Preparing for Rwanda 2024
Author: Amy Wolfe
February 22, 2024
As I prepare for our upcoming return to Rwanda, I couldn’t help but reflect on the words I had written just a few years ago. This trip will be my sixth trip, and fifth that my husband Ed and I have the honor to lead. Each trip has been uniquely different, with God's work evident in each year.
The joy and peace that we witness in Rwanda is like nothing I have ever experienced. In Rwanda, the average wage in 2023 was $200.00 per month, with only 57% of the population having access to safe drinking water within 30 minutes of their home. Yes, that means most Rwandans do not have access to running water in their homes. Thankfully, fetching water is a common chore that children enjoy and help their family do. Despite all of this, they are the happiest children of God you will meet. It’s so humbling as an American, as it truly puts our lives, our modern conveniences, and the importance we place on material things into perspective.
Another way God has taken bad and turned it to good is the genocide of Rwanda in 1994. April marks 30 years since nearly one million Rwandans were killed within 100 days. It is hard to fathom that a country the size of Maryland experienced such rage and hatred within such a timeframe.
Today, through faith, forgiveness and reconciliation, there is no more segregation but rather harmony within the country. A sense of peace that can only be God.
While we are in Rwanda, we will have a chance to visit a reconciliation village. This is where victims of the genocide and their perpetrators come together and tell their stories. By the grace of God these families are now neighbors, truly loving each other as God calls us to do. God has even brought a perpetrator’s son together in marriage with the victim’s daughter. The only explanation for such reconciliation is God. I think there are so many lessons to be learned from the history of Rwanda.
This year we are very excited about the time we will be spending in our focus community. It’s a breathtaking three-hour drive from the capital city of Kigali to Rubavu, near the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is a vibrant, tropical area with lush rolling hills. An aroma from the eucalyptus trees fills the air and the cool breeze coming off of lake Kivu plays into its beauty. We are truly engrained with the church community there and consider them family.
During our time in Rubavu, we will be hosting a 5-Year Reunion for all the children that we have sponsored and advocated for in Rubavu over the past 5 years. We will have 170+ children in attendance for the event and we just can’t wait to spend the afternoon with them! The team will spend time in worship, playing jump rope, ball, coloring, sharing words of encouragement and prayer and we have the honor of serving them a meal!
The team will also have time being “Set in Family” with their sponsor children and their families. This is a beautiful time filled with connection, prayer and encouragement.
To round out our time in Rubavu, we will spend time with our sponsorship team, advocating for children at the beach on Lake Kivu. Our goal is to see 12 high risk children sponsored with another 8 available should we hit that goal. God has always delivered amazing results.
Since 2001, Africa New Life has existed to transform lives and communities with preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and acts of compassion. Sponsorship looks at the whole child and their need for education, strong community, a healthy body, and a growing faith. Sponsorship not only impacts the lives of these children by meeting their physical, educational and basic medical needs, sponsorship also meets their spiritual needs. The Creek Church has over 200 children in Rwanda that are sponsored, changing the lives of their family and the sponsor’s lives forever.
There are so many examples I could give of how God is working in Rwanda. The women’s programs that are offered to equip women to learn a skill to provide for their families as they also grow in their faith. Africa New Life also has a school to teach and build-up Pastors by attending Africa College of Theology or ACT. Africa New Life’s 11 churches provide foundations in faith in many rural communities. This allows others a chance to hear the gospel, to experience community and give the children of those areas the opportunity to attend school through the sponsorship program. Through prayer, obedience to God’s plans and His faithfulness to His promises, these things have happened.
I struggle to speak about my love for Rwanda and our children there without becoming emotional. My tears are not tears of sadness but rather tears of gratefulness and joy for what God has shown and changed in me. Anyone who has ever experienced Rwanda would tell you that you’ll be forever changed. I feel truly blessed as it has changed the lives of many of those closest to my husband and I forever, and for that, we are forever grateful.
Sponsorship matters and is life changing to these children. If you feel led to sponsor one of these children, please click on the link HERE!
Sponsorship Covers: School fees, materials, a school uniform, Center Day where they hear the Gospel, camp and medical assistance.
For more information about Africa New Life visit africanewlife.org
If you would like to connect and learn more about child sponsorship or a future mission trip to Rwanda, please email me at amy@thecreekfw.com.
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