A day at the sewing center

Today, Tuesday, was a day spent at the Kabuga Site with the ladies. Time was spent working with the sewing machines, trouble-shooting problems and doing some machine repairs or trying to at least. The Viking from last year was stuck in REVERSE, AH! There were just some that we put aside. Other machines worked great and it was fun explaining sometimes with just motions and diagrams on paper the things that would help them learn to use them better. These women are so precious! Their lives are filled with hardship and so if they can make a little money, work faster, do extra ordinary things for their products then they can make a living.
A wonderful highlite was the fashion show! We had brought over with the 7 machines about 8 wedding dresses. Some of them were just so little in size that we thought alterations would be necessary first, but a dear little lady named Joyce was the perfect model for those. I showed a few who were interested how to make ribbon roses and thought of my mom. She was the one who had first shown me how and a lot of the stuff we were using were the left overs from the wedding bouquet she had made for me so many years ago. Oh, what fun we had dressing the brides! One girl asked if we had the groom in the boxes too! HA!
Meanwhile the men had a crew of manual laborers outside digging the foundation to the wood shop. Also there was a second group of new traines, 20 year old girls just learning to sew in another room with our dear lady named Tamara telling their stories and making "special princess crowns. Most have suffered so much and Steve L. was able to record some of the stories for us to hear later.
There was another message given at Tom's church (his pastor Augustine is away at Bible school.
)Mike's message was about forgiveness and so well received. It was such a blessing!
Our translators this year include, "son" Tom who has so enjoyed meeting his Dad, John and a dear older gentleman named Pastor Clement. They are so precious to us and sure help so much. With this cold, my voice is raspy and Tom got it too but still he talks on .....for Pastor Mike tonight and Tamara this am. These dear people are so encouraging to us. Their love is so genuine and it's been such a joy to share together in ministry.
Because of my "crud" I haven't been able to hold the little babies that are here with us at the Kabuga center either because I would just hate to expose them! That's been hard! I dare not! Been coughing into my elbow. Could you pray that I will not spread germs!
Tomorrow I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but the needs are great at the sewing center with just Kristi there so I'm helping however I can......pray that I'll have wisdom for that.....the machine I know (the Viking, ) is one that just wants to go in reverse at this point in time.....
The weather is fine, no problem and thank you all for praying about health stuff....just the crud now and even that seems to be getting better already! Praise the Lord.....(I hope to hold some of those sweet babies soon!)
Thank you for your prayers on our behalf!
In His Love,
Debbie

Monday evening

Well, we are back from visiting the Kabuga site(ERM's sewing center & woodworking shop). What a day! The welcome Kristi and I received was just so sweet! I'm crying thinking about it. The ladies' love and joy was just so moving. I wished I had brought more of their pictures that I look at on my computer back home.....why didn't I even think about that? The few pictures I had I gave to the person in the picture. Then we passed around other pictures of our families. They were very curious about the snow pictures.
Because of the delay in getting the bins we had a very late start. That's another story! But the bottom line is we got all of the sewing machines bins and wedding dresses for a price. They wanted$20 storage fee per bin! But that got all worked out for only $20 total after 4 hours of negotiations.
Kristi talked over the sewing business with the women and we found a great need for further instruction on the electric machines. This will be the priority for the next couple days.
Also the men marked out the building site for the wood working shop using string. The plan is to start excavation soon. We prayed that God would bless the humble beginnings to provide training for the many young orphaned men. What a beautiful day and setting it was to share with them, I felt so honored to be there to see it!
More to come tomorrow.
Debbie

Monday, Sept. 27 2nd posting

Hi we are back once again. Emmanuel is back at the airport getting our bins released from the authorities today. This was a problem this year. It may have to do with the fact that we came in at such a late hour, on the weekend also. Could you please be praying about this for us. They may be on their way back already and this will be old by the time you get this! But we need need you to continue to pray for the authorities to have favor on this whole thing. Thanks so much!
This time here with John is such a blessing! It's been so wonderful seeing people we met last year and who are still working here. Tom our intrepreter from last year has been visiting us regularly in the evenings and it's been such a treat!
Yesterday was such a wonderful day! We greeted the believers for you and they were so pleased! I mentioned "JOSHUA" and got quite a response as they remembered him so fondly!
We pulled into the church parking lot and heard the children singing under the open air area where we had held a children's meeting last year. It was just so wonderful! John too is teary-eyed just hearing the singing!
On a very personal note! I left home with a UTI and have been drinking lots of water but still caught a "bug" of some sort as I have a sore throat! But I praise the Lord for bringing over the Cloreseptic spray.....just encase John may need it because of the early morning cooking fires that brings the smoke up the hills to Mousecore House where we are staying! How good the way the Lord takes care of details!
Our Bibles are here and already I was able to give one to John Baptiste a driver many may remember from last year. Tom the evangelist has 23 new believers that don't have one yet either. It is such a joy to be able to give them!! Thank you all so much for your wonderful help in being able to do this!!!!
We keep thinking Emmanuel will be back any minute with the bins but still not yet. We are enjoying geting to know the other team members and I just can't tell you what a joy it is to really be back here and WITH JOHN and also Stever L.
Yesterday, the realization that, with the acceptance of the teaching materials that Steve L.'s "foundations Bible study course" brought and the memory of the youth workers plea for materials for teaching in that very place ......well, it was so wonderful beyond words right now.

