Mission trips are all about helping others. Diane and her story are a great example of how mission trips can change lives.
Diane is smiling because her dream has come true. After being orphaned at age 13 with her three-year-old sister, Diane had little hope for the future. All of her family’s resources had been used up, spent to care for her dying parents. Diane had to drop out of school to beg and work for food, and her family home was falling down around her.
As she wandered her rural village begging for food and looking for work, she often thought, “what a blessing a cow would be!” Milk to drink every day would be amazing – and unimaginable. At this point in time, Diance had not been exposed to any missionary trips or organizations like Zoe Empowers.
Yet, here she is today with her cow, a dream realized. In Rwanda, Zoe Empowers Empowers uses a mission trip to provide one cow to a group of four orphan families. One family keeps it until it gives birth to a calf. That family keeps the calf and passes the cow on to the next family until all of the families have a cow. Diane’s group of families decided to let her keep the cow first, so they would have regular milk to drink and sell.
Since joining her Zoe Empowers working mission trip group in Rwanda, Diane now has friends who visit her and help her with short-term mission trips and projects. They helped her repair her home so she and her sister had a safe place to live.
Through Zoe Empowers, Diane has worked hard and learned a lot about farming and caring for animals. Today she has a pig in addition to her cow and has started a sweet potato and bean farm. She has a latrine, mosquito nets, and clean water to drink. And she and her sister have returned to school. Diane prays every day, giving thanks to God for the blessings of her new life. Diane is one of many young adults in Africa, impacted by Zoe Empowers, because of our amazing staff, children’s ministry, and numerous mission trips.