14,732 received God's free gift of salvation..........

Ministry Partners,

Sharing the Gospel Message, tracts and scarves

It's hard to believe I have been home for 3 weeks. I miss Rwanda so very much but as I look through the photos from the trip I am reminded of the powerful work of God that the team saw Him do there. We all followed suit as Steve would say every day, many times a day, "WOW".

We were not approved to enter two of the prisons that we had applied for due to reconstruction we were told but God, himself, opened the opportunity to do ministry in 4 of the 49 TIG Camps. Actually, we were asked how many we would like to visit for ministry but our itinerary time constraints would only allow 4. These transition camps are small, 100 to 400, in comparison to the prisons but we were always warmly received just like we are in the prisons. What a wonderful and exciting opportunity.

We saw God bless your generous giving as He increased the value of the American dollar and we were able to receive 5,450 Bibles, putting us over our goal of 5,000.

"THANK YOU"

There were so many miracles of God on this trip, things that left us absolutely speechless, things that were amazing, things that only He could do. For the 14,732 souls that asked God for forgiveness and were added to the Lamb's Book of Life ..... I do not have adequate words with which to give Him praise.

There are many exciting new things that I will be blogging about soon.

One of which is.... I have been invited to be the main speaker at a crusade in Kigali, Rwanda next March. It is for the Great Lakes area of Burundi, Tanzania, Congo, Uganda and Rwanda with 100,000 expected to attend. This is WAY to big, I am so praying about this and would appreciate your prayers.

God provided ministry opportunities:

• 3 churches

• 1 Secondary School Crusade

• 1 Village Crusade

• 2 HIV/AIDS groups

• 3 Prison Pastors Training

• 4 Prison Crusades

• 4 TIG Camp Crusades

• 5 Days Prison Women’s Conferences

• Distributed 1,000 Gospel Tracts

• Partner donated scarves (400), ties (400) & shopping bags (60)

• 5,450 Partner donated Bible & Discipleship Booklet sets

God gave the “ Harvest ”

• 50 - Re-commitments to Christ

• 775 - Forgive Your Enemies Decisions
  

• 14,732 Salvation Decisions (decision counts are given to us by the Prison Fellowship Representative, prison pastors and/or other Rwandan partners)
  

Please continue for pray for:

1. The 2012 Ministry trip in March or June
2. Open hearts for the Gospel
   
3. Funds for Bibles
   
4. Wisdom for the IRM leadership concerning the "next step" in ministry
5. How YOU might be more involved.

Thanks again for your continued partnership with prayers and finical support.

That none would be lost,
Arlene

July 4........

Ministry Partners,

It's 1:30 am and I am sitting in my living room, safe and sound, after a long 2 days travel, having left Rwanda on Saturday.
Steve returned last week and the rest of us flew out of Rwanda to Belgium together. Pastor Al, Kathy and Pastor Roger flew home on another flight and Lovena flew home with me arriving at PDX at 11:30.
Sorry I was not able to blog more as the internet was down and I had computer issues.

"THANK YOU"
for your continued prayers. We saw the power of God move as never before. The team gives Him praise for what he did and for allowing us to watch him work in such amazing ways.
That's all for now, I'm off to bed.

That none be lost,
Arlene

June 26........

Sunday, June 26
Training......

This week was awesome. Pastor Al, Steve and Pastor Roger and Pastor Peter Deyali our translator, were able to do the three day spiritual leaders training at Butare prison. This coming week we will be doing the one day step-up training with Rilima & Nsinda prisons. What a week!!! We had 68 men in the training, 10 guards on the first day of training, three guards on the last day of training and 250 men who watched, listened and stayed with us outside the walls of the training center all three days.

We had seven denominations including three Muslims among our spiritual leaders.
Our first day we spent most of the day on relationship building sharing our testimonies and talking about our background experiences including family pictures. Then Pastor Al did an incredible job of teaching on the results of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. He took us from Adam to the return of Christ in Revelation in about two hours. I followed up his teaching with the 7 miracles at conversion.

The next day we taught on the 7 steps to spiritual growth... we continued to build relationships with personal illustrations and activities to build community. We were attempting to break down some of the denominational boundaries that exit even among prison spiritual leaders. We were emphasizing throughout the teaching of one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We finished the training on the third day with biblical character studies on servant-leadership.

Hierarchy is huge among African churches. Pastor Al finished our teaching with a humbling and incredibly moving illustration by washing one of the men's feet from Mt. 13. Jesus washing the disciples feet.

His question was a great question: What would you do if you only had one day left to live? Jesus met with his disciples and washed their feet, a common thing to do in Israel by the lowest of servants. We trust this teaching will be imbedded in their hearts and minds and their future teaching of others. We had an awesome time as a team and made some very special friends among the prisoners.

To God be the glory,
Roger
for the team

June 24...........

Ministry Partners,

Sorry we have not been able to post while we were in Butare but the internet was not available.

Today was our last day of ministry at Butare Prison and because it was visitor day at the prison the Director asked us to arrive at 8 and finish at 11, which we did.

The women's team arrived at the courtyard inside the women's area about 8:30 and waited until the sound system and women prisoners arrived. I presume they had not been told of the 1 hour earlier schedule as when the saw the big metal door open and we started to enter, they started running to get seated. They began singing and I began greeting as many as I could, some with a cheek to cheek greeting, some with a hug and some, because there were so many around me, I could only extend my hands which they eagerly shook.

Kathy did 1 teaching, followed by 2 songs from their choir all dressed in their colorful choir outfits, then she did a second teaching. I am so very thankful for both Kathy and Lovena as they have shared their hearts and God's Word with such passion and love. I could not hold back the tears as I looked at all the women following the scriptures Kathy was using in their very own Bibles.
"Thank You"
again for each Bible you graciously provided.
They would not allow photos but it is a photo in my mind I will never forget.

I shared at the end of our time with them an object lesson and explained the scripture bookmark we were leaving for them so they could remind themselves everyday of the truth of God's Word concerning who they are and what they now posses as born again children of God. I had shared previously with them about believing a lie from the enemy, for a long time, that I had no value and how I wanted them to tell themselves the truth from God's Word. I pulled up the faces of a few of the seated women, looking her in the eyes, and said "You have great value". And then I asked them to tell their neighbor the same thing which they readily did with laughter, hugs and smiles. Then I asked them to make me a promise...... that they would tell each other that same thing many times a day and they agreed to do so. I finished by telling them how much we loved them.

Those of you who know me personally know that by then the tears were rolling down my cheeks so I had to explain to them that they were tears of joy for the time we had been able to spend with them.

Alfred arrived to escort us out but as we were about to exit 6 ladies appeared with arms laden with Peace Baskets, decorative baskets and woven wall hangings as a "thank you" for all of us, including Mary, a woman who oversees the women prisoners. Mary informed us that when she went to check on the ladies yesterday they were ALL reading their Bibles.....every single one.

The baskets are such beautiful gifts, ones we will treasure for sure. As we were leaving three more women handed me additional different baskets and later I discovered one had a tiny handwritten note inside that gave her name and in Kinyarwanda it said " God bless you. Pray for me and I shall meet you in heaven".

As we got outside the walls and were walking toward the area where the men were getting ready for the Certificate of Completion ceremony the women prisoners rushed to the few window openings in the 20 foot brick walls to wave and get one last glimpse of us.

I don't have adequate words.............

The men have had a wonderful time doing the Spiritual Leader Training and from all the terrific reports, Pastor Al, Steve and Pastor Roger will have stories and memories for a lifetime.

We have such wonderful Rwandan volunteer partners here, they are a vital part of the ministry we are doing. Alfred and Blessing Mupenzi and Pastor Peter Deyali translate for us, not just word for word but they capture the biblical concept we are conveying.
The nine of us make a powerful team.

I will have to tell you in person about the adventure the women's team plus Alfred had yesterday at Mpanga Prison but when I was standing in front of and realized that I was going to preach to approx. 7,000 men and women prisoners I turned to Kathy and Lovena and said "You'd better be praying!!!" to which Kathy said, "Your David with 5 smooth stones facing Goliath."

I hope one of the men will be able to blog and tell you about the Trainings. We are all going to miss Steve as he is leaving for America tomorrow. I know he is anxious to see his wife, Joyce, and tell her what he saw God do here.

Continue to pray that the team would have renewed strength for our remaining time here as we have a crusade tomorrow, 1 more TIG camp crusade and two more prisons to do ministry in.

That none would be lost,
Arlene
for the team

June 19.....

Ministry Partners,

Miracles...... now that's an interesting word especially because we say that word so very many times every day.

Yesterday, Sunday, we were privileged to minister to a Christian high school where one of the requirements is that the youth must acknowledge that they have already accepted Christ as their Savior.
But from my past experiences I know that because of their religious heritage many think that knowing who Jesus is and what he did makes him a Christian.
I wanted the team to all be used to do the speaking but told them I felt it still needed to be evangelistic too. Steve, Lovena, and Pastor Roger shared as did Kathy, who had many in tears. Pastor Al also spoke and gave one invitation and later in the day Alfred felt another one was important, so he gave one.

We can only offer the Savior praise for the seven students who receive God's free gift of salvation.
These high schoolers are the leaders of tomorrow and the biblical questions they asked were evidence of hearts that are seeking to understand Scriptures and how to apply those Scriptures to their lives. I for one, was so glad that Pastor Al is a part of our team as he readily answered their questions with the truth of God's Word.

A question-and-answer period that was to last one hour, beginning at three o'clock, actually lasted until five o'clock.

One of the interesting questions asked was concerning IRM. That student wanted to know why I had chosen that name for the ministry instead of using my own name. Of course a part of my answer was that God had given us the name International Reconciliation Ministries but can you imagine how ridiculous it would sound to be saying "Arlene Tatum Ministries". As always, God's design is far better, to say the least.

We had taken with us 130 NIV English Bibles to distribute and then we realized God in fact had done another miracle. As Steve would say it was another "WOW" moment when we were told by the headmaster that they're discipleship materials were formatted for NIV Bibles and they had not been able to get any!!!

The drive home took almost 2 hours and you could tell we were all reflecting on the day as no one was talking much.

Flexibility...........hummmm....... may not be a word we say often here that is one we actually do very often.

Today, Monday, we thought we had our plans pretty much laid out but the flexibility started soon after breakfast at nine o'clock when Pastor Peter arrived and informed us that some of the HIV women's group were waiting for us. We had thought we would see them about 1 PM but we decided to go earlier as Pastor Roger needed some printing done.

What a blessing it is to have Pastor Peter be so gracious in accompany us here and there to do errands along with the Crusades.

Once again we saw God's hand at work as Pastor Peter, Kathy, Lovena and I were at the printers and who should walk in but Alfred to pick up some printing for Plan Incorporated, the company where he works. God had that encounter time just right as he was there to do the dickering for our cost price and as usual he got the price reduced. His appearing at just that time was not an element of chance but once again God's hand of provision. Thank you, Jesus.

Then we were off to meet with the HIV/AIDS women. We expected to see 15 there when we arrived we could see by the numbers of pairs of shoes outside that there were far more than 15 and in fact as we entered the room it was packed. Many women had heard their neighbors talking about coming and also wanted to come and some had just heard their beautiful singing that had started at 9 AM and they wanted to come and join the group.

Allison and the other women seamstresses from New Life Church would be so pleased to know that they're beautiful handmade shopping bags brought such smiles and joy to these women. We could only stay a few moments, our time with them was far too short.

Then we headed back to Moucecore to have lunch with the men and finish packing for our trip to Butare tomorrow. The men loaded Bibles and Discipleship Booklets and Alfred arrived right after we had finished lunch.

At 2 PM we headed off to do a crusade at the 3rd TIG Camp. It was a small camp with men and women and it has only been there about four months. We were warmly welcomed and showed around the camp that is still under construction. Lovena got some great photos of the cooking area as well as some of the men who were eating their dinner. They do road and other construction duties and women in their long fabric skirts work right alongside the men.

We watched another miracle as the Holy Spirit spoke into the hearts of all, except five, who attended the crusade received God's free gift of salvation. Even one man from administration came and pulled me aside as we were about to leave and with tears in his eyes revealed he too had prayed the sinners prayer.
Once again the Bibles made such an impact on each one, their faces and singing told the story.

It's been a most marvelous day.... another day to give God praise. All of us on this team , Rwandan and American, feel very privileged to watch what God does each day.

Tomorrow we travel to Butare for a Prison Crusade, a 3 day Spiritual Leader Training and 2 day Women's Conference. The Women and Alfred will also hold a Crusade at Mpanga Prison.

I am having computer problems and that along with the internet issues please pray that I will be able to continue to post.

The team appreciates your continued prayers for:

• open hearts for the Gospel
• safety as we travel
• health

That none would be lost,
Arlene
for the team

June 19........

Ministry Partners,

Greetings from Rwanda, the land of 1000 hills and 1000 smiles.

It has been another busy day for the team. In the morning, Alfred, Steve, Kathy, Lovena and Arlene all made a trip into town to exchange US dollars for Rwandan francs, purchase 40 cases (24 bottles ea.) of water and pick up supplies for the Spiritual leaders training.

Some of the team also bought a few souvenirs for family and friends back home. Steve had a brief lesson in "bartering" from Arlene and did quite well. The Rwandans quite enjoy that part of selling their wares. It brings smiles and laughter to all involved.

Once arriving back at Moucecore the team had lunch together and was joined by Pastor Peter, who would be doing ministry with us during the afternoon and Blessing, Alfred's wife, also accompanied us.

IRM held another crusade at a second "Blue Shirt" TIG Camp. These are facilities for paroles who are in transition from prison to their villages and they are doing "community service" before they enter the main stream of life in Rwanda.
The drive there was beautiful as we drove 45 min. over a very steep, dirt, rutted road to the top of a mountain. We passed a number of very small villages that brought the comment from a couple of team members "Looks like a good place for Village evangelism to me",to which everyone heartily agreed.

It is an amazing thing with the amount of poverty here that the children seem as if they are untouched by it. Broad smiles and waving arms are displayed by all of them as we drive by. At one point we made a brief stop and the children were very excited, verbally expressing their excitement, at touching the "white" arm that one of the team members had extended out the window.

The camp Coordinator greeted us warmly and we were amazed to find in the details just how much God had gone before us that we would find favor with this man. It was discovered that both he and Pastor Peter were from the same refugee camp in Uganda!!!!
Now, just what are the chances of that happening?

There are about 240 men and women in this camp and 170 of them attended the crusade. They had been informed we were coming so when we arrived we could hear them singing to the rhythm of two drums. Alfred immediately joined them in their singing and began to lead them in worship.

The Coordinator was quite gracious in his introduction of us and instructed those present to listen to what Arlene had to say followed by staying through the entire service himself.

Arlene introduced the team and Pastor Al opened in prayer, then Pastor Roger shared his testimony. Arlene spoke a message on "Fear" and how making choices out of fear and not trusting God can cause us to make very poor choices for ourselves followed by devastating consequences. She spoke about the nation of Israel, King Uzziah and her personal testimony.
The team was privileged to see the Holy Spirit speak into the hearts of those present as all but 10 received God's free gift of salvation.

Then it was time to hand out the Bibles and Discipleship Booklets that we had brought. We told them we had plenty and to stay seated while we passed them out. Some smiled so broadly and said "thank you" while some men just wept. Then it was a time to celebrate, to sing and dance giving God praise for this most precious gift. It's really quite a sight to see them clutching their Bibles over their heads and celebrating with such joy.
"Thank You"
to each one of you who donated to the
"Bibles for Rwanda" project.

At the end of the crusade the Coordinator addressed those present stating that he to was impacted by what he heard. That was extremely transparent for some one in his position.

Once outside and standing beside the van getting ready to leave Arlene gathered the women around her and placed a donated scarf and tract into the hands of the women as she "African greeted" each one.
As we drove away from the camp I could not contain the tears of gratitude to the Lord that I felt.

Lovena got some great photos of the beautiful landscape as we descended the mountain.

None of us are used to eating full meals like we do here but once again we were hungry and enjoyed our evening meal together, it must surely be the heat.

We spent some time debriefing and working out some details for tomorrows ministry before saying good night to Pastor Peter, Alfred and Blessing.

We see so many new opportunities and miracles every day that I almost become overwhelmed as I watch God work. His provision and care for us is unmatched.

Tomorrow is Sunday and a full day of ministry for us so I will say bye for now.

That none would be lost,
Arlene
for the team

June 17.......

God is so good.
The people here are so open to the God and His word. It makes me understand what God means when He says the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. It is so evident that God is at work in this country.

I miss my family and my back is tired of the thin mattress but how can I complain when God has let me be apart of something so wonderful, so eternal. I can not!

So, God I thank you for this amazing day and I thank you for 36 more souls that decided to follow you. I thank you that you let me be apart of effecting eternity. I thank you for the connections that were made and renewed today in the family of God, and I thank you for helping me to overcome my fear enough that I could see you do these amazing things.

Lovena
for the IRM Team.