The Lord has given both Donatien and Julia tender hearts for discipling and counseling parents, children, and young adults. God’s calling to Julia to join the African people started in her early 20’s when the Holy Spirit introduced her to intercession and placed a burden in her to live cross-culturally. After the course of another 20 years, she finally committed to move and serve the Lord in Rwanda.
Julia’s strengths in administration, communication, teaching and active listening are being used to promote connection and collaboration amongst the resident believers in Rukumberi. In the coming years, her vision is to promote more mental health resources through trauma seminars and practical solutions to the felt needs of the Rwandan community.
Donatien was introduced to Rwanda through a YWAM DTS (discipleship training school) team that visited his home country of Burundi for outreach in 2013. He traveled to Rwanda to complete his own DTS, then joined YWAM staff where he met the man who invited him to establish what is now Ingiro Ministries located in the village of Rukumberi.
Donatien has been working with students and village communities through providing community development and discipleship since 2017. His passion and delight to exemplify Jesus as a mediator of reconciliation is evident through the 9 years of planting and sustaining the community development efforts of Ingiro Ministries. He is currently working to train youth and parents in discipling others within their communities so that the Gospel can spread to other villages within Rwanda.
Together, Donatien and Julia hope to see Jesus become real to the least and the lost in the villages of Rwanda. They envision their combined gifts of discipleship, counseling, teaching, encouragement and compassion to continue opening doors of favor with local leaders in order to provide care to the ones who need it most. They look forward to hosting both local and international outreach teams in the areas of kids ministry, building homes, mental health and self-care, character building through soccer matches, youth development, and Bible teaching.