Written by John St. Laurent

For our final day of mission work in Rwanda the day started very early and ended quite late with all of us trying to squeeze out just a few more minutes of time with these amazing children. Today was easily the busiest day for each of us as we prepared for the “Bazaar” at the new Hermond Church in Kimisagara for both Child Hope centers.

The significance of this day was multifaceted in that we were celebrating the building of the new church at Kimisangara, as well as, a new student “incentive” program developed by Mission Life for the Child Hope Centers.

Let’s talk first about the new church and the excitement building around the restarting of church services in their new home (we had some delicious birthday cake to celebrate).

Just over a year ago the services on this site took place in a large red and white tent affixed upon a large concrete slab. Yes, I said a tent. Unfortunately, in 2019, the Rwandan government stopped the services in the tent and required that a building would be needed and certain building codes must be met for services to continue. During this time the community did not have a space to worship together. Africa Hope Initiatives, Mission Life Inc. and another nonprofit organization raised funds to build what is now Hermond Church and the new location of the Child Hope Center.

It's an amazing facility with a large church, multiple classrooms for teaching, an area for cooking and restrooms, etc. Today was the culmination of 2 years of building this new space. It still needs a few items to be fully completed per Rwandan building code; Ceiling sound insulation (approximately $7000 U.S.) and a retaining wall at the rear of the building to ensure child and staff safety (approx. $20,000 US). With continued support from donations/contributions it could be completed very soon.

The second item on the day’s agenda was the Bazaar, an interactive event specifically designed to reward the children for good behavior but mostly it was just flat-out fun!!! The children were provided with play money of various denominations. The idea being that they would go to a station, select an item they wanted and pay for the item with the paper money they received. Throughout the event the children were encouraged to demonstrate the four pillars: Honesty, Love, Forgiveness and Generosity. Multiple stations were set up inside for the children to visit; a toy station, musical chairs, clothing station, footwear, hygiene products, face painting, musical chairs, bracelet making, candy and tons of games to choose from with prizes for the winners. It was sheer joyful-chaos!!!

We also had so many fantastic volunteers to help with the wrangling and station monitoring. Among the volunteers were four special young men from “The Prayer House”, a progressive young adult worship group based in Kigali. They are an amazing group of men and women who worship, sing and spread the word of God to the youth of their community. @prayerhouserw on Instagram for worship and soul lifting music!

In summary, it was simply a day of fun, excitement, honesty, love, forgiveness and yes, generosity. I cannot wait to come back and do it again next year…. to be in God’s presence celebrating through his children. God bless!

PS. To learn more about how you can join one of our future teams in the mission field, go to our Mission Trips page and see how you can be a part of Changing One Life!

Rwanda Mission Trip Team Blog-Day Seven