Thomas Minute

Dear Friends,
On the front page is a fun lesson I developed and Ugiriwabo facilitated in our Musovu church community. It visually helped us see where we have come from, where we are now, and where we want to go this next year. There was a good sense of excitement and accomplishment as we saw all that has been done.

My colleague Brad Carpenter and I spend a day a week in Musovu including two and a half hours of travel and five hours in the community. We are focused on mentoring Ugiriwabo, the local pastor, as well as a group of seven leaders whom the church chose for us to disciple. We usually meet with Ugiriwabo in his house, then we go with him to the house of one of the seven to give individual discipleship. Others in the group come during this time, but our focus is on the life of the one we are visiting. Then all the others come together for the last hour and a half for a couple D for D lessons. They take these lessons and use them for mentoring others in the church throughout the week, and on Sunday. Brad and I visit the church two Sundays a month.

These are the seven leaders the church has asked us to meet with weekly: Pastor Ugiriwabo, Ntakirutimana, Agnes, Theogene, Bosco, Rutikanga, and Alfonsine (Rutikanga’s wife).

Your focused prayers can help release God’s blessing to flow through us, through these seven leaders, through the Musovu Friends Church, and into the Bugesera region.

I like praying the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, “Our Father in heaven, your name be glorified, your
kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is an active, specific prayer. The three
verbs in this sentence are commands with an emphasis on something done that instant. When we are praying
for a specific situation we can say, “Father in heaven, your name be glorified right now in the situation I’m
praying for! Your kingdom come this instant in the lives of these people. Your will be done now in this place, just as your will is accomplished in heaven!”

Pray with us this way for the Friends church of Musovu, for the leaders in the church, for the families and
people in the church, and for the communities they come from in the Juru district of Bugesera.

Also pray Romans 12:1-2 over us. “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will know what God’s will is, his good pleasing and perfect will.” Pray that we would recognize and remove the lies of the enemy that hold us captive. Pray that Christ’s truth would enlighten our hearts and minds. Pray for eyes to see what is really happening in our communities. Pray for insight from God to know what problems or barriers we especially need to focus on overcoming this next year!