“How do I wrap my head around what happened here?” “I can’t possibly process what those three months must have been like.” “How could it happen in such recent history?” “The children, those precious children.” These are just a few of the comments that I’ve heard some of my fellow travellers make since coming to Kigali. Today, we visited the Kigali Memorial Centre where those statements became all the more poignant. As we walked through the hallowed halls of the Centre, viewing the history through film and still-picture format, as we made our way through the “children’s” room with walls clad with pictures of innocent little ones, then silently viewed the rows of skulls clearly marked by a bullet-hole or the fury of a machete, my heart ached inside my chest. Outside, 250,000 precious men, women and children are buried in mass graves under large thick slabs of concrete. Many of their names are etched into a black backdrop for anyone passing by to see. Such brokeness – such pain!

As in previous years, I walked out of the Centre and into the garden. I took some time to meditate – and process. Up in a tree, I heard a bird singing to his mate, completely unaware of the sadness that lay below. The flowers and well-manicured shrubs and trees seemed to bring some warmth to what we were experiencing but still, there was a weight that didn’t wish to leave my heart.

 

Then my mind was drawn back to our team devotions this morning based on 2 Corinthians 5:17-20, “Therefore, if anyone is In Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, the new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation …”.

I thought, “the only way that our Rwandan brothers and sisters can ever move forward is by extending the gift of forgiveness and reconciliation – just as Jesus extends His gift of forgiveness and reconciliation to any of us who choose to put our trust and faith in Him which is made possible through His death and resurrection.” The good news is that they already are – one of the reasons why Rwanda has become the model country in all of Africa.

Our God is a God who heals. He heals broken hearts, broken minds, broken lives, and broken relationships. In the words of one of Wellspring’s co-founders, Jeff Komant … “the Rwandan story is not the genocide, though understanding its history is important. The real story is yet to be written – and it is indeed being written.” And Wellspring is part of that story. The lack of Christian values-based education enabled the genocide – Wellspring is working hard to ensure that there will never be a genocide again. Please, oh God, may it be so.

Prayer:

Bring us to place of greater humility, help us be gentle and accommodating to our brothers and sisters who have suffered so much – let us be an extension of your grace. Amen