In preparation for our trip, my Rwanda missions team is reading The Bishop of Rwanda by John Rucyahana, a man we will get a chance to meet when we go there. I think it is an excellent book because he not only explains the causes of the genocide, but also the stories of individuals and the role that the church has played in the reconciliation process. I won't lie, though, it has not been an easy read. There were a number of moments where I wanted to put the book down as the content was too heartbreaking to continue reading.

But then I realized that closing the book does not change the fact that those events happened.

And so I continued reading. And the more I read the more I became impressed with this tiny country that I have the privilege of visiting in a couple of weeks. It's a country that has faced horrors on such grand scales, but who has let forgiveness in and has decided to rebuild. In spite of all of the tragedy, they are rising above. We're going there to teach in schools and teach crisis counseling, but I have a feeling I may learn more than I teach.

"...there was something more-a determination to defy the undefiable. Perhaps nothing seems as complete and final as the idea of genocide, and now these people were standing up to be challengers to that finality. The Tutsi would survive. Rwanda would survive. They would make certain of it."
~From The Bishop of Rwanda