Kibuye; Dream or Nightmare...

Finally…The time had come
It was 3 years ago when Travis had a dream about a trauma and vocational training center located at a large lake. Orphans would come and live there in small family settings. They would receive schooling and training but most of all, they would receive Christ. Through times of worship and prayer they would experience God’s presence. His presence would heal them from trauma, from fear, from pain. They would be made whole by Jesus, their creator. These young orphans would become warriors for Jesus, they themselves ministering wholeness to the people around them, impacting this nation, impacting Rwanda.It was a wonderful dream…

While in a meeting with the minister of Gender and family Promotion, Trav asked her; “If I would set up such a center, where would you want me to go?” After some thought she said she wanted SoZo Ministries Africa in the area with the highest orphan rate of Rwanda; Kibuye… at Lake Kivu…

Finally, the time had come…
Almost packed and ready for our journey the news came to us that our cat, Boefje, had been attacked by wild dogs during the night. Her lifeless body was found by our guard. Needless to say we all cried and grieved the loss of Nani and Zoey’s favorite cat. We sadly finished loading the car and started our journey.We stopped to get more gas in our car. After confirming multiple times that the pump clerk new we needed diesel, he still put in super. After he asked us what we were going to do about it, we returned the question and gave him the answer also. Exactly one hour later the tank was cleaned out and filled with diesel, ready to go to our final destination.

When a God given dream, to good, to big, simply impossible to be true, starts to be confirmed, starts to slowly unfold and become reality… it has changed from a nice dream to the worst nightmare…
How would such a dream ever come true, the staff needed, funds for buildings and houses, equipment for living and training, moving into a yet undeveloped area of the country, schooling for my children… Dream or nightmare…

Trav met with the mayor of Kibuye who welcomed our desires as not many organizations come into this undeveloped, somewhat isolated area. Next week we will meet with him again and look at land. The mayor wants to donate land to us… Can you believe this?

We started our journey back home after our 3 day stay in Kibuye. Forgetting the frustrations form the start of our weekend, we were excited and joyful about the work God is doing and our involvement in it. After only half an hour things went from bad to worse. Lights came on on the dashboard, the steering locked up and strange noises came from yet other parts of the car. Sure enough, right when we were in an area that had no phone reception, in the middle of nowhere “kaboom!” a pipe exploded under the hood. Steam went everywhere. We knew we were stuck, babies and all. We felt like crying, now what will we do… God help!

No sooner after crying out to God we heard a car in the distance. We knew to get the car to stop and somehow receive help would take an act from God. And God acted…
The car drove past and quickly stopped. Some white faces looked at us, we recognized these people! These were our Dutch missionary friends! What are the odds… they even had space to take al 7 of us in their car…
Trav has a Rwandese friend that lives only half an hour from where we had to leave the car. He “happened” to be in his town… He “happened” to be friends with a great mechanic, who “happened” to be available and willing to fix the car late that Sunday night.

I don’t know about you, but reading our adventure I cannot help to realize that someone was trying to stop us from going to Kibuye, and to take our joy away after the Lord had opened amazing doors for us. This is called spiritual warfare. The reason; Satan does not want people to experience God, he does not want them to be free, to be whole. Satan simply does not want God to use SoZo Ministries Africa to bring freedom to the captive.Are we discouraged? No, on the contrary, we feel loaded with persistence to continue and pursue the direction God is starting to unfold for SoZo Ministries Africa.