Our Visitors in August

We had some fantastic visitors this month.  Check out the photo gallery to read about our different guests.

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We welcome visitors and work teams at Hope Made Real Village.

Our Tiki Hut Brings Us Together

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Since the girl's home is still under construction, we had been struggling for some time because we wanted our kids to worship together and transport was a problem.  Living in two different places poses it's challenges.  One day we will have a chapel at Urukundo Village, but until that day our eyes were opened to the beautiful little Tiki Hut in our garden just below where the boys home is and we are building the girls home.  It was built as a resting place and is in such a beautiful setting. All around is the beauty of the earth. Our Tiki Hut Worship Center is now where our children gather.  It is small but there is always room for others.

A Look Ahead at Our Future Plans

I want to share with with our future plans for building a life here for these children that will see them into their future.  Our plans are to one day build a Chapel, a Clinic for the community and our kids, a Nursery School for working parents with small children, An English Primary and Secondary School where English and Kinyarwanda will be the working language, two more homes for Orphans and a home for Street Kids needing a place of refuge.  It may sound like a lot, but look how far we have come.  There is much work to be done and teams are needed and welcome.  Anything you can do to help us in restoring this wounded part of the world is appreciated.

How do you say no when God sends a baby?

Surprises come every day here at Urukundo Home for Children and in the month of July we were presented with a great challenge.

This baby was thrown away. No father, no mother, and no name. Just a child of God. He was found in the bush and brought to us by the police asking us to care for this two-month-old baby.



He is very special as he now has a family of 38 brothers and sisters, a mama (me) and a papa (John) who love him very much.  We are not set up for a two-month-old child, but we have the most important thing a child needs: lots of love.  Keep us in your hopes and prayers as we take on another challenge in the children God places in our lives.

Realizing the Need and Stepping up to the Challenge

It is clear to us now that this will not be the last thrown-away child that will come to us.  So we will need to plan for the future of a nursery with a mama and those things needed to care for infants.  Most of the things we need, like diapers, cribs, blankets and clothes, can be purchased here.  I guess the bottom line is that we need the money to buy the things that all babies need and to build a home to care for them.



We can give these babies a future.  I am praying someone or a group of someones will want to help us build the house for babies thrown away because a mother can't take care of them and survival is the key.

Please pray for this child's mother. She must have struggled for two months to care for her baby and could not. I do not know her circumstances, so I do not judge her. I just know how heartbreaking it must be to know that if you keep your child, it will die, and to throw it away may give it a chance for a better life.
I am thinking that this is another reason why God has been so faithful to the work of Hope Made Real. We serve in mission and serve children.

We have named him David Chad Kayitare. Yes, John and Hope have shared their last Name with him.

With this child's arrival comes another: we have found a young woman who is an orphan of the genocide and needs a home and some little money to live.  She is now the mama for David as she will be caring for our new child, bringing two together and helping restore the families and communities of Rwanda.

God gives us so much and expects much in return.  Join us in celebrating this new child in our midst.

Our Visitors in July from Pennsylvania, Vermont, and the United States Senate

We would like to thank our fantastic visitors in July from Pennsylvania, Rev. David Shultz and his son Chad, and our hard-working visitors from Vermont, counsins Kyle Arnold and Olivia Shumlin.  They worked very hard and made a real difference while they were here.  Check out the picture gallery to see their work on the girl's home and a road for the village.

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A Visit From Three US Senators

We were honored to meet with Senators Tom Daschle, Mike Huckabee, and Bill Frist.  Unfortunately, we did not have a camera on hand, but I was able to have conversation with all three Senators on a one-on-one basis and to tell them about Urukundo Home for Children and give them the business card for Hope Made Real.  I do not know what will come of this, but it was good to meet with them.

Progress on the Girl's Home: Building the Roof

Progress on the girl's home continues with the beginning of a roof.  It's remarkable how quickly it is coming together as you can see the last few months progress on the girl's home here for comparison.  It looks like our girls will have their new home as soon as November.



We have been able to hire four young students who are working during the holiday between trimesters.  Not only does this help us get the girl's home done faster, but it helps them earn money for secondary school, improving themselves and the community.

