Ordinary Turns Extraordinary

I am blessed to work for an employer who believes in giving back to the community and has a very generous gift match program. I have always taken advantage of my Gap Match and believed I had maxed it as we can do a lot through payroll deduction.

While printing out info for my taxes, I decided to see if WorldHelp was a 501c3 as Gap does not support religious organizations unless than have a sector devoted to social responsibility. I was overjoyed when I saw that WorldHelp came up as an organization that qualified for Gap, Inc. Then my heart sank as putting my donations through WorldHelp would mean removing that match from other organizations. For some reason a link I don’t remember seeing caught my eye and I discovered I actually had close to $2500 more available for me to have matched. I read the fine print and it said it could not be used for education but otherwise as long as the donation was made within 3 months of the match request I was good.

Remember back to the earlier post on my Audacious Prayer? Yep, the one where I wrote the check and emptied my emergency fund? Remember part of my audacious prayer was to have $1000 to put toward the school so they could have supplies to make bags ahead of time and not be dependent on the order?

I just filled out a one page form and very soon, Gap, Inc will be giving a check to WorldHelp for about $2500 that Cyrus will give direction to the school to buy fabric to get orders made in advance and use the balance for bicycles or additional sewing equipment for the school.

God took what I thought was the answer to the audacious request and showed me through an every day act of printing out a tax receipt what audacious answer to prayer looked like

Obedience brings unexpected blessings. May we have the courage to be obedient no matter the cost as we have know idea how God will use that obedience to bring blessings.

Do What You Can Do - Part 2

Scholarship Fund Selection Process
As I shared in earlier posts, Pastor Nathan and his assistant let it be known there was a scholarship fund and women were interested in applying to set up a meeting. Thirteen women were ultimately vetted as those Pastor Nathan believed had potential. Pastor Nathan is a godly man who has since been promoted to Bishop of another area but he is invested in the lives of these women along with a boarding school called Star School that he remains connected.


Meeting the Recipients
Cyrus was in Rwanda a few weeks ago and was able to meet with 9 of the women who were ready to move forward with the scholarship fund. As I shared in the last post, it has been determined that although there is a willingness and a desire, some of the women do not have enough schooling. Our focus will be on helping them find a sustainable means of income to meet their current needs.

One of the women who will be attending school was sharing issues with her eyesight so part of the funds will be used to get her to an eye doctor and get glasses. I am committed to each of these women having what they need to succeed using their country to supply the resources to allow the right economic cycle.

Below is Cyrus's report along with the pictures of each of these precious women. I was reminded as I was doing my memory work in James 2 today when James says " Did not the Lord God choose the poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and inherit the kingdom he promises to those who love him?". These women are indeed rich in ways we will never be. I pray that as we love on them through prayer and gifts that we too will gain faith in what God can do when we trust him to "do what we can do". In God's economy I continue to see it is not the economy of this world. Just as he took 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed over 5000 people, he can take our funds to achieve far beyond what we could hope or expect for these women and their children.

I encourage you to print this out and put it in your prayer journal, mirror or wherever that you can lift these women up in prayer. As you can see school doesn't always solve their concerns, some comment below that they still have to figure out how to make money while going to school or to cover an emergency. I know our God is the great provider and I encourage you to pray in anticipation of how He will provide for the needs of these women.

Profiles of the women from the BMTC (Blessed Mango Tree Church)


Rachel Uwamahoro


Rachel is 25 years old. She is married and has a 5 year-old son. Her husband is an auto-mechanic. He is not saved and is very abusive. The money that he earns is always spent on alcohol and Rachel does not get to see any of it. She struggles to support herself as well as her son. Rachel has finished HS but was never able to go to college because of the lack of funding. She got married very young because her parents have been killed during the genocide. The only way she knew to receive any type o support was to get married. Her desire is to go to college to study management. She is willing to enroll in the vocational school in order to learn a trade.


Dorcella Mukandamge

Dorcella was born in 1975. She had 7 children but has lost 2 children from illness because she could not afford the medical treatment for them. She now has 5 children alive (2 boys and 3 girls). The oldest child is 12 years old and the youngest is 3 years-old. Dorcella would like to enroll in the tailoring at the Anglican vocational school. Her challenge is to find a way to support her family while in school.

Veranda Mukagatare

Veranda is 48 years old. She is a widow and does odd jobs in and near town in order to support her family. She also works for a coffee manufacturing plant. Some days she is hired other days she is not. This job is unreliable. She would like to find something that is reliable in order to me her parental obligations. Her desire is to have a livestock pan so that she can raise rabbits.

Goretti Hategekimana


Goretti is a 32 year old mother of 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls. She never went to school and because of the lack of education; it is extremely difficult for her to get a decent paying job. She has been widow for a year and half. She own a small property that she wants to put to good use. She wants to raise some produce.

Juliette Nyirandikubwimana

Juliette’s main challenge is housing as well as the school tuition for the vocational school. She enjoys learning how to sew, but cannot afford to be in school and earn money at the same time to support her children.


Matilda Nyirahabineza

Matilda is a 25 year old mother of 2 children. She has been a faithful member of the BMTC. Her husband is uneducated and works odd jobs. There are times that he can get jobs; other times he can’t find any job which makes it very difficult to support the family. It is her desire to enter the vocational school at the Anglican Church.


