Coffee & Water - they go hand in hand!

CHRISTMAS IN MICHIGAN! 

Our family has lived in East Africa for 6.5 years now and have spent all of those Christmas seasons away from family. This year, however, we are heading to Michigan for 3.5 weeks to soak up as much family and Michigan winter as we can! This is outside of our normal fundraising, so we've had to figure out a way to pay for our tickets.

COFFEE SALE! 

As we did last summer, we will be selling coffee and bringing it with us when we come to Grand Rapids. We will arrive in Grand Rapids either December 20th or 21st, so in plenty of time to pick up your coffee, wrap it up and give it as an ethical, delicious, helpful gift!! You will be able to pick it up from my parents house in SE GR on the 21st or 22nd. There will be NO delivery as we want to spend time with family and not drive around town to deliver! :) 

These are the coffee companies we work with: 

http://www.rwandatc.com

https://www.questioncoffee.com

We will have 250g bags of medium and medium dark and 500g bags of medium, medium-dark and special dark roast.

GIVE CLEAN WATER! 

That's not all though! Our church here is working with the hospital across the street from us to install 7-8 water filters throughout the hospital. The filters will filter 300L of water an hour. Imagine a labor and delivery hospital with no clean water - for washing hands, for drinking, for cleaning. Imagine the gift of clean water to a vulnerable population!

FOR EVERY BAG OF COFFEE WE SELL, WE WILL GIVE $1.00 TO THE WATER FILTER PROJECT! 

We would love your support in getting us home for the holidays AND give clean water in Rwanda! 

Online ordering will happen around Thanksgiving, but keep this gift idea in mind as you think about your Christmas shopping! 

Also, if you'd like to help with our airline tickets without or in addition to buying coffee, you can give through PayPal: gretchendriesenga@gmail.com

If you'd like to help with the water filter project without or in addition to buying coffee, you can give here:

Bill Pay:

Rwanda Ministry Partners
4419 Centennial Blvd #202 Colorado Springs, CO 80907

Memo: Holy Trinity Cathedral- H2O project Other info that may be needed:Telephone number: +1 719.301.9058

Online:
https://www.rwandaministrypartners.org/support-rmp

5 Small Things to Encourage Your Missionaries

We're getting close to the end of our 6th school year in East Africa. We are by no means long-timers in the missionary world, but we've well passed the 2 year mark of short-termer as well. So, as an inbetween-er missionary, I'd like to suggest 5 small things you can do that will encourage your missionaries, whoever they may be!

1. Write a 1-2 sentence response to their prayer letters. Every time. 
Our newsletter goes out to 360 people. 1 person responds. Sometimes, if we're lucky and had something really, really interesting to say, we might top out with 5 responses. Look, we know it seems super impersonal to get a mass email update like that. We get it. But please know we put a LOT of time and energy and heart into those newsletters and include things we truly want you to know! And sometimes, our needy missionary hearts crave words of affirmation and encouragement. We fear being forgotten. And guess what - this idea is super easy and quick! The 1 person who responds to every single prayer letter ? All it says is, "Thanks for the update about ____. I prayed for you today." That's it! But it means the world to me, every single time.

2. Send them a Christmas card. Birthday cards if you're really on top of things. 
We do not get mail like you do. We don't even have mail carriers or often a house number or home address. I sometimes even miss junk mail! So in October (yes, October), find out your missionaries mailing address. This may take a while between different time zones and unstable internet to reply , etc. In early November (yes, that early), send a card (with a handwritten note). It will likely take that long to get to us, and if it arrives early - wow - your missionary will know you were thinking about them already and will feel twice as loved! This is so encouraging, especially around the holidays when it's likely been years since they had the joy of celebrating with their families. It will mean a lot. Our family often displays our Christmas cards throughout the year and use them as a prayer guide.

Our Christmas Cards from 2017

3. Home Assignment - invite them over! 
Before we moved, I remember wanting to connect with some of our churches missionaries while they were on home assignment.  They were working in East Africa and we knew we would be heading there in a few years. We feared them being too busy and not having time to connect with us. We were so wrong! Now, when it's our turn on on home assignment, it really can be busy, but we do want to connect with friends and partners in ministry! We feel very honored when we get invited over for dinner or coffee or even just to meet at a park!

4. Home Assignment - Gift Cards. 
I hesitate to write this one, as it seems us missionaries are always talking about/asking for money, but I've heard other missionaries talk about how helpful this is. Now, hopefully when missionaries go on home assignment, they have some money set aside. Our mission helps us budget for these things and we do plan in advance. However, things happen- support decreases, emergency medical situations have used up what was saved, your home assignment needs are greater than what you planned for, etc and money gets tight. This idea is a simple "welcome home" to your missionary with a few small gifts cards. Many missionaries travel to visit their supporters and churches, so having a few food options is great while travelling. Missionaries connect with supporters over coffee dates, so those are good. Sometimes missionaries need date nights also. And finally, some missionaries may be craving something specific that they haven't had in years!

5.  Send your missionaries YOUR prayer requests. 
Missionaries to NOT want to be in a one-way relationship with you. Our lives are not in any way more special than anyone else's - we don't want to just sit back and enjoy the benefit of having a team of people praying for us. We love to pray for our supporters as well and feel connected in an important way! We want to know about significant things happening in your lives - joys, challenges, sorrow, praises. We love to know HOW to pray specifically for you. We pray for you anyhow, so you're just helping us be more accurate in our prayers. :) I don't know about you, but I feel very honored when someone personally comes to me and asks if I will pray about something specific. Please, give us the honor of praying for you!