A girl in Africa
Posted on Thursday, October 4, 2007 by oneP3 | (0) Comments
I (LS) have a friend that is Africa for 3 months. She left her comfy house, friends, family, and job to go serve in an HIV clinic. She did NOT ask for any money, she saved her money and paid for this adventure. That impresses me so much….that is TRUE sacrifice!!!!! She has sent some pretty amazing e-mails about the people she is working with and caring for. She sent this Forward on today, she heads to Rwanda next. WOW, forgiveness is hard…....but this really puts it into perspective!!!! No matter what the pain…Jesus calls us to forgive. Read on…...
“Recently a young woman encountered Rwanda and, as a result, encountered the great need for reconciliation in this place. She traveled to Kigali with a heart wide open and eyes that were willing to see beyond the visible. She listened to stories, tried to weave these stories with her own, and began to apprehend the magnitude of what reconciliation and forgiveness really mean. Reconciliation in this place, and so many other places around the world. Listen to Hannah’s encounter with the realities of Rwanda…
“I was eight years old when the genocide in Rwanda happened. I was probably playing outside on the tire swing with the neighbor boys or eating macaroni and cheese with my family without a thought in the world that a little girl my same age was watching her entire family be hacked to pieces right in front of her eyes. 1,000,000 innocent people were brutally murdered in 100 days in Rwanda just 13 years ago. This was one of the fastest execution of people in history.
I spent the last ten days traveling around Rwanda, studying the country and focusing on what really went on before, during and after the genocide of 1994. Our days were so packed with museums, speakers and traveling, and my emotions are so packed with heartbreak, confusion and hope, I don’t even know where to begin. I am also having a hard time finding the words that would bring justice to the horror of what happened.
To start off, Rwanda is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! It is so green and mountainous. It was hard to imagine the streets once covered with dead bodies. One memorial was at a school where 50,000 people were killed. The bodies were still there in empty classrooms for us to observe. I will never forget the smell of the dead and the way the bodies were contorted. Angelique was 11 when the genocide happened and her entire family and everyone she knew died. Angelique’s words will always be with me, “I am all alone. I have no one.” Domas was 11 as well and his story of survival is one of the realest miracles I have ever heard. Angelique and Domas are students at Rwanda University and had a meal with us to talk about their experiences with the genocide.Through all of the suffering and heartache we heard about and saw we were also able to see what the country is doing to put itself together and care for the survivors. They are working hard to bring peace and forgiveness to the people. The problem in Rwanda is that so many people were affected either because they participated in the killing or lost their families that in order for the people to move in they have to forgive each other and learn to live together. Domas talked about the kind of forgiveness he has to have on a day to day business because, “we are living with our killers.” We went to a woman’s home where half the woman there are widows because their husbands were killed in the genocide and the other half are widows because their husbands are in jail because they were the killers. The kind of forgiveness that the people in Rwanda has is like nothing I have ever seen. The people know that a horrible evil overtook their country and they are very determined to foster reconciliation. I sometimes have a hard time forgiving someone who has hurt me or someone I love and I am told in America that is ok to struggle with forgiveness because forgiveness is hard. Here in Rwanda and Uganda too, this attitude is silly. They know forgiveness is hard, but they also know it is necessary and the only way to move on with any hope of cultivating a culture of love where there is no room for hate or possibility for genocide.
~Hannah”
Reconciliation remains an urgent imperative in Rwanda. When you stand at a genocide memorial you cannot ignore the cost of hatred. When you sit among widows, both Hutu and Tutsi, you cannot miss how hard and necessary forgiveness is for them to live on another day. And your soul is seared by both the lush beauty and historical horrors that haunt this land of a thousand hills. You are forever changed. But you are not without hope, because the Gospel of Jesus speaks of reconciliation and declares us to be ministers of reconciliation in Rwanda, South Africa, Ireland and in our own neighborhoods