My heart is in Rwanda...

Originally published Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 2:22pm

I have been asked more than once since I returned.... How was Africa? Often the question is posed in the casual nature of a request about the weather, as if in a few words I could sum up the entire experience. Those that have been there understand, it's not something you can express easily in words of any kind. Most will tell you that the best way to know how it was is to go yourself and experience it for yourself. Obviously, experience is one of the best teachers. However, taking a three week trip to Africa is obviously not something that everyone can do, especially on nothing more than a whim. I will here attempt to put into words an idea of what it was like as best as mere words can describe.

We left on Saturday the 11th at about 10 am. As we drove to Washington, DC to catch our flight, we stopped briefly along the turnpike to get some fluids and to use the restrooms. At our stop, they just happened to be serving Rwandan coffee. While driving down the road, a semi truck passed us with gold lettering emblazoned on its red painted exterior stating clearly, "Jesus is Lord." The seemingly innocuous events reminded me of Ephesians 2:10 - For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. It felt like the concept that God had gone in advance to prepare the way for us and what we would do. I knew I wouldn't have to worry about our safety or what we would do or where we would stay. It had already been worked out for us.

We arrived in Rwanda's capital of Kigali late in the evening of the next day. At this point, we still were uncertain of where we would be staying or what the cost was. When we arrived, there was no one there to meet us. As it turned out, Jean Paul had somehow thought we were arriving on Tuesday instead of when we did arrive - Sunday. He came as quickly as he could and arranged to have three taxis take us to a hotel in Kigali where we spent the night. If memory serves, it was in the morning of the next day that Bruce, a pastor at Calvary and the leader of our missions project, informed us of our living arrangements for the next three weeks. A group of college students from Florida State University had rented a house in Gitarama and paid for the entire month. They had left a few days before we arrived. We were given the house to stay in free of charge. The money that we had intended to spend on the rental costs could now be given to the boys home in Biyamana as a gift towards one of the projects that money was needed for. This included both a basketball court for them as well as doubling their storage capacity for water.

I believe I was the only member of our team, new to Rwanda, that didn't get a feeling of culture shock when we arrived. Surprisingly, Rwanda felt more comfortable and more like home to me than America had. Not being shocked by the cultural differences did not prevent me from noticing the many differences between our cultures. I believe during our total time in Gitarama and traveling to Biyamana that aside from our group of ten, I only saw about 5 other mazungas (white people). Given my six and a half feet of hairy whiteness, I was often the most watched member of our team. Some Rwandans had never seen a mazunga before. Moreover, as far as mazungas go, I happen to be overly hairy. Often I would find Rwandans walking up to me, or sitting next to me and rubbing their hands up and down my arms to feel the hair that covered them. Children from the village of Byimana would rub my hairy arms and ask me, "What's this?" Barely a single African had hair on their arms. Not only was my being white shocking to them, but possessing hair to keep me warm in the colder climates I hailed from was virtually unheard of.

All of this petting demonstrated one of the most recognizably different traits between the average Rwandan and the average American. They love people... unconditionally and with no pretenses. I do not mean to offend any American reading this that suddenly feels disenfranchised by the suggestion that a group of people in Africa might have a greater capacity to love than they do. It is entirely possible that God has given you, dear reader, an enormous capacity to love others that exceeds that of the average Rwandan. Now, if your ire has cooled, I would ask you to consider this... 15 years ago, Rwanda had a genocide. At the time, they possessed a population of approximately 9 million people. After 100 days, the population was cut down to 8 million people. About 1/8 of the population was mercilessly wiped out. Families were halved. Those that sided with the "race" being wiped out were also murdered. Almost everyone lost someone that they cared about. Currently about 80% of the population is under 30 years old.

Allow me to put this into perspective. Do you remember 9/11? The death toll was approximately 2,752 people. Do you remember how outraged and patriotic we felt? It seemed that our patriotism and shared feelings lasted strongly for about a year after the event had occurred. Now imagine instead that the murders had been done by our own people instead of by people from outside of the country that hated us. It would be far more difficult to hate anyone in particular and far more challenging to decide who to focus our feelings toward. Not only that, but 1 million people were murdered. So take the feelings you had during 9/11 and multiply them by about 363 times. I can't imagine that anyone in the country was not personally effected by such an event. Given the sheer scale of this tragedy, the survivors would certainly be effected in such a way that their perspectives on life would receive a massive fundamental shift. Life and its various respects would suddenly have new meaning. The value of life would be understood and recognized in a way that wasn't possible before. Two outcomes could have occurred from this tragedy. Everyone could have become plagued with fear, hatred, denial and then moved into introversion and hid from the world and its horrors. In Rwanda, quite the opposite seemed to have occurred, an event that can only be attributed to the awesome wonder and redemption of God.

