A letter from Kay Day in the U.S., on Interpretation Assignment from Rwanda
April 2016
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Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings from Rwanda. I have returned to the States for six months to share with many of you stories of the work God is doing here in Rwanda and how you are a part of it through your support with prayers and finances. Let me whet your appetites with part of a story of a faithful woman who understands the power of prayer.
Anna Marie has raised 16 children. Nine of them she gave birth to and seven she became mother to when she married their widowed father. All of them have been educated through secondary school, no small task for subsistence farmers in Rwanda, in the midst of recovery from the genocide of 1994, when the older children were in school. The second oldest of her birth children, Joseph, is one of my students, now preparing for the ministry. What a delight it is to see the light in her eyes when she testifies that God is the one responsible for her children’s education. She claims it is all the result God’s answers to prayer.
Her first prayer was one of despair as she told God that she saw no way to be able to pay school fees, since they had lost everything during the fighting and killing. She cried in prayer for her children and then she fell asleep. In a dream she felt Jesus place 20,000RF in her hand—at that point in her life this was the most money she had ever held. 20,000RF was worth about $30.
The next day at the market a man she knew offered her the opportunity to sell cassava on credit, repaying him as she sold the vegetables. He said that God told him to trust her. She began, little by little, to sell the cassava, repay him, and get more to sell. By the end of the season she had sold enough that she made a profit of 100,000RF, the payment that was due for the school fees. The next season she sold cassava for the school fees from seeds she had grown herself, purchased with her money. That season she sold more and made 300,000RF, which enabled her boys to finish school.
As the children grew there were more school fees than cassava sales. She thought the last boys were not going to be able to complete their education. Again she prayed and God said to trust him—to wait. That was on a Thursday. On Sunday the pastor asked how she was and she said trusting God. He asked her to explain and she told him about the school fees. He told her he had a sponsor for the boys’ fees. It matched the amount they needed, and they have been able to finish school. She believes that God has educated her children. Her testimony is that she lives by faith. She is a witness to faith rising out of the pain of death. This is a powerful reminder for us as we have just celebrated Easter and that God calls us to embrace with joy and faith the mystery of the Resurrection.
It is the power of prayer that has sustained Rwandans and has sustained me as I minister with them.
I look forward to sharing more stories with you in person soon. I arrived in the States on April 5, after flying through Brussels. Please pray for all those injured and those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks there on March 22. Please pray for the work that continues in Rwanda while I am in the States, for my students and the faculty at the Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS), and for the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda.
While I am in the States I will be based in Pittsburgh, but I will be traveling a great deal of the time to churches and to meet with many of you personally. Please pray too that the final details of all these plans are sorted out. I can be easily reached via email and am eager to make arrangements to meet with more of you who are not already on the schedule.
I am so pleased that I will be able to thank so many of you personally for your prayers and for your financial support for my ministry in Rwanda. Thank you, all of you! Please continue to pray. Please continue to provide financial support in this new year. I pray God keeps you well until we meet soon.
Yours in Christ’s love,
Kay (Cathie to the family)
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