Student Sponsorships at City of Joy

Student Sponsorships

Education is the key to helping children and giving them a brighter future. For many kids education is difficult. Even though government (public) schools are free there are costs involved. Uniforms, sandals, haircuts, paper, pencils, pens, and other supplies are required. If a family is too poor to buy these things some children remain at home and don't go to school.

City of Joy is making a difference through Student Sponsorships! You can sponsor a student and help them go and stay in school. For a yearly gift of $25-primary school or $50-secondary school, you can help a child. You will receive a picture and short biography of the child you have helped. Your gift will provide everything needed for one year of education.

Women of Rwanda Sponsorships

You can change a life through a vocational training sponsorship program called "Women of Rwanda". For a one year commitment of $30/month you can help an at-risk young woman realize her potential in Christ.

The program gives these women the tools and support needed to succeed not only in business but also in life. Each sponsored woman will receive: a sewing machine, English classes, business classes, one-on-one mentoring to help design a life plan and other tools to help.

You as a sponsor will receive a picture and profile as well as updates through out the year. Go to www.cityofjoyfoundation.org to donate.

Message from the Nashes

City of Joy. Three little words that mean so much. When we moved to Rwanda in 2010 we had no idea how much this country would be apart of our DNA. We have been serving at an international school here in Kigali, Rwanda since August 2010 and we have made a difference in students lives. I have been teaching History, Bible and Philosophy and Jeana has been helping students choose classes that help them with their future in college. Isaiah 43 reminds us that God is always doing new things and that can happen in Rwanda just as it happens all over the world every day. We believe that God is doing a new thing in our lives as well. We have been asked to join our friends Todd and Andria Ellingson who started a ministry called City of Joy. We have spent time in prayer and believe that we are meant to partner with them. In 2010 we committed to working at the school, KICS, for two years and we are coming to the close of that committment. Todd and Andria have asked us to come and work with them in the village of Gatagara. They are building a school and have completed building a Women's Center/Conference Center. They are also ready to start a church. They want me (Matt) to plant a church, do Bible classes for the neighborhood people and also start a pastor training center. I am going to be going through all the certifications and trainings this summer with Dynamic Church Planting International. This is something that our church in Oceanside is really involved with and I was planning to do anyway. They want Jeana to do grant writing, travel planning for visiting teams, and help get the school started. Jeana will continue to work with Spoken For helping to grow the ministry and extend it to the Southern Province of Rwanda, where we will be living. Some of you have already been a part of City of Joy by purchasing goats and helping build the widow Lai's house. We will be continuing to sponsor Rwandan students go to school, get clean water and be the hands and feet of Jesus to them. Our mission is to preach Christ through word and deed. It is all very exciting! We will also homeschool Emma. We were concerned about her being in a regular Kindergarten class anyway and now we can modify her learning to where she is at. We have officially resigned from the school so that they can begin searching for our replacements. We will complete the remaining school year and finish well before returning for the summer on furlough. This ministry move will require us to raise more money over the summer. We will need to buy a car, furniture for the house, insurance, etc. We will also need to increase our monthly support by about $500/month to cover the rent of a house in Nyanza (about 15 minutes from Gatagara). We know that this is what God wants us to do and so He will provide. We are looking into extending our summer fulough into September maybe early October so that we can have more time to raise support. We so value all of you and the prayer and financial support you have given to us. We want to be good stewards of the resources we have been given and we believe that God will go before us on this adventure. William Carey, the father of modern missions, once said, "Expect great things from God and Attempt great things for God." It will be hard to leave KICS because it was our introduction to life in Rwanda, but we believe that God has opened up a new road for us to travel on. Please email us if you would like to know more details about what this transition will mean for us. Jeana's email address isjeanagoblue@hotmail.com and Matt's email address ischinadad08@gmail.com. Here is a link to the City of Joy-Rwanda facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/City-of-Joy-Rwanda/265998840082320 Grace + Peace to you Matt, Jeana and Emma

Check out the latest newsletter!

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Check out the latest newsletter!

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Check out the latest newsletter!

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Student Sponsorships

A one time donation of $25 provide primary school children ($50 for a secondary school child) a uniform, sandals, paper, pens, pencils, haircut and a 1 year health insurance policy. Meet the latest child to be sponsored.

Name: Julian Nyirangirimana

Name of School: Kaganza School

Age: 13

Gender: female

Grade: Primary 4

How many siblings do you have? 1 brother 2 sisters

What is your favorite subject in school? My favorite subjects are English & Kinyarwanda.

What is your favorite food? I like cassava and beans.

What are your favorite games? I like to jump rope.

What do you like to do when you are not at school? I like to fetch water, cook and sweep.

What would you like to do after you are done with Secondary School? I would like to teach English in a secondary school.

The Gym

I have never been a member of a gym. Since we are home for so long I joined the gym in Fountain Hills called "The Peaks". I found it hard to work out in the mornings on my own because of the cool temps and no street lights in the neighborhood.

Fountain Hills has a large population of older adults. At the gym the same retired guys show up each morning around 5:30am. Gary Parker is one of the guys that I have met. He is 67 and very fit. He said that 20 years ago he became obese and will never let that happen again. He works out 1.5 hours on the elliptical each morning starting at 4:30am. He is a shining example of someone dedicated to fitness.

This morning (Saturday) we had the opportunity to be on the elliptical together and shared more about our lives. He is a big game hunter and has been in over 50 countries hunting. He has written articles and enjoys experiencing other cultures. He asked me more about City of Joy. We had a good conversation about how to truly help people in Africa as apposed to putting band aides on symptoms of poverty.

At the end of our conversation he said that he would like to get me in contact with Jimmy Buffets brother who does humanitarian work in Africa. He specializes in agricultural projects that help farmers with subsistence farming. It's a long shot that he would be interested in our farming projects but stranger things have happened.

God Coincidences

I am always in awe when moments in life happen that are so encouraging and uplifting that they must be from God. Today my parents and I were eating at a restaurant in Fountain Hills. A gentleman saw our MN Twins shirt and North Dakota Sioux shirt and asked if we were from Minnesota. Long story shorter, they had relatives who were missionaries in Tanzania and were on the same ship, called Zan Zan, that was bombed in WW II as it traveled to Tanzania that our friend Velera.

Our good friend Velera Kinnan was on that ship as she was a missionary to Tanzania too and she use to share stories of it's sinking and their subsequent capture and imprisonment. Our new friends had similar stories of God's grace and protection of their family members.

Our new friends talked about how they would like to come to Rwanda and experience overseas missions. They had always planned on going to Africa but didn't have time. Both the husband and wife are retired now and finally feel like they can go on a mission trip. We exchanged contact information and hope to reconnect while we both are in AZ.