Euphrate and his awesome team have the first roof on.
The next 4 months can’t come quick enough till my next visit when I will be also taking my eldest son Troy.
Ted Bosveld
It has come to our attention that some of our promo DVD are wrong. About 50% so many of you have the wrong one “sorry”
If you received a DVD with under 11 football please email me your details and I will have the correct DVD forwarded to you.
Please except my humble apologies.
TED BOSVELD
Email ted@villagesoflife.org
Or Phone 0417 546 473
The awesome team in Burundi are making great progress.
The first Orphan house has brickwork half up and the footings are going in for Orphan house number 2.
Here is an email I received from Euphrate during the week explaining why the roof can’t go on the guest house yet.
| From: | “euphrate ndayizigiye” |
| Subject: | News from Cibitoke |
| Date: | Fri, August 22, 2008 1:59 am |
| To: | “Ted Bosveld” <ted@villagesoflife.org> |
Hello Ted. The Lord Jesus has been very good to me this week and I hope it has been the same to you over there. As I wrote last time, the first Guest house is ready for being covered but we are facing the problem of getting planks. Today I went to see a man from whom I ordered them And I found it a matter of distance. In fact the trees to cut are located very far on hills and they take much time taking the planks on their heads to bring them near the road. For waiting these planks, we preferred to build the 1rst orphanage house and the last picture shows how far we are with it. I have many picture in my camera but it is very expensive to send them from Cibitoke : one picture take 22 minutes to be sent. So enjoy the 2 pictures and I will see if I can send more. I will go back to Bujumbura this Friday evening and I will come back to Cibitoke Monday morning May God bless you. Euphrate. |
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We take for granted how easy it is here to get material. We ring up for a pack of timber and it turns up the next day. Note how the timber (planks) get from the saw mill to the site. And if it is the same type of saw mill that I seen in Rwanda it is one man on the top of the log and the other man is in a pit below and they operate a Jack and Jill type saw. But at the end of the day you get timber planks and men have jobs.
Together in His service
Ted Bosveld
Euphrate and his team are making real good progress as you can see by the photos.
They have the first guest house up to ceiling hight and should be working on putting the roof on next week
Ted Bosveld
Here is a Villages of Life time line It is a rather long list and I have tried to keep it as brief as possible and there has been a lot of research, emails, phone calls and nights thinking but it will give you a good idea how much work it has taken and the joy it brings to my heart to get to this day. June 2006 Spent 4 weeks in Rwanda working with Hope Rwanda on an Orphan Village. Receive a phone call from Freddy of Youth For Christ Burundi asking for help building homes for Orphans. July 2006 till January 2007 Ponder and grapple with this call and wonder what little me can do. February 2007 Meet with Youth For Christ Australia and World Relief Australia in Melbourne to see if and how we can assist Youth For Christ Burundi. Find out they have the process but not the project So Here We Go. May 2007 Travel to Burundi with a Film Maker to do a scoping trip to see the work Youth For Christ are doing in Gitega building an Orphanage. Return to Australia to find we can’t help them on this project and request Freddy in Burundi if he would be prepared to start a new project in a new province. After prayerful consideration Freddy excepts our offer and Villages Of Life Begins. June 2007 till December 2007 Work on project guidelines and plans for houses with World Relief Australia. Freddy and Euphrate at Youth For Christ Burundi work with Burundian officials to secure land. December 2007 Youth For Christ secure land in Burundi in the province of Cibitoke. This land has been donated by the Govoner of Cibitoke and the Burundian Government. January 2008 Purchase 4WD from Japan and ship to Burundi for Euphrate to run the project. February 2008 Travel to Burundi to meet with the Govoner of Cibitoke. Survey the land and make promo DVD on site. The 4WD arrives while I am there. March & April 2008 Do final adjustments with World Relief on project paperwork and receive final approved document thus receiving tax deductibility in Australia. June 2008 Travel to Burundi with my wife Lorraine so she can see what has kept me so occupied over the last 18 months and to see the needs first hand. July 2008 It seems to have been a long long time but the start day has finally arrived. Here is an email I received from Freddy early last week dated July 15th 2008 …………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… Dearest Ted, Greetings from Bujumbura. How are you all? We are fine this end, and busy. Just to ask prayers and let you know that Euphrate and Yves left today for Cibitoke. They may stay there for the rest of this week. We hired a truck taking material such us cement, water containers, hoes, etc, etc all the small things as well. Till today we have been doing