Monday, Sept. 27

Hi All,
We got here just fine! Sorry for the delay in posting to our blog. We had problems getting onto the internet.
God is so great! We have met many wonderful Christian brothers and sisters. Thank you for praying for us. Yesterday we attended three services at Emmanuel's church. After lunch we went to the National Genicide Memorial. The interperative center told of the history of Rwanda and the many conflicts besides the 1994 genicide. The day was full of emotional extremes from high at church to low at the Memorial.
Today we are going to ERM's Kabuga site.

Please pray for:
Health for the team members. Debbie has a sore throat and doesn't want spread it around.
That we would vessels for our Lord's honor.
That we would be bold to share Jesus' love in words and actions.

We are short on time, so we will post more blogs later.

We love you all and thank you again for supporting us. We greatly value your prayers. Thank you for being part of our team.

In His Love,
John & Debbie

Less than 24 Hours

This is an exciting day! But it sure includes a lot of the mundane stuff of life. Primarily things on the " last minute notes to myself," like; remember pack work shoes, iron your shirt, pack your Bible, check if you have your driver's license transferred to other purse.....things like that.

I'm tearing up just thinking about how wonderful our God is to allow me to do this (go to Rwanda) once again! And not just me but John too!

God has ABUNDANTLY provided the way thru our church family, relatives and friends. Thank you so much for your great encouragement, love in supporting us!

If you'd like to keep up with things happening with the team the best place to check will be the www.ermrwanda.org site. Press the "NEWS" to get to the blog. We had a bit of trouble getting our emails out but gmail is better.

Here's a recap of some of the people and projects we anticipate being involved in.

Pastor Emmanuel Sitaki, our leader, knows his homeland/culture, is so loved and longs to see people come to a clear understanding of God's gift of salvation, and true peace with God, found only in relationship with God, the Son, Jesus Christ. He will be leaving his wife and three children here. Please pray for them.

Along with visiting the widows /orphans involved at the Sewing Training Center in Kabuga, from last years trip, we will be taking eight more sewing machines to leave in Kigali with the hopes of starting a center there as well. These dear ladies are becoming very business savvy! They are thinking of starting a bridal shop where they will rent out western style dresses for those who have the means. We are taking several dresses over with us with lots of laces, ribbons and fun fluff for that!

How we appreciated all of you who prayed that we would be wise in our packing! We long to be prepared to help encourage these widow/orphans in some small way, to sometimes open the way for sharing words of hope, from the Prince of Peace, Lord of All.

What I learned while there last year that just stands out so much as I anticipate going once again is this: God takes what piddly little things we may offer up to Him and does as He wills, accomplishing marvelous things that only He can be given the credit for!! How exciting it is to be involved with His work!

This brings me to why we need you! PLEASE PRAY for us! Our hearts need constant attention!We want to be useful servants for Him: More than anything, we desire to see Him work through us, for His will to be accomplished and for His glorious Name. Pray that we will be "keeping short accounts" with our Father, eyes focused on Him, faithfully abiding in His truth (the Word) and joyfully ready to do what He asks of us!

Pray for our translators too. Their names maybe Tom ( a neat young man who calls me Mom and John, Dad) and Blessing (a dear lady who may go out with me if I do go out to visit specific widows/orphans from the 90's genocide.)

Again, thanks for praying for us! We so appreciate it!!

Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us extol His name forever! (I forget where this is )

Give unto the Lord the glory due His name! (Ps.29)

Thanks so much!

In His Love,

Debbie

All our bags are packed, we're ready to go........

The day is coming soon when we leave for Rwanda! Could you be praying for us? We really want this time there to be for His glory!

There will be 12 of us in all. Just three are from our home church this time.

We are taking over 8 sewing machines and some wedding dresses! How fun it's been gathering things that would be fit for a bride's special day!

But, even more exciting is the fact that Steve L. is going to present a foundational Bible study cirriculum for consideration by some of the churches there. May the Bride of Christ (the church in a universal sense!) continue to grow and mature, outfitted with the pure Word of God! I hope you won't think that too silly. Read about this in Ephesisans, right!

We were able to purchase Bibles in the Kinyrwandan language also! How grateful we are to all of you who helped us do this! Also, we wish to thank you for your support in getting us fully funded! How we appreciate your love and encouragement!

Now more than anything, we would ask for you to pray. Thank Him for this opportunity to share His love and mercy. Pray that we would all get along together and be good examples of His servant's heart. But more than anything pray that we would clearly, boldly share His Word because that's really the Hope for Rwanda...learning the truths about our Creator, Redeemer, Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm hoping we can send you updates on what we are doing on a daily basis once we are there.

I'll try to write more soon. I'd like to give you more details about some of the projects being planned.

For now, good bye!

Debbie