Jacqueline Mukantwari


Jacqueline is a 32 year-old mother of 5 children. Her first born died because of the lack of funds to pay for medical services. Her husband has abandoned her with 5 children, and it has been extremely difficult making hands meet. As she was sharing with, she was sobbing uncontrollably. She explained that every month it is the same struggle, just making the payment of the rent and at times her children go without food. She has to rely on the good will of neighbors. Jacqueline noted that she too has never attended school. As much as she wants to attend the vocational school, she can’t read or write. Her hope is that, through the BMTC she will be able to get a reliable source of income to be able to support her 5 young children. When the children get sick, she cannot even afford to take them to the doctor. That is why 2 of her children have died.
She sells fire woods and does odd jobs to earn money to support her family. She would like to be able to someday go to school even as an adult to be able to read and write. She hopes to raise livestock.

Diane Mujawamariya



Diane is a 33 years-old widow and mother of 2 boys. Her desire is to get into the catering school at the Anglican Church. While attending school, she would like raise some goats in case of an emergency while she is in school.

Alianne Umurerwa


Alianne is a 22 year-old orphan and mother of one year old Esther. She has completed 6th grade. She could not go further in school because she had no one to pay for her school fees. That is why she got married very young in the hope of having someone to support her. She wants to be enrolled in the tailoring program at the Anglican Church in order to earn a stable income. She too has been attending the BMTC since this church has been established.

Hope Awakens

God continues to blow me away how He has taken my purchase of 100 bags to start a scholarship fund to now, four months later having faces of the precious women selected for the scholarship funds on the pages of this blog!

Faithful Friend


I am forever grateful to Cyrus Mad-Bondo the Director of Africa for World Help for many reasons.
1. He was willing to haul 100 bags through Rwanda and Uganda and clear customs with them and send them to me in Florida.
2. He met with the 9 women we have scholarship money for to record their stories and pictures so we could put names and faces to our prayers.
3. He knew my heart was to help these women earn a living so he has been diligent in finding alternatives for the women who due to lack of education did not qualify to go to vocational school. He is resilient!


Hope Awakens
God has created us to have hope. For those who know Christ we have an eternal hope which is a promise. While on earth, those of us in the United States for the most part have grown up with hopes and dreams of having a good life. We envision living in a house, driving a nice car, having a family, and taking vacations.

For the women of the Blessed Mango Tree Church, outside of their hope in Christ, their one hope is to provide for their family each day. As I read the stories Cyrus recorded from the 9 women, I am humbled. The women asked Cyrus why there was interest in them? They shared others had come before and promised to help, took down their stories but never heard from them again.

Cyrus shared there were people in the United States that cared for them and wanted to help them have a better life; people committed to helping them. I was saddened to learn many of the women that had been approved by Pastor Nathan and his assistant were not eligible for the school because they could not read. Before I could respond to that, Cyrus shared he was working on options to use the scholarship money earmarked for them ($700 a woman) to help them provide for their family - for most it looks like live stock.

I was thrilled that Cyrus had already moved to the solution phase for the women unable to go to school. Vocational school is a great opportunity but the purpose of the scholarship was to give the women a skill so they could earn an income to provide for their family. I am excited we can still help these women have a way to support their family and it is my hope we will continue to raise money to allow these women the opportunity if they desire, to get an education so they can read.

Some of the women who qualified for school asked if it would be okay if they wanted to study something other than sewing. I was thrilled to know that hope was coming alive – they were able to see the dreams that they had stuffed deep down inside could come out and be a reality!

Helping
How you can help these women and the other women who have been approved for scholarships? You can provide a donation in exchange for a bag that was made by the women at the Anglican Vocational School. 100% of what you donate goes to the scholarship fund. A minimum of $20 donation is requested per bag.

If you would just like to make a donation, you can send it directly to World Help at the following address:
World Help
Attn Cyrus Mad-Bondo
PO Box 501
Forest Hill, VA 24551
Note on your check – Blessed Mango Tree Scholarship Fund


How to get your bag (s)
If you are local, I will bring them to wherever you are as well as I well have a basket of them at church. If you would like me to mail them to you, please send me an email. Each bag has a hangtag explaining the hope each donation brings to the Women of the Blessed Mango Tree Church.

Bag Patterns
There are 5 patterns and all have the zipper closure and two side pockets. They patterns are pictured below.



Do What You Can Do
I reflect back on what the Bishop of Rwanda said, “Do what you can do”. I had no idea when I felt God saying buy 100 bags that today there would be 9 women who would have hope awaken and see what was once a dream become a reality. They know they are not forgotten, that God is watching over them and is using the love of people on the other side of the world to encourage them.

There are still 4 more women we desire to get started, we have the funds for two and need the funds for two more. It is also my desire to give the Vocational School Seed money so they can have bags made up in advance. That means we have at least $2500 to raise as well . We will need additional funds if we hope to help those who did not have appropriate education have the opportunity to go back to school as time allows.

James 1:27 – True religion that God our Father says is pure and faultless is this – take care of the widows and orphans in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
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