APRIL 2011
VINEYARD MISSION RWANDA
CHURCH NEWS
By Patrick Finnerty
Much has happened at the Muyange Vineyard Church since our last newsletter in November 2010. The picture of a green patch on our last newsletter now has a large building on it that will eventually cater for three to four hundred people on Sundays, thanks to the Saint John Vineyard. Last week we had all four buildings wired and with electricity we held our first small group leaders meeting last Tuesday evening with light! Thanks to Chilliwack Vineyard for a donation for the building fund that we used a large portion of for the wiring of all the buildings.
On Christmas Day we had a huge party and catered for over three hundred and fifty people, mostly family and friends of church members. It was the first time we used the new building and what a great way to ‘christen’ it! You can see photos of the day on the blog.
Wilma Coates leading a community health session
The next ‘non-Sunday’ event in our building was a three day community health seminar given by a team from the Maritimes in January. We expected about fifty people to show up but had ninety folks on all three days. Just as well we had the big building! Beth Wood,
Sheryl Darrow, Rick and Wilma Coates, did a great job of ministering in many ways to different groups during their stay.
 Beth Wood leading a youth session
One of the many great things they taught was the simple procedure of washing hands and how important for hygiene this is. Everyone learned how to wash their hands and how to construct a simple ‘Tippy-Tap’ system at their homes. We agreed to give six bars of soap to every family who built a ‘Tippy-Tap’ system and we have already given out more than two hundred bars.
Learning to use a Tippy Tap
A few days after the team left, Antoine and I were in Nairobi for the PAVLN (Pan African Vineyard Leaders Network) conference. It was my first conference and it was a great time of connecting with old friends from around the continent and the world and making many new friends from the Vineyard family. We spent some time with Ananie who pastors the Vineyard Church in Burundi. We look forward to connecting with him again this month in Kigali.
In February we had a visit from Robert Stovall who pastors the Hope Vineyard in St. Louis. Robert did some training in Holy Spirit ministry with our leaders and helped them ‘do the stuff’ during ministry time on Sunday morning. While Robert was here we asked him to help us with planning and strategizing for the next stage in the development of the Rwandan Vineyard. He helped Val, Antoine, Florence and I to come up with a plan for moving forward in the next year and we are working on a document that will be sent out to all our partnering churches in the near future.
Robert Stovall from Hope Vineyard in St. Louis
Just before Robert’s arrival, a tragic accident happened at Silver and Odette’s home. Their 3 year old son Daniel fell in the charcoal fire while the evening meal was being prepared. He was so badly burned that he was on oxygen for some time and was not expected to live. Robert and I were able to visit him in hospital and although all his middle torso and upper legs were severely burned he continues to make a slow recovery.
Thanks for all your prayers for this family. We hope Daniel will be able to move home or to a facility closer to home soon as the daily excursion to Kanombe hospital is quite a drain on the family. Please continue to pray for him.
On the development side of things we are in the process of purchasing more than a dozen goats from money donated at Christmas by families in partnering churches. When we have all the goats and have identified the recipients we will have a presentation ceremony that I hope to write up for our next newsletter. We will also send pictures of the goats and new owners to those who contributed. Our budding agriculturalist Ernest completed his second week long training session at GAKO organic farm training center and is busy clearing part of the church land to start a model garden there to teach our community about growing their own food in their compounds.
You can read more about GAKO on the following page: wfwnotesfromthefield.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/rwanda-gako-farm-by-sara-sykes/.
Ernest with mound garden and rabbits
We are looking forward to baptizing 13 new believers on Easter Saturday. It is always such a joyful occasion and a lot of fun when we have baptisms. Please pray for all those who have chosen to publically declare their commitment to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior.
There are a number of training opportunities on the horizon for Antoine and Florence and a number of our people that I look forward to reporting on in our next newsletter.
FAMILY NEWS
By Patrick Finnerty
Many thanks for all your prayers in support of our family here in Rwanda. We do feel blessed.
The boys are doing well and Joel continues to make progress with the rehab of his knee. He has a rigorous exercise program and hopes to be playing soccer again by the summer. In the meantime to keep up his involvement with the sport, he is coaching the junior-high soccer team at his school in Kigali. They won their first three games, which was very exciting for this young school that has not had a winning reputation in sports up till now. Joel really enjoys coaching and all the boys respond well to him. Brendan plays defense on the team and he is developing a love for the game. Brendan continues to learn violin and is also playing trumpet with the school band. On Saturday mornings Brendan helps out at the African Bagel Company which is a business set up to help needy women earn an income. During the week they make bagels, pizzas and other food products and on Saturday mornings they have a coffee and donut morning. Almost the entire ex-pat community gathers there to enjoy their delicious donuts. Tim Hortons, eat your heart out!
We have enjoyed our first rabbit dinners from Brendan and Ernest’s ‘rabbit project’. Emma has produced 15 babies altogether so far and is pregnant again. All the waste from the rabbits is used to fertilize our own ‘model’ gardens that Ernest looks after under Val’s supervision. The soil and climate in Rwanda is perfect for producing plenty of healthy food and livestock with the right training. Please pray for the success of these seed projects to improve people’s physical health conditions and also for the seed of the Word of God to take firm root in their hearts to bless their spiritual and emotional lives especially in this month of commemorating the genocide of 17 years ago.
Thanks again for your support and prayers. Many blessings from the Finnerty Family.
If you would like to support the efforts in Rwanda please visit our website at www.vineyardrwanda.org or contact our Sending Team leader, Sheryl Darrow at sheryldarrow@gmail.com. If you are a donor and have questions or concerns please contact Sheryl as well.
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