Faith

She is not yet 16 years old, but she is a business woman, thanks to her church. Faith is an orphan who lives in a village outside of Butare. She is the proud owner of five goats. They are her business. Because of them, she has a mattress to sleep on in her one room house, has clothes to wear and food to eat and she has plans for the future. She is one of several orphans who has been helped to begin a business and slowly overcome the poverty into which she was thrust when her parents died.

The elders of her church, a rural parish outside of Butare, Rwanda, saw her situation and worked together to help her. They are not rich themselves, but they have hearts for the poorest of their parish. Encouraged by their pastor and with the aid of Felix Ngirabakunzi, a trained engineer in agriculture and agro-business, who serves as the regional development officer for the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda (EPR), they are making a difference in the lives of the poor in their parish. They met with Faith to determine her interests and abilities. With their encouragement, Faith decided that she could breed goats. The church raised the money for two goats and Felix provided her with the training she needed in the care of the goats. All through the project, he has given her guidance and training for handling the goats and for beginning her business. The breeding of the goats produced three kids. She sold them and with the money has provided for her own needs. She is now on her next generation of breeding. She has paid back the elders for their help to her by providing goats for breeding to another orphan in the parish, who is working with Felix for the same success that Faith has had.  Faith has not only learned goat breeding, but has learned to manage her own money, to make investment decisions and is expanding her abilities in farming and crop production. The goat manure helps her with that. She is self-supporting and is investing in her community. All of this has come about from a sacrificial investment of $200 by the church elders, and their confidence in Faith.

Other churches are working on similar projects with sheep and pigs for that same investment of $200 per project. To begin a project with cows is a bigger sacrifice, of $350. That is a challenge for many of the parishes, but some have been able to raise the initial cash for the project. The pastors who have the vision to reach out to the poor of their parishes have been trained at PIASS, where I am teaching. This is part of Practical Theology. I don’t work directly with Faith or her congregation, but I work with Felix through EPR and I teach the pastors who will soon be in the parishes with folks like Faith. So I am a small part of this empowering work, in the background, supporting and equipping the pastors. If you would like more information this development project, or want to know how you can partner with these enterprising churches to expand their outreach, please contact me. I’d love to tell you more.