In March of 2013, God blessed me with the opportunity to serve alongside Pastor Moise in Kigali, Rwanda on my World Race.
If you followed my journey or were on my dear K Squad, you know that Rwanda was one of my favorite months and it holds a very special place in my heart.
We spent the month in Rwanda doing a lot of preaching (we had church every night), home visits, and loving on the sweet girls at the sewing school.
The sewing school is a ministry that Pastor Moise and his wife (Mary) started. They take in young girls, who have been affected by the genocide, and teach them a trade they can use to make money. While I was there, they had about 30 girls in the sewing classes. I learned that most of the girls had lost their parents in the genocide, had been raped and infected with HIV/AIDS, weren’t able to get an education, and had fallen victim to sex trafficking. It broke my heart to hear their stories, but it encouraged me even more to see the redemption these girls were walking into through the sewing school. I could feel demons shudder as these girls broke free from the chains of their past and stepped into the hope and freedom of their future. To see them finally have the opportunity to dream again was absolutely beautiful.
Pastor Moise has a huge heart and funded a lot of the sewing school cost himself. He even bought sewing machines for each of the girls to use upon graduation from the school, so they would be able to start their businesses. His hope was for each of the girls to pay him back for the cost of the machines, after working for a few months, so he would be able to reuse the money to bless another group of girls. However, the sewing machines are expensive and the girls haven’t been able to filter the cost back into the ministry.
Pastor Moise reached out to me about a year ago, and through a few generous hearts of my supporters, we were able to raise money to purchase sewing machines for some of the next graduating class that needed them. On top of that, Calvary West Orange raised money through their VBS to buy Pastor Moise windows and doors for his house!
So, why am I saying all of this? Well, after I decided I wasn’t going to Bethel, I spent nearly a month fasting from talking to anyone about my future (that was hard) and took some time to dream with God about it. I wrote out a vision for my life, which included things like; mentoring women, advocacy, and community. I prayed, and I journaled, and I got frustrated, and I sought counsel (shout out to Benny and Ang for caring more about me than their phone bill), and I fasted, and I didn’t fast, and I thought about it a lot, and I didn’t think about it much at all, and I cried, and I fought, and (finally) I just stopped and listened.
Then, one night, it hit me.
I popped up in bed, got tangled in my mosquito net, slapped around my sleeping bag to find my phone, and started writing down words God was speaking to me about (you guessed it) Rwanda.
The sewing school and the people of Rwanda have been on my heart since I left. The people there are like family and I even promised pastor Moises’s daughter (Lori) I would come back. I like to be a woman of my word and I’m not a fan of broken promise, so I fully intend to keep that one.
After a lot of prayer, I believe God is giving me the space and freedom to dream kingdom dreams and just go for some things in this next season. Let me tell you, It’s a humbling and kind of terrifying realization to find that God trusts you. It’s even scarier to realize He is letting you decide what you want the next season of your life to look like.
I know I want my life to be about loving God and investing in people, which could (and hopefully will) look a billion different ways.
One of them being, advocating for the sewing school and Pastor Moise. I want to help raise the funds for him to run the school and pour Jesus into the girls!
When I contacted Moise about the idea, he informed me that he actually had to close the school down last June due to lack of funding. He said there are 20 girls asking him to re-open the school right now and his plan was to open this past January, but he was unable to. He told me his goal now is to re-open the school this coming June, but he isn’t sure if it will happen or not.
It was so sweet to see how God was fighting for those girls by placing the sewing school on my heart, without even knowing how great the need was.
It was almost just as sweet to tell Moise that we are officially re-opening the sewing school in June!
So, my life (for the foreseeable future) looks like spending the summer loving on friends and family stateside, kingdom dreaming about what’s next for my life, and coming alongside Pastor Moise by advocating for the sewing school!
Ways you can help:
•We could really use financial support purchasing sewing machines for each of the 20 girls. They are $115 USD each and I need to send the money to Rwanda by the end of May! Along with money to buy the fabric/other materials needed.
*PLEASE DONT DONATE TO MY AIM ACCOUNT. Please use my paypal account instead.
•Most importantly, we can use your prayers.
I could use prayer for guidance, wisdom, and favor.
Pastor Moise could use prayer for his family and ministry.
And please pray for the 20 girls starting sewing class in June!
Other than the sewing school, I’m not sure what this next season looks like for me. I am planning on moving somewhere stateside in September, cultivating healthy community, getting a job (if anyone knows of any mentorship/girls ministry opportunities let me know), and walking out missional living wherever that may be.
What I do know, is that I am in awe of what God has done with these past 3 years of my life. I’m so thankful for the blessing of being able to do kingdom work all over the world these past few years. It’s so humbling to know that it’s been purely by Gods grace and the support of each of you. Thank you.
From glory to glory!
(I can’t believe I’m saying this, but stay tuned for my FINAL Adventures in Missions blog next month!)
