General Blogs
During the last week of June my dad (Gerrit) and I traveled to Byumba. While Byumba is only one and one-half hours away from Kigali, the two places are truly worlds apart. Kigali is a city; Byumba is a rural area where goats, cows and chickens are often seen on the roads. Be careful though— if you see a chicken run across the road, it means someone is trying to catch it for dinner and you might want to slow down the car so as to miss both the chicken and its human “predator.” When we arrived, Bishop Emmanuel and…
Reflections on Pastor Deo’s Ministry to Orphans by Joshua Wolfaardt- 6/22/12 One of the first things a person will notice upon arriving in Rwanda is all of the children walking on the streets. These children are not always with parents, and unfortunately quite a few are orphans. Pastor Deo tries to help these orphans learn about God and also attempts to feed and clothe as many as he can. I had previously given an update about Pastor Deo’s work, but this was the first time we had a chance to actually see it firsthand. Amazingly, we also ran into some…
Joshua Wolfaardt’s Perspective 6/21/12 Today my dad and I had the pleasure of visiting the Kimonyi Reconciliation Village where both genocide perpetrators and victims live and work alongside one another. As soon as we exited the car we were greeted joyfully with hugs, dancing, and singing. The elected leader of the village, a genocide perpetrator who killed more than 200 people and had repented asked for forgiveness, came to welcome us to Kimonyi. One small child instantly grabbed my hand and walked with me for the entire duration of the visit. Dad was dancing amongst the people as they sang….
by Joshua Wolfaardt in Kigali, Rwanda. June 20, 2012 Ed. note: Gerrit and his son Joshua are in Rwanda now and send the following story of how one man and his wife began to make a difference in the lives of many youth in Rwanda. The conversation below is between Pastor Gerrit Wolfaardt and Pastor Deo Gashagaza: There are two common questions that are coming from people when they ask how to help in Rwanda: “How do we combat poverty?” and “How can we help to restore and recover Rwanda?” Here are some responses to those questions. Deo: “People were…
[Ed.’s note: Please click on the orange “+” sign at the bottom of this post to share it with your friends!] My sixth visit to Rwanda convinced me (not that I really needed it) that the first five trips were not successful by chance, but by the grace of God. It is truly amazing what God is doing in this country, and I am blessed beyond measure to be part of it. My friend Nico van der Merwe, who is now the Chairman of the WordFAN Board of Directors, invited a friend of his from Singapore to visit Rwanda with us to…
On Monday, October 31st, we travelled from Kigali to Kimonyi Village once again. Through Prison Fellowship Rwanda, The Word for All Nations was able to deliver ten industrial “Singer” sewing machines that will be used by a women’s co-op at Kimonyi Village. The villagers met us in the same field where they like to perform, and Gerrit was able to officially hand over the machines and pray a blessing on their use in the community. In addition to the delivery of machines, WordFan donors also provided for six months of training on the machines at Kimonyi Village. Our prayer is…
Prison Fellowship Rwanda posted a great blog about Gerrit and Thabo and the filming of “Dancing on a Thousand Hills.” They write: This week was a particularly busy one for the PFR staff as we welcomed two very important visitors: Gerrit Wolfaardt and his son Thabo, both born and raised in South Africa and now living in the United States. Gerrit has an incredible story that led him to Rwanda. Having grown up as a white Afrikaaner during Apartheid he was taught by everyone around him, his school, his church, and his parents, to hate ‘the Blacks’. Read the full blog…
UPDATE! See video about the Reconciliation Village recently posted. click here. Wednesday, October 26th. We got to go to Kimonyi Village for the first time. We filmed the dancers and singers performing as well as a community lunch afterwards. Thursday, October 27th. We returned to Kimonyi to shoot scenes around the village. We also had some time to film our first interviews – with an ex Hutu rebel (one of the lead dancers in the Kimonyi Reconciliation Village Dance Troupe), and his Tutsi wife, as well as with an elderly lady who lost her husband and nine children in the…
On Monday we traveled to Mukono where the school children have to walk two miles twice a day (5am and 4pm) down a mountain to get buckets of water. Fils, Safali, and I accompanied them on the trek at 4pm and we shot incredible footage. It looked like it was going to rain the whole time, with wind picking up but, miraculously, the clouds rolled around us. Click on photos to enlarge and click again to make smaller On Tuesday morning, we got up early to film the students leaving for water and returning with their heavy containers up…
We are back in Kigali after traveling around a good portion of the country for the past week and it has been quite incredible… My son Thabo (a filmaker for Los Angeles) and I left for Byumba last Saturday where we stayed with Bishop Emmanuel Ngendahayo and his wife Vicky in the Byumba Diocese. The church was having a special event for the community in honor of Reconciliation and Unity week and my son filmed it. The highlight of the event was the hand-over of cows and goats to impoverished but responsible locals. Various officials and army officers took turns…
