Year End Gift

Dear Family and Friends,

We trust your Christmas has gone well. We have spent ours in Minnesota with my family and are thoroughly enjoying the time. Our African Missionary Kids are learning the skills I grew up on – ice fishing, sledding, and skating. It’s quite a surprise, but Timothy keeps asking me each day when we can go drill holes, drop a minnow down the hole, and see what comes up. He has yet to actually catch a fish, but I think he enjoys the mad dash across the ice as the flags go up and we relive this primeval tradition. (I think large toothy northern pike still scare him, but he can’t help but want to be near the action.) We’re doing well. We are looking forward to the New Year, and trust it will be filled with new possibilities. We’ve extended furlough through January, and are in the midst of a big fundraiser.

I love what I do and would not trade my job for any other, but I’m at the most embarrassing point of what we do – Fund Discovery. In order to fulfill the vision of creating a transforming community of faith in Kigali among her current and future thought leaders through small groups, creative service, and education we need your help. If I was God I’d choose another method than having the sent ask for senders, but I’m not God and this is what we need to do.

We have 2 needs. First, as Jana wrote last week we need approximately $1,000 more per month or $12,000 in one time gifts to get through 2007 in a healthy way. The last couple years have been our best ever on the mission field regarding finances. We’re not in any financial holes, but some reserves we’ve had are depleted and a few regular contributors have dropped out. If you can either begin contributing on a monthly basis, increase your current giving or make a one time gift from $25 to $4,999 please write a check to Quail Springs Church of Christ – Rwanda and send it to the address below.

Second, we have a developing opportunity like we have never seen before. To be brief – About 4 years ago the Rwanda government built a model middle class community in Kigali. Its hope was that this model would lead the way in their 2020 Vision of turning Rwanda into a nation of middle class entrepreneurs who could break the cycle of dependency on Western donors. This community included 300 3 bed-room duplexes, a school, hall, and green play areas. The project finished about 2 years ago. The homes were all quickly bought. The school, hall, and green areas have sat empty. (Not a big surprise that it’s difficult to build community without faith.) I think the initial hope was that the community of home owners would organize themselves better and start using them. They are absolutely beautiful and built exceedingly well. The Hall could seat 600. It has several classrooms and offices in it; and could be used for all sorts of community activities such as a 24 hour prayer room, children’s bible classes, conferences, basketball and volley ball courts, wedding and reception meetings, and an internet café. We think it’s an ideal place to begin church planting if we want to develop a church made up of Rwanda’s current and future thought leaders. The school has 25 class rooms, 10 offices, and a clinic. We’ve already started a school (Kigali International Community School) and would move KICS into it. However, we won’t use all the space and would like to use the balance for other community serving activities such as offices for Christian Non-profit organizations, a library, gym, clinic, etc… Honestly, we can’t think of anything we could not do in ministry from this facility. In the same area are several green spaces for play. They are underutilized now, and we’d like to see them used as soccer fields, basketball courts, and a children’s playground. The school, hall, and green spaces cover over 6 acres.

They are all now for sale. The government is asking $1.4 million. Two of our elders from Quail, Tom Gooch and Larry Schwab (an engineer and architect) looked at them and thought in the U.S. their value would be between $15 and $18 million. It seems like an opportunity to make an impact far beyond what we ever could have anticipated to acquire this property. We are currently trying to raise $2 million so that besides the purchase of this facility we will also have the resources to furnish it and set up an endowment to maintain it.

The elders at Quail Springs have committed to raising 20% of the total. We’re now looking for other partners. Can you write a check for $5,000 or more and send it to Quail? If not, do you know a church, foundation, or individual who can? If so, can you put us in contact with them?

My emotion towards Rwanda still grieves, but has moved largely to hope. Rwanda’s is still one of the poorest countries in the world, but is past the desperate for any type of help mode. Rwanda is no longer a disaster. I believe that now is the time to build a sustainable community of hope and faith so that the disasters of the past are not repeated. Also, I believe that we need large investments in the portions of Rwandan society who will lead their own nation. Us missionaries can not do it forever, and we need to work with Rwandans who are capable of providing national movement leadership if we hope to be sustainable. Will you join our family in fulfilling this vision?

Thanks.

Dave