My name is Moses Ndahiro and I’m the country director of World Relief. Many people know Rwanda for two reasons, the genocide or they know it’s a small country in the East African region. 

The genocide happened in Rwanda in 1994. It happened in 100 days in the month of April and in that period, one million people were killed. As of today, we’ve seen progress. God has been very faithful, but of course, in the midst of all these progresses we’ve seen, we still have challenges. How could a nation that had 90% as Christian end up as genocide? That leaves a very big question unanswered on the quality and the kind of Christianity that we had.

And so, in the Church Empowerment Zone, we are trying to say, “Yes, you come to church, but let’s look at how we can disciple you.” Our goal is to say, OK, we know that the church has been there for this many years. How can we work alongside it and empower them, give them the skill so they can immobilize every member of their local congregation to contribute something in the communities to address their poverty needs, the issues of diseases we see in the communities, the broken families that we are seeing.

What happens in a Church Empowerment Zone is that different denominations come together. The church that is working together, not working with everyone building their own kingdoms, but bringing them together to let them say let us leverage on our resources and share the gospel that is for all.

And people that are making less than $1.25, we challenge them. At first they are like, “How can I save when I don’t even have enough to buy all my needs at home?” But we challenge them and say, save only 25 cents per week. By the end of the month, they’ve saved $1. Within nine months, they have $9 that they’ve saved. Now, within this group, we’ve seen people access loans by the group where by you are able to access $20-$30 and people are able to buy livestock. And as livestock multiplies, they are able to sell the young ones and pay tuition. That is the first time they have accessed $20-$30 cash in their hands. 

One of the ways that the people of Door Creek Church can serve the people of Rwanda is to continuously pray for the wellbeing of the Rwandan people. Two is to come and walk the hills and mountains of the people. Your financial gifts will accelerate the impact in the community we are seeing through the church empowerment zones. They will make us reach out to more vulnerable families, and more vulnerable children, and more vulnerable women in ways that will make them move out of a hopeless situation and many will be served because of your financial gifts.