Spinning Happiness!

Another amazing day… I know I keep saying that but the days just ARE amazing! We started out dropping by Ines University where Thomas teaches part time. We met Dr. Fabien who is the Vice-Rector who is in charge of academic affairs and Professor Nkubito, an instructor of botany, who will be helping us locate specific plants in the morning. We went to our property where we collected leaves and all types of plant and flower specimens to test for dyeing. Linda brought an entire case study of dye plants that grow in Rwanda! I cannot explain what an absolute blessing she is for our wool project!

Once we arrived at the bakery, Linda started working very closely with the widows and helped them prepare a eucalyptus dye bath. She taught them how to make 2-ply yarn and they were ecstatic! When Thomas asked Velonica what she thought about the process, the translation was “excellent”!

Cynthia has been our note keeper. She has been instructed to just follow Linda around and take notes… and believe me… there are many notes to take! I don’t think I have ever seen a laptop follow someone around so much! There is so much to learn!

A very good friend of Linda’s sent 10 beautiful new spinning spindles made from different types of wood from all over the USA. They are lovely. Linda read them a sweet note in French and then had the ladies close their eyes and choose a spindle for themselves. They have been working so hard with their original spindles that were really just for the learning process. Today as they started using their new spindles we told them they were now professionals and they were so happy. The new spindles make their work so much easier and more beautiful than ever. In fact, they didn’t want to stop spinning to prepare the rest of the yarn! They wanted to do nothing but spin the wool!

Tomorrow we will dye the first batch of skeins with the eucalyptus dye and will test some reds! We are all leaning a lot from Linda and are so grateful for her knowledge of the process! It is evident that God is opening up some wonderful opportunities for all of us

Blessings!
Diana

Hellos and Goodbyes

One of the most difficult things about coming to Rwanda is….well… leaving Rwanda for many of us. It is especially difficult when you feel like you are leaving - knowing that this work is so critical in the lives of so many people. It isn’t just the widows themselves but their children, and the families of our entire staff. Personally, when I think about it, I have to sometimes stop and rethink. This is not my project or the project of TVM. It is God’s project. The important thing is that His will is being done here and lives have been transformed.

Linda and Cynthia arrived at about 2:00 AM on Saturday. We all got some needed rest and made our second trip Amani Ya Ju (widows sewing co-op) where we were having some things made for The Vineyard Marketplace and our online store. They do some amazing work and it is so wonderful to know that we are helping their organization as well as ours when we purchase from them. It helps keep food on their tables and sends their many children to school. TVM is Amani Rwanda’s largest customer! What a blessing that is to us!

Earlier in the week, Molly and Ollie said their goodbyes to the widows and Saturday evening they left Kigali, headed for Austin via Brussels and Newark. I spoke to Molly a few hours ago and they had made it through customs. They should arrive into Austin and 106-degree heat in few hours…ouch! It is about 60 degrees here this morning…ahh to be in Africa in July!

After an English church service in Kigali, we headed up to Sisters of Mother Theresa Orphanage that is located behind Saint Famille Church (from the movie Sometimes in April). Linda arrived with a giant suitcase of beautiful baby clothes that had been donated by many people at her home in Brooklyn, NY. They were so grateful. This orphanage is one of the only orphanages approved in Rwanda for international adoptions. On average, there are approximately 100 children (mostly babies) hoping to be adopted. There are 12 sisters that work there. What we found so sad is that nobody is allowed to hold the babies… there just isn’t enough people to comfort them after they get used to being cuddled. Very,very sad.

After a quick lunch, we headed to the public bus station for our return to Ruhengeri. We had so much luggage, so again, we left in shifts. The girls and I went in the first round with pots, looms, spindles and all kinds of things in our laps. Sean and Thomas were on the bus that left 30 minutes later with the rest of the luggage. The girl’s bus stopped a few times and we ended up arriving into Musanze within about 10 minutes of each other. Mambo met us there and took us to our house where the second team was greeted by all 10 of our ladies and some of their children. The ladies were wearing their finest – orange Bake the Cycle shirts and beautiful African fabrics wrapped into skirts. They welcomed the new girls as well as Sean and I with praises to God in song and dance…no wonder it is so hard to leave them!

It is now about 7:30 AM and we will be leaving the house shortly for a full day of work. First, we are off to the land to gather flowers, eucalyptus leaves and other items that Linda will need as she begins and in-depth training with the widows on dyeing yarn. Please keep all of us in our prayers as we learn and support Linda!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

Blessings,
Diana

Wild Animal Attack at the Bakery!

