Vineyard Marketplace - Now Online!

The new Vineyard Marketplace has launched online! Please consider shopping with us this Christmas and help us assist the artisans and other organizations we support in 11 African nations! Visit us at www.vineyardmarketplace.org or through the Marketplace tab at the top of our website. Give gifts that truly impact our world and give jobs to thousands across Africa! #ShopForGood #GiftForGood

Christmastime Trunkshow - November 17

Please join us as Vineyard Marketplace presents the 9th Annual Christmastime Trunkshow on Tuesday, November 17 from 5:30-9 PM. The show will support the work of True Vineyard Ministries and thousands of artisans we support through fair trade. https://www.facebook.com/events/480548818782703

Come Celebrate with True Vineyard and Vineyard Marketplace!

Please join the True Vineyard Ministries' team as we celebrate and consecrate the opening of our new Vineyard Marketplace location at 6:00 PM on Friday, September 11! On Saturday, September 12, join us anytime from 9:00 AM until 9:00 PM for our Grand Opening! We are located at
3946 S IH 35, Exit 200 - directly across from Starbuck's! #ShopForGood

Vineyard Marketplace Update

Thank you for patiently waiting as we prepare for the opening of our new Vineyard Marketplace location. We are hoping to open our doors in the very near future. Additionally, we have postponed our Grand Opening celebration and community blessing to September 11 and 12, 2015.

 In conjunction with the opening of our new location, we will be rolling out a brand new online e-commerce site to make it easier for you to Shop For Good!

 Thank you again for your patience and your tremendous support. We look forward to celebrating with you very soon!

Cultivating the Kingdom

As you may be aware, True Vineyard Ministries is in a period of great transition.  We are expectant of all God will do in the coming months to further His work stateside, in Rwanda, and across Africa.  Thank you in advance for reading what is ahead for our organization as we seek to partner with you to further His Kingdom in Africa.

In Rwanda, the rainy season has just ended. We are currently in the last phase of construction for our new facility, being built on land we purchased in June 2008. We expect construction of our new facility, called Gihunga Center, “meaning to cultivate”, to be completed by the beginning of the next rainy season, which begins in September.  The new center, complete with wool washing stations and gazebos will be the new worksite for the 44 widows we serve. Our ability to help more widows overcome extreme poverty is being directly impacted by the limited workspace at our current office. Located in a government-designed neighborhood for widows and orphan-headed households, the new site is prime real estate for hiring more women who have been made vulnerable by HIV, genocide, and subsequent civil wars.

At home, our fair-trade boutique, Vineyard Marketplace, is also in transition. We began our move from its original location in May with big plans on the horizon for August.

The marketplace has become a very important branch of our ministry, easily supporting over 1,000 artisans in eleven African nations. Impacting organizations that are comprised of mostly single mothers, Vineyard Marketplace has become the source by which these artisans are paid fairly for their incredible craftsmanship. This allows for fair wages so these artisans can feed their families, and in most cases, educate their children.

Recently, we came to the realization that the demands of our orders were too much for a cooperative of women that make our silk scarves in Central Madagascar. Through our conversations with their director, we learned some of the embroidery work was being outsourced to women in a local prison. These women can now be paid and take care of their children on the “outside”. God is revealing how much He cares about all of these groups and how He is using us to further the Gospel in places we would have never dreamed.

In preparation for the opening of our new store, we are expecting our sales to increase dramatically. Therefore, we prayerfully decided to ship a container of new product from Kenya to the Port of Houston in early August. This 20-foot container will be full of fairly traded goods representing organizations in Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Madagascar.

Without our store fully functioning for the next eight weeks, it will be a challenge to raise the funds needed to complete construction and ship our container of product. Therefore, I am humbly asking for you to pray for us and consider a financial contribution to True Vineyard Ministries, which will help us through this exciting transitional time. A gift of any amount is greatly appreciated and can be given online at truevineyard.org or mailed to our new mailing address, below.

True Vineyard Ministries, Inc.

P.O. Box 1962

San Marcos, TX 78667

On Friday, August 21 at 6:00 PM, please join me at our brand new store behind Centerpoint Station and across IH 35 from the outlet malls, in San Marcos. God’s fingerprints have been all over our journey to this new location and I look forward to sharing the story at this private time of blessing before our Grand Opening at 9:00 AM on August 22.

Blessings,

Diana Wiley

Executive Director

Have You Heard? Vineyard Marketplace is Moving!