Rwanda learned love. It is hard for me to imagine that a country poised to commit genocide - pregenocidal Rwanda - could have been as filled with love as it is now. God does amazing things. Rwanda seems to be a perfect example of how God can bring about great redemption, healing, and life from horrible tragedy, destruction, and loss. The theme recurs countless times in countless places throughout creation. Forest fires promote growth and new life. The aftermath of a volcanic eruption leaves some of the most fertile soil that can be found on the earth. Following the horrors of the Rwandan genocide the victims forgave the murderers and the country found (and is finding) a way to move on. Christ died to bring life to many. One cannot help but stand in awe of God's love, power, majesty, and glory.

We stood realizing the truth of Rwanda. Their people had less than us... less materialistically, less worldly wealth. However, in the things of God... the things that cannot be seen or measured - the intangibles, they were among the richest people on Earth. Some of us came to Rwanda believing that we would accomplish something for them. After our two and a half weeks just about everyone had realized that we had gained far more from them than we could have done for them. They showed us one of the things that is most important in walking with Christ - love. Without it, everything else is meaningless.

I could tell you about our trip to the genocide memorial in the capital city. I could mention our day trip to Akagera national park where we saw some giraffes, gazelles, hippos, birds, and zebras. I could describe our circular hike over a mountain in the land of a thousand hills. However, for team Rwanda, the most eventful and meaningful experience we had over those two and a half weeks was our almost daily trip to a little village called Byimana where we gave our imperfect love to 30 boys and the village they lived in while they showed us a more perfect love.

Personally, I had two significant experiences during the trip that had a deep and lasting impact on me. The first I can only share in person. The second was a little girl named Godance. She was three years old. This little girl demonstrated love to me in a more godly way than I had known previously. When I first met her, she sang everywhere that she went. This three year old demonstrated to me the kingdom of heaven in the way that I expect Jesus had intended when he compared little ones to it. The first English words I heard her say were, "I love you." She spoke the words in a sort of sing-song. I believe she knew what she was saying. The words were so innocent coming from her mouth. The mental picture conveyed as she sang and said those words was the idea of a heaven where our Father continuously and simply says, "I love you." Surrounding His throne would be the continuous, joyous singing of so many that shared in that love that He expounded upon His children.

Even Godance is an example of God's love and redemption. From what I was told, she was the daughter of a prostitute. This beautiful, sweet, innocent child was born into what would seem to be tragic circumstances. Moreover, a man chose to be her father. He adopted Godance and her brother and took their mother in. When Godance's father had received clothes, boots, and gloves as a generous gift from the church, her mother stole them and left father and children behind. This might sound terrible, but Godance's father continues to care for her and her brother. The man truly loves them. Godance's father works at the boy's home and Godance spends her days playing alongside her family of 30 brothers. Her brother by blood, Jean Paul, loves her dearly and is very protective of his little sister. One might believe that she might be better off elsewhere in a different set of circumstances. If you were to observe her in her environment you would understand that there is nowhere else where she could be that would be as loving of a home as that one.

I miss Rwanda. Were it my calling, I would happily live out the rest of my life there. If there is anything I could bring here that they had, it would be their love. Every day that we went to Biyamana, the village children would see us and run out of their homes and take us by the hand. By the time we reached the boy's home at Umuryango, each of us had a child holding each hand. When we would leave at the end of the day, they would come out and the boys from the home would walk with us to the taxi stand and they would wait with us until we left. They would laugh and play and teach us kinyarwandan words. Their mothers trusted them to be with us. The love and trust displayed was such a vast difference from the typical attitudes displayed in our country. These people didn't know who we were, yet from the moment they saw us they trusted us. There are few things that I have experienced that are as heartwarming as having 15 or more little children running up to me daily for no other reason than to share companionship. Love transcends all things and can be conveyed effortlessly through language barriers and cultural barriers. A part of my heart will forever remain in Rwanda. Let me finish my brief summary of my experiences by asking you, whom have you shown God's love to today?