Freeman Nshimyumukiza September 2021

Catching up on news from the mission field in Rwanda

Back in the school spirit

It has seemed like time has slowed down for many of us in the midst of this pandemic. However, in my last newsletter, you saw that we were no less busy working and serving in Rwanda! In March 2020 the country went on lockdown and schools were not allowed to resume, putting us in a position of sending school packets out to our students all around Rwanda to keep their brains sharp! But good news came, and after seven long but very busy months, we were granted once again to start school in person with very strict guidelines of social distancing and masking and a myriad of other things to keep us, our teachers, and our students safe! Since we had stopped right at the end of Term 1 of 4 for the emergency lockdown we picked right up where we left off (with much review of course) and finished our school year in June 2021. In God’s wisdom, the beauty in it all was displayed in maturity in our students and a value of education and also a little hidden blessing of getting us on a more similar schedule to the other schools in Rwanda. Instead of going January to December as one school year, we are now going from summer to summer in what seemed like the most natural and easy transition! So, that means that we started term 1 of the 2021-2022 school year this past July and are almost finished with it (a term goes for 10 weeks). Lord willing this will be as “normal” of a school year as possible with no seven month breaks!

Happily ever after

I was pretty quiet about what was going on in my personal life in the two and a half years I have been on the field with Rafiki. Now that we are past all the events I can tell you the whole story! I met Sam at my church here in Kigali. He was the children’s ministry Pastor and played a key role in getting me established and connected, active, and serving in the church. If that was not a blessing enough, it gradually became pretty evident to me that I was not prepared to continue my life without him, and I am pretty thrilled he felt the same! While our plan was not to make any moves until my initial Rafiki contract had been served, the pandemic changed just enough things for me to share the good news with the Home Office, and we went ahead and had our wedding in December 2020 just two months before my two-year anniversary in Rwanda. Now when I say wedding, all I can say about that is due to the pandemic lockdowns and restrictions our celebratory events were all canceled, and we ended up just saying vows in an upper room with our pastor, a few elders, and one witness for each of us. That was a bummer, but honestly, it is our testimony that with all the struggle to plan a dual culture wedding the Lord reminded us what was really the only important thing. Our lovely “wedding” picture was taken four months later in April when we were finally able to do just a little something to “celebrate” even just by ourselves with a photographer!

“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Baby boy!

If marriage wasn’t exciting enough, God also saw fit to bless us with a surprise a little or a lot earlier than we planned. “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). And oh how happy we are that He did! Coming this October 2021, our son will join us as we continue to serve the Lord in Rwanda! That’s right, we will both continue to serve—I will continue my work with Rafiki and Sam at Africa College of Theology and Children’s Minister at New Life Bible Church in Kigali. I am currently in the U.S. to give birth but will return to Rwanda when baby’s passport arrives around January (we speculate).

Music in Rwanda

Before I left Rwanda to prepare for the birth in the U.S.A., there were some very exciting developments in the music department of our school! I was finally able to start a very, very small violin class on Wednesdays after school. Since we have so few instruments and all different sizes, the spectrum of learners is pretty broad ranging from P1 to S3 (first grade to ninth grade). It has been so sweet to see how our older students who are learning more quickly (to be expected) are so patient and have become helpers during the week as the students come by to practice violin on their practice days. Since I am absent, I have received the encouraging news that I still have faithful practicers keeping their new skills on violin alive. I cannot wait to get back and keep this opportunity going.

Private piano lessons were also continued through terms 2-4 last school year, and I had many faithful practicers who come by the music after school to develop their skills. What is so encouraging is that we have students who truly love the gift of music and are willing to put forth that effort even when they are tired to seek out extra help and develop their skills. Unfortunately, an incident involving losing my phone caused all of my photos to be lost, but there will be more recent photos in the future for sure.

Prayer requests

• For our students and teachers during this school year:
  • safety from COVID
  • excellence and integrity
  • growth spiritually
  • growth musically
• Pray for the Music teacher substitutes while I am away.
• Pray for the birth of our son.
• Pray for our marriage as we each serve where God has us.

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