It’s been a busy and challenging 7 months since I last reported on our efforts, and today, I’m VERY happy to report that we have finished a long journey… to our beginning… let me explain.

Last September, I reported that we had decided to focus our efforts on Housing and Education, and we’re even more committed to that focus now than we were then, but how do you begin such a quest to Confront Poverty with Opportunity? Well, for us, the short answer is the

Musanze Opportunity Center

From day one, we have known that to make a significant impact here in Musanze we would need MUCH more horsepower on the ground than just Cheryl and I. Musanze Inc has been called to a herculean task that will take a great many years and a great many committed, capable and passionate people to accomplish, but the challenge, in a developing place like Musanze, is how do you get these incredible people living here, thriving here and productive here.

Experience has shown, over and over again, that short-term people rarely accomplish much of lasting value because it just takes time, lots of time, to help a community transform itself from its present reality to its hoped for future.

Experience has also shown, over and over again, that long-term people burn out and leave when they’re on their own because living and working in a strange land drains your energy every day so without the proper support and the ability to recharge, burnout is inevitable… So what’s the solution?

People Living in Community

It’s in community that long-term people get the support and recharging they need to survive, thrive and produce results.

It’s in community that short-term people contribute to a sustained initiative that will continue building on their valuable efforts.

Community is the answer, but how do you achieve it? Well, in a place like Musanze, you need a modern, secure housing facility that allows both long-term residents and short-term guests to live in productive, Biblical community… That’s why a housing facility became our quest. We spent months looking at what we thought was our only option which was to buy some land and build some homes… but wait… God had another option.

Enter Strabag… an enormous, Austrian construction company founded in 1835 with $20 billion in 2010 revenues and 80,000 employees. Since 1891, Strabag has been building roads, bridges, tunnels, dams, power plants, railroads and other major infrastructure all over the world which is what brought them to Rwanda. They came to Rwanda to build roads, and they built some great ones right here in Musanze.

With over 100 years of experience, Strabag knows how to go into a foreign, undeveloped country and Get Stuff Done! What’s their winning formula?… They build a modern, secure housing facility for their executive and management team so they can be productive and accomplish their mission… (sound familiar?) And that’s exactly what they did in Musanze which is where our paths crossed.

In 2006, Strabag built a 17 home campus here in Musanze, and when I heard about it, I immediately wanted to see it. I mean, why reinvent the wheel. Strabag has built dozens of these campuses around the world so I wanted to learn from their expertise before we began building our own. After a good deal of effort, I was finally allowed to tour the campus which is when God’s option exploded into view.

Not only was this facility EXACTLY what we had been planning and envisioning, it was also VACANT! As it turns out, Strabag had completed their work in Rwanda way ahead of schedule (I can only imagine in part due to how incredibly productive this campus had made them).

After some investigation, I found out that the Government of Rwanda now owned the campus and they were looking for a purpose for the facility that would serve the people of Rwanda. They didn’t want to just sell the homes or have them become another hotel in a place with already too many hotels. They wanted this facility to be used exactly as they saw Strabag use it… which was to help build the future of Rwanda… That’s where we come in.

To make a LONG story short, with God’s blessing and provision, Musanze Inc has successfully negotiated and executed a 15 year renewable lease with the Government of Rwanda to turn the Strabag campus into the Musanze Opportunity Center

We Have Our Base of Operations!!!

And Now… We Begin… So what’s the plan? How are we going to use this incredibly functional facility to Confront Poverty with Opportunity? Great question! Stay tuned for our complete action plan. For now, I’ll leave you with these three words: English – Hospitality – Construction

Click Here to Go to the Musanze Opportunity Center on Google Maps

Cheryl and I have just completed “Round One” of living in Rwanda for a few months and then returning to the US for a few weeks. We are now back in Rwanda beginning “Round Two”
Our goal while in Rwanda is to find opportunities that help Rwandans become the solution to their own problems.
Our goal while in the US is to find people who are willing and able to help those opportunities become a reality.

Here’s a recap of what we learned from “Round One”:
• Rwandans are warm, welcoming, joyful, smart and very hardworking people who dream passionately of owning their own home and educating their children… it’s their “Rwandan Dream”
• Rwandans can’t own a quality home with lasting value because there are none available here and even if there were they couldn’t afford them without a mortgage and there are none of those here either
• Rwandans can’t give their children a quality education that prepares them for the future because there are too few schools and too few teachers capable of doing that

As Round One in Rwanda drew to a close, it became abundantly clear that we have two great opportunities to serve the people of Rwanda… Housing and Education

Housing goes WAY beyond helping these great folks have four mud walls with a tin roof over their heads while they cook on a campfire in the front yard and use the bathroom in a hole in the backyard. Housing means a home that allows a family to thrive, not just to survive. Housing means a home that will last for generations so that there can be the transference of wealth that is critical to the future of any economy. It’s this transference of wealth from one generation to the next, through real estate, infrastructure, education, etc., that allows children to have more health, education and opportunity than their parents.

Housing means a mortgage that allows a family to pay for their quality, durable home with an affordable payment plan, and that has the great additional benefit of bringing stability to the family, the community and the economy, as home owners follow through on these long term financial commitments.

Education goes WAY beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. Education means you have not just learned how to memorize, but you have learned how to think so you can solve the varied and complex problems that stand between you and the way forward.

Education means you know how to be a good employee or employer. You know how to be married. You know how to parent. You know how to be a good citizen, properly serving your community. You know how the world really works, what’s really important, what’s temporary and what’s eternal, and you know how to have a living relationship with the Living God. In short… you have wisdom.

Maybe… we could call our efforts “Project W” as the core of what we’re talking about is the transference of Wealth and Wisdom from one generation to the next.

Let’s be clear, these are not our hopes and dreams for Rwanda. These are their hopes and dreams for themselves.

We will not do this for them. They will do this for themselves. Our role is to help where invited and where our help doesn’t hurt.

So… Are you tired of all the talk? Are you ready for some action? …I Sure Am!

Next Up… an outline of a phased ACTION plan for you to review, improve and consider how you might pitch in.

It’s time… It’s definitely time… for Less Talk and More Action!