Saturday, March 24, 2012

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

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