Construction Nearly Complete In Rwanda

The final stages of construction on Crimson Academy will be completed by the end of November. A covered veranda and bathrooms will conclude the year long construction project in time for the schools opening on January 17, 2011.


A headmaster, four teachers and a treasurer have been hired. Registration of 200 students for the inaugural class of Crimson Academy will begin this month.

Mark and Renee Maynard, founders of howFar, will travel to Rwanda along with Phillip Haynes, the project architect and financier, for grand opening ceremonies to be held on January 14, 2011.

Click here for more on Crimson Academy.

Pastor of the Month - Meet Renovat Barutwanayo

Pastor Renovat of the Murumvya Church (center)


Driving Through Burundi 2007

The terrain was much different than I had expected it to be. Rolling mountains separated by thousands of fertile valleys accessible only by footpaths carved into the mountain sides from centuries of use - that is northern Burundi. Living as squatters and sharecroppers, on lands belonging to the Hutu's and the Tutsi's are the Batwa Pygmies. The Twa comprise less that 1% of the tiny countries total population of nearly 10 million. (Burundi is only slightly larger than Maryland with double the population).

Mud Homes with Thatch Roofs

(Click on photos to enlarge)

In 2007, we first visited the Batwa (Twa) village near Murumvya, Burundi to share the Gospel of reconciliation. That day several came to salvation. The next year we installed a young pastor to shepherd the growing flock.

Pastor Renovat Barutwanayo is teaching, loving and discipling the young group of Batwa believers in Murumvya. His desire to see the Batwa, and surrounding people groups, has been a driving force behind the growth of the church at Murumvya.

Temporary Church Building

In 2008, The How Far Foundation provided bean and potato seed for the Batwa. They have land to cultivate but no funds to buy the seed.

Pastor Renovat Distributing Assistance

Pastor Augustine, the Head of our Churches West of Lake Victoria, and Phillip Haynes (R), Crimson Academy Co-Founder, Show the Potato Seed

Some Members of Gihara Church

While in Burundi this past July howFar was able to purchase several acres of land for a new church compound. The final deed will be given to us in January 2011 and construction will begin.

Inspecting Land for the howFar Compound


Pastor Barutwanayo is married and has five children.

Prayer Requests:

For God to supply funds for Pastor Renovat to live on.
For spiritual protection for the church members.
For the witness of the church to impact the region.
For the proper paperwork to deed the land to the church in January 2011.
For many Batwa (Twa) to come to Christ

"You Share with Me?"

Sonya’s Story

It was already late in the afternoon. The sun was sitting just above one of the many mountain ridges that make the sprawling city so time consuming to navigate. My driver and aid, Maurice, had been running all over Kigali trying to locate some medications that the doctor at King Fisal Hospital had prescribed for me while I was a patient there. I still wasn’t feeling well after my bout with a kidney stone and I needed a strong pain killer for the flight home.
Although I was thanking God that the worst was over I was still frustrated, uncomfortable, tired, weak and hungry so we stopped at a small cafe to eat. A young women came to our table and introduced herself as Sonya. I ordered something from the menu along with several bottles of water. The choices were limited to just a few things.

Our food finally arrived and after just a few bites I was full. My stomach had shrunk during the several days of my painful ordeal. Most of my meal was still on my plate, untouched.

The young women who had taken our order came by to check on us several times. Each time she asked if my food was okay. I would smile and say “yes” and she would disappear back into the kitchen. Finally, she approached the table one last time. This time her voice was low. I nearly missed her question.

“You share with me”, she said?

Her meek and desperate plea absolutely froze me. So consumed by my own condition I had forgotten why I was in Rwanda. In an instant, through a timidly whispered question, God jerked me away from myself and back to others.

All I could do was shake my head and hand my plate to her. Sonya’s smile of gratitude is unforgettably etched in my memory forever.

Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa. It’s economy still recovering from the devastating genocide of 1994. Ninety percent of Rwandans are subsistence farmers barely surviving on what they can produce. The average Rwandan lives on a meager 43 cents (US) per day.

For more on our work in Rwanda go to www.howFar.org or www.howFarFoundation.org

Pastor of the Month - Meet Reuben ole Tiges

Pastor Reuben ole Tiges with wife Leah and children Hillary and Diana. 2007

Lake Jipe with the Parr Mountains of Tanzania in the Distance

In the distance you can see the tiny fishing village where Kacharo Church, one of our church plants, sits on the shore of Lake Jipe.

Click on images to enlarge.

In June of 2005 God led the Maynard family to a small Maasai village in Kenya. The village rests near the Tanzanian border and is within view of Lake Jipe, the Parr Mountains and majestic Mount Kilimanjaro. In Maasai the village is known as Orkung'u or High Ground.

Pastor Reuben reads from a Maasia Bible

In God's sovereign plan we were able to build a relationship with the elder of the village, Reuben ole Tiges (Reuben son of Tiges) and soon after a church was planted in the village.

Lake Jipe Church, Kenya


In 2006, God called Reuben to Pastor Lake Jipe Orkung'u Church and he became the physical and spiritual leader in his village.