lots communications with the people there at Cibitoke most of work was done through the phone this far. We hope they are starting to dig the foundation for the Guest house 2moro. Please pray for good workers b/c we realized labor is more expensive there than at Gitega. Thanks for all you doing for us and for Jesus. We keep you in our prayers. “For the world you may just be one person; but for one person you just be the world” Blessings Freddy Tuyizere Burundi Youth for Christ ……………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………. Our heartfelt thanks and prayers go to Freddy, Euphrate and the Youth For Christ team in Burundi. How I would love to be there and working along side them but I will have to wait till January next year when I need to be there again to do the first progress report. Please consider if you can support this project to bless the least of these in Burundi. If you would like to know more (I am always eager to share the vision) or would like to receive a promo DVD please go to the contact page or email me direct at ted@villagesoflife.org By: Ted Bosveld Blessed to be a Blessing
After being in Rwanda and going to the orphanage there, I expected them all to be the same, so I got a nice surprise when going to Burundi and visiting the Rainbow Center. We walked in the door to a light beautiful room with a baby in a walker and another one laying on the floor on a large mattress. There was 5 babies here, with 2 carers. A lot different to the ‘dog-pound like’ orphanage I expected. The children were happy and playing. One little boy caught our eyes as soon as we arrived. Ted looked at him and said “aren’t you a handsome little boy”. We asked the carer what this little boys name was and she said “Danny”. This was little Danny-boy from a DVD we have. For the next 3 hours Ted played with Danny and ended up falling asleep with him and 2 others , while I fell asleep with a very young baby in my arms.
We could of brought all of these babies home!! They were so well looked after here, well dressed and well fed, with a lot of love given to them by these 2 carers…..but it was still an orphanage, like a community center, with people coming and going, different activities going on in different rooms and no mum for these children.
2 days later we went to a new village being built at Gitega by Youth for Christ
At the moment there is 4 houses, a school and a medical center started with a lot more houses to be built yet (this is what Villages of Life will be like). The children here are living in a house with a mum and 6-8 children. The mum is a widow and the children are all orphans. The houses are very spacious and lovely and really feel like a home. The children have great meals and go to school each day. The difference between this orphanage and the other 2 was very obvious. The fact that these children belong somewhere. This is their home and they have a mum. They don’t have toys or things to do, but they don’t need any, they have love and they have a family.
Greetings from Mauritius.
We had a very busy 3 days in Burundi and have so much to share on the awesome progress there.
We didn’t get time whilst there but will update when we settle back in at home.
Blessings to you all
Ted and Lorraine Bosveld
We went to meet Charles and Grassien
Charles worked as a cleaner in the house Ted stayed in 2 years ago and Grassien was the night guard. They formed a very strong friendships. They are amazed we have come back to visit them.
We went to see Charles at his work and orginize to pick him up later in the evening to share pizza at his house with his family. We also called Grassien. Ted was talking to him on the phone telling him we were here in Kigali. He kept saying “No you joking me, you here in Kigali?? No, you joking me, No”
We got a driver for the night and met Charles and Grassien at a local shopping centre. We drove to Charles’s house. The roads were very step dirt roads and it was just as well we had hired a 4WD. It was hard work getting up these potholed roads with deep trenches where the rains had washed them away. This is right on the edge of the city, the roads are just so bad. Charles walks to work each day and he said it takes about an hour. I can’t believe that. It was such a long way and so bad, It was an experience just driving to his house.
His children ran out to meet us as we arrived, Shalom (boy 5) and Esther (girl 3). They where adorable coming up and cuddling Teddy! They remembered him from when he visited last year. Charles told Esther that my name was Lorraine but she just said Mamma!
Annalisa is Charles’s wife and she was beautiful, 8 months pregnant. She couldn’t speak english so she just sat there in silence.
We invited our driver Joe to come and eat with us. He was very cool!. He is a gorilla tour driver and speaks very good english. There was no power in the house so just a dull oil lamp lit the room.
We had bought 4 pizzas “Whoooh” These 2 guys remembered from 2 years ago at the house (Hope Rwanda) what pizza was like. They had never had pizza before and haven’t since. Joe has never had pizza , as well as Annalisa and the children. They loved it! It was so nice to be able to bless them with something so simple for us.
