A Hard Month...

Well this is actually my second attempt at writing this month’s newsletter, that’s why it’s late. I really debated what and how much I was going to share, but in the end I felt that you would probably most appreciate honesty, whether good or bad, so here goes…..

For the most part November was really difficult. It was a month of attacks it seems. We faced many issues; illness, mechanical failure on our troublesome generator and trust issues with those close to us. It would happen that we would get one situation somewhat under control when we would be faced with yet another. Often we would be faced with the same issue repeatedly.

We had a missionary team of 22 Canadians and Americans led by Pastor Paul Juss from Grande Prairie visit us. Dean and I and the girls were so grateful to have them here. It was a spiritual lift that we desperately needed. We were blessed to not only have all of these new people that we didn’t know for new friends but we also had a couple from our home church in Canada, Rob and Shirley Berkman on the team. To have them with us was very special. Even just a small bit of contact with loved ones back home was great! The team blessed us in so many ways while they were here. They invited us to share all their meals with them which meant that I didn’t have to cook for 2 whole weeks! Cooking has been one of my biggest challenges here so for me personally this was a HUGE blessing! We were also blessed to have this wonderful group of people meet in our home twice daily for prayer and devotions and worship. This was so awesome. One of the things that Dean, myself and the girls miss the most is church. Don’t get me wrong, we attend church every Sunday but it is probably our hardest day of the week as you really take for granted having a Pastor that you can understand……So when you are next at church give your Pastor a big hug and tell him (or her) how much you appreciate messages you can understand!

This mission’s team was also very generous with us financially and we will actually be able to take Baylee and Julia on a 2 or 3 day Safari vacation to Akagera Park here in Rwanda in the New Year. We are all looking forward to having that time together.

At the end of the month it was very hard to say good bye to all our new friends, it was so wonderful having an entire house full of people you could have a conversation with in your native language! Having a little touch of North America was a great treat and all the people on the team were a blessing to our family in one way or another. Baylee and Julia made some great connections as well. Julia has a new “Hero” in Moose Jaw and Baylee is now the resident nurse after receiving some training from a couple of ladies on the team!

Unfortunately many of the team members, along with myself became quite ill while they were here. Luckily for most it only lasted a day or so. I myself got hit especially hard and was really very ill for over a week. In all honesty I cannot remember ever, in my whole life being that sick. I seriously thought at one point that I might die. I thought someone had poisoned me. Satan will attack in any way he thinks will best work and he attacked my health and my thoughts. The day the team left I went to the hospital to get some tests done and they gave me an intravenous drug that was supposed to stop the vomiting and the cramps in my stomach. This drug has a side effect that they didn’t mention to me and as they were injecting it I could feel my heart start to race and it felt as though I was struggling to breath. Again, I thought I was dying except it wasn’t peaceful. I was calling for Dean to pray because I fully expected to lose consciousness. It only lasted 4 or 5 minutes (maybe it was less but it felt like more) anyways, it scared me some good!

The test results all came back negative and I gradually felt better everyday and within another 3 or 4 days I felt completely normal. I did have one relapse where I was really sick again but it only lasted 1 day. Baylee and Julia both got sick as well but it only lasted about 2 days with them but they have each had it twice. Dean alone has remained untouched; this is great as we need him to take care of all of us.

The best thing that happened last month was that Redemptor finally came home from the hospital. She was there for a full month, From November first to the thirtieth. The bill was huge but highly worth it. She is like a completely different child! That’s not to say that she isn’t ill. Her HIV test came back positive and she also has Tuberculosis. She also had to have emergency surgery for an obstructed bowel while she was in the hospital but something really cool happened….As soon as we got the call that she was going in for surgery we all gathered to pray (the missionary team was still here) and we really prayed for healing. You know what, when they opened her up the bowel obstruction was not there! They said that it was clearly there when they did all the scans but they could find nothing when they opened her. Praise God!!

She has completely healed from the surgery and is being treated for the TB. As for the HIV, she is doing really well and does not need to take any medication at this point. She is home, she is happy, and she is well on the road to being healthy. She runs and plays and laughs and says “Mama Kathy, Papa Dean…I love you”! That is worth every penny that we had to pay to the hospital.

