Deliver us from Evil

Yesterday was very moving - I had been invited by Louis to accompany him to a genocide memorial service in a small rural community called Ruhanga, about 45 minutes from here. He first took me there in 2000 on my first visit to Rwanda.and I was deeply affected by that first visit. The village centre at that time consisted of a badly damaged and deserted church building, some simple graves with an inscription nearby stating that George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, had visited a year or two earlier. Then Louis took me into a school building next door to meet the 200 orphans that had survived the genocide. He explained to me that 5,000 people had been locked inside the church building and then killed by the Interahamwe militia. These children had somehow escaped death. many had been babies strapped to their mothers' backs and had been pulled out from under the bodies. Others had hidden or been injured and left for dead. Now they were living in the school being cared for as best he could by the village pastor and his wife.

I was keen to go back with Louis and see what had happened since then. When we arrived there were thousands of people there - all gathered under awnings in the open air on top of a mountain - close to the village of Ruhanga. The church where the massacre took place has been converted into a genocide memorial site and a new church building for the village has been put up.

Apart from Louis there were five other bishops and the archbishop all in their purple robes. Louis did the opening prayer as the parish is in his diocese. The whole thing took all morning. It was set out like a stadium with a large central space. A big truck appeared at one point and parked in the middle. Then the men started unloading coffins. They were lined up opposite where we were sitting on small benches to keep them off the wet ground. Each one was draped in purple and white cloth coverings and people kept coming forward and placing bouquets, framed photographs and huge flower arrangements on them. Some of these coffins were very large and only one or two were normal size. Some were group remains and some were whole families. I counted nine coffins in all but was told that they contained the remains of 159 people who had recently been dug up from a mass grave.

Some of the orphans stood and gave testimonies. One young woman (around 24 years) was very moving. She was old enough (about 6 years old at the time) to remember what happened. She witnessed her parents being murdered and then she was struck by a machete on the back of her neck and left for dead. Somehow, she survived and got away. She knew the man who had done this and he was eventually tried and sent to prison. Now he is out and back in the community. She witnessed to the love of Jesus in her life and that she had forgiven the man. She even called his name to ask him to come forward - but he either did not respond or maybe was not even there. People were in tears all around me - even the men. Crying is so against the Rwandese culture - they never normally would do this in public, if at all. Other people got up and sang mournful songs of great beauty and expressiveness. By this time the rain was pouring down in torrents, mud was everywhere and people were crowding in under the awnings. They said they welcomed the rain because it was like this in April 1994 and the heavy rain had meant that many people had been able to escape because the killers did not like "working" when it was raining so hard.

 Finally the coffins were all loaded back onto the truck to be removed to the memorial church for final burial. This was about 3/4 mile from the meeting place, the mud was deep and so Louis wisely told me to get in the car and wait. I am so pleased he did. I was out of the rain, I could observe the people and have a time of reflection about what I had witnessed. About 45 minutes later Noel, the driver got a signal from Louis to come and find him. The state of the track was appalling - there were vehicles everywhere - up to their axles in mud - but we found Louis and got on the way back fairly quickly. The ride down the mountain was interesting to say the least - a traffic jam in mud at an angle of 45 degrees - thank goodness we were in Louis's big 4 x 4 and not my small one! Louis told me on the way home that the church burial place was now completely full. The remains of 35,000 people are buried there.

What a day! I was the only 'mzungu' there - but no-one made me feel an outsider. In fact I met several clergy who had been my students at KATC a few years ago. It was a privilege to have been invited and to be with the people at this time.

Thy Kingdom Come

God's kingdom is where God's people are.At the weekend we were a group of God's people from four nations meeting together and celebrating our friendship and our love of Jesus.

Charles Ndikumana and his wife Rose came up to Kigali by bus with their ministry colleague, Ezekiel. We spent three days together here in the ministry centre at Kanombe, sharing our hopes and plans, praying together and sharing fellowship. On Saturday evening we all went into Kigali City to the new bishop's residence at Kiyovu, not far from the St Etienne Cathedral. There we spent a good time with Winnie and Louis and all three boys. Iggy and David are home for the Easter break from their boarding school in Arusha, Tanzania. I was amazed at how tall they both are. Iggy is taller than me and dwarfs his mother. David is not far behind him.

This must make Iggy almost six feet tall - no wonder he loves playing basket ball at school and is on the junior team.

Barny is now a weekly boarder at Alpha, which he loves doing. He and another boy stay in the old family house along with the new headmaster.

I must say I miss them all as my immediate neighbours on the school campus. It is especially quiet just now as the schools are all on holiday and there is hardly anyone about.

This evening I am going up to Hope Village with Elsie and Nicholas Hitimana. It is genocide memorial week at the moment and they go every day to be with the widows. I have not done this for a couple of years so it will be good to see how they are all getting on.

Thunder and Lightening

In Rwanda now for a week. This time of year is always mixed climate wise - a glorious hot day followed by a dreich and cold one. The rainy season is upon us and the Rwandese love it because the countryside is revived with lush green vegetation and beautiful flowering shrubs and bushes wherever you look.

Last year I poked some tiny cuttings - geraniums, hibiscus, a blue flowering shrub and some nasturtiums into the garden of the ministry centre. I did this more in hope than expectation! I was astonished when I arrived last week to see my front patch transformed with flowers and shrubs at least knee high. They have grown so fast that now I will need to thin them out to make room for further expansion. The rather miserable nut tree which Winnie planted about 4 or 5 years ago and stayed the same 12 inches high all that time is now about three feet tall! The mango tree I planted 3 years ago and has done nothing of note is now well over five feet. It is quite remarkable how fast these plants have taken off. Maybe I will be able to harvest some mangoes later on.

We have had some spectacular thunderstorms - thankfully I have been indoors at home when they have happened. The sheer volume of water is incredible and these storms have sometimes gone on all night - with the rain thundering on the tin roof at high volume. I have become resigned to leaks and floods now - as long as they are not directly on my head when I am in bed I can cope!