Disclaimer: Please watch this video at your own risk. True Vineyard Ministries cannot be held responsible for any adverse reactions. Children under 18 years of age should watch only under the supervision of an adult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFCNsmlNoGQ

Praises in Rwanda

It has been a wonderful week dancing, laughing and praising God with the widows and staff at the bakery. Baby Fabrice, Katherine’s son has finally started to warm up to us and was drumming away on a jerrycan with Sean this afternoon, as we sang songs all together in Kinyrwanda. We have wonderful footage, which we can not wait to share with you, of all of us enjoying each other’s company, and communicating through other avenues besides talking. So please stay tuned, because you do not want to miss seeing these videos!!!

On Monday baby Diana, Odetta’s daughter was running a fever and had a rash on her legs. Odetta left to take her to the hospital, to find out that she has malaria. Praise God, she was back at the bakery on Tuesday, without a fever and medicine for malaria. Please be in prayer for continued healing and comfort. A special thanks to all of you who have supported True Vineyard Ministries, as it has allowed us to buy many things; such has health insurance for all the ladies and their families.

On Tuesday, we put together a montage of the video we have been filming, to show at the bakery. For all of the ladies, a chance to watch a video of themselves is a once in a lifetime experience. It was so fun for the team to sit back and watch their reactions; it was a priceless moment for us, to see their excitement and joy. And yes, we even have that moment recorded!!!

Today, Wednesday, was a little sad as Ollie and Molly had to say their goodbyes to the ladies and staff at the bakery. We celebrated the time we had together by dancing, singing and praising God. Molly and Ollie are ready to get back home and be a voice for Rwanda and to tell all, of the work God is doing, transforming the lives of these ten women and their families.

Tomorrow we leave to go back to Kigali, please be in prayer for us as we travel back down the mountain.

Blessings,
Molly

Weekend Adventures!

Saturday marked our first week’s journey! What a blessed, challenging, and full week we had! On Saturday we had the opportunity to RELAX and do a little sight-seeing, Rwanda-style. Diana took the team via an unpaved, untouristy, windy, hilly, and very bumpy road to visit an incredible waterfall which started off as a small unassuming stream that suddenly had a 100+ foot drop down a rocky cliff side. On our way back, we were traveling along a beautiful hillside that followed Lake Burera which is filled with islands of lush banana trees. There were giant wooden canoes at the base of the lake so we stopped by to see if the operators would be willing to give us a ride. After some negotiation and a little money, they allowed us to pile into the canoe for a memorable ride! Following the trip, Diana convinced them to sell her 5 of the handcrafted oars to take home. We are still wondering how they are going to use the canoes now, with more than half of their oars gone...

Sunday, we had an incredible opportunity to go to CHURCH – and we mean CHURCH – all three hours of it. This church is truly amazing and you can tell the Holy Spirit is in that place. About 100 people packed into this small church made of mud-brick walls, tin roof, and lava-rock/dirt floor. They started off with dancing and singing, and we joined in the festivities. I had some little kids try to mimic every dance move I made, and we all praised God together. Pastor Bwendi, a large Rwandan man who likes to joke that he is the cousin of the gorilla, invited us to come sing a few songs. Luckily, we came prepared with a guitar. But after hearing so many amazing African praise songs, we had a tough act to follow. We managed to get through it, but we were relieved to allow the church choir back in the spotlight. Let me tell you, this church knows how to praise God!

At the end of the church service, we were offered a VERY generous gift... a live chicken! They wanted to give us this chicken and we did NOT know what to do with it, so Diana smoothly found a way to give it away by auctioning it off in the church service and offering to match whatever money was offered. Thomas, our local Rwandan TVM staff member ended up buying the chicken which we then matched the money for, so we still technically had the chicken. There happened to be a 90-year old man in the church today and so we gave the chicken to him to the applause of the church congregation. And a miraculous way God works in “connecting the dots” is the wife of this man (who just may have been half of his age) has Lymphedema and the next mission team coming to Rwanda (in September) will be a medical mission team focusing on treating people with Lymphedema. We were able to tell her about this and God-willing, we will be able to help her in the near future.

