Go Beyond

Widowed at thirty-eight, Clementine and her three boys have lived in abject poverty in a tiny two-room adobe structure in a small village nestled in one of Rwanda’s thousand hills. The crumbling walls and deteriorating roof of their tiny abode did little to keep the elements out. All of that changed this month.

Kingsland members David and Vicki Leatherwood and their family moved to Rwanda several years ago. They are reaching Rwandans through orality training, literacy training, Scripture distribution initiatives, Jesus Film initiatives, and outreach into small villages scattered along the Congo-Nile Trail.

David invited us to join him for a week of intensive manual labor in partnership with Arise Rwanda. This ministry is committed to positively transforming the community of Boneza out of extreme poverty by focusing on education, clean water, health care, pastoral care, and economic development.

David Leatherwood introduced us to John Gasangwa, the founder of Arise Uganda. Both David and John are respectively working to see homes transformed by the power of the gospel. And, it’s happening!

Our team of guys had an amazing week with the folks of Arise Rwanda. Kingsland provided the funding to repair and add on to Clementine’s humble habitat in the Boneza community. Our local friends started the project and we had the opportunity to join them to move the project toward completion.

When we arrived the new walls were ready to receive cement plaster, the tin roof was secured, and the dirt floors were ready for cement. The members of our team all had good construction skills but we all learned new skills, like plastering adobe walls. We had a blast working alongside our Rwandan friends who taught us the finer motions of properly applying plaster.

Within days the entire exterior and interior walls were plastered with a smooth finish and we helped lay the cement floors in the interior rooms. We also hired an electrician to wire each room with a light bulb and outlet and pre-paid six months worth of electricity for Clementine.

Clementine and two of her boys were present every day to invest sweat equity in the construction of their new home. Clementine expressed her gratitude for having a house with a tin roof and cement-plastered walls. This, she said, was an unbelievable blessing.

Our team also arranged to have beds constructed for the family, purchased mattresses, and surprised them with these and other household items and groceries. For the first time, Clementine and her boys will each have their own beds and mattresses.

We also had an opportunity to show the Jesus Film in a neighboring village. More than 300 attended the showing and, at the conclusion of the film, more than one-hundred people prayed to receive Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.

On our last day in Boneza, we joined Clementine and her boys and all who worked on her home to dedicate the home to God. We gathered at the front of her new home and prayed and gave thanks for the blessing of a home for Clementine and her boys.

We returned home with that good-kind-of-tired feeling that results from having served someone in need. We are grateful for the time we had to serve alongside one another and our new friends in Boneza. We are already planning to return with a team next year to bless another family in need.