Saturday Night in Rwanda

Oy! Where to begin!

This afternoon at the conference an organization that helps with reconciliation lead the session. With them was a perpetrator of genocide--one who had participated in the killings.

For the first 45 minutes or so the leader talked about the reasons for the genocide. One of the men stood up and told how the Hutu were lined up on one side of the classroom in grade school and the Tutsi were lined up on the other. The teacher then taught the students that the Tutsi were snakes.

After that, the perpetrator stood up. He said, "I am only asking for forgiveness. How many of you will raise up your hands and forgive me?"

Many of the students in that room were victims of the genocide. Some of their family members had been brutally murdered. And one of the murderers was asking for their forgiveness. Wow!

Many raised their hands. Several had to leave the room because the emotions were too deep. I could literally feel the tension--it made me anxious.

The man then talked a bit about how he had killed many people. After being released from prison--in order to tell people his story--he hid in the bush, too afraid to be seen by the family members of the people he had murdered. Eventually, those very family members found him and invited him to stay with them! They helped feed his family!

It was quite an experience. There was a mass murderer standing in front of me. Many in that room had family members who had been viciously murdered by a man like him. How do you forgive such a man?

At the end of the session they sang a worship song together and the perpetrator participated with them. Wow!

It's hard to put into words the experience. Suffice it to say, it was something I've never been through before.

On a lighter note--much lighter note--Alycia pointed out to me that the sound system being used for the conference was paid for by---Community of Grace! Pretty cool.