Following the church service, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading down the bumpiest road we probably have ever been on. What was only 25 kilometers away took us approximately 2 hours. But we were determined. We were out to investigate into this “fuel” we had learned about called Bio Gas which is basically converting manure and urine into usable, burnable fuel similar to propane. We learned of a doctor from America who was running his household entirely off this bio gas so we contacted him and then had the chance to learn of the full process. It was very fascinating and definitely something we will be continually exploring in the future.

We had a great weekend! This upcoming week we will be focusing our efforts on getting widows prepared for dyeing their yarn. Please keep us in your prayers!

Blessings,
Sean

Bakery Blessings

What an amazing week we have had, working with our sisters here in Musanze! We have enjoyed getting to know these incredible women through deeper conversation, worship, constant dancing and laughter! All of them have experienced magnificent changes in their lives over the past year and it is such an amazing witness to the power of God!

We were witness to one of the most incredible stories with Alphonsine, just yesterday. In the early 90’s Alphonsine became gravely ill and her husband abandoned her and fled with their two sons. In during the 1994 Genocide, Alphonsine fled to the Congo where she met and married her second husband and had a daughter. Upon returning to Rwanda, her second husband was killed in a civil war. Months later, she learned that her first husband had also died and her two sons were living with a paternal aunt. With a new home and steady income, Alphonsine has been praying with the other widows that she would somehow be reunited with her sons.

Yesterday, for the first time in 10 years, her youngest son came to here to the bakery in Musanze. It was so incredible and Alphonsine is overwhelmed with joy. Additionally, she has located her oldest son in Kigali and we are encouraged that both sons will be moving back with Alphonsine. Her daughter, who is now 12 years old, is so excited to know her brothers! What an incredible answer to prayer!

The ladies have been practicing English! They can say sentences such as “Good-bye, see you tomorrow”, “How are you?” and “Good morning”. Today, Faina told each of us, “I love you”. Awww… Sometimes Rwandans like to speak English…even if they don’t know what they are saying. For instance, yesterday our landlord from the bakery (huge man) got on the bus with us and said to me…. “Hello my love, it’s been a long time” in an extremely deep and hoarse voice. Needless to say, we have had some fun with that…Baraka says “Thomas was so ashamed for him!” Earlier this evening a little boy could only say, “I swear I was there” over and over again to Molly… he had no idea what he was saying! On the other hand, Sean has been quite the Kinyarwanda student! He can say all kinds of things!

Yesterday, we distributed reading glasses, donated by a good friend to the ladies! It was so much fun! We forget that the eyes start going after 40... they were so grateful!

Today, we had a TVM staff meeting to determine and pray about how to grow our ministry here. It was very exciting! On Monday morning, we will all be going to visit a bio-gas project to learn how we might incorporate bio-gas to operate the solar oven during the rainy season. Apparently, we have enough sheep to make this a viable resource! Talk about God connecting all the dots!

This afternoon, I called all the widows in before they left to introduce them to my sweet little Keira, via pictures, on my laptop. They were so excited and thrilled to see her pictures!

Answered prayers today! Iranze Daniel Smith has been adopted! Praise God!

Tomorrow, Saturday, is our day off. We will be going on a wonderful adventure, provided Ollie keeps up her new-found best behavior!

We are so blessed -all of us.

Many blessings-
Diana and Molly

Team Update

Little update.... the entire team is sitting in our guest house in Ruhengeri... reminiscing about our day.

Ollie got in HUGE trouble with Diana today as she wandered off after explicit instructions to stay outside our gates of the bakery. I told her I would be following through just like I would with a disobedient child and would post about her irresponsile, DANGEROUS, outlandish choices so her daugthers could pray for me... She convinced someone who could barely speak English...who responds "yes" to everything, to take her on a walk. She got in BIG, BIG trouble.

Sean, on the otherhand, was quite the breadmaker today. He learned how to make mass amounts of bread from scratch. He stayed where he was supposed to be....unlike you know who. He was allowed, because of good behavior, to ride bikes into town with Fabrice (our head baker), to purchase ingredients. He also won Baby Fabrice's heart by teaching him to roll and kick a ball.

Molly learned how to card wool...although the carders were quickly taken away by Alivera after she saw Molly's unskilled talent. Adera tried to show her how to make a basket...and well... it was determined (by Adera) her hands were to delicate to pull the needle. Molly would like everyone to know that she was told she dances as good as Velonica. By the way, I've never seen any of the widows laugh as hard as Velonica did at Sean's awesome attempt in African Dance.

