...a little bit about Solace Ministries

Rwanda History:
The 1994 genocide and war in the small nation of Rwanda resulted in over 1,000,000 people

brutally killed and left thousands of widows and orphans with virtually no means of support. Extreme poverty is the ordeal of the day for these 'survivors', who lost spouses, children, parents, siblings and their homes.

What is Solace ministries?

The main goal of Solace ministries is to restore "what the locusts have taken" by ministering to the spiritual needs of the widows and orphans through the preaching of God's Word, worship, and sharing testimonies of God's rescue and provision.

Solace has a fully operational clinic to provide HIV/AIDS treatment to women who contracted HIV through rape during the genocide.

Solace Ministries helps acquire land for groups of Genocide Widows. The widows are able to farm the land and support themselves and their families. Many of these women are infected with the HIV virus.

Solace Ministries has also been involved with putting on youth camps due to the need they have seen to minister to Rwanda's youth.

The objective of these camps is to bring trauma healing, reestablish moral standards using the Word of God, to fight against loneliness and despair, teaching on parenting, to create a network among the youth who are without family and to encourage and teach the value of an education.

Website: http://www.solacem.org/

~November Showers Bring December Flowers~

November days brought many cooling showers, these moistened the ground to bring forth flowers of vibrant colors all over the hills.

Memories of my last week in Shyira:

-Making paper snowflakes for the children’s ward, and explaining how Christ washes us white as snow.

-Teaching English to the children at the Kindergarten (English is valuable to them, because Rwanda is switching their primary language from French to English over the next two years)

-Celebrating St. Nicholas day with the German missionary family, the Kohls (St. Nicholas visited us)

-Watching how many girls came to Bible study this past Sunday to learn more about God and His Word, it was endearing

-Watching Anne of Green Gables with our German roommate, Carina. We will miss her!

-Hiking to see "Mary's" waterfall

-Saying Goodbye to patient’s and staff at the hospital.

Carina and I on the hike to the waterfall

Shyira on one of it's many rainy evenings

Beautiful Shyira, Rwanda

Mary leading the girls Bible study on a Sunday morning

The children at the Shyira Kindergarten










My friend's house in the hills

Random pictures

Carina and Mary having a rest after the hike to Mary's waterfall








Mary and I playing with the King's puppies

Children at Solace

Discovering Grace...

I was 12 years old when I experienced God’s grace. I publicly stated that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that He died for the forgiveness of my sins. I didn’t understand grace, but I I did respond to God’s great love and kindness to me. I understood the extraordinary cost of God’s love for me. I wanted God to know that I believed in Him and that I loved Him for loving me so much.
Several years passed before I comprehended that Christ lived in me. I will never forget the day I realized I would never have to live life on my own. I was stressed and discouraged, mainly because I was living life on my own strength-and I was running out of strength. I was trying so hard to be perfect and to hold everything together. Essentially, this is what living under the law is – striving to do in our own strength and power what God asks.
As I cried out the Lord, He very gently spoke to my heart and asked Him if I would let Him be Lord. Would I relinquish control, and give up thinking I could live life apart from His life in me? That very day I recognized the truth of Paul’s testimony in Galatians, “For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God’s approval. So I died to the law that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life trusting in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19, 20 NLT)
For the first time, I knew that the living God, in His grace, had taken possession of His child. I was appropriating not only God’s saving grace, but His indwelling Holy Spirit, to enable me to live each not in my own strength, but in His.
-Cynthia Heald, Becoming a Woman of Grace
“For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” – Ephesians 2:8,9 NASB

Journey to Uganda

Mary and I arrived in Kampala, Uganda last night for a chance to check out a thriving Hospice Center, and to renew Mary's Visa. Last night we took time to navigate around the city, it's a busteling metropolis. Today we were able to see around the hospice center. They treat patients, offer spiritual care, do home visits, as well as networking and teaching for other organizations. Tomorrow we will hopefully be able to go on a home visit.

For fun we like to look at people's shirts. We saw a UW-Oshkosh shirt and a milwaukee bucks hat. There are also several things I will not mention here. From what I've observed the desire of much of the culture is to become as western as possible.

We take th 10 hour bus ride back to Kigali on Friday.

What Fun :)

Week 2 in Shiyra has flown by. Each day holds something different. Mondays and Wednesdays I teach a beginner English class for the staff of the hospital, it is fun to hear them practice their English when I see them throughout the day.
Tuesday we celebrated the German holiday, St. Martin’s day. It is to celebrate a man who led a life of serving others. The children sing songs as they walk down the street with lanterns.
Thursday I had the opportunity of visiting the school on the Shyira Hospital grounds, they would like me help with English lessons.
Today Carina and I went to Ruhengeri to go to the market and send letters. In the evening we’ll have fellowship night with the German missionary family that is on site at the Hospital. They are so sweet and have taken us under their wing. They have 3 sweet little girls that love to ask us “what’s your favorite….?”
As far as nursing opportunities I was able to shadow a grandfatherly Rwandan nurse named Antoinne, he showed me how they look up the patients’ medicine and have the attendant go to the pharmacy to get it. He also let me take vital signs in the women’s internal medicine ward.