Article by: Pastor Ruben Ruganza, Founder and President
In 2005, God birthed the vision for FAMA Ministries in my heart. It was one of the lowest times in my life. I had just fled my native country with my family because of the tribal wars. I was a particular target. I had already barely escaped with my life in 1988, 1996, and 1998. In 2004, I fled my homeland for the last time in horrendous conditions. I had only $50 in my pocket because war had exploded around me while I was in church. We left everything behind to save our lives. I had much of my extended family with me, including my parents and the family of my youngest brother. There were 15 of us.
When we arrived in Burundi, I was very preoccupied about how to support all of these people with no resources and no job. One night while I was worrying about this, I thought about all of the suffering we had gone through just because we were born into a particular tribe. I thought about all of the handicapped people in my family—my dad, my mother-in-law, my beautiful then teen-aged daughter. I was completely desperate because I couldn’t see any solution. I remember that my wife was nearby preparing food outside over a fire. There were lots of mosquitoes around that were biting us all the time. While I was feeling almost hopeless, God spoke to me about my attitude. He told me that I didn’t need to worry so much because there were many families around me living in worse conditions. He let me know that I had to stop looking only at my little family and needed to consider His big family and its needs. That is how I first began to think about a ministry focused on protecting, rehabilitating, and restoring the family. FAMA Ministries was born.