Molly would like everyone to know that Diana and Ollie cleaned the poop out of the wool fleeces today... which was Ollies punishment for wondering off... forced fun. Diana did manage to get one stitch in Adera's basket...but Adera took the basket back because it took her way too long.

We finally had dinner before 8:30 PM but we may or may not have had lunch... thanks to Sean and his Ritz Crackers for saving us until suitable equipment could be located for preparing dinner.

We now have our house fully equipped for preparing meals and sleeping comfortably. Mosquito nets are in place, refrigerator is working and stocked, plumbing is functioning....electricity is on and Ollie promises to be on her BEST behavior. Diana would like disciplinary advice for Ollie... please respond soon.

I hope all of you have enjoyed us laughing at one another... Honestly, everyone is doing great and enjoying our blessed time here with our brothers and sisters in Rwanda.

Love to all-
Diana, Molly, Sean and Ollie

Baking the Cycle With Sweet Reunions!

The team finally arrived in Ruhengeri/Musanze yesterday evening after a "somewhat crazy" bus ride from Kigali! There was no room for our luggage on the bus (we have A LOT) so the team rode ahead of Thomas who arrived about 45 minutes later. He had to purchase seats for the luggage so everything could get here! Upon collecting Thomas and our things, we called Mambo, our driver to be picked up. He came running out of the bus to greet Molly. I only wish I had my movie camera running at that point. There were tons of people on the street but these two broke through the crowd in a mad dash that ended in a crashing embrace! Pretty cool!

When we arrived at our rent house...WOW! The widows were here singing and dancing..they too, ran up to us and were hugging us so tightly we were being picked up off the ground! It was a sweet, sweet reunion for Molly and I and a memorable blessed experience for all! I just can't explain how confirming that one moment was for me. To see them so incredibly happy...praising God for what he has done in all of our lives... is more than enough to keep me motivated here and at home. I pray that our supporters can understand the magnitude of their impact in this little spec in Africa. These women are truly happy- full of life and full of the blessings of a spirit-filled life.

Today was our first day at the bakery. Baraka, our good friend (and Christain counselor to the widows) arrived from Kigali mid-morning. The team concentrated on washing sheep fleeces and preparing for the wool to be spun by the ladies. Needless to say... it's pretty filthy work but work we are all prepared to do. More of the same tomorrow!

At one point we took a break and gave each of the TVM staff a 2009 mission t-shirt... and again came the dancing and singing... and yes...our entire team is learning some pretty awesome dance moves despite the laughter that exudes from Velonica and Adera!

Blessings to everyone- thank you for your prayers and for your tremendous support of this ministry!

Diana and Molly

The Sabbath Day

Today we went to the Anglican Church in Kigali and enjoyed lots of singing along with a wonderful sermon. After Diana introduced the team to the congregation, and they found out that Ollie had 7 children, 14 grandchildrens, 18 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild on the way, they had her come to the front and sit with the pastors. The congregation then stood up and blessed her with a song. Sean was asked to come up to the front and pray for those that needed physical and spiritual healing and did a wonderful job.

After church Sean and Ollie went to a cemmetery, and in Ollie's words "did some cemetery tramping". Ollie was very excited and keeps asking when she will be going again. She is a huge historian!

Later in the day Sean and Phil went on a 20 mile bike ride around the city while the girls did some shopping in the city for The Vineyard Marketplace.

Baby Iranzi, an orphan that Phil and Becca will be adopting, has been sweet entertainment for all of us here at the house. Friday, the Smith's go to court for a final decision on Iranzi's adoption. Please be in prayer for them. Tomorrow after the team visits the National Genocide Memorial as well as The Hotel Mille Collines, we will be headed to Musanze/Ruhengeri to meet the widows!!!!! Please pray for safe travel.

Blessings, Molly and Diana

We Have Arrived!

The first of the 2009 Rwanda Teams have made our arrival safely into Kigali! We were in the air approximately 19 hours and are happy to be on the ground! It is Saturday night here and we will be going to church in the morning with Phil and Becca, our partners with World Relief Organization.

Thanks to all who have already signed up for the Prayer Vigil! It is now available on our website through the team link.

Our last flight departed from Brussells, Belguim and carried our team along with Jack Hanna and his family! Our shy little Ollie made sure we met him after she called him "young man" and introduced herself as "Brown Sugar". He was impressed.

We are grateful for your prayers!

Diana & Molly