Have you heard? Vineyard Marketplace is moving! We are so excited to announce the location of our new store at IH-35, Exit 200 behind Centerpoint Station and across from Starbucks Coffee in San Marcos, Texas.

For the past six years we have been operating Vineyard Marketplace on San Antonio Street in San Marcos. We will be closing our doors for business at the San Antonio Street location on Friday, May 29^th. We are thrilled that God is expanding our marketplace operations and increasing the reach of our ministry by planting us in a new location.

The ministry and mission of True Vineyard are based on providing holistic support to Africa’s most vulnerable. Our objective is to empower Africa’s poorest through job creation, community building, and spiritual counsel. Through our “Shop for Good” concept, Vineyard Marketplace achieves the mission of True Vineyard Ministries by directly supporting the work of artisan cooperatives in eleven different African nations. Our buying practices follow fair trade principles and support more than 500 African artisans. “Shop for Good” means that through every purchase made at Vineyard Marketplace a consumer is sowing into the life of an artisan working in Africa. Many of our artisan partners are single mothers struggling to provide for the basic needs of their children. Some are young women working to put themselves through a trade school, while others are outcasts overcoming stigmas and adversities because they are living with HIV/AIDS. Through working relationships with these artisans, we are able to share the powerful message of Jesus Christ and experience His kingdom transformation in the lives of many. We envision Africa’s most vulnerable people transformed into healthy, prosperous, and collaborative communities of social change through Jesus Christ.

Come visit us at our new location (IH 35, Exit 200) opening mid June. Stay tuned for details regarding our grand opening events, giveaways, and in-store promotions!

Lastly, enjoy buy one product; get two free at our San Antonio Street location until May 29^th! Come by and pay us one last before we move to our exciting new place. 

Edith's Story - Written by Simon Dufitumukiza, Country Director

Edith Mugirasoni was born in the Bugesera District of Eastern Rwanda in 1977. She was the youngest of nine children. Edith had a very self-reliant family since they owned many cows and enough land to produce plenty of food. Her three brothers were teachers at a primary school and Edith loved studying very much. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi happened when she was in the second year of secondary school. Every child in Edith’s family had a vision for the future and her big vision was to study and have many degrees. These good people, who had been enjoying the blessing of being members of such a beautiful family, were forced to die. All of their visions and plans ended there. The entire family was exterminated except for Edith and one of her brothers.  They continue to live with terrible memories of the Genocide.

During the Genocide, Edith and her family went to hide in Ntarama Catholic Cathedral, only 300 meters from Edith’s home, with hope that no one would dare kill people inside a church. The church didn’t slow the perpetrators from their killing. God saved them that day and they fled to hide in the swamp of papyrus and marsh plants. The swamp was filled with snakes and biting insects and many people drowned in these swamps before they were killed. Edith and her family had no choice but to go into that impossible place. This is where most of Edith’s family was killed, along with thousands of other people. After torturing Edith in different ways, they cut her with machetes and threw her on the pile of dead bodies, believing that she was also dead. By God's grace she was still breathing! As the killers kept adding other dead people to the pile, Edith was buried and spent 3 days unconsciously hiding there. It is still very difficult for her have hope for the future even to expect that there are people who exist who can love her and give her a value as a human being.

As a result, Edith has been living with very serious trauma. Through God and the counselling program at True Vineyard Ministries, there is hope that she will slowly be healed.  Empowered by the counselling program, for the first time since she left Bugesera in 2000, Edith agreed to return during the memorial period this month, to join other people in remembrance.  This is something Edith has been avoiding for a very long time. The counsellors helped her understand it was important for her to return to that place and meet other people and hear other stories about the genocide.  Understandably, it was difficult for Edith. The counsellors tried to console her as she saw and remembered every place where she witnessed family members being killed. She believes it was helpful to return to the place where she survived.

Because of the tremendous trauma, Edith was not able to continue her studies even though she was a very intelligent student. This is something that troubles her very much. When she tried to study again, she couldn’t perform well because of post-traumatic disorders. Her hope seems to have been lost completely.  However, there is expectation that through continued counselling, God will restore her hope.

Edith joined True Vineyard Ministries two years ago.  She is a very good spinner of yarn and also has a gift of sewing.  Edith now dreams of owning a sewing workshop and we hope she will be encouraged to pursue this dream through our micro-finance program.

Below: Edith visits the papyrus swamp with a priest earlier this month