Mission Rwanda: November 15

“If Jesus Christ invested in my sinfulness, who am I not to invest my sinful self into my fellow sinful humans?” ~Bishop John Rucyahana

Tuesday we had the privilege of meeting with Bishop John Rucyahana. He is a very wise and influential man in the church, but he took the time to come and meet with our team. He was so down-to-earth and he was funny. He told us the story of Rwanda, answered our questions, signed our books, and took photos with us. I got to talk to him one-on-one during our coffee break and just loved speaking with him. This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

After the meeting with Bishop John we went to the genocide museum. I was unprepared for how heart-wrenching and graphic the museum would be. There were moments where I cried and others where I thought I might throw up. I paid to take photos inside the museum, but did not end up taking too many because I was caught up in the emotions of what I was seeing and reading. 

Wall of Names (of the victims)

Room for photos of victims

"When they said 'never again' after the Holocaust, was it meant for some people and not for others?" ~Apollon Kabahizi
(intended to question why the United Nations did not intervene)

Once we were done at the museum we went to make a stop at the Widow's Village. It was unannounced and our intent was to make it there before dark. It was totally dark by the time we got there, they have no electricity in the village, and not everyone had brought their flashlights. We handed out candy, [tried to] take photos, sang songs with the kids, and some others visited the homes to give the women coloring books for their kids and pray for them. We prayed at the end, loaded up the bus, and headed out-but not before looking up at the AMAZING stars. Before that night, the most amazing sky I had ever seen was in Morocco between two major cities: Fes and Casablanca. I think this one was better. The sky was so black and the stars were so bright. Wow.

Quality-wise these pictures are not great-but man were they fun!