Rwanda Update from Friends Church Kigali

I know it has been a while since I have posted a blog, but here is an update from Rwanda.  I am so pleased that things have gone well with them since we left and it is such a blessing to hear the things God is doing there.

Hello to each of you,   How are you all doing since you were here with us in Rwanda? We are all doing well in my family, in the church and our country in general.   I wanted to tell you the good fruit that we saw from the 40 Days of Purpose. Our Church has 4 smaller churches under it, so these numbers are coming from all 5 churches.   Before the 40 Days of Purpose we had 452 members and after the 40 Days we now have 516 members. So we gained 64 through 40 Days of Purpose. We have already baptized some of these new believers and we are training and teaching the others before we will baptize them.   Before the 40 Days of Purpose we had 50 small groups, now we have 64 small groups.   There are a few obstacles we are facing... --Some of our new members are elderly people and sickly people who live far away up to 7-8 km away from our Church of Kagarama. --It is difficult for some people that live in the city to find time to come to teachings/trainings of the church. --We have many small groups, but not all of the small group leaders are prepared and others do not have enough time to lead.   In order to solve these little problems (overcome the above obstacles)... 1)--For those that live far away we are renting a place for them to meet during the week so that they only have to come to Kagarama once per week. 2)--We are studying and preparing teachings that will be helpful in mid-week small group meetings and then we will meet all together on Sundays. 3)--We are and will be doing some workshops to train the small group leaders. 4)--For the finale of the 40 Days we rented a vehicle and went and picked up those that live far away to help ease their coming to the finale.   In the last day of the 40 Days of Purpose God did a miracle in my life. One of my sons named Nitegeka Jeremie who is 15 years old has not been a good boy for the last 7 years, he has had bad character traits/behaivor. To tell his testimony in brief, he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he was given a vision of an angel standing in front of him, on his right was a bright light (holiness) and on the left was darkness (sin).and the angel told him that he needed choose to accept Jesus or die. The angel told him that he has 2 gifts; 1 is to sing and a gift to play soccer, and told him that he needs to use these abilities that God has given him. The angel also told him that people despise him (the pastor's son) because of his sins. The angel told him that God loves him but that He hates his sin. So on the last day of the 40 days of purpose he stood in front of our congregation and repented of his sins and accepted Christ. His testimony is very long, but I have tried to say it in a few words.   Please continue to pray for my family to continue in the Lord and for our church to continue to grow.   Thank you,   Pastor Gaspard Karemera Kagarama Friends Church Rwanda