Newton May 2019

“Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
(Isaiah 43:19).

Approximately two years ago the National Commission for Children (NCC) began reviewing the children’s records here at Rafiki Rwanda in their mission of reassigning guardianship of the children to relatives or adoptive families. I struggled with this because I had left everything to come here only one year prior. I found it is all about trusting God for the betterment of everyone in our lives, regardless of their age.

NCC is finished! Official documents need to be signed for the last child. When funding and paperwork is completed on NCC’s part, the documents will be signed. The end result is we have thirty-four children classified as boarding students, twenty-nine transitioned to the community and are day students at our school, and twelve were moved too far to attend the Rafiki school.

We now begin our new normal of raising thirty-four Christ-following, well-educated leaders for Rwanda. Amongst the thirty-four, we have some future missionaries, a doctor, some engineers, and some to-be-determined. We move from a divided focus of the distractions this process brought to our goal focus of raising and educating our children.

Now I will also get to enjoy my love for road trips. While Rwanda is not that big, it isn’t called Land of a Thousand Hills for nothing. There are no flat places. Driving somewhere takes three to five hours in this small country. I love it! Periodically, I will be visiting the twelve children that were moved far away. I have visited four already. They are doing well, however, would like to come back to Rafiki, back to friends, nice living conditions, classrooms with textbooks, library, movies, and their first home.

Thank you for praying with us through this long process. Please continue praying for us. You survived raising one or two teenagers. We have thirty-four! Oh, the joy.

Emmanuel lives with his adoptive family.

Truly The Land of a Thousand Hills

Sisters, Julie lives with an aunt and uncle and Angel lives with their grandmother.

Aline, standing between her Rafiki cottage sisters Mahoro and Alice, lives with her mom, dad, and older sister.

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