Happy New Year....A Little Late!

Happy New Year from Us!!

First off I just want to say a GREAT BIG thank you for the overwhelming prayer response we received after last month’s newsletter. Please believe me when I tell you that your prayers really are felt all the way over here, and all the way is 15,000 kms away!

Where do I start? This past Christmas was very good but obviously very different.

Christmas Eve was a quiet night with just the “family”. We all joined together in the church and sang songs. Pam Griffin from Pastor Hazel’s church organized a nativity scene with some of the children from the home. It was very good. Pastor Sherry McLean from Moncton NB shared the Christmas Story with all of the children and Matthew House from Lac la Biche shared his testimony with the children. Julia also shared her testimony. Maybe I am a bit partial because she is my daughter, but I was pretty proud of her and I thought it was cute so I am going to share it with you as well.

“Saturday we were talking about getting some goats and Pastor has some goats. He has one that I really like. I call her Donkey Goat because she looks like the donkey from Shrek. I asked my mom if I could buy her. She said only if it’s okay with Pastor. So, I went down to Pastor’s to ask, but he doesn’t speak English so I took the goat and said nangi (non-guy) because that means how much. He told me it was for free! That was a huge blessing. I wanted to give him the money but he wouldn’t take it. He told me he gave it to me for free because he likes me. That was very kind. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. Pastor was showing kindness. My favourite verse in the bible is John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son for whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Murakoze (thank you)

After our Christmas Eve service we went back to the children’s home for hot chocolate and cookies with the kids and Pastor Kaneza’s family. Two ladies from the Ohio church, Stacy and Donna brought a package for each one of the children and the mamas, so they got a Christmas Eve gift as well and that was a lot of fun!

We found Christmas morning a bit difficult as this is when we most missed family, friends and familiarity. Like you I am sure, this is a day that was always spent with family.

Lonely feelings didn’t last very long though….how could they when you have 29 little kids anxiously awaiting their very first Christmas ever?!

Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) donated 500 toys to us this Christmas, 250 Barbie dolls and 250 trucks. We are talking the “real deal” here. Fancy Barbies with cool outfits and trucks that have lights and sound effects. They were a huge hit! When we put the kids to bed that night all of the girls had their dolls tucked under their blankets with the heads on the pillows.

On Boxing Day we held our first feeding program. Pastor Hazel purchased some goats and we put on a big feast! Our mamas did all the cooking and some of our older children served the food to the people. We had over 300 people show up! After we ate we had a concert in the church, there were several choirs from different churches and it seems that there was an unsaid battle of the praisers going on. It was a lot of fun! I tried my feet at some traditional Rwandese dancing! I am surprised that I didn’t fall on my face but I bet that I lost 10 pounds. You cram 350 – 400 people into a cement building and then get them bopping around and you are gonna have some hot & sweaty people. It was so much fun!

The following Sunday we split up and we went to 4 different churches. I ended up going with Pastor Sherry to a small village in Taba where Pastor Sherry preached. We met in a small store where 90% of the congregation is children and there were so many of them that they couldn’t all fit in the building so they were crammed up to the door and window. After the service the pastor from Taba brought us to her home where she introduced us to her family and then fed us a feast! It was really very neat. They also sent us away with gifts. Pineapple, passion fruit, and bananas are a large and precious gift in Rwanda.

At the church here in Sheli Pastor Hazel preached and after the service Baylee and Matthew had the privilege of handing out more of the toys from TBN to local children. That was a big treat! When we went for a walk later that day we came across one little girl who had received a doll and she was carrying it on her back the same way Rwandese women carry their babies!

In the beginning part of the New Year we really focused on bringing in more children. We had Bishop Joseph put the call out to all of his Pastors and we had many, many children brought here. In one single day we ended up bringing in 21 new children bringing our total to 49! Over the next 2 weeks children kept coming and today we are almost full with 59 children, 30 boys and 29 girls.

This has kept us very busy. With such rapid growth there is bound to be hurtles that need to be overcome. We found that we had to do some shuffling because we did not have enough beds for all the new children. I am sure you are asking “why weren’t you more prepared?” Well, in all honesty, we didn’t expect to have that many new children all at once. We moved 2 bunks from the mission house and 1 bunk from the infirmary to the children’s home and with some internal shuffling of mamas and children we found that we finally had enough room for everyone without have to build triple bunks. We had a couple of little ones bunking together for a night or two and they loved it.

This growth also proved difficult for the mamas as they have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the new children. I guess it may have been better to gradually add more children over a longer period of time but when you have the little faces looking up at you it is impossible to tell them they cannot stay.

