Prayer Update – January 2020

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

RWANDA

• Please ask for God’s help to all whose homes and crops are negatively affected by the ongoing rains.
• January is the beginning of the school year in Rwanda. Please pray for families who have not yet found the school supplies or tuition to send their children back to school.
• We ask for ample resources for every homeowner who is struggling to pay the annual land lease payment.

AZIZI LIFE

• We continue to ask for God’s intervention and supernatural wisdom for us in the process of trying to find land for the new Azizi Life building. And we praise God for every step forward.
• 2019 was a wonderful year of growth.
  • Rejoice with us, praising God for our long-time artisan partners, and those who are new.  We are especially grateful for the way they were able to push with us to accomplish our year-end orders. 
  • We praise God for our customers and design partners– please ask for his blessing upon them.
  • We have learned from our challenges and strengthened our systems. We are grateful for this insight.
  • In 2019, we gained more than 40,000 new connections with potential customers.  Please pray that we will be able to connect fruitfully with each of these people.
• We celebrate the advances we have made in our goal to multiply artisan income 10x by the end of 2022.  Please continue to pray for this goal, for the artisans as they rise as leaders for wholeness in their communities, and for our team as we facilitate this growth.

ARTISANS

• Pray for a weaver of basket ornaments, named Clementine.  Clementine is the mother of 4 children: 3 boys and one girl.  Sadly, Clementine is the victim of domestic voilence.  Often in Rwanda, women are expected by society to simply endure beatings from their husbands.  However, Clementine received support and encouragement from the local leaders to separate from her husband.  Her desire is to own her own home, and she asks for prayer that her husband will ultimately be changed.  
•  You may recall that last year, we mourned the death of Drocelle, a weaver from Ingobokarugo Cooperative.  We are so thankful that her children have been taken in by their aunts. Drocelle’s son is being cared for by Dative, another weaver from Ingobokarugo, and her daughter is with another aunt.  May God bless these households and continue to be with the children.

AZIZI LIFE IMPACT (UBI)

• We are so thankful for all of our friends and donors who help us in our projects.
• We praise God for our new Impact Assistant, Jean Claude.  Please pray for him as he learns about the work and assists Venantie in serving the artisans, literacy students and others in the community.
• Azizi Life Impact has been assigned a particular community in which to work.  Please ask for God’s blessing on the relationships and work there.
• A new group of adult literacy students– 490 of them- took the final exam on December 23rd.  Please ask for God’s blessing as they celebrate their graduation this month and receive their gift of a book- the Bible.
• We praise God for the donations we received for Adult Literacy on Giving Tuesday, and we trust him for his continued provision for Adult Literacy 2020.
• The Azizi Life Impact team shares this about our weekly Bible study: In our Wednesday bible study, we have started to learn Galathians 5, 19 -25. As our Pastor, Rosette Uwamahoro, was praying for us to cut down our human nature, she compares the human nature as a bush which has covered the holy spirit in our hearts. We are going to learn one by one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We have already learned about Joy.  Artisan Vestine Murekatete from Ababerarugo Cooperative praises the Lord because God has provided her Joy by using her neighbors. It started  with a gift of new dress fabric from her Neighbor.  Even now, she keeps her Joy even in difficulties.

BEEUTIFUL CREATIONS

• We praise the Lord for all support from customers and the new partners he has provided us.
• Please pray for wisdom in growing our work with beekeepers and growing to sustainability.

AZIZI LIFE US

• Christi and the Azizi Life US team are in the final preparations for the big NY NOW gift show February 1-4.  Please ask for help for them, for wonderful connections at the show, and for an effective and fruitful follow-up plan.  The team is taking this on because they believe it has the potential to multiply the artisans’ streams of income.  May everyone we meet experience God’s love.
• The US Board will be doing some major planning in the next month.  May they be led by the Lord and always mindful that this work is his.
• Some team members are shouldering a heavy amount of responsibility. Please ask that we would have insight into who God would bring to help share this important work.

Thank you for standing with us in prayer.
From the Azizi Life Team