True Vineyard Ministries along with the San Marcos, Texas
community suffered a great loss last October when our beloved and faithful
friend and volunteer, Erwin Janek, passed suddenly. Erwin practically ran our Annual
Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Sale. He was our volunteer cheerleader who kept us motivated, dipping and selling year after year. He
knew exactly what we needed and was always ready to help us in any way he could. He happily
dipped, packaged, delivered and stood on street corners dancing with signs every February
– year after year. If a volunteer didn’t show up for
their shift, Erwin was always willing and ready to serve in any capacity and
under any weather conditions. This year,
for our 12TH Annual Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Sale, we would like
to honor the legacy of serving that Erwin left for us. That is, to serve willingly and selflessly
wherever it is that God calls us. Thank
you Erwin for 11 great years of Valentines Days.
We miss and love you very much.
Prayers for 2014
I am in awe of what God has done
through True Vineyard Ministries, Inc. During the past seven years, He has
continued to amaze me by the rapid growth and reach of this widow-centered
ministry, which offers life-sustaining opportunities in Africa. Our 50 Rwandan employees, their families and the
surrounding communities have realized the results of our presence in a place
where genocide, civil war and HIV/AIDS have left many feeling hopeless. It is
far beyond what I could have ever dreamed or imagined for the organization.
Please allow me to share a few highlights from 2013.
Katie Scrafford joined our team
in Rwanda one year ago. She independently raised all of her own financial
support to work for us as a full-time volunteer. Her background is in family
therapy, but she also previously worked as shepherdess on a sheep farm in New
Hampshire. Yes, you read that correctly. God brought a counselor and former
shepherdess to our organization in Rwanda where we counsel widows and have a
flock of sheep needed for our Handspun
Hope yarn production.
Trauma counseling is greatly needed in Rwanda. With this challenge in
mind, Katie and our country director Simon Dufitumukiza developed a lay
counselor-training program. In July, the first class of 14 lay counselors
graduated. Free trauma counseling is now offered to individuals in schools, persons
with disabilities, and several churches in northern Rwanda. A counseling
network is currently being formed in the area and many who are in desperate
need of this kind of healing are being impacted by the presence of TVM.
In the spring and summer, we
worked to raise funds through a matching grant for the first phase of
construction for our new workplace, Gihunga Center, to be built on land we
already own. As the first phase of
construction is finalized, our women will begin working at the new center.
Having our own building is a huge step toward sustainable income for the 35
currently employed widows, support staff and their families with a total of 234
lives being directly impacted.
As TVM grows, opportunities are opening for the women to move to a place
of greater financial independence. Through our Handspun Hope program, yarn making will continue to be a tool,
providing for spiritual counsel and immediate expenses of food, shelter and
healthcare. However, we feel that God wants more
for the ladies and for other widows in the surrounding community. Through a
savings group initiated by the women in 2010, we have seen the opportunity for
them to save capital through microfinance initiatives. Using the property where
the new center is being built, the women have started raising rabbits, which
are sold to hotels and communities. This process moved us to begin praying
about how God could potentially use TVM as a springboard for them to develop
their own income-generating projects instead of remaining financially dependent
on the organization. Gihunga Center—gihunga
means “to cultivate” in Kinyarwanda—will serve this purpose. If the women can
use their own creativity to build capital through similar microfinance
initiatives, they can use the resources they've built through TVM to develop
financial independence. This plan will allow us to bring more women into the
TVM family!
Last summer, as a result of the
success of the ministry and our store The
Vineyard Marketplace, I was asked to go to South Sudan to consult with a
newly formed women’s group on potential product development. It was an amazing
process to watch how God used divine connections to bring me there. What is
even more amazing is how He continues to use the ministry’s storefront to bring
about lasting change to individual artisans and organizations in 11 African
nations. We are the largest customer for many of the organizations from which
we purchase fairly-traded products. This impact is far greater than we could
ever hope to calculate.
In 2013, God used True Vineyard
Ministries to bring more lives into realized change through employment, trauma
counseling and the purchasing of products at a fair price. My prayer is that He
continues to make provision for all the ways we feel Him calling us. It is a
very exciting time for True Vineyard, and I hope that you will partner with us
as we continue to grow. Please find enclosed a brochure on the opportunity for
monthly widow sponsorship, outlining the different levels of engagement with
TVM, as well as a “wish list” of our 2014 dreams for the organization. I ask
that you consider supporting us through prayer and a year-end financial gift
that will enable us to continue walking through the doors where God is calling
the ministry. Should you choose, you may use the enclosed return envelope or
give online at truevineyard.org.
Thank you for your continued support. On
behalf of the Board of Directors, staff and volunteers at True Vineyard
Ministries, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!
Diana
Wiley
Founder
and Executive Director
New Colors, Team, Katie, Counseling...and Jack F. Kennedy?????
It’s September and definitely
time for an update on True Vineyard Ministries! It’s been a crazy wonderful
summer with lots to report!
Our summer team traveled to
Rwanda in early July and it is an understatement to say we were busy! We hit
the ground running and worked along side the women to develop new products out
of their beautiful new colors of Rwandan, Merino yarn. We were really excited to
be arriving behind a visit from Nancy Zeller, of Long Ridge Farm, who spent
several days with the ladies, teaching them how to dye with lots of new natural
dye extracts. Be sure and check out our Facebook page to see some of the
beautiful new shades…that are quickly turning into wonderful knit hats for
fall!
