...."Reconciliation is God's gift to the world. Healing of the world's deep brokenness does not begin with us and our action, but with God and God's gift of new creation." Reconciling All Things, by Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice
 |
| Our Journey of beginning the School of Reconciliation and Justice in Kigali, Rwanda at YWAM Rwanda |
 |
| Setting the foundations of reconciliation literally means cleaning the floor to set the stage |
 |
| Antoniette and Ashlee organizing the classroom |
 |
| SORJ 2011 wrote personal declarations about what God had done for them and so we have used them to inspired a new group of friends.....next we teach the SORJ song of 2010 |
 |
| Part of the campus...our classroom is on the right side in the back...with an avocado trree outside our window. |
 |
| The wonderful staff....Michael, Anto, Ashlee, and Olivier...wise and also very fun people ! |
 |
| During this first week, I taught on the Journey of Reconciliation and its focus on restoring broken lives and broken societies. We wrestled with the issues of truth, mercy, love, and justice and asked a lot of "big questions" Each day the participants shared a bit of their journey with the class. Claire shared about her life and how God has restored her, and we all stood in awe of what God can do to rebuilt our lives and restore hope to us. |
 |
| Olivier and Joshua sharing about life here in Rwanda |
 |
| The group discussing the issue of justice involved in peace-building |
 |
| Ashlee in the kitchen learning how to cook on a stove powered by charcoal...it was delicious banana bread and the next day it was a green cake ...good, but funny color. |
 |
| The offices for the facility which also runs a pre-school and primary schools ...amazing work with the neighbourhood children. |
 |
| Olivier cooking dinner...the food here is fantastic! |
 |
| Downtown Kigali....we are on our way to have a delicious Rwandan coffee at a local coffee shop |
 |
| These are local taxis if you want a thrilling ride.....not helmets and if you want to ride, you get a helmet too .actually the traffic is very organized with great buses and everyone drives in the right lanes..this is a miracle |
 |
| The view from the city...it is a beautiful place In 1994, when the genocide began here in Rwanda, I was living in Switzerland and remember vividly watching the news for the reports of what was happening. In less than 100 days, over 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus who sympathized with their Tutsi neighbours were killed by their Hutu neighbours in a government sponsored slaughter. If you want to read more on the Rwanda Genocide...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide Since those dark days the leader of the Tutsi group that freed the country, President Kigame has led the country into rebuilding a society that is economically growing and on many levels is working at the healing of the nation. Through both the use of the International Criminal Tribune for Rwanda and then the local work of Gacaca trials in the local communities, Rwanda has wrestled with both trials for the organizers of Genocide and then sought to help through the Gacaca trials in the communities to restore offenders to their communities where appropriate. Over the last three years of running the School of Reconciliation and Justice (SORJ) in Harpenden UK, we have had a group of Rwandan students involved in being trained and in helping to lead the school. Out of their prayers, this time in Rwanda has grown. We are running 4 weeks of the 3 month school here this fall and then hope to run the whole school here next year about this same time. Next week: The Journey of Forgiveness....we will be walking everyone through a process of forgiveness that helps us deal with life and its ups and downs ...please pray for us. It is a privilege and a responsibility to be here. I am so grateful for those from this country that have taught me through their lives while we were in Harpenden together. But also I am so grateful for the journey of life from Texas to the Middle East...thank you to each of you because your struggles to live the gospel through the challenges of normal life and through dealing with conflict has deeply affected this pilgrim! May the grace and peace of Jesus overflow in your life today and may each of seek to serve God with a reverent love for Him, and each of our fellow human beings. |
