Serving the Church 

We have seen a major shift in the maturity of the church in the last year.  Our leaders are taking more responsibility for their church and are coming up with many creative solutions to the problems they face.  We are still a valuable part of the leadership team, but we no longer feel central to the work of the church.  This shift in ownership of the church thrills us since we have spent so many years trying to help the church get to this point.  We are in the process of finding our new role in the church now that things are so different.  We have been looking at how we missionaries fit into the Rwandan Friends Church’s new strategic plan.  We are especially interested in evangelism and discipleship combined with transformational development.  

Transformational Development

God has been leading me (Debby) to work in the area of Christ-centered development.  I had the unique opportunity of taking a self-study course at Fuller with Bryant Myers, author of Walking with the Poor.  Dr. Myers has worked in the field of Christian development for thirty years and this book is excellent.  Our understanding of how the church, evangelism, discipleship, and development work together is growing daily.  I am putting into practice much of what I am learning.  God has provided one Rwandan leader who shares my heart for reaching the poor with spiritual and physical good news.  They are meeting regularly and he is helping with much needed insight into how to implement these development ideas.  

Moringa Tree Update

Many of you have been involved in our Moringa tree activities through your donations.  The original field of 200 Moringa trees next to our home is growing well.  All the trees are at least seven feet tall, and most are heavy with the first harvest of seeds.  We are able to harvest leaves regularly from the trees now that the leaves are plentiful and the trees are strong.           

About once every two weeks we do a big harvest for drying leaves.  We harvest the leaves, wash them in bleach water, and then we lay them out to dry in a covered area.  We turn the leaves and remove stems every day.  In a week the leaves are dry and ready to be pounded into powder.  We used to use the traditional mortar and pestle to produce the powder, sifting this to remove small stems.  This is a method any Rwandan family could use in their regular food preparation.             

One Saturday the kids and I used my blender to make 16 cups of Moringa powder out of a huge pile of dried leaves.  The powder is very easy to use.  We put a couple of teaspoons of it in just about everything we cook: soup, stew, spaghetti sauce, Rwandan food….Many people come to our home looking for assistance and many of them don’t eat well.  I started giving people some of the powder so they could try it and tell me what they think.  My 16 cups of powder was gone in a week.  And now everyone wants more!  Remember, only one heaping teaspoon of this powder has all the vitamins needed for an adult in a day, 50% of the calcium, and it kills intestinal parasites.  We are now making Moringa leaf powder consistently.  In fact, we sold 44 pounds of the powder today!  We now take our dry leaves to the local mill to grind them into powder.   

The Children’s Corner 

Our kids are doing great!  They enjoyed the time in the States, and were glad to get back home to Rwanda.  The kids identified specific things that they enjoy about the States, but they all agree that they definitely love living in Rwanda.  They are being taught with seven other missionary kids (11 kids all together) by Michelle Carpenter (Brad’s sister), and Chrissy Muhr.  They love school!  Here is a picture of our home-school family. 

Our Studies 

We are both taking our masters degrees on line through Fuller Seminary.  These studies have been incredibly insightful with direct application into our ministry here.  I only have two classes left and will finish in about six months.  David still has a couple of years of study ahead of him.