Born into a Rwandan family living in Uganda, Fatier was the fourth of ten children born to her parents. Yet, it wasn’t until she was twelve years old that she realized that she was their child.
Her dad had fled to Uganda because of the political turmoil in Rwanda and was welcomed into a large Muslim family. He was forced to convert to Islam from protestant Christianity. When Fatier’s mom was pregnant with her, her grandmother told Fatier’s father that she was illegitimate.
Two months after Fatier was born, her father gave her mom an ultimatum: she had to pick him or her daughter. Because divorce was not supported in their culture, Fatier’s mom chose to disown her two month old daughter to remain with her husband.
Fatier grew up knowing her grandmother as her own mother. She was unaware of her true parents until she was about twelve years old. It was then that she learned from other children that she belonged to the other family and that her grandmother was not her mom.
It hurt her to know that she had parents, yet they denied her. Her dad had money, yet she grew up with her grandmother in the bush of Uganda and never got to go to school.
Despite the hardship and hurt this caused her, God gave her a strong Christian role model in her grandmother who took her consistently to the church where she became a Christian.
God used this church to prepare her and guide her into what He had planned for her.
In 1998, she was encouraged to buy a Rwandan Bible.
And, in 2000, her pastor told her that the Lord would call her to minister in another country.
In 2005, her calling was revealed through a team of fourteen Americans who came to Uganda to help run a conference for two weeks.
During her time hosting the team, Fatier became close friends with the assistant pastor’s wife. She shared her story and they talked about bringing the gospel to Rwanda. The next day, the pastor and his wife told Fatier they felt that God was calling her to Rwanda.
After being prayed over by the team, she accepted God’s call, but she didn’t know where in Rwanda she was to go.
To discern what God’s plan was for her in Rwanda, she spent forty days praying at the International Prayer Mountain in Uganda. On the seventh day, the Lord gave her a vision of the International Healing Center Ministry.
As she prayed to the Lord, He told her not focus on her own problems and hurts because her problems were international problems. He reminded her that everyone in the world has problems. All around the world there are orphans, people who have been hurt by their parents, and people who need Christ. The Lord told her that she needed only Him, and that He is an international God. He reminded her that she was not alone in her problems and that there are so many people with problems like her.
Not long after, she moved to Kigali for two years and then to the village she now works in.
The first four years she lived in her village, she served and prayed at the local hospital until the Holy Spirit told her to start her ministry.
Three years after she began her ministry, she opened her church.
In 2012, her husband passed away in a military accident leaving her to raise their two children alone. She continued to trust the Lord’s provision and used the money the government gave her after her husband’s death to build her church.
During her early years of ministry, before her church was constructed, Fatier also began collecting money to help children who couldn’t afford to continue their education. She started after she found two boys crying who were refused government scholarship for school. She began collecting money to pay for their school fees and has been doing so ever since. (Many of these students are graduating from university this year!)
In those two boys, God expanded Fatier’s ministry as she shared her story and many joined her in paying for vulnerable children’s school fees.
After her husband died, Fatier recognized the challenges orphans and single moms face (being a single mom now herself), so she began a school in the church.
Three years later, she began to pray for a school building and the Holy Spirit prompted her to take her application to the US and Japanese embassies. In response, God opened a door at the Japanese embassy. After one year, the school was constructed.
She opened the school for the children of genocide survivors and of veterans, as well as orphans and children from vulnerable families. What began with twenty children from the nearby school has now evolved into a school of 204.
During the genocide, many were killed in both churches and schools and that has left many Rwandans with their hearts hardened against these establishments. Some young people refuse government scholarship for education because of the terrible mental images of schools the genocide has left them with.
Fatier wants to change the image of the church and bring back the glory of God to the church and school. She wants to bring back the image of the good neighbor to a country where neighbors had killed one another.
Her school, Samaritan International School, works to care for vulnerable children and to teach them about the Lord. Her goal is to provide bedding, uniforms, and school supplies for students in need. In the future, she hopes to begin a program to provide breakfast and lunch for students who come from households that can’t afford food.
Currently, 60 of the children still need sponsorship to attend the school.
Please join me in prayer for Samaritan International School and the International Healing Center. Pray that this community in northern Rwanda (and ALL of Rwanda!) would experience healing and restoration from the painful events of their past. Pray that the students at Samaritan International grow in their knowledge and love for the Lord. Pray that funds would come in so that Fatier can continue to expand her programs to support more vulnerable children and reach more people with the Gospel, and that she can reach her goal of constructing a missionary house on the church/school property.
Here are some of the different ways you can support the students financially:
A one-time gift of $60 will purchase bedding for a student in need.
A yearly gift of $55 will supply a student with books, pencils, crayons, shoes, a school bag, and health insurance for the year.
A gift of $30 will purchase twouniforms for students in need.
A monthly contribution of $20 will pay for a students school fees necessary for them to attend school.
If you are interested in helping support this school and it’s students, please check out this site!
