Through this process of pioneering and renovating, we are learning a lot! How to work together, how to ask for help, how to trust, how to work with integrity and honesty and generosity, and also to let the process be what it will be. It isn’t perfect, but this house will be God’s house. Much like our hearts. All the things we go through allow for a process and what He desires most is that our hearts be connected to him and get cleaned up through it all! What a wonderful lesson in learning to love, and trusting our perfect Father to accomplish His beautiful handiwork. ♡
A lot has happened for me and Alexis since I last wrote, sharing the news of our engagement! First off—we were married two months ago, January 19th, 2019 in South Africa, with many of our closest friends and family.
This day was remarkable in many ways, and we give God all the glory!
Since our wedding day, I have packed up my life in South Africa with all the memories tucked into my heart. Alexis and I flew to Kigali, Rwanda January 23rd, and moved into the two bedroom home he had picked out for us. Our home is something like a ‘back-house’ to our landlord, and we are so grateful for a quiet location. Our place did not have running water when we first moved in, there was still quite a lot to be done! Neither of us were equipped with a stock of household furnishings, so we have been resourcefully using the monetary gifts from our wedding to buy a new cook stove, dishes, and some living room furniture, as well as installing running water in the house. A big thank you for every one of you who helped us to get started!!
Other than moving into a new home, we have been adjusting to married life, and working as a team to make decisions for living and building our life together in Rwanda.Alexis has been teaching me how to shop for groceries the African way… NOT quite how I am used to, with using a bit of bargaining and picking through chickens for the best one. There have been many lifestyle changes for me, and learning to adapt to the food, language, clothing, transportation, and water issues have been a few of the biggest!
Yet, we are in it together, and somehow drawing back to the Father at the end of every day, and pressing in again in the morning.
We hit the ground running with ministry as well. If you weren’t aware from my last letter, Alexis has pioneered a discipleship school for local pastors, which started just last year, and will continue now with the second year! One of the funny but true mottos of our school is ‘Anointing without training equals confusion!’ Alexis is working very hard to give his students the Biblical and foundational teaching material they need that will equip them in truth to lead healthy churches across Rwanda and even extending to bordering African nations.
This year, Certificate Level students are gathering in the following locations: Rubavu, Muhanga, and Kayonza as well as our newest school starting up in DR of Congo. The main branch here in Kigali is home to our second year Diploma Level students. (See locations on the map attached.)
*For reference, the cost of one student tuition is equivalent to about $10 and is very difficult for most to come up with. The tuition basically covers costs for printing books and weekly transport fees for teachers. The school classroom and chair rental is currently provided for through our monthly financial support.
OUR AREAS OF MINISTRY INCLUDE \\ 1. Discipleship Training School for 100+ local pastors from Rwanda as well as surrounding nations. (Burundi, DRC, Uganda, South Sudan)
2. Local Church service available to our students and open to the community.
3. Healing Outreach: visiting local hospitals, as well as offering home visits for healing prayer counseling, and door to door evangelism.
4. Kids Club: sharing the word of God at soccer clubs with children of all ages in our community.
5. Envisioning our Children’s Center: will be described in more detail below.
I couldn’t be more proud of my husband. I am completely amazed by the way he serves people and His heavenly Father in carrying out his calling as a leader of leaders. I can see his heart and passion in everything he does. It is obvious he was born to do this kingdom work, and I am privileged to walk alongside him, learning a lot about how to be a pastor’s wife, and leading next to him in my own way. As I was so kindly given wisdom from a Pastor’s wife I look up to: ‘To give our lives to walk in ministry in this way is a selfless calling. You need to learn to share your husband with the multitudes because pastors are connected to a lot of people and you must trust God with him as there can be a lot of challenges in ministry. You need to have a big heart to love everyone, even those that don’t love you and learn to share as you are led to your life and blessings with others.‘ Although a wonderful mystery!…my marriage isn’t the answer to my hearts desire. It is more of Jesus and all that he wants to tell me in this new season, climbing higher mountains with him! (And with Alexis 😉 Somehow it works like that!
One of the newest mountains the Father has brought to the forefront is to actually start the dream of opening a children’s center near our home here in Kigali.This home will provide a safe place for the street children who are orphaned to have their basic needs of food and shelter met as well as receiving counseling, education and vocational training. With the current laws in Rwanda it is actually illegal to live on the street or stay in a typical ‘orphanage’. Therefore most of these children or single mothers who are hiding from the public eye are overlooked by the community for fear of imprisonment. Our goal is to see those who have been abandoned and broken brought into familyand lift them to maturity in a safe place where they will grow to be empowered, self-sustaining adults, able to impact others for Jesus and transform generations to come.
OUR INITIAL PLAN \\
· Our children’s center is in currently in process as we have a property in mind within walking distance from our house! It will need much architectural renovation, but we can see so much potential. We are working on a project plan with the local government to make this dream become a reality and I hope to be able to share more goals and needs with you in our next newsletter!
· Our more immediate focus is on the Discipleship Training Schools and gathering community around us. Alexis is extremely stretched with the five school locations and it is important to build a team around us that we can trust to go to these locations for teaching when we are not available and can continue to build the ministry vision. We will also have a few teams visiting from Europe and South Africa this year that will bring much needed teaching to our local pastors. Our goal is to have regular teams visiting to impart teaching as well as providing cross-cultural learning experiences for both African and western students.
· Our healing ministry is just a given, wherever we go, whatever we do, we offer a listening ear and prayer for healing.
· We will also be visiting previous church plants in Uganda and Burundi to make sure they are healthy and fruitful and continually preaching truth and advancing the kingdom of God.
If you have any questions for us regarding the ministry I have described above, please feel free to write or send us a whatsapp. We are always happy to connect with family and friends from abroad.🙂
If you feel led to give financially towards our ministry, we would welcome the support and can make that really simple and tax deductible as we are still with Iris Global ministries and are now considered to be ‘Pioneering a Base’ in Rwanda. Please let me know if you would like more information about how this works!
I want to especially thank those of you who have been faithful in your support since the beginning of this faith journey in Africa and, sincerely, the impact that your investment has had is beyond words.
“Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.” – II Timothy 2:1-2
kayshadawn 