When we do what is according to God's will, He will always help us, often in quite unbelievable ways.

In my testimony "God filled my empty hands" I described the incredible projects we were able to realise in this bitterly poor and genocide-stricken country, all carried out by lay people whose strength is based on allowing themselves to be led by God in prayer and unwaveringly believing in his help.

I would now like to give three examples of what God has done to help us obtain the necessary funds, how "heavenly management" has helped us overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and how God has guarded our donations so that they arrive in Rwanda unharmed. There have been similar providences again and again, otherwise we would never have been able to cope with these huge tasks.

In 2014, Bishop Damascène showed us the parish church in the village of Rasano, which looked like a warehouse in need of renovation and was the only church for thousands of people in the wide area. Bishop Damascène asked me to take over the financing of a new and large church. The cost estimate was just under 63,000 Euros. At first I had to take a deep breath because of this very high sum, then I told the bishop and all the people present that I cannot promise anything, I can only ask God to send donors to help finance this church. I gave each person present another rosary and asked them that the whole parish pray for God's help. Within a very short time we had collected this sum, so that the next year this church could already be consecrated.

The exciting thing was that in the same year, not only Bishop Damascène had asked me to finance a church, but also Father Ubald. The existing church in the village of Mushaka could no longer hold the large crowd of people who wanted to come to mass regularly. An enlargement was urgently needed. The costs would amount to about 42,000 Euros. I then told Father Ubald that, for once, I could not help him in this case because I had just promised the bishop the financing of the church in Rasano. I saw no possibility at all of ever being able to get such an incredibly high total sum through donations. But I also asked Father Ubald to pray with his congregation for this project. If God wants it that way, he will help him too.

Some time later, when I was back home, Father Ubald called me and repeated his request. Trusting in God's help, he had already started to rebuild the church. My answer was again the same: "I can't help you this time. Where am I going to get the money?"

Only a few moments after this conversation, the phone rang again, this time my friend Irene answered. She told me that she would transfer a sum of 42,000 euros to me for a project in Africa. I was stunned, God reacts incredibly quickly!

What had happened?

Many years ago I had taken part in a bus trip to Schio, to a Marian shrine in Italy. The bus was full and there was only one seat left next to me. On the way, another woman got on. Her name was Irene and she sat down in the only free seat next to me. I liked her from the start and we had a good exchange about our faith experiences. In Schio, there was also only one twin-bedded room left, so we shared it. I told Irene a lot about my projects in Rwanda and she told me about her living situation, we became friends. Her husband unfortunately died a few years ago. She had inherited a large villa with a beautiful large park from him. She had wanted to sell this large property several times, but had not found a buyer so far. I made the following suggestion to her: St. Joseph, who organised the life of Jesus with Mary, is often called upon by people as an intercessor with God for various organisational problems. She should ask St. Joseph to help her sell the property and in return she should donate a certain percentage to a charitable project.

She took this advice and soon after was able to sell the house with the park for a very, very good price. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, however, she forgot about her promise to donate a small part of the sum to a charitable project. Now, after all these years, she has suddenly remembered her promise and called me to say that she still owes St. Joseph € 42,000 for the sale of her villa and land.  It was precisely this amount that I needed to finance Fr Ubald's project. That was heavenly time management!

In this context, the following is also interesting: In the shrine of Schio is the tomb of St. Bakhita. We once made a pilgrimage with Father Ubald to Schio, where he met St. Bakhita. He had not known about her before. When he built his peace centre in Rwanda, he also built a church in honour of St Bakhita and received a relic of this saint from Schio for his church.