School started January 7th here and we have 43 children in primary school and all but 1 of the remaining 16 attending nursery school, so the dynamics of our day have really changed. This has actually been very good for Baylee and Julia as it gives them many undistributed hours during the day to get caught up on school work.

Here is a prayer request; Baylee and Julia have fallen quite far behind in their schoolwork. I am not a teacher and the whole home schooling thing had me more freaked out than anything coming here! They really are working hard to get caught up though so they don’t have to repeat the grades or do school work while we are back in Canada so please keep them in your prayers that they will find it easy to get caught up and stay on track and pray for me to be a good teacher and helper to them.

After Pastor Hazel’s team left we were able to take the girls on a short holiday to Akagera National Park for a 2 day safari. We had planned on taking this trip after the November team left but had to postpone due to the generator dying on us.

We decided to go on an adventure and drive ourselves instead of hiring a tour company to take us. I am very glad that we decided to do this for a couple of reasons. One, it saved us some money and two, we now know how easy it is to get there and we can drive other teams there when they come. When you get to the park a guide gets into the vehicle with you and takes you all around. We saw many great things on this trip. Lots of monkeys, giraffes, zebras, hippos, a crocodile, wart hogs, impalas, many, many varieties of birds and Cape buffalo as well as many varieties of antelope. All in all, it was a great trip and we definitely will return.

Well, we are now officially Rwandan residents as we have acquired our missionary visas! This means that we can stay in the country without having to reapply for 2 years. Because this is all taken care of we have started to plan our furlough back to Canada. We leave Rwanda on June 25th and arrive back in Calgary on June 26th at 3:30pm. We are hoping to stay in Canada for 8 or 9 weeks but we will see what happens with people filling in for us. As of right now we have 3 people from Canada confirmed to come and fill in for us.

We would like to use this time to relax and visit with family and friends but we also very much want to visit as many churches as we can to share with them all that is happening here. God has promised us many wonderful things here and we stand on his word to see his will done in Rwanda.

One discovery that we have made is that education is a key to opening change in this country. Primary school ranges from grades 1 to 6 and is fairly inexpensive. There is no major tuition, just the cost of some supplies, a uniform and health insurance which everyone should have but cannot afford (less than 3 dollars per year), in all approximately $25 for an entire year. After that it gets a little more expensive and a lot of families cannot afford to send their children to school and the government does not require that they attend school.

Dean and I are in the process of studying this problem. It is our desire to further investigate and to set up an education fund to help as many children as possible receive the education they long for and deserve.

We have recently purchased a new parcel of land and are believing God for our own school to be built within the next year. The children have to walk quite a distance to school right now and the class sizes are huge…..60 children and only 1 teacher!

Pastor Hazel continued to plant more vision while she was here and that was to open up a small market at the end of our driveway where the children and local ladies could sell crafts that they have made as well as fresh fish from our new hatchery and fruit from our new trees. Just one more step in bringing this place to self sufficiency which has always been Pastor Hazel’s vision from the beginning.

We have got quite the orchard planted with oranges, papayas, lemons, passion fruit, avocado, pineapple and mangoes. Our gardens are also starting to produce and we have been enjoying cabbage, carrots, lettuce, onion, eggplant, green peppers and we have some tomatoes just about ready.

All the children here are doing well. With the exception of common colds and the occasional flu everyone is healthy. All of the new children have been warmly accepted by the children that were already here. They genuinely love each other as brothers and sisters, and we really have started to achieve the “family” atmosphere here.

Baylee has developed her role as resident doctor as the children and the mamas come to her directly any time they have a cut that needs mending or a cough that needs to be quieted. I think that she may have found a passion for a profession.

Julia is still fascinated by all the animals and bugs around here which in turn fascinates the locals. I am sure that she is constant amusement for Pastor Kaneza and his family as she is always over there catching frogs and tadpoles and the occasional small black snaky thing (A.K.A a leach)! She has adopted one of Pastor’s puppies as her own and has named him Jackson. In memory of one of our dogs that we had to leave back in Canada I guess.

I think for the most part this has you all caught up with what has been happening. We are still faced with many issues here but we try not to let that slow us down.

We covet your prayers and we love to hear from you thru email as well. It is always a nice treat to receive a new message from back in North America no matter how long or how short. We can get very busy here but I promise that I will do my best to respond to you as quick as possible.

God Bless you for your faithfulness not only to Him but to our family as well. We love and appreciate you.

The Torgersons