True Vineyard has been so
blessed by our full-time volunteer, Katie Scrafford, who has lived and worked
with our women in Rwanda for almost one year! It has been a fast year…but “WOW”
has she helped grow TVM to something great in Rwanda! Meeting Katie was a truly a divine
connection. She actually lived and worked on Long Ridge Farm in New Hampshire
as a SHEPHEDRESS several years ago. Katie received her Master’s Degree in
Marriage and Family Therapy from Antioch University in 2011. For the past several months, Katie has worked
closely with our Country Director, Simon, in developing a lay-counselor
training program. This program trains and equips other leaders to administer counseling to those who have experienced trauma. While our team was in
Rwanda in July, we celebrated the first graduates of the new program and
participated in their certificate ceremony. How wonderful to know that there
are now hundreds of people being counseled through their traumatic pasts because
of Katie’s heart for those who are in such great need. There are no words to express
the organization’s gratitude to Katie and Simon for the work they have poured
into this new program. How awesome it was to witness the fruits of their labor.
Now for the update on Gihunga
Center... Although we believed we would have been well into the construction of
Phase I of the new center, we are currently (and anxiously) waiting on final
approvals from the Rwandan government.
Just as everything was ready to begin, the Rwandan Development Board issued
a new mandate, requiring all NGO’s (Non-governmental Organizations)
operating in Rwanda (like True Vineyard), to “re-register”. We are currently in that process and are also
proceeding with application for a “special building permit” from the local
government sector. Unfortunately, the best thing for us to do is wait until we
have gone through one or both of these processes. We want to be absolutely
certain that our center is legally built, with all approvals in place. We
promise to keep you informed as we make progress!
By now you are probably
wondering what could the 50th Anniversary of the assignation of JFK possibly
have to do with True Vineyard Ministries' work in Rwanda… We are thrilled to announce a GRAND-SCALE
fundraising event coming to San Marcos, Texas this fall, Remembering Camelot Through the Lens of Jacques Lowe, the private
collection of Frank Harvey. Mark your calendars for November 16th and 17th and in the words of Frank Harvey “get ready to witness
history”. Please watch our promotional video and then visit our event site at
www.rememberingcamelot.com to learn more!
Many blessings-
Diana Wiley
Executive Director
Praising God For Provision!
Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow! We have 100% funding for Phase I of Gihunga Center! Thank you to all who contributed so generously to see that this project was funded by our July 1st deadline! Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are moving right into raising funds for Phase II, our final stage for completion of the new center in early 2014!
Building Gihunga Center Update!
As promised, I wanted to give
you an update on our fundraising efforts for the new Gihunga Center, a new permanent workspace for the widows we employ
fulltime in Rwanda.
Over the past five years we
have grown from employing 10 widows fulltime to employing 35 widows today. The new enlarged space will allow us to
continue empowering the lives of even more widows and their children, impacting
the lives of generations to come.
In April of this year we were
awarded with a $12,000 matching grant for our new building. In mid-May we began
raising funds to match this amazing gift so that construction could begin this
summer.
I’m happy to share that so
far our fundraising efforts have generated $7,914! We have raised almost 2/3 of
our goal and are standing with God, believing him for the remaining $4,086
before July 1.
Additionally, we have had an
amazing donation of some lovely cards, designed specifically for raising funds
for our new center by Nancy Keplinger, surviving daughter of the late
Ambassador to Rwanda, Leo Cyr. All proceeds raised from the sell of these cards
will go towards our building campaign.
They are available in our store, The Vineyard Marketplace or online.
If you have supported us
financially or prayerfully in this endeavor we are extremely grateful. I ask
that you continue praying for us and if you have not already given financially,
that you consider a tax-deductible gift of any amount. There is no gift that is
too small. Gifts can be given securely online or mailed to our office address at the bottom of this note.
We are thankful for your
continued support and are ecstatic about the future of our organization! Be sure to follow our fan page on Facebook to
stay informed about our progress!
Many continued blessings,
Diana
Executive Director
True Vineyard Ministries, Inc.
317 W. San Antonio Street
San Marcos, TX 78666
Executive Director
True Vineyard Ministries, Inc.
317 W. San Antonio Street
San Marcos, TX 78666
News on Gihunga Center Funding!
On May 22, we began a fundraising campaign to raise $12,000
for completion on funding for the first phase of Gihunga Center. Gihunga,
meaning, “to cultivate” in Kinyarwanda, is what we prayerfully wish to see in
the lives of our widows and in the lives of other widows and their children in the Susa community. This new work
facility will provide much-needed space, but more importantly, provide our
women with a building that belongs to them on land we already own. It will
eliminate the need to pay rental fees and will enable True Vineyard Ministries
to have enough room to rescue more impoverished widows and their children.
We are excited to give you an update on our fundraising
efforts for Gihunga Center. As of June
9, we have collected $5,224, leaving a balance of $6,776 needed by July 1. We prayerfully ask, that if you have not
contributed to this important campaign, that you consider giving a gift of ANY amount.
You may give through our secure online giving page, or send a check to our
office.
True Vineyard Ministries, Inc.
317 W. San Antonio St.
San Marcos, Texas 78666
We are thankful for this affirmation from God and are believing him for this next exciting step in the lives of
the widows and their children. Our dream is that you will partner with us as we move
forward to an even brighter future. Thank you so much for your wonderful support of our work.
Blessings,
Diana Wiley
Executive Director
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