{"id":323,"date":"2016-05-02T17:20:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T23:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/?p=323"},"modified":"2016-05-02T17:20:17","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T23:20:17","slug":"a-storm-on-the-lake-and-in-my-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/?p=323","title":{"rendered":"A Storm on the Lake and in my Head"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rwanda_kivutrip14\"<\/a>Everyone on the boat is wet. \u00a0Sure, the canopy provides some protection, but between the tears in the fabric and the wind it is impossible to stay dry. \u00a0Still, despite the lightning, thunder, and tumultuous water there are moments of laughter as we attempt to converse with the small group of people joining us to weather the storm. \u00a0During this, our second day in Rwanda, we took a trip across the countryside to meet some people, learn some history, experience some culture, and prepare ourselves for the events to come later in the week. \u00a0We weren’t expecting a fast moving storm to force us to take refuge on Napoleon’s Hat (an island in Lake Kivu)…<\/p>\n

Rwanda is an incredible place of extremes, and I am having trouble processing all the thoughts and feelings I am experiencing while here; so, I am going to think out loud<\/em>\u00a0a little bit in writing. \u00a0Most people know that there was a genocide here 22 years ago and over a million people were killed. \u00a0I find it hard to comprehend what that truly means for a people; and after visiting several memorial sites, a museum, and hearing stories of lost loved ones from people here, I still feel at a loss as to how to empathize. \u00a0Around 20% of the population of Rwanda was outright killed in a 100 day period in 1994. \u00a0More than 2\/3 of Rwandans were displaced. \u00a0A lone UN General asked for 5,000 soldiers to be deployed to stop this tragedy from happening, and he was told to wait until the situation developed a little more. \u00a0To add insult to injury, the UN soldiers already on the ground were ordered to evacuate officials from the government which sanctioned the genocide and \u00a0western workers instead of stopping the extremists perpetuating the killing.\u00a0\u00a0I’m not finger-pointing or assigning blame. \u00a0I’ve been here two days, and this is a situation which far exceeds my knowledge and experience. \u00a0What I do know is that millions of people were deeply traumatized. \u00a0The country’s government, infrastructure, social structure, and economy were destroyed in the aftermath of the genocide. \u00a0A description in the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center simply states, “Rwanda had died.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me start by saying that while my heart breaks and I’m moved to tears, I don’t feel guilt for what happened in Rwanda. \u00a0I was a freshman in high school when this occurred, living in the backwoods of South Carolina–a world away from the killing, and in no position to do anything about it. \u00a0But now, being exposed to the reality of what happened here and people’s present suffering as a result, what do I do? \u00a0While I may not be guilty, the actions of the killers and the lack of immediate international response is shameful. \u00a0What is my responsibility in the face of such a great tragedy? \u00a0The people of Rwanda feel that the western world turned a blind eye to them in the hour of their greatest need. \u00a0Having experienced death on a (much) smaller scale amongst my own friends and family, I know that a response of no response<\/em> is cold, isolating, and unloving to those who’ve been hurt. \u00a0This said, a false sense of sympathy or empty platitudes are also hurtful, and bring no healing. \u00a0So, what do you do when even a basic attempt at love demands a response but you know that you cannot truly share in someone’s grief? \u00a0Theoretically, one offers a caring ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on (when necessary), and makes genuine effort to empathize and only speak truth (or say nothing at all). \u00a0However, does this even make a difference? \u00a0Can this even be done from one entire nation to another? \u00a0Is it possible for two visitors to Rwanda to make a difference? \u00a0The depth of evil experienced in a genocide is mind-boggling, and I wrestle with these questions. \u00a0What am I doing here and what am I going to do?<\/p>\n

Alexi \"rwanda_mem1\"<\/a>is a Rwandan man acting as our guide while we travel through Rwanda. \u00a0As a quick aside, Alexi is multilingual and speaks Kinyarwanda, Swahili, French, and Lingala, but only a tiny bit of English. \u00a0After spending time at a genocide memorial, as Lydia and I get back into the car, I wonder, what do you say to a Rwandan who lived through the genocide, especially when broken French (3 years of high school French finally paying off) is your main mode of communication: “beautiful museum”, “really sad”,\u00a0nothing <\/em>and sit in silence? \u00a0For me, I decided to simply ask him what it was like? \u00a0It didn’t feel right to ignore the issue, but I also wanted to avoid being disingenuous. \u00a0Using our growing French-English<\/em> pidgin*<\/em><\/a> \u00a0I was able to hear his story:<\/p>\n

Alexi lost his parents, and his wife’s parents and siblings in the genocide. \u00a0The shock of the attacks caused his wife to go into premature labor and while they didn’t loose the baby, the child has struggled with birth defects his entire life. \u00a0They had to run from their home and found refuge in a church…For him, he is thankful that it was not a church that was attacked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As our time with Alexi was coming to an end, I struggled to find something to say, and a literal translation of what came out is, “I do not understand the very sadly of your your people, but I want for the God to work some good things.” \u00a0The car was stopped, and he looked at me and simply said, “c’est grave” (it’s serious). \u00a0Then, the three of us sat in the car in silence, sharing a moment of grief. \u00a0At our next meeting, he called me brother.<\/p>\n

