Hello friends and family in Christ once again!

It has been a great pleasure for the nine of us to have had the opportunity to be in Rwanda, Africa. We enjoyed the Lord’s work that He used us all in to make a difference, even if it small, in the people’s lives here around us. Now it will be up to us as individuals to take action and obey the Lord’s calling for us even now at home ( Saskatchewan, Canada.)

Thank you all very much for your support and prayers, we couldn’t have done it without your love and support!

Your’s kindly,

The PIONEERS!

Hello once again! This past Sunday(27th) was the mark of the first day of our last week here in Rwanda, Africa! It's exciting to see so much progress that the Lord has allowed us to be a part of. Nonetheless it will be different and interesting to see how things are when we arrive back home, hopefully on the 4th of December(God willing if the flights all work out properly. Unless the Lord has other plans, hah!) We've already experienced a great start to our last week. Sunday was a day that we believe we won't forget. God used us to touch families in power was, by God's strength through us(Philippians 4:13, "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me!") It is true in our lives that we can do all things with God's power through us. We had the opportunity to talk about the Good News and the free gift of salvation with groups of people in a near by village just outside Kayonsa. It is a blessing from God that we were welcomed so kindly into these peoples homes! With talking, praying and getting to know the families we were able to build relationships and to see excitement grow about our Lord! We were also able to lead approx. 38 people to Christ this day!!!! Halleluiah!!! Amen and all praise and glory belongs to God our Rock! We believe there was a big celebration in Heaven that day! It has been a great three weeks here and we are excited to be used in the next week of hospital, camp, and village ministry! Thank you so much for all the support and prayer! God bless our friends and family!!! We are brothers and sisters in Christ! On Saturday we were once again able to meet up with Eddie and Bonita Mwanavanessa for a lunch at their place, along with many good conversations and cookies!! We had an interesting experience that morning. It was Rwanda's monthly community service day. And no one has stores open or drives anywhere from 8:00am - 11:00am. Everyone gets together and cleans up the city. We were driving through Kigali to Eddie's place and got stopped by the police(it was already after eight), after 40 minutes of trying to understand why we were being stopped we thought we got a pass through, so we could continue to our destination only 3km away. Little did we know we were going to meet up with Eddie(he was doing work), and we were being forced to do community service! It was a good laugh for us! So that being, there's a short update from your brothers and sisters in Christ, the Pioneers! God bless!

A Pioneers Journey!

Kiersti with the kids at the hospital.

First week of camp!

Children at play around the guest house.

Our time spent in London, Paddington.

Pioneers

Hello once again!

So it has been a wonderful time out here, the team has been growing together and enjoying the Lord's opportunities that has presented itself!

The past two weeks of camp have ended rather well. Better and Anna have done a lovely job of runnning the camp smoothly. The beginning of the sencond week was a tad rocky, but finished rather well. We have completed another two villages in village ministry. The poverty compared to Gahini was even more than what people were used to by now. More little kids with malnutrition signs, no shoes, dirty ripped up shirs, and most little ones without any pants at all. But it was a joy to see these children and be able to pour out God's love to them.

We now have started to go to the Gahini hospital in the mornings. Yesterday was out first day there. There were two children in particular that broke out hearts. Mogy and Maria. Mogy cannot walk on his own, he is an orphan and lives by himself in the hospital guest house. Maria has epilepse and fell into a fire. About three moths ago when she came in she was so badly burnt she was numb to the pain. But the doctor says she was singing and praising God the whole time. Even now she goes around prayer for the others in the hospital for them to be healed. Her head, legs, and arms have been burnt, and her fingers have been amputated, but the JOY and LOVE from the Lord lives and shines bright through her!

That's all for now.

Thanks for the prayers, God bless!

Mogy and his friend.

Maria.

Village Ministry - Pioneers.

The Pioneers!

Update from the Pioneers!

Hello Brothers and Sisters, The team has had a wonderful, exciting, and enjoyable time here in Rwanda thus far. We made it safely and smoothly to Kigali on Sunday evening. We drove out to our home in Gahini, and settled ourselves in finally, rest! Monday and Tuesday were our 'planning'/meeting/refreshing days to prepare ourselves for the next month, and four weeks of camp. We started out first week of camp on Wednesday, 9th. It was definitely a joy to see so many children's faces light up with smiles and laughter! Sadly though, it is hard to see how many line up in anticipation of getting in, only to be told that there is no longer any room for more kids to register. The camp can now hold up to 150 kids per week, which is AWESOME! We've played games, sang LOTS of songs, swam in the water, taught them some of the Good News, and enjoyed a last day of camp Slip'n'Slide! Our goal this year for the camp is to bring more responsibility to the Rwandan leaders and for us to step back and get ourselves going with Village Ministry. Our first week was a wonderful success, we only had seven people help out, the other seven headed to Gahini village for Village Ministry. The reach out to the village was also a HUGE success, most days there were around 75-95 kids, and our last day we had over 100; which is basically like having a second camp for the kids coming from the same area. How rad! This second week we have already started to step back a lot. We have two people staying with the camp this week, not taking too much of a leadership role, but more so assistance. Ten - Twelve people will be going to another village around 4km away for this week. Hoping to bring a similar camp feel to it as the first week. Playing games, speaking, singing, doing skits, and basically just investing our time and energy into the children's lives around us that need to see God's love! (I mean we all need to see God's love, but hopefully these kids can see that through our actions and attitudes while spending our time with them!) Dylan and Erica have taken some time this morning to watch how camp was going for the first day of the second week. Trying to get some things together that might help Betty, who is the Rwandan leader of the camp, understand and take more control of how camp should look like. How to run it, to organize it, and make it functional. These past two days, Sunday and Monday, where days off for the team. We had a rather relaxing Sunday. We got to to a Sunday service in the church in Gahini, which was really fun, and we also got to stay and experience a good Rwandan styled church service! We were probably there for four hours minimum. The rest of the day people took as relax time, and recuperating time. Monday was an early day. Started it off with group devotions and singing as per usual, it was Erica's birthday so we sang Happy Birthday, then we jumped into a bus and headed to Kigali bright and early. Spent the morning at the memorial learning more about the genocide. Then headed to the Burban for some lunch, and then for some football! Eddie + Bonita Mwanavenassa are missionaries here connected with the NGM Church, and have a soccer ministry here. We played a hard played game against their U18 team, and went over to Eddie's place for pizza and stories afterwards. He told us about his life story and the effects of the genocide and we were able to ask questions, he's a fabulous story teller! Mainly that is our life in Rwanda so far, Thank you much for your support and prayer! God bless, The Pioneers!