Merry Christmas (almost) from Rwanda! We can't believe this will be our last update from Rwanda. The year has flown by and we are so thankful for all the experiences we've had and all the friends we've met. It's bittersweet leaving a little early for sure, but we are headed back for the third trimester of our pregnancy and to get settled before baby girl arrives!
First off-- there are some supporters who are still giving monthly donations to us. If this is you, thank you so much!! You will however need to cancel those monthly donations if you don't have an automatic December end date scheduled. Although our time here is ending, we want to encourage you (or anyone who wants to continue to support the work at Kibogora) to transfer your funding to our friends Emmanuel and Rachel Nzungize. They are both nurses and will be serving here with their two children as soon as they are fully funded. Please consider supporting them! Emmanuel is from this area in Rwanda and Rachel has served here before- we know they will be such a great asset to the hospital and we are so excited for them! If you would like to give, here is their give site: https://give.fmcusa.org/donation/msrwnzungize
You can also find out more information about them here on their webpage. We will be praying for them as they begin their journey back to Rwanda and hope you will do the same! Please reach out to us if you need any help in canceling monthly support or want to help Rachel and Emmanuel.
In the last month or so we have had some visitors to Kibogora. Our friends Art and Sylvia Brown, who provide pastoral support to FM Africa missionaries, made the trek out to see us at the end of October. It was so great spending time with them and talking to them. They were a huge encouragement and the weekend served as a debriefing time for us, which we really appreciated! It was great to have this time to process through our year before heading back to the states. Then in early November, Mike Reynen, our area director, and Aaron Fritzgerald also were able to come visit us. It was great having them here as well, we enjoyed going to Kigali with them and spending a few days there. Needless to say the month has flown by! We celebrated Thanksgiving here at Kibogora/Kumbya with some friends from Kigali. They all came out to spend time by the lake and made a huge American thanksgiving meal that we got to enjoy with them. Overall there were about 40-50 adults and kids here, it was so fun to meet new friends and see old friends one last time before we leave.
This week we are packing up our house, meeting up with some Rwandan friends to say goodbye and tying up any loose ends here at the mission. We are going to miss so many of our friends here, they have become so special to us. On Saturday we will also get to attend our first Rwandan wedding before we leave! On Monday December 20 we will fly to Nice, France and begin 2 weeks in Europe for our "baby moon". We are excited to have this one last adventure before heading home to the states. God has provided for us as we are moving home, Gabe will be starting a new job at the end of January and we are currently waiting to hear if we were approved to rent a house on the west side of Indianapolis. We are so thankful for his faithfulness throughout the whole year and in our transition home. We are praying he will continue to guide us and show us what is next, but for now it seems like being home in Indy is what's in store. Thank you to everyone who has supported and prayed for us this year. Having a great support system has made a huge difference and we hope you've been able to see a little more of what God is doing for the glory of his kingdom by following along!