We also have another very cool praise report. We recently had all of the other children tested for HIV. We had doctors come out to the Children’s Home to do the testing, and after all the blood was drawn and they started to test we started to pray and you know what….every single one came back negative….EVERY SINGLE ONE!!! I tell you, I was shocked and I wasn’t at the same time. I was shocked because the chance of some of these children being infected was high but I wasn’t shocked because our God is great!

Well our generator is still not working properly. In fact it is worse. It’s not uncommon for us to go days at a time without water. It’s not impossible to live like this but it sure isn’t fun. To tell you the truth the whole situation had me seriously contemplating our return to Canada…very soon. We need a new generator and we need one very soon. I spoke with Pastor Hazel at length about this need and the cost associated with it…it’s a very high cost. I sent out an email to just about everyone we know sharing the whole situation with them and you know God closed the door on our return to Canada. I guess He still wants us here because in only 1 day, and I still don’t know all the particulars, but I guess that more than enough money was given for a new generator. So I am believing that we will be enjoying daily water and electricity very soon!

The biggest prayer request that Dean and I have is for wisdom and discernment. The hardest thing to deal with is the dishonesty with people here. It seems that you can never be sure when people are being straight with you. This is difficult to deal with, especially when it concerns people close to you. Please pray for us to always use wisdom and discernment. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will always guide us. Please just pray for us. Believe me when I say that prayer can be felt. We know when prayer has dropped off and when it has picked up. Our biggest concern in coming here was that people would forget to pray for us. Bad things happen when prayer wanes. I am boldly asking you to be diligent in your daily prayer for us. I honestly don’t know if our family can take another month like the last one we had. I wish I could detail every single obstacle that has arisen but I don’t believe that I have the strength to relive every single one. We faced (and are still facing) issues with some of the children here. We ended up having to hand over 2 of our girls to Muslim relatives because we had no legal right to keep them but we are believing that those 2 girls are going to be a light to the rest of their family. We have a little girl here who says that she wants to go and live with relatives who cannot afford to have her and have said so. She has started to physically hurt the other children and she is wrecking property. She has torn her mattress to pieces and ripped a bunch of mosquito nets apart. This has been a very stressful situation to deal with here as we have had people tell us that it is abusive to send her to bed without a meal but when we ask them how we should deal with it they say that we should give her a good beating?! She has promised twice now that it won’t happen again. Please pray for her to find peace and for her to behave because as you can imagine she has become quite disruptive. Her name is Jermene and she is only 5 years old.

Some more cool things:

We FINALLY have a vehicle! Thank you to Rob Berkman who spent much of his time here with Dean looking for a good and reliable vehicle for us. We ended up getting an old Red Cross vehicle. It’s a Toyota Landcruiser and it will hold about 12 kids easily, and it will drive on any road! It’s a real “tough missionary” vehicle…we love it!

We also had a visit from the First Lady of Rwanda which was a very big deal! There were all kinds of police and military security out here for her 30 minute visit. Jeanette Kagame is a friendly woman who takes the issues of orphaned children very seriously. She offered to buy us a cow and I believe that she may even help us acquire some more land for us. Apparently we were on TV 4 times as well!

We have also been contacted by a journalist from Chatelaine Magazine and she is coming to Rwanda in February and she will be doing a story on us and the Children’s Home. The story is about the effects of war on women and children. So keep your eyes peeled in the New Year for that.

I think for the most part I have you all caught up. In conclusion November was rough but we had a lot of really great God moments as well.

We all pray that you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are looking forward to Pastor Hazel and her team’s arrival next week. They are coming to have Christmas with the children and the mamas and our family so I know it will be wonderful, maybe a little hard, missing family and friends, but still very great.

Please pray for us daily. Pray for spiritual and physical safety. Pray for health and wisdom and discernment. And please pray for all the children here, ours as well. And please don’t forget about Dean’s oldest daughter Brittney who remained in Canada.

We love you all, thank you for all your support and remember, without your prayers it would be impossible for our family to stay here.

Blessings,

The Torgersons

P.S, I wanted to tell you that the website that we had being designed is in the process of being switched to a new designer. It is also blocked to us here in Africa for some reason so I can’t even check to see what is on it and I can’t receive any emails that are sent to torgersons@victorychildrenshomes.com so I have set up a new email that you can reach us at and we love to get emails so here is the address….katinrwanda@yahoo.ca

Looking forward to hearing from you!