A Thank-You Note to YOU

Your 20s, changing a life

Back in November, after being completely overwhelmed by the "home visit" report from the Ubumwe Community Center, I asked for a wheelchair for Christmas.  

Among many other profiles, the report included a precious little boy named Mugisha (meaning "blessing") who was reduced to wallowing in the dirt because his legs wouldn't carry him to the opportunities waiting for him. Four hundred dollars would forever change this boy's life.

I had just returned from an unfathomably expensive (and worth every cent) trip to Rwanda. I didn't have four hundred dollars. But I had twenty. And I thought that maybe you did too.

So I did the very least I could do: I asked. And the twenties trickled in. But not enough. Then someone who had pledged to help (with twenty dollars, I assumed) wrote me a check for one hundred. But we still weren't there.

Then, on December 23, I get a Facebook message from Laura, a person I've only met through Facebook, who (unbeknownst to me) had been collecting money from her Sunday school class. A one hundred dollar check was in the mail. And I was getting a wheelchair for Christmas.

More importantly, Mugisha was getting a wheelchair . . . for life.

So thank you, thank you, thank you--for your prayers and your contributions.

But if I may ask, I still need your help. Wheelchairs, especially for children, are hard to find in Gisenyi, Rwanda. And while the financial hurdle is a huge one, it's only one. Would you please pray that a wheelchair finds its way to Mugisha?

And again, thank you. Thank you for proving that doing what you can with what you have still changes lives.