Comfort Rwanda is working in partnership with The Living Church in Rwanda and works closely with its vice-president, Paul Ndahigwa. Paul lost many family members during the genocide; and the suffering of those who had been tortured, raped and mutilated made the message of forgiveness a hard one to preach. “It was a genocide that was quite different” explains Paul. “We had the same culture, language and religion and the killers were often relatives of others who were killed. They killed the pregnant women and ripped out the babies. They took little children and swung them against walls. Not everyone took part but the accusation against those who did not was “what did you do when others were killed? What did you do to prevent it? Did you think it was a game?”
A
perpetrator of genocide and a survivor embrace at a
healing and reconciliation group
(read their testimony on the left column)
After the genocide Paul
began to preach the gospel of peace to survivors and
God gave him a message for the healing of the nation.
With help from the Pilgrim Center for
Reconciliation he started to organise 3
day retreats which brought Hutu and Tutsi together
to work through issues of hatred, bitterness, hurt
and forgiveness. Those who attended studied 2
Corinthians 5:14-21 and learnt the passage, then on
the third day there was a time of confession. As
they ate and fellowshipped together God began to do
amazing miracles. Even the pastors began to
recognise “how
can we be the healers of the people until we heal
our own hearts.” There are now around 250
facilitators throughout the country taking those 3
day retreats and supervising healing and
reconciliation groups.
One of the killers explains what has happened:
“I
was leading others to kill, but when I was in prison I
heard the Word of God and I realised what I had done.
So I decided to repent and ask forgiveness. Then we
formed this group and perpetrators and survivors are
now one in Christ.” Not all survivors feel able
to forgive but the healing and reconciliation groups
are helping survivors to find healing at the cross and
to forgive those who massacred their families.
“I
came to realise God wants me to forgive the
sinner” says one of the survivors.
To prove it she walks over to the man who killed her
family and embraces him.
The
start of another house being built for an orphan by
perpetrators of genocide at Karama
At Karama in the province
of Gitarama where 20,000 people were massacred,
genocidaires who have repented and been released from
prison are working together with the survivors to
rebuild homes they once destroyed. “We
do not have money, but we do have our
strength,” they say, and build with
mud bricks and branches. It is a practical expression
to the very people whose families they killed that
Jesus has changed their hearts. Many of those widows
and orphans have been without homes for 14 years,
flitting from house to house depending on who would
allow them to stay or living in shacks or ruins. The
corrugated iron roof, windows, doors and cement coating
are the only parts of the house that need money and
Comfort Rwanda partners the Healing and Reconciliation
groups to provide these components.
The programme has now expanded to nearby Kamonyi. At
Kamonyi one of the genocidairres sang a song which
said, “When
I was lost and blind I did things I couldn’t
control, but since I received Jesus I am a new
person”. One of the survivors
stood up and said of him “This
man is an example of what every person in Rwanda can do
and we forgive him more and more.”
Phil
Arbon from Paisley, Scotland encourages the
group at Kamonyi with Paul Ndahigwa
interpreting.
New
houses built by the men of the Healing and
Reconciliation group
and supported by Comfort Rwanda.
These
survivors were both left alone with no surviving
relatives.
Now married their house is built by transformed
genocidairres.
