Peaceful everyday lives in Rwanda. The smiles of children on bicycles make me smile too.

However, 30 years ago, there were massacres and ethnic cleansing in Rwanda that appear peaceful on the surface. The violence began when the Hutu suspecting Tutsi armed forces of being behind the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, who died in a plane crash on April 6, 1994. About 1 million people were killed in the Rwandan Genocide, which lasted approximately 100 days, from April 7 to July 15, 1994. Rwandans lost family members to their neighbors, turning them into one another’s enemies.

A few years ago, the BBC featured a Rwandan woman who forgave the murderer of her husband and accepted the murderer’s daughter as her daughter-in-law. Bernadette and her husband were Tutsi. Gratian (spelled phonetically), a Hutu, participated in the attack. After the genocide, Gratian was imprisoned for murder. During his trial in 2004, he confessed to killing her husband and apologized to her. Bernadette decided to forgive him. Gratian’s daughter felt guilty for her father’s actions, so she helped Bernadette with household chores and farming. Over time, Yankerije (spelled phonetically), Gratian’s daughter, and Alfred (spelled phonetically), Bernadette’s son, fell in love with each other, and Bernadette blessed their wedding.

May God continue to empower the Gospel among the Rwandan people, enabling them to forgive and love those who may not deserve it.

“Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”(Colossians 3:13-14_ESV) [GP News]

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