Seated in front are the leaders of the Rweru reconciliation village; in back (from left), are me, Ugonma (Heaven’s Family’s CFO), Jean Paul (a member of Prison Fellowship Rwanda), Terry and Dan
The Grower and the Sower
Planting seeds of faith in the hearts of African micro-bankers
Dear Friends,
We never tire of seeing the miracle of reconciliation that God is performing in the Central-African nation of Rwanda! Our team representing the Micro-Loan Ministry recently returned from a 3-week trip there that also included stops in Uganda and Zambia.
When we arrived in Rwanda, we were greeted by our partners and members of Prison Fellowship Rwanda, who have helped us with much of our work around Rwanda. During this trip, they assisted with planning and coordinating a couple of 2-day small business training seminars, one in Rweru Village and another in the capital city of Kigali. We had over 100 eager students at each of these seminars!
For almost two decades, Prison Fellowship Rwanda has worked to create reconciliation and healing throughout their country after the gruesome genocide in 1994 in which about 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered in just 90 days. Part of this work has been to create what they call reconciliation villages, where perpetrators of the killings live side by side with the families of their victims on land given to them by their government and, as a testimony of the power of God, they now live together in peace. Rweru Village, the site of our first training seminar, is one of these reconciliation villages.
After the training, our team met with the leaders of Rweru to highlight some of the business knowledge and principles they had learned. It was exciting to see their enthusiasm about starting a micro-bank in their village! Through our micro-loan program, including the small business training we conducted, a local leader and a small group of borrowers are on their way to bringing growth and stability to many startup businesses in Rweru.
Villagers who attended our 2-day training seminar proudly show off their small business training certificates
The reconciliation, forgiveness and spiritual flourishing that is evident in Rweru always amazes us whenever we visit. We are reminded of Paul’s words when he said, “So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7). The seeds of faith that have been planted by Prison Fellowship Rwanda are beginning to bloom through God’s growth and we, the Micro-Loan Ministry, along with you the donor, are drops of rain in the life of this seedling plant.
God’s richest blessings,
Isaac Shepherd
Micro-Loan Ministry
In case you missed it…
The director of the Micro-Loan Ministry had the opportunity to give a short presentation at Heaven’s Family’s 2017 Annual Staff Conference in February, in which he explained some of the exciting ways we’re advancing Jesus’ kingdom around the globe in 2017. Please watch!
