Dear Reader,

Verena and I know how you have carried our recent trip to Rwanda on your hearts and prayers. We thank God for that, and would now like to share with you some of the thoughts that come to mind after being here for three days.

What can one say? Up to 1 million people – one tenth of the population – were massacred right here just 15 years ago. At first, we dreaded the idea of traveling to this country, but now we thank God for allowing this trip to happen.

Rwanda is small, only as big as Maryland. As one flies into the capital, one notices that there are houses everywhere, with little open countryside left. Kigali is clean, though, and seems to be safe, with the people friendly and hospitable. Many houses have been rebuilt since the chaos and destruction of 1994.

But it does not take long to find out that these are a suffering people. One of the first things we did was to tour the genocide memorial museum. Going through this museum was a nightmare. The last time I experienced anything like it was when we toured Yad Vashem – the Holocaust museum – in Israel.

Visiting this museum is a must for travelers to Rwanda, and helps them to understand a little of the horror that people here went through. We saw thousands of human skulls and bones on display, as well as video clips of suffering and brutality hard to describe. Around the outside perimeter of the museum there are mass graves of concrete, which contain the remains of at least 250,000 people. We became quieter and quieter as we viewed all of this.

One thing that we felt after walking through this museum was that we need not worry for the dead. We may mourn their loss, but it is much more important now to pray for the living. The trauma and despair in the hearts and souls of the Rwandan people are horrendous. Everyone we met, old or young, had a story.

For example, we talked to one young woman who had seen with her own eyes her baby being cut into two and thrown into the river. Later, she found the little body parts washed back ashore, and was able to bury her little one. This same mother has a large machete wound on her head and is missing her right hand. Miraculously, she and the child’s killer told us their stories together, and then hugged and forgave one another.

Another mother saw her husband killed right at home, in front of their 5-year old son – who recognized the killer as an acquaintance of the family. This woman then lost touch with her two youngest children but was reunited with them after three years. She told us her story under tears. She said she believes deeply in her country’s need for reconciliation, and wants to dedicate the rest of her life to helping children find this forgiveness. We heard other such stories which show how God is working in this country – working quietly to help people find redemption, one by one. It made us think of the words of Isaiah: that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

But many people, especially the young, are still hard and bitter. They do not want to talk about the events of 1994. They simply cannot handle it. And they are the ones who need our prayers.

We tasted this hardness firsthand when we were asked to speak on forgiveness to about 1,000 university students. There we experienced anger and resentment, also against America. One professor told us – to the cheering and applause of his audience – that we had no right to talk about forgiveness to the Rwandan people. So it is clear that the seeds of hatred have been passed down to the next generation. They are being told that the work of killing Tutsis is not yet over and has to be finished one day.

The genocide has now had a defining impact on Rwandan history, just like the Holocaust in Germany has had on German history. It seems that many Rwandans do not like this. They would like to forget it, sweep it under the rug, and move on with their lives.

For the sake of future generations, however, there needs to be continued dialogue about what happened in 1994. The question will always need to be asked: "How can people commit such horrendous crimes against each other?" Rwandans need to help their children come to grips with this part of their history, and point them to the fact that even if it is not easy, forgiveness is the only answer, and the only real way to ever move on.

Two contrasting powers are still strongly at work here. During our visit, it has sometimes seemed that the devil is winning, but the stories of forgiveness we hear are sure proof that God’s love is also powerfully alive. Being in Rwanda is a humbling privilege and is surely changing our lives.

Greetings,

Johann Christoph Arnold

 

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