. It does not have to be this way, and it should not. We are following what we believe is God's call to take care of these children, his children. We can not simply turn away, but we choose to see the situation with open eyes and open our hearts to what God would have us do. Please pray with us that others would do likewise, and respond to God's call to put their own resources (talents) to work.

Thank you for your prayers for our family also, we are all well. We will be moving from the place we have been staying at (to a different home), the end of this month. God has been very good to take care of us. When I was praying for our next place to stay I was reminded of the verse in the Bible, "He gently leads those with young". I have stood on that as a promise and have seen God show himself faithful.

This week Mike was able to meet with the architect and tomorrow will be picking up the preliminary drawings to check. We are also wanting to get the necessary travel visa from the US Embassy for Simon Peter Ngoga (He has been helping us since Mike first went to look for property in Rwanda. Mike also knew him before that because Simon used to work for Africa New Life with the street children). Simon is a treasure and has a wonderful testimony of what God has done in his life. We want him to make a visit to the US so he can be with us for our annual TTI banquet (September 27th). He has submitted the application to the US Embassy, and they have now asked for more documentation. We pray that God will provide the way for Simon to come visit the US to share in his unique way the needs here in Rwanda.

We are continuing to check into how we might register TTI here as a foreign NGO (non-governmental organization). The government is in the process of changing the rules surrounding that, so they are not registering any new NGO's right now. We will see what God does in that regard.


We are thankful for the opportunity to be here and to just be available to however God directs. We truly consider all of you to be our partners with us in this endeavor. We appreciate you and are thankful for you also.

God Bless You,
Lisa

Mike was able to get back the plot paperwork for our property yesterday. This in itself is a praise because we had been told that can take months to get back sometimes! Another praise is that it is zoned "social" which means it is OK to put a church, orphanage, school, etc. there. Here is a verse I was reading this morning that I think applies to the Acres of Hope:
Zechariah 8
12 "The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. 13 As you have been an object of cursing among the nations... so will I save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong."

Thank you for continuing to pray for us, for the work here, and for God's provision for the work he wants to do. Mike has a meeting Thursday with the Minister of Family (person in government). Thank you for praying for God's blessing on that meeting & to give Mike/Ten Talents International favor.

God Bless You,
Lisa

That is a little bit of a play on words, you see we spent today (Sunday) at Pastor Saturday's church. Let me back up to say that yesterday we did get to go out to our property & check on our trees, and we got checked out in the process. A whole crowd gathers when the "muzungus" (non-Africans) come bouncing down the road in our vehicle! This morning I was reading in Zechariah 4:
6 So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.
7 "What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of 'God bless it! God bless it!' "
8 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
9 "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.
10 "Who despises the day of small things?"
It was a witness in my heart of what God would say about the Home of Innocence & Acres of Hope. I shared it with KaLia and she pointed out how it's also like the trees we planted there. They are very small now, just beginning, but they are going to be very fruitful, in her words, "They are going to have huge fruit- the biggest fruit ever! God knows!" Can you, like me, hear a little girl prophesying over the lives that are going to be changed there & become so "fruitful"?

This morning we set out for Pastor Saturday's church. It is not far from where we stay, but you must turn off the main road and travel over several narrow packed dirt "streets" (they would seem more like wide trails to most of us). This is the "land of a thousand hills" and so many of the roads travel up and down the hillsides. We bumped up and down along these roads, rutted and full of giant holes from the rains washing them out. We weren't sure of exactly where the church was, but we had the windows down & heard it before we saw it. There was only one other car there besides ours (and no one else came in cars later either). The building was a simple rural style- cement floors, cement walls, corrugated tin roof attached to timber trusses. The light inside came from a window or two that had it's wooden shutters open, and two open doors. There was also a single flourescent lamp at the front of the church (but it flickered on & off, almost to the beat of the keyboard being played). It was 9:30am, and even though Pastor Saturday had told us that service was at 10:30, there must have been a pre-service praise & prayer time already in progress when we got there. For an hour they sang and the song leader threw in some preaching too. It was all in the Kinyarwanda language, but when they began to cry out to God at once, I could feel the Spirit of God there & knew we were all one family. Then at 10:30 they had some more praise. They had a worship team of about 10 people up on the platform, and they began to really praise Him. They (along with the congregation) started clapping, then moved onto jumping, and then dancing. A couple little kids got up there to dance along, and we tried to coax Nate into joining, but he was not feeling comfortable doing that today- although he did a few dance steps at our seat. It was around 11:15 or 11:30 when Mike got up to preach. He shared with them some of his testimony, how he came to know Christ and then later to really live for Christ. He pointed out to them some basic but powerful truths from God's word for them. We praise God because at the end of the preaching 12 persons came forward to pray to receive Christ. We are so grateful to God for drawing those persons out of darkness and into light. I am also grateful that my kids were fairly behaved (Nate had a few moments of not-so-behaved) during our 3 hours of church, much of it in another language. I didn't even have to take Nate out this morning (he eventually fell asleep at noon).

Just wanted to bring you into our world this morning. Your thoughts and prayers toward us keep us together in our hearts, and we thank you for being partners with us in this work. God is so good to bring you alongside us- thank you!

God Bless You,
Lisa