We bought a teddy bear for each Shalom and Esther and they held on to them all night. We also took some clothes for the children and some clothes and a blanket for the new baby. Annalisa kept looking at the baby clothes with the biggest smile on her face.
It was such a wonderful night, sitting in the dark sharing a simple meal with them. I get what Ted says now , that we are giving them so much, but they give so much more.
Charles called Ted his freind, his brother, his daddy. That is what he thinks of him.
We left Charles house and went on the journy back down the step rough dirt roads to take Grassien home. To get to his house we had to go up the otherside of the vally which was just as steep and just as rough. We where only going to drop him of near his house but he insisted we come and see where he lived. He was so proud of it. His house was in a row joined to alot of others. He had a light!!!
His house consists of 3 small rooms, one was a living room and 2 small bedrooms. Grassien shares this house with one other man and they pay $40.00 per month for it. It used to be $20.00 per month without power. I asked him if we could see where he sleeps and he pushed the door open to his room, in the room was a matress on the floor with a blanket and a mosquito net, a few personal belongings on the floor and that was it. He is a lucky man, alot of people don’t even have a matress.
They must have communal cooking and toilet facilities some where becauce there was none of that in the house.
I could just keep on writing obout the orphanage and so much about tonight with these beautiful people. My mind is just crammed full of thoughts. Yesterday seems like forever ago becauce so much happens in one day
By Lorraine
We were meant to leave Rwanda for Burundi today, but we were booked on a flight that does not exist!! so we had another day to fill in here.
God knew we were not meant to leave here yet. We went back to the orphanage. There was 49 babies in the room today. That is only one of the rooms there. I picked a baby up and she just held on tightly to me. I tried to stand her up on my knee to bounce her up and down and talk to her but she wouldn’t let go. She just wanted to be held and feel secure. All these children need love.
The 6 nuns that were working in the room were busy folding washing and changing beds and nappies, no time to give any attention or love to the babies. Their nappies were a piece of cloth wrapped around them and knotted. When they wet their beds get wet as well. There is so much work for these nuns to do. To feed them they yell in their language “lay down, lay down” and shove a bottle in their mouths. It is undescribable what this place is like. A room crammed with about 60 very small cots all lined up in rows up against each other. Some of these babies just lay in their cots shaking their little heads from side to side. They have no stimulation and never leave their cots, unless someone picks them up for a cuddle, then puts them back down to pick up the next crying baby.
The building was so dark. When we walked in the main door and down a long corridor I could barely see. The room we were in had some windows, but still very dark. I had no idea what this would be like. I said to people before I came here “I can’t build houses, but I can cuddle babies”. I am torn between not wanting to go back there because it is so sad, and realising the effect that the little bit of love I can give is a great thing. When we came here yesterday, my first impression when I walked in to this room was of a dog pound. All these babies from 0-12months in their little cots screaming for just a little love. The effect it has on you to walk in there and see all these little children is something I just can’t describe!
By Lorraine
Day two was equally as amazing as day one and a whole new experience.
We started the day by doing the markets and traveling this time on better roads to visit our friends sponsor child. This is a whole other story but I would love to share just a very very small part of this day which was profoundly powerful.
Those few small cars
After visiting Patrick our friends sponsor child and walking some 20 minutes down one valley and up the other side it was time to return to the car.
On the way back I noticed a small young boy who had been following us the whole way. He was poorly dressed but had the most beautiful smile. I remembered the few cars our sons Lachy and Brady had given us. Brady had also given us a few bank notes of the local currency and had asked us to give it back to some one who needed it. So I asked our interpreter to relay to this young boy whose name also happened to be Patrick that the car had been given from our son to give to him and also a few dollars for his mum. We found his mum at the top of the hill and presented her with 1100 Rwandan franks.
The smiles and thank yous that where received for this gift are some thing I hope every one can experience some time in there life.
1 small car for a little boy up a hill side about an hours drive north of Kigali and approx $2.20 as a gift to his mum.
A gift with love from a couple of little boys in Australia to a little boy and his mum in Rwanda.
Our interpreter relayed to us that the money was equivalent to 3 days wages for this mum.
Rwanda the land of a Thousand Hills and a Million Smiles.
By Ted Bosveld
