The highs and lows in Rwanda

Greetings from Rwanda

Our group has had many experiences; some sad and depressing and many happy and hopeful ones. The bottom for all of us was Sunday when we saw the two churches where 10,000 and 5,000 respectively were killed inside the churches. The Catholic churches are now memorials to the dead. The remains (skulls and bones) of the dead are there as a gruesome reminder to what happened and memorial sites listings all those killed are being constructed.

Over the last two days we have had very positive experiences. Today we witnessed a local community tribunal (Gacacca) where the reconciliation process is taking place. An accused person was appearing before the community tribunal for judgement. This similar process goes on every Tuesday in Eastern Rwanda; we saw many other communities holding tribunals as we drove back to Kigali today. It is an amazing local judicial process unique to Rwanda.

Yesterday we saw a local Lutheran development project for farmers; they are being trained in sustainable agriculture processes. We visited the training site (most of the trainees were women because they do much of the farming) and a local farmer to see how the program was being implemented. The project and other programs in Rwanda are trying to provide a minimum of one cow per family to provide milk and also to produce manure for nourishing the small crops that they grow. The program is very impressive and has shown significant results in just a few years.

Meeting the children in the villages has been a special joy. Eric brought a soccer ball for the kids in one village and they had a great time in a pickup game. There normal soccer ball is made from tied banana leaves. We also went to an orphanage for refugee children from the genocide; they had prepared a program of songs and dance for us.

Our host Pastor John and his wife are such special people. They are giving so much to the reconciliation and community development process in Rwanda, working through the Lutheran church in cooperation with other churches. We are committed to help their mission into the future. Robin will be starting a Secondary school; there is so much need for education as part of Rwanda's future.

There is so much more to tell but will hold for later. We want to thank all of our supporters for helping provide this unique mission opportunity. Our group will be producing a video and other reports of our trip and plans for the future of our partnership with the people of Rwanda working through Pastor John and other committed individuals and groups we have met. Peace, Gary and Margaret