Karen and Marv Quinn are ordinary Saddleback Church
members who took a daring faith step to travel on an Orphan Care PEACE trip to
Rwanda. What they saw of the people, country, and the power of the local church changed their worldview,
and we asked them to share their experiences in their own words:
A PEACE trip to Rwanda in
some ways feels like a trip back in time to first century Christianity. The
entire country in unashamed about being on fire for Christ. There is an
unspoken dignity among the people and a palpable presence of the local church
everywhere.
Leaving Kigali we traveled
to the western province and the city of Kibuye. Rwanda is the country of a
thousand hills and we must have passed by 500 of them on our three hour drive
there.
We had the privilege of
meeting with a pastor who leads a rural church in this farming sector of
Rwanda. His church has implemented the Orphan Care Initiative in a way that so
reflects his congregation. We were greeted with worship and the clamoring of
loving children who could not wait to sit next to us. The pastor spoke about
how families in his church were adopting orphans, attending parenting classes
and forming savings groups. Four of his members shared their testimonies, their
love for their church, their love for the pastor, and their dependence upon
Christ. One lady had overcome alcohol, accepted Christ, then found her self-
worth in Jesus and not in the bottle. Once healthy, she had gone on to adopt
and to participate in a savings group. Another had adopted, added to her own
biological family, participated in a savings group and with that money had
bought a pig because pigs reproduce quickly. Investing in livestock was a
ticket out of poverty. Her son is now completing his university education. All
four church members had adopted and given orphaned children loving mommies and
daddies. They all proudly held up their savings books because savings groups had
pulled them out of poverty. It was beautiful to see how Orphan Care initiative
and Savings Groups Initiative work hand in hand to help families, with the
church being the center of their success.
We followed the pastor to
a home visit whereby he regularly visits his members who have adopted to check
in on the family and the welfare of the children. Five of us were invited in to
this humble home with a dirt floor, mud construction and love that just exuded.
The husband was working and the wife invited us in to share her testimony and
to minister to us with her remarkable story. Years ago she and a man in her
village found a seven month old abandoned baby girl and brought her to the
local orphanage. They kept thinking about the baby all the time, and their love
for her prompted them to get married and then to adopt her. She is their oldest
child is now 12 years old. Since that time, the mother and her husband had two
biological boys. When we asked her daughter about school she beamed and the
pastor praised her on how much hard work she puts into her learning. The family
had joined a savings group, bought a cow and some chickens, and added onto
their one room home. The church is a family to families who adopt, orphanages
are closing, children are being raised in loving families and the church is the
hub of it all.
We witnessed the PEACE
Plan in action.
If
you are interested in serving on an Orphan Care PEACE trip, and assisting the
local church in getting children out of orphanages and into families, email us
at ophans@saddleback.com
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