Since that time God has blessed the church tremendously. HowFar, in partnership with Sugar Hill Church (FBSH, Georgia) and three donors, purchased 14 acres for a compound, a church building was constructed, a school and now a deep water well. The church has become the center of life in the area with an influence far beyond the village.

Lake Jipe School Educating 150 Maasai Children. A howFar Partnership with the Government of Kenya.

New Classroom Under Construction, July 2010

One of our of Classrooms at Lake Jipe School

It has become the seat of government housing the Assistant Chief of the area during the week. We are so blessed that the church is now used as the central distribution point for supplemental food from agencies like World Relief and US Aid. It is very rewarding to see sacks of maze flour and beans and one gallon cans of cooking oil with the red, white and blue message reading, "A Gift from the People of the United States of America".

New Deep Water Well on the howFar Compound. Lake Jipe, Kenya. July 2010.

Jipe Orkung'u Village with Church and School from atop Jipe Mountain

Under Pastor Reuben's leadership new churches have been planed along the Kenya/Tanzania border. In 2006 he was called to be the Overseer (sometimes called Bishop) of our network of 15 howFar Ministries churches.


Reuben is married to Leah and has two children, Hillary and Diana.

Pray that God continues to give Pastor Reuben ole Tiges wisdom as he labors in our Fathers field in Kenya and Tanzania.

Pastor of the Month - Meet Japhet Mwagese

Pastor Japhet Mwagese and his wife, Anna, shepherd the twenty-five members of Kachero Church located in a small fishing village along the shore of Lake Jipe, Kenya. The church structure, made possible by a gift from the WMU of The Family Church - Sugar Hill, Georgia, was dedicated on April 29, 2007.


The village is comprised of a combination of Christian and Muslim people. Alcoholism, immorality and witchcraft are terrible blights on the village. Pray for Pastor Japhet as he brings the Light to the people of Kachero.


The Mwagese's, who have four children, scrape out a subsistence living on a small farm near Lake Jipe.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Prayer Requests & Needs:

For Pastor Japhet to continue to persevere in a tough and hostile environment.
For God to provide for his family.
For God to break Satan's hold in a very dark village.
Protection for the family from spiritual and cultural forces.

East Africa WAPI (Water Pasteurization Indicator) Distribution

840 Rotary/Interact Club WAPI’s delivered to East Africa.

Six hundred-fifty Water Pasteurization Indicators have been distributed in the low-income areas of Kigali, Rwanda. The government of Rwanda is aggressively working to improve conditions for the poor who live in the lower valleys that wind through the city. However, there is a long way to go before clean water is accessible to everyone. Many still draw water from ditches and low-lying pools fed by contaminated runoff. Sadly, water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid contribute to numerous deaths every year. The WAPI is currently the only affordable alternative to chemical purification or purification by boiling.

"Young Couple Draw Water From Contaminated Ditch in Kigali"

One hundred fifty WAPI's were sent to a rural village one hour northeast of Kisumu, Kenya. While in Rwanda we received an urgent call from Lillian Abuto, the wife of my aid, Maurice Amadi Abuto. Lillian was in the hospital in Kisumu with a serious case of cholera. The village where Lillian’s family works a small shamba (farm) is in a remote area that is very dry with few wells. The family was forced to draw water from the only source they could locate...a stagnant pool of runoff left over from the rainy season. It is the place where livestock gather from miles around to water, and naturally, they defecate in the water.

An outbreak of cholera soon swept through the local villages because of the contaminated water. The villagers understood that the water needed to be boiled before it was consumed. According to my aid, Maurice, the villagers don’t always know when the water has reached a high enough temperature to kill harmful bacteria.

"Elephant and Cattle Pollute the Only Water Source Within 20 Miles"

In this case, people who are as close to me as my own family have suffered tremendously. The simple resolution to their suffering is a WAPI.

Thanks to the Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett, and the area Interact Clubs, for making this resource available to people in desperate need of help.

Pastor of the Month - Meet Emmanuel Lazier

We were first introduced to Pastor Emmanuel at a pastors conference at Taveta, Kenya in October of 2007. At first glance Emmanuel appeared to be just a boy. But I soon learned that inside was the heart of a man and the heart of a pastor.

Emmanuel Lazier has been the Shepherd of Lossimingori Church since its beginning in 2007 and dedicated a new church building there in August of 2008. The land for the church at Lossimingori was donated by Emmanuel's father.

Our young pastor, so similar to Paul's Timothy, has done an outstanding job in his church and has taken the gospel message to many distant Massai villages sprinkled across the central Tanzania savanna.


Pastor Emmanuel is currently in his second year at Tanga Christian Bible College on the northern coast of Tanzania. He has been awarded a full scholarship. While away his Associate Pastor oversees the main church at Lossimingori and the others in the area.

Pastor Emmanuel is engaged to be married next year.

Prayer Requests & Needs:

Two Associate Pastors
A Parallel Bible
Funds to replace rotten benches