Sponsorship = Partnership

At True Vineyard Ministries (TVM), when you decide to sponsor a Rwandan widow, you become her partner in her journey out of poverty. If you haven’t heard, TVM has doubled in size in the past six months, employing 21 Rwandan widows in total.

When a widow enters into the True Vineyard family, she is in a safe place to face her healing journey before her. Each widow has a past that is often traumatic, which is not resolved through a job alone. Many of these women suffer from long-term illnesses like HIV/AIDS, were severely malnourished prior to coming to TVM, and were subject to unthinkable housing situations. They also endured watching their children suffer because they were not able provide for the most basic needs of their own children for so long.

Your partnership contribution of only $35 a month allows her to work in an environment where her healing and development process is a priority. Your support helps provides counseling, health insurance for her and her children, contributes to her salary, and keeps the lights on and the doors open at our TVM Rwanda office.  You also have the opportunity to provide her with encouragement through letter writing. We hope to implement video messaging between yourself and the widow you sponsor in the future.

TVM wants to hire more women so that more lives can be changed for good, forever. But we can’t move forward until we receive sponsorship for our current widows. Right now five widows are not yet sponsored. If you can spare $35 a month for the life of a Rwandan widow, we encourage you to embark on this journey! Or pass the word. You will change a life of a Rwandan widow, and who knows, it might just change yours.

Movers and Shakers

Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. Do these names ring a bell? We need movers and shakers in our world to shape the direction of society towards justice, goodness, and peace. Do you ever wonder where you fit in to everything that's happening in our world today? How can you be a force for good?

Just talk to Ellie. She's a ten-year-old American girl who started learning about the country of Rwanda and the Rwandan people. She started thinking about Rwandans, and how they are just like you and me. But then she learned that some kids in Rwanda get up in the morning to go to work instead of going to school. Sometimes they don't even have food to eat. What's a ten-year-old to do when she learns something like that?

Well, for starters, Ellie knows how to knit. She also learned that in Rwanda there are merino sheep that produce high quality wool. Then she and her parents learned about True Vineyard Ministries and that a small group of widows were spinning wool into yarn to earn a living to feed their children and send them to school. Ellie then started talking to her parents about finding a way to sell the yarn in the States so that the widows could have a steady source of income for the beautiful yarn they were creating.

Ellie and her family turned an idea into reality through the creation of a social business called KidKnits. KidKnits sells knitting craft kits so that kids in the States can learn how to knit and at the same time help other kids in Rwanda go to school because their moms have jobs.

Since KidKnits began, the number of widows hired by True Vineyard Ministries has grown from 10 widows to 21 in just a number of months! Each widow has multiple children living under her roof, and because of their jobs with True Vineyard Ministries, 134 Rwandans are directly impacted by their salary.

Ellie is a modern-day mover and shaker. You can be one too. Find your passion, run with it, and figure out a way to use your talents and abilities for good. Shake things up in your town, city, school, and place of work. Start telling stories, educate people, and do something that makes you feel alive. Be part of a movement of change in Rwanda.

Check out Handspun Hope and KidKnits to learn more about this incredible partnership. You can start by purchasing a KidKnit for yourself or somebody else and change a life while you're at it.

Movers and Shakers

Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. Do these names ring a bell? We need these movers and shakers in our world to shape the direction of society and be a firm voice for justice and peace. Ever wonder where you fit in to everything that's happening in our world today?

Just talk to Ellie. She's a ten-year-old American girl who started learning about the country of Rwanda and the people there. She started thinking about people in Rwanda, and how they are not so different from you and me. But then she learned that some kids in Rwanda got up in the morning and had to work instead of go to school and sometimes didn't have food to eat. What's a ten-year old to do when she realizes something like that? 

Well, for starters, Ellie knows how to knit. She also learned that in Rwanda there were merino sheep that produced high quality wool. Then she and her parents learned about True Vineyard Ministries and that a small group of widows were spinning wool into yarn to try to earn a living to feed their children and send them to school. She started talking to her parents about finding a way to sell the yarn in the States so that the widows could have a steady source of income for the beautiful yarn they were producing. 

Ellie and her family has turned this idea into reality by starting a social business called KidKnits. KidKnits sells knitting craft kids so that kids in the States can learn how to knit, and at the same time help other kids in Rwanda go to school because their moms have jobs. 

Since KidKnits began, the number of widows hired by True Vineyard Ministries to make yarn has increased from 10 widows to 21 in just a number of months! Each widow has multiple children living under her roof, and because of their jobs with True Vineyard Ministries, 134 Rwandans are directly impacted by their salary. 

Ellie is a modern-day mover and shaker. You can be one too. Find your passion, run with it, and figure out a way to use your talents and abilities for good. Shake things up in your town, city, school, place of work. Start telling stories, educate people, and do something that makes you feel alive. Be part of a bigger movement of change in Rwanda. 

Check out our page Handspun Hope to learn more about what the widows do, and check out KidKnits to find out more about how you can buy a craft kit and change a life while you're at it. 

Glad You Are Here!

Welcome to our new look and website! We are excited that you are here and invite you to stay awhile and browse our pages! Learn how you can be a part of the TVM story as we seek to empower widows and their families.  Through a collaborative effort we can help them break the chains of poverty and become transformed from the inside out.  See the fresh new products under the Marketplace tab and learn how easy it is to Shop For Good online!  Don’t worry if you missed Abbey Henderson’s photo exhibit, More Than a Thousand Words! The showing of photographs from Abbey’s travels with TVM last summer has been extended.  The Stone Coffee Bar in Gruene, Texas will continue the exhibit through Thursday (September 15).  We are grateful to Abbey and The Stone for their great support of True Vineyard Ministries.

Rwanda Photography Showcase: Friday, Sept. 9, 7 p.m.

Friday evening in Gruene, Texas, The Stone Coffee and Juice Bar will be hosting a showing of extraordinary photographs from Abbey Henderson Photography documenting the work of True Vineyard Ministries in Africa. There will also be special music by artist Mary Claire LeDoux.

Brand new end-of-summer and fall product will be available for purchase from The Vineyard Marketplace. All accessories, jewelry, house ware, and artwork are all handmade by African entrepreneurs to support fair trade.

All proceeds from sales goes to support the work of True Vineyard Ministries, empowering widows and their families to break the chains of poverty and become transformed from the inside out!

Now is a crucial time to step up and support True Vineyard Ministries. In the past six months, we have doubled the number of widows whose lives are changed through employment with True Vineyard Ministries, totaling 21 women. 

Come celebrate what is happening in Rwanda through True Vineyard Ministries this Friday at 7 p.m.!

Call for details

512.391.8364