The last few months, we’ve been so affirmed in our work here. These words have felt like God’s way of encouraging us through others:

• A surgeon who visits annually with a group from the US told us, “We prayed for people like you.”

• After advocating for a critical patient, the patient told me, “Because of you, people know my story. You are a good woman. Thank you for helping me.”

• After caring for a different critical patient, a physician here with medical students told Emmanuel, “If she wasn’t here, that man would have died.”

It’s a gift to know that our work has purpose here, but it does make it harder to leave.

In November of 2022, we came to Rwanda with a one year commitment, and then, we extended and extended again. We have reached a point now though, where pausing our service here and returning to the US for a few years feels like the right decision. There will always be more to do, and we love the work. But, we miss doing life on a more day to day basis with our US family, and Emmanuel is also hoping to pursue further education.

This will be our last month in Kibogora. We will be returning to the US the first week of June for at least two to three years while remaining open to returning to Kibogora for long-term service again, depending on how God calls us. Either way, this place will remain another home to us, and whether it is short-term visits or more long-term service again, we will always come back here. We also plan to remain involved and help the hospital however we can remotely.

We want to thank you for supporting us through prayer and financial gifts. Your support will continue to sustain us through the remainder of our time here. Our missionary support account will also remain open after we leave for those who may wish to support us through a short-term ministry trip to Kibogora in 2027. After June though, we will not require the same level of support we’ve been receiving. We want to invite you to redirect your support starting in July 2026 to other projects that impact Kibogora Hospital and the local church here including the Internal Medicine Building Project at Kibogora Hospital and the Pastoral Scholarship Fund at Kibogora Polytechnic.

As our time grows short here, we are feeling so thankful and reflective on the work we’ve been able to be part of here. Thank you for being part of it alongside us.

More to share:

• In April, we trained 52 recently hired hospital staff members in Basic Life Support (BLS) and CPR. Trainings here can often be delayed or poorly attended because of competing priorities. We are thankful this training was completed successfully and staff were able to attend.

• Spiritual rounds is an ongoing ministry where we pray with patients on Sunday afternoons along with local university students. This ministry was previously under our leadership, but it is now being led by a local chapter of a national group called Scripture Union in partnership with the hospital chaplaincy department. We are thankful for this change, as it promises that this ministry will sustain even in our absence. Also, in the last month we’ve been able to supply over 30 Bibles and song books to patients through this ministry.

• Previously, we asked for prayer for a young boy, Junior, who was being discharged from the hospital after recovering from a burn injury. He remains in the care of his cousin and has started attending nursery school a little, though his cousin says he cries much in class. Today, Junior came to the hospital for outpatient physical therapy for a knee contracture, a complication from scarring from the burn. Thank you for your continued prayers for him. We were happy to see him looking healthy, healing more, and growing bigger.

• We are preparing for a burn campaign that will take place the last few weeks of May. Different from the burn survivor event, this campaign is a public health outreach focused on burn prevention and proper first aid of a burn injury. The education will focus on needs identified through the burn research we completed at the hospital. Over the course of three weeks, we will complete trainings at 13 health centers with around 150 nurses and 1500 community health workers. We will also visit 13 local schools to educate on burn prevention and first aid in the population most at risk for burn injuries, children. Please be in prayer with us for a successful educational campaign that makes an impact by preventing burns and reducing suffering. We know in God’s Kingdom there will be no more crying, no more pain. We’ve grown tired of seeing children in the hospital in pain due to preventable burns while their mothers look away in anguish. We truly believe the prevention of suffering is Kingdom work, and we are excited to get this education and awareness out to the communities at risk.

• This campaign is not cheap though. We originally budgeted $18,000 for transportation, educational materials, motivation for staff to attend, etc. Through individuals, our home church, and a grant, we had received two-thirds of that support. As we were working on preparations a couple weeks ago, we were reviewing the budget. We had already cut out various expenses and reduced the number of educational visits to the health centers, but we still wanted to make sure we had enough to complete the reduced campaign. Not even an hour after we finished looking over the budget, a partner reached out to Emmanuel to share that he had sent a donation to get us to the final amount of $18,000. We had not even asked him to do this. We saw this as God’s prompting and His answer to our prayers. Honestly, we are amazed how these funds all came together and so thankful for the generosity of others. Praying our work honors these gifts well.

If you’ve read this far, thank you! We lastly just want to ask for prayers for our family through this transitional time. There is much to look forward to, but there will also be so much that we miss.

Thank you always for your prayers and support!

In Christ,

Rachel & Emmanuel