The second example shows the heavenly protection that we were allowed to experience again and again in different ways:

In 2008 there was a severe earthquake in Rwanda, which caused terrible damage on top of the war damage. So much help was needed again. We prayed in confidence that God would help us this time too.  It was unbelievable how much money and material donations had been collected within a short time to rebuild the destroyed churches, schools, kindergartens and training workshops and to make them earthquake-proof. A large container was also donated, which was filled to the brim with donations in kind, starting with a wonderful statue of the Virgin Mary for a church, a small organ, machines for carpentry workshops, a welding machine and 2.5 tons of steel sheets for a locksmith's workshop, sewing machines, three tons of exercise books, tons of clothing and bed linen for a hospital, and many, many other high-quality goods. The container was already sent on its way in April. We wanted to go to Rwanda again in the summer, and we wanted to hand over the donations to the respective recipients ourselves.

The transport again showed how God works when we try to fulfil His will and entrust our worries and concerns to Him in prayer.

When we were in Rwanda in July, to our great disappointment, the container had not yet been delivered. We could not understand it and had to accept this fact. Our donations reached Rwanda only at a time when we were back home in Austria.

When we inquired about the reasons for the delay, it turned out that for some unknown reason the container had not been loaded onto the ship intended for the transport. It therefore had to be transported to Africa on the next ship. It only became known afterwards that the ship on which our container was originally supposed to be transported had been hijacked by pirates off Somalia. If our relief supplies had been transported on the cargo ship originally intended for this purpose, they would have been lost just like all the other containers. Heaven prevented this......

The third example shows how heaven helped us with organisational problems that seemed insoluble.

Father Ubald burns for the reconciliation of the ethnic groups in his homeland, which has been badly affected by genocide. Up to 50,000 people often gather for his reconciliation and healing services. Time and again, God heals the bodies and souls of many believers.

In 2009, the idea was born to buy a large plot of land and build a reconciliation and evangelisation centre on it. We were able to raise the purchase price of 200,000 Euros for the land in a surprisingly short time. In 2012, this faith and reconciliation centre called "The Center for the Secret of Peace" was to be inaugurated on 13 August.

We also organised a large container with relief goods in 2012, its transport to Bremen for shipment to Africa was planned for 2 May.

On 29 April, a Sunday, Father Ubald suddenly called me and asked me urgently to quickly organise a large statue of the Virgin Mary from Medjugorje for his peace centre. He didn't get involved in any conversation, he just said emphatically that I had to do it, that he would pray for it, then he hung up.

Medjugorje is a place in Bosnia - Herzegovina where Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is currently appearing to visionaries. As these apparitions are still ongoing, the Church has not yet made an official statement on the matter. Mary calls herself the Queen of Peace there, which is why Father Ubald wanted a statue of Mary from Medjugorje for his peace centre.

For me, this did not seem feasible. In three days the container would be picked up by a forwarding agent in Graz and delivered to Bremen. Organising a large statue of the Virgin Mary from Medjugorje in this extremely short time could never be done. Oh, Mary help!

Then unbelievable things happened.

I called a bus driver friend of mine and asked him if he happened to be in Medjugorje or going there. He replied in the negative, but told me that he knew of another bus operator who was in Medjugorje at the moment and who would be back on 1 May. Since I also knew this bus operator, Mr. Gölles, I called him and told him my problem. I asked him to buy for me the biggest and most beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary, and to bring this "Queen of Peace" for Father Ubald's Peace Centre in Rwanda.

Usually, Mr. Gölles' bus is always full when he goes to Medjugorje. This time, however, the bus was not full, so there was still room in the boot. The large container that held the statue filled this empty space exactly. The container could not have been a centimetre higher, longer or wider.

The third unbelievable coincidence happened on the border between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Since 1 May is a holiday in many nations, there were a lot of short holidaymakers on the road, and at the border there were already ten buses waiting to be checked and cleared. From experience, this could take hours, especially because this is the external border to the European Union, where controls are usually strict. It was also questionable how long the customs formalities for this large statue would take and how much duty would have to be paid. When Mr. Gölles tried to get in line with his bus, the customs officer waved him through and they could continue their journey unhindered.

At a motorway service station on the border between Slovenia and Austria, the container with the statue was then transferred from the bus to our own van, taken to our parish in Graz and stowed in the container waiting there. An hour later, the haulage company was already on its way to Bremen with the container for embarkation.....

Maria helped!