Who we are
Living Faith Ministries (LFM) is a not for profit Christian Initiative for reaching Africa with a message of Hope. Our mission is to demonstrate Christ’s love and compassion through Christian action. We do this through Caring for vulnerable children and their families, activities for sustainable community development, training community leaders and discipleship for the young generation.
LFM helps transform the lives of Africa’s poorest children, families and communities. Our non-profit work extends assistance to all people, regardless of their religious beliefs, gender, race, or ethnic background.
Where we work
LFM is currently carrying out various projects in Rwanda. Visit the “ministries” link of this website to see what LFM is doing in Rwanda.
Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. It is bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Its fertile and hilly terrain, which gives it the title "Land of a Thousand Hills" (French: Pays des Mille Collines), supports one of the densest populations in Africa. It is best known to the outside world for the 1994 Rwandan genocide that resulted in the deaths of up to one million people. If you have watched the movie “Hotel Rwanda”, Terry George’s dramatisation of Genocide, or the narrative film “Sometimes in April” starring Idris Elba and Debra Winger, you know what we are talking about.
While the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi races share the same language, live in the same areas, and follow the same traditions, frequent small disagreements were inflated when the Belgian colonialists arrived in 1916 and initiated a system of identity cards which classified people according to their ethnicity. The Belgians considered the Tutsis superior to the Hutus and so for the following 20 years the Tutsis secured better jobs and education than the Hutus.
The Hutus took power when Belgium stepped aside in 1962 and tension built between the ethnic groups.
On April 6, 1994, Hutu Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali airport. Within hours a campaign of terror had spread throughout the country, lasting for three months and leaving approximately one million people dead.
“In 100 days more than one million people were murdered ... but the genocide did not kill a million people. They killed one, then another, then another ... day after day, hour after hour, minute by minute. Every minute of the day, someone, somewhere was being murdered, screaming for mercy but receiving none. And the killing went on and on, 10,000 each day, 400 each hour, seven each minute."(Excerpt from the publication, Genocide, published by Aegis Trust for the Kigali Memorial Center)
The Rwandan genocide did not only kill but it also left long suffering situations and many things unresolved. Over 15 per cent of children in Rwanda were left orphans of genocide, while 2 percent are HIV/AIDS orphans which has its links with genocide. Rape and defilement was among the instruments that were used in genocide. The Rwandan local women association of genocide survivors states that, 250,000 women were raped during the genocide, and approximately 30,000 pregnancies occurred as a result. An estimated 2,000 to 5,000 children were born as a result of rape/sexual violence during the 1994 genocide.
Rwanda has taken many deliberate and strategic steps to prevent such a tragedy from recurring, including the establishment of several genocide memorial sites. These sites all have education programs to ensure that coming generations understand the mistakes of their forebears.
Rwanda is also committed to reconciliation. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established in Arusha, Tanzania, in November 1995 to bring to account those responsible for masterminding the genocide. To date, a number of people have been charged, several of the accused have been convicted, and those falsely accused have been acquitted.
The bulk of the indictments have been left to Rwanda's national legal system. In 1996, Rwanda passed a law specifically to punish the crimes of genocide. Rwandan courts have tried more than ten thousand people, of whom a great number has been convicted.
However the sheer number of the accused means the traditional court system would take another 100 years to hear the backlogged cases. In order to resolve the impasse, the government has resorted to the traditional "Gacaca" system (justice on the grass) where lower courts are established in regional centers.
The Rwandan context is complex. The 1994 Rwanda’s Genocide has left over one million minority Tutsis and Moderate Hutus dead. This has since affected the political, social and economic systems of the country.
The Rwandan communities are still exposed to the long term effects of the Genocide ans civil strife: - Poverty, orphans, widows, HIV/AIDS, trauma, helplessness, loss of trust among ethnic groups, to mention but a few.
LFM is presently running ministry and development programs in Rwanda focusing on the province of Butare. Butare, the southern most province in Rwanda, is one of the provinces of Rwanda most stricken by the genocide in 1994. This war left behind a number of problems particularly in Butare, due to the return and settlement of refugees, most of who had fled to Burundi and the Congo during the war. Upon their return, these families (an average of 4.4 people per household) brought with them poverty, disease, and death that would leave the area devastated with a large population of widows, child-led homes and HIV/AIDS patients. You might find the following statistics bothersome:
· Children between the ages of 0-14 form 49% of Butare’s entire population of 518,900 people.
· Infant mortality rate is 189 children out of 1000 born, which is the highest in all Rwanda’s provinces.
· Of every 6.37 children born alive, only 4.33 live to celebrate their first birthday.
· Mortality rate is also at a high 268 per 1000, still the highest in Rwanda.
· Life expectancy of 39.1 is the lowest in all Rwanda’s provinces.
- Women head 43% of all households, where widows of genocide lead 23.3% of all households.
- 91.1% of all habitants in Butare are involved in subsistence farming with 52.3% of these being women.
- 86.3% of these women stay in mud houses with their average 3.5 children per household. Only 6% of them have access to clean water.
- In Rwanda, there are 101,000 children heading up an estimated 42,000 households.
- Though Rwanda is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 158th out of 175 countries listed in the United Nation’s Human Development Index, 42,000 child headed households is still the biggest number in Africa.
It is the above situations that triggered our response.
Will you stand with us as we take love to this hurting country?
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Mission statement
We are the voice and hands of Jesus touching the world around us with His love and compassion as faithful stewards of God’s abundant resources.
Vision statement
We are a ministry based entirely on Biblical principles. We are inspired by the love of Christ for all people and serve everyone with integrity and compassion, irrespective of race, religious beliefs, gender, or ethnic background. We are dedicated to serving God’s people of every kind with the highest level of dignity and respect, irrespective of status, influence or lack of it. We strive to achieve maximum synergy and team spirit by promoting everyone’s talent and unique calling.
Our core values
- We are Christian and are committed to doing God’s work as would Jesus, if he was in our place
- We are the voice of the many silent but suffering individuals of the disadvantaged communities
- We are committed to personal and organizational integrity and excellence as faithful stewards of God’s resources
- We are Christ’s witnesses with all that we are and have
- We are committed to treating each other with dignity and respect
Our focus
- Reaching out to all people groups in Africa with the message of salvation and calling them to repentance and belief in Jesus Christ as savior and Lord of their lives.
- Helping needy African children reach their potential in God by providing for their basic needs of education, health, food, clothing, and discipleship
- Helping African homes become more conducive for children by empowering their socio-economic status, and enriching their spiritual lives
- Helping the young generation become better disciples and messengers of Jesus wherever they may be, and to become effective godly leaders of their communities in the future.
- Training leaders of homes, churches and communities to be effective in their unique calling of going ahead of others.
Belief statement
- We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God and the divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.
- We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return to power and glory.
- We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
- We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
- We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
- We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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