Healing the Wounds of Ethnic Trauma

June 19 in Kabuga, Rwanda: Heaven Rejoices over one sinner repenting
Rwanda has become like a second home to me as this is my fourth month-long visit since August 2010.  I know so many people here and new ones are added to my contact list every day. What a blessing!

I started my visit by preaching at Eglise Vivante in Kabuga, a vibrant church led by Pastor Deo Gashagaza with whom I work in the prisons and in the Villages of Reconciliation. The people are very responsive to the teaching of the Word and one gets energized tremendously in the process.  I especially appreciate that there are so many young adults attending who eagerly absorb the teachings and excitedly interact with me about the message afterwards.  The church is growing and new people are attending every Sunday. One young man, a first time visitor, received Christ and will now be discipled by the youth pastor & others. He walked right up to the front of the church in front of about 400 people and asked to become a follower of Christ.  The entire church erupted in praises and welcomed him ‘home’.  I think I got a glimpse of what happens in heaven when one sinner repents and follows Jesus! What a beautiful thing!

June 20-21 Revelation, Repentance, Healing, and Reconciliation
On Monday we started a 2-day seminar teaching 45 church leaders, pastors, evangelists and lay leaders on the topic of Healing The Wounds of Ethnic Conflict. Many of them came from other parts of the country, which is really a big sacrifice in time and finances. I found out that I was teaching the entire two days, but fortunately I was prepared  for this during the past 25 years and loved every minute of it.

A fun thing about teaching here is a lot of interaction during the teaching, and spontaneous dancing in between!  You would think that 2 days of teaching would be too much, but the energy is at such a level that one just cannot get tired (or feel that you are tired). The people also love to break into small groups to discuss and interact and the level of reporting from the different groups was off the charts. Many people were ministered to in their groups, but let me tell you about one that especially stood out to me.

A testimony of personal revelation and freedom from fear
A lady said that she had been in terrible bondage to hatred and fear since the Genocide against the Tutsis in 1994, always fearing that she would run into the man who killed her husband and son and that she would kill him.  She is a Christian, but could not come to terms with what had happened, even though she heard a lot of teaching and received counseling.  She said she heard something in the teaching that instantly clicked with her and her mind became totally renewed and then she understood that she had to forgive and lay down her fear and be freed from the bondage she had been living in.  It was so wonderful to see the newness of life in her eyes and her radiant face.  Pastor Deo told me it was a true miracle for them to see what had happened.

Moving from Prejudice to Celebrating Complementary Gifts
We also dealt with the topic of prejudice, but since the differences and past hatred between the Hutus, Tutsis and Twa are generally not discussed in the process of building a new nation, I asked Pastor Deo’s permission to openly discuss these matters,  and the people also eagerly agreed (especially the young adults).  We made lists on three separate pages of the flip chart where people called out the prejudices that exist toward that particular group.  Each page was filled with the most vile prejudices and also some very revealing ones, such as: the Hutus are called “Cultivators,” the Tutsis “Cattle Herders,” and the Twa “Potters” in a derogatory way.

I marveled that the Lord was highlighting these three things and I used it to show how God had put these three ethnicities together in Rwanda to complement one another’s gifting.  The cattle provide meat and milk and fertilizer for the cultivators to grow their products and the potters make receptacles for milk and food and flowers.  It was like a light bulb going on as they excitedly grasped the truth of this revelation and marveled at how they could have been so misled by Satan to see it as demeaning.  Dancing broke out as they hugged and complemented one another!  At the end of the day we took the three pages with the vile expressions outside and everyone ‘trampled it under their feet’ and then we burned the papers to express the death of those prejudices in their country. God received all the glory and people danced and praised Him for His marvelous ways and how He set many people free from years of prejudice.  The pages on which I had written “Cattle Keepers,” “Cultivators,” and “Potters” were displayed for the rest of the seminar as a reminder of what had been revealed to them.

Keep Us in Your Prayers
I will return to Vivante Church with Celeste on Sunday to introduce her and to preach again as Pastor Deo leaves for Canada on Saturday to attend a Prison Fellowship International Conference.  Today (Friday) Celeste will be introduced to Pastor Deo’s orphans and street children.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek God’s guidance together during this exciting time.