As most of you know, I will travel to Rwanda, Africa, on Sep 4, and return on Sep15.

I’ll be visiting and working with the ZOE ministry. In 1994, nearly a million Rwandans were killed in a three-month-long genocide. Many parents, teachers, and mentors were killed leaving children orphaned and unsupported. Also, HIV/AIDS has killed many more adults who would have otherwise raised children. Eleven percent of Rwanda’s population has AIDS. Consequently, more than a million orphans are left to struggle out of a total national population of 8 million.

ZOE is a ministry of the United Methodist Church that brings orphans together in order to form families that have skills and support, so they have a future and independence. They are taught how to raise animals and crops, hygiene and AIDS prevention, spirituality and leadership.

I’ll be witnessing this ministry first hand, and I’ll be participating in the program directly. None of this can happen without the participation of God, and I can’t imagine doing this without you. I say it so often: “I can’t be without you.”

Nancy Netherland is a member of our church, and she does quilting. She introduced me to a beautiful expression of spirituality called “Prayer Quilts.” Nancy has made a beautiful quilt; one that is small enough to hang on a wall. The quilt is covered with liturgical colors of purple, red, green, white, gold and silver on one side and a cross on the other side. Through the quilt, she has sewn several hundred loose threads. The quilt will hang in the sanctuary each Sunday until I travel to Africa. You are invited to tie a knot in the loose threads, and as you tie it, say a prayer for the children who will be served by my visit and the ZOE ministry. I’ll be helping them build a house for themselves and their newly formed family. I’ll give them the quilt to hang on the wall of their new house to remind them that a congregation on the other side of the world has prayed for them and will continue to pray for them.