Farming and Weather

The weather continues to be unpredictable in Rwanda.  It is unusual to have rain in July, but it is happening. I am looking forward to September when we will plant our first real garden on our own land.  How wonderful. The land is cleared, leveled and is getting filled.  It will take a lot more fill before it is ready for planting but the soil is rich.

Half of it will be American and the rest Rwandan. We have seeds from America and are going to experiment with them. Lettuce, radishes, peas, carrots, cucumbers, squash, etc. This month, August, I will start tomato and pepper plants. Three months from planting to harvest does not seem like enough time for these vegetables to mature. We’ll see. The best part of all this gardening is I can supervise but fortunately don’t have to do the work nor pull weeds.

Donna Doutt, Presbytery Kiskiminetas, from Yatesboro, Pennsylvania is sending us Mammoth Russian Sun Flower seeds to experiment with. These flowers could give us chicken feed.  Whether a success or a failure, I will send you pictures so you can see how our experiment goes.  This work really is fueled by your ideas and efforts, so our thanks is extended to Donna and all others for their great work.

Meet Jean Paul Nziyumanganya

We have a new boy, bringing our total number of boys to fourteen.

Jean Paul Nziyumanganya is fourteen years old.  He is in Primary 5 and a handsome young man.  His voice is currently changing.  I can hear it when he takes part in the song before meals and I smile.  I remember my boys during this time in their struggles to become men.

His father is unknown.  His mother abandoned him when he was 2 years old.  His caretaker was an uncle or neighbor who can no longer care for this boy.  He came to me on our road and spoke in a broken English “I am orphan.  I want to live with you.”  He was brave to do that and that kind of faith needs rewarding.  We have gone through the process and now we have legal custody and he is ours and has a home and a family who love him.  He is showing leadership ability with the younger kids and our little girls think he is the perfect big brother.  His goal is “to become a doctor for children.”  He is a happy boy and a very positive addition to our family.

The Progress on The Girl's Home

Check out the picture of the girl's home under construction last month.



Now check it out in this picture taken on June 25th.



The progress in less than four weeks is great.  The girls are watching the work very closely. This is their home and they are excited. I really want for all of us to be in one place and so I am praying that we will be able to raise the funds to complete this house by November.

Thank you again to everyone who is helping to make this great work possible.

Cooking Food, the Price of Gas, and our New, More-Efficient Cooker

I'm sure everyone is well aware that the price of fuel has been going up.  It's been straining us here too.

Charcoal has become very expensive here because of the ban by the government on cutting trees.  This is, however, our least expensive way to cook.  Electricity is currently not possible for us and gas is expensive and can only be purchased in Kigali.  So we spend $20 to retrieve it and for $86 purchase a small tank that lasts less than a month.  There is no truck to deliver gas like in the US.

Looking for a solution, we discovered a new, much more efficient design for a cooker.  We had it build in a single day.  It is made of cement but has three cooking holes and uses a third of the charcoal and can burn scrap wood.  We have lots of that from old scaffolding.  It's a step in the right direction and makes sure we all have properly cooked meals.



It may be reaching a bit, but it reminds me of the old Iron cook stove in my Gram's house when I was a kid.  Any way you look at it though, we're please to be doing more with less, making better use of the materials and gifts available to us.

Playing Football in the Fields

One day, a day care or clinic will be on this land, but until the funds come, the land will not sit idly by.  As children tend to do, praise God, our boys see the open land and immediately use it to play football (aka soccer.)  The boys are now using the basketball court and the cement is hard on the balls as well as the knees and elbows of the boys when they fall which is often.  Much like life, soccer is a fall down, get back up, and keep on going kind of game.  I think we need some kind of protection for the knees and elbows but until then falling on dirt will be much better than cement.

The Season's Disturbance is Global

In Rwanda, we are dealing with the change.  The dry season has finally come.  The wet season which normally lasts three months, lasted five.  You would think that is good but it surely confused the crops and those waiting to begin the harvest. Even though the rains continued, the growing season stopped.

The farmers are not sure when to plant the next crop.  We wonder, will the dry season also last five months?  When should we prepare the soil and plant?  This was not my problem but now that we have farm land and plan a garden, I also am concerned. I will however leave these decisions to those who are more experienced than I.