We Must Grow Together

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 killed in the churches during Genocide. The children ask, ‘Why?’ People ask, ‘Why children, why parents?’ The answer can only be (some think), ‘the Devil was attacking.'”

However, this answer is not enough — the children are growing up with hatred in their minds and hearts because of these atrocities, and they need a more complete answer, one that does not skirt the issues.  They need education and training so that history does not repeat itself. Pastor Deo seeks to help the children and others with these difficult questions by focusing on bringing a spiritual component to this education and to teach them along the way about reconciliation. The hope is to help the children understand that “we are all Rwandans. We must grow together.”

Gerrit: “Some people do not think that the youth ministry is important to reconciliation. But they miss the point – youth ministry is vital and to the growth of Rwanda, and to the healing of Rwanda’s wounds.”

Pastor Deo’s vision for the Association for Children Assistance (ACA) came out of a time of working on facilitating reconciliation in the prisons. This revelation of the need for ministering to the youth came 5 years later, while Pastor Deo was in Nairobi, Kenya. God told him that he was doing a good job, but he had to help the young. “It [reconciliation] has to be planted in the youth.”

“The youth were fighting on the street every day.” After the vision he received in Nairobi, as he was on the way from the airport in Kigali, Rwanda, he saw two young boys in the street, fighting over a banana.  Pastor Deo took them to his office and spoke to them to try to settle the matter. After resolving that issue he asked the boys why they weren’t in school.  The answer: because they had no food at home.

After that time, Pastor Deo often brought the children to his office. His wife, Christine, left her job at a restaurant to help feed the children and teach them the Word of God. They started slowly, trying to introduce God and the concept of reconciliation to these homeless youth. After a year of counseling by Deo and Christine, along with prayer, and food for their hungry bodies,  they began to see changes in the children’s behavior. The practical help along with the spiritual nourishment had an impact. However, all this work was too much for only two people to do.

Pastor Deo recognizes the relationship between this program and the longterm development of the community.  The link is reconciliation.  He says, “Without this program for the youth there is no reconciliation, and with no reconciliation there is no strong and sustainable development in the community. The children will simply begin to fight again; history will be destined to repeat itself in a new generation.”

Gerrit: “But, with support these children will become peace makers and be an example for all of Africa. The future generation is the hope of Africa.”

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