\"rwanda_storefronts\"<\/a>So, all of this to simply set the context for work in a place like Rwanda. \u00a0There have been billions of dollars and thousands upon thousands of man-hours put into restoration. \u00a0There are beautiful buildings, infrastructure projects, and a current government working hard to truly reconcile the people with themselves. \u00a0In only a few days time, I’ve experienced thriving business, heart-wrenching poverty, surprisingly delicious goat meat, and a people working hard to rebuild from next-to-nothing. \u00a0This said, twenty years is not enough time for a people to heal from the trauma of genocide….c’est grave<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What are we doing here?<\/h2>\n

Well, God is at work, and I am happy to be a part of big and little things. \u00a0In a days time, Lydia will be teaching at another AFMIN Women’s Empowerment Project launch in Kigali, Rwanda. \u00a0As in Lusaka, Lydia will be teaching a course in Emotional Trauma, and helping teach other Leadership courses as well. \u00a0The topic of trauma is hugely intense with women leaders who in some cases have lived through genocide, and in all cases have seen the effects of it. \u00a0Lydia is praying for wisdom that she is able to provide these women with effective tools for bringing further reconciliation and healing to their recovering communities.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, many churches were killing sites during the genocide, and many people lost their faith and hope in God. \u00a0There is no catch-all solution, and there is no\u00a0right<\/em> answer to solve the sociological and spiritual issues in a place like Rwanda. \u00a0However, I do think that every loving act and genuine kind word helps to overcome evil with good. \u00a0I believe that God working through people’s relationships with each other is a powerful agent for change, and if enough people engage in little loving acts, then we can see massive improvements.<\/p>\n

Which \"rwanda_kivutrip12\"<\/a>brings us back to the lake, the storm, and the boat. \u00a0Over the weekend, four of us chartered a local boat to travel across a portion of Lake Kivu. \u00a0A storm arose while we were on the water and we took shelter on a small island out on this giant lake. \u00a0Surprisingly (for me), there were several locals already on the island having rowed out on tiny boats–they were gathering wild fruits to take to market. \u00a0While we sat in relative dryness under the boat’s canopy the locals gathered under a nearby tree. \u00a0They did not want to approach the boat but were getting soaked and the temperature was dropping. \u00a0Lydia spoke with the captain and he invited them all on board and we all shared our water while waiting out the storm. \u00a0Now, I know that they wouldn’t have died; they could have drank from the lake; and let’s be honest, the storm wasn’t really all that bad. \u00a0There was no sacrifice in letting them on the boat; we don’t share a language and have no way enacting a meaningful discipleship program in the moment. \u00a0It would have been easy to rationalize away any responsibility in sharing the boat and to simply keep a distance and be relatively assured that\u00a0everything is fine<\/em>. \u00a0All this said, I found the situation to be a perfect picture of the kind of situation and kind of rationale which leads humans to ignore and marginalize each other. \u00a0Simply put, God has called us to be servants<\/a>, and Jesus teaches that he who is faithful with a little can be trusted with much<\/a>. \u00a0I am here to serve in little and big ways. \u00a0So, we all had some laughs as we awkwardly attempted to communicate, and even though we failed to communicate in words, for a short time, we were just a bunch of cold, wet members of humanity at the mercy of powers beyond our ken, and we were able to be at peace, as equals before our God.<\/p>\n

What can you be doing?<\/h2>\n

So, if you’re still reading…I say thank you–these are thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head and needed to come out. \u00a0If you’re reading this and any of it is tugging at your heart strings, then please simply take some time to a little more reading, some thinking, and some praying. \u00a0This week, I would ask you to focus your attention on Rwanda and Burundi. \u00a0There is currently a lot of political unrest in Burundi (a small African nation which borders Rwanda). \u00a0While there has been unrest there since an attempted coup last year, there is now increasing violence and it seems that similar rhetoric is being used as was in Rwanda twenty-two years ago (right before the genocide). \u00a0The perpetrators of the violence are starting to call for ethnic cleansing and many here believe that this is a resurgence of the same extremists who committed the atrocities in Rwanda. \u00a0AFMIN’s Women’s Empower Project launch in Burundi has been delayed as extremists are targeting social gatherings and people traveling into cities. \u00a0I am asking that people take a few minutes to look up some news about Burundi on whatever news source you trust, think about what you read, and take a little time to pray. \u00a0While we cannot easily fix what is broken, we can certainly try to do better to prevent and respond in the future. \u00a0Let God guide your hearts and your actions.<\/p>\n

One final thought, while it is often best to respond to grief and trauma by simply listening to the hurting and being available <\/em>to help those victimized, I also think we should treat these moments of empathy as an opportunity to look inside ourselves, and if there is any prejudice, hate, or callous disregard in your own heart then that–right there– is a great place to start changing your own life and worldview for the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone on the boat is wet. \u00a0Sure, the canopy provides some protection, but between the tears in the fabric and the wind it is impossible to stay dry. \u00a0Still, despite the lightning, thunder, and tumultuous water there are moments of laughter as we attempt to converse with the small group of people joining us to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[11,12,31],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-thoughts","tag-afmin","tag-africa","tag-rwanda"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moretruthandