Children celebrating God's gifts with two British midwives who volunteer on Saturdays during their year working at the hospital in Nyanza, where Dufatanye Organization is located.

Each Saturday, the Dufatanye Organization (DO) in Rwanda holds a Children’s Bible and Breakfast Club at our ministry center. Using flannel boards and over 600 colorful flannel pieces, we teach a Bible lesson and then serve the children a breakfast of porridge or milk and bread. Sometimes, we have up to 250 children in attendance! We divide the children according to age, and one group plays games outside while the other group participates inside. Then, we switch the groups. It’s always a sweet time—eating, learning, singing and, as you might imagine, making a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Remember when you, your children, or grandchildren were young and would grow grass in a little cup that they had colored to look like a face? It was always exciting to watch the grass grow! It usually came out looking like a green crew-cut on top of the cup’s delicately drawn face.

Over the last two weeks, we didn’t grow grass but instead gave away 290 avocado tree saplings to the children at our Bible and Breakfast Club! Godfrey, the founder and director of the DO, taught them how to plant and care for their trees. He encouraged the children to name their trees after themselves. For example, there’s already a “Martha Tree” that I planted a year ago. (Note: There’s also a “Martha Cow!”)

By naming the trees after themselves, the children develop a greater sense of personal ownership, which increases the likelihood that they will be more responsible to care for “their” tree. Over the next two years, each sapling will hopefully grow and bear avocados for the children and their families to eat and sell. This, along with banana trees which were given last year, can help the children supplement their subsistence diets and may even enable them to buy their own school supplies. Not only that, they begin learning at a young age what it means to be a good steward of the gifts that God provides.