NYARUGURU CHRISTIAN SCHOOL PROJECT
NYARUGURU DISTRICT, RWANDA
The church members of the Nyaruguru Parish of the Beth Ammi Christian Fellowship Church live in the mountainous southern region of Rwanda. This densely populated area of roughly 10,000 is almost exclusively an agricultural community where farming is still done with hand tools and homes are constructed from stick and dried mud. There is little electricity and few, if any, of modern amenities. Water is carried to homes and irrigation for the crops are dependent on the various rainy seasons.
The entire region, and actually the entire country of Rwanda, is defined by its ubiquitous hills. Rwanda is called “The Land of a Thousand Hills.” What that translates into for the people in this particular Nyaruguru village is that the closest school, whose red metal roof is visible just a couple of ridges away, is a 2 hour walk, one way, for any child kindergarten and up who wants to go to school. The monthly fees for the “free” public school education, are $40/month per child, which covers medical insurance, food, school supplies and supplements the teachers’ government salaries. With an average family income of $150/month, the vast majority of the children are not able to attend school. Medical care is 3 to 4 hour walk to the city center.
In partnership with Kingdom Restoration Society, the missionary arm of New City Fellowship St. Louis (newcity.org), Beth Ammi Christian Fellowship Church (bethammicfc.org) and the Nyaruguru Parish is looking to address these needs for all the children of their parish. Our three part goal is to:
- Phase One- Build and operate a sustainable Primary school for the community
- Phase Two- Build and operate a Nurse run medical clinic
- Phase Three- Purchase and cultivate land sufficient to provide a daily school lunch program
The construction cost for Phase One is $130,000.00. This will provide the funding to construct 4 buildings that will house 600 students, from pre-school through Primary Grad 6. See above video for the initial work of the congregation members to prepare the land for the building project. To date we have received $40,000 towards the project and the initial construction of the first two buildings has begun. Our desire is to involve a wide variety of churches and individual believers to help with this project, both to keep the funding costs spread out, and more importantly, to give as many believers as possible an opportunity to participate in advancing the love and the kingdom of God in Rwanda. The long term operation of the school will rely on a partnership between the sacrifice of local parents and the support of the broader, global Christian community.
A seasoned believer who has raised money for many such endeavors over the years recently reminded me that God’s people love to give resources for the sake of the Gospel that will result in saving lives and changing lives. There are few things, outside of the establishment of solid, Gospel preaching churches, which can positively affect the lives of God’s people and their surrounding neighbors more than a faithful Christian school, basic medical care and food for the hungry.
If you would like to help fund the building of the Nyaruguru Christian School, please send donations to:
Kingdom Restoration Society
Rwanda School
1142 Hodiamont
St Louis, MO 63112
You can also give electronically through our online portal HERE. Please select Rwanda as the sub-fund and put “school” in the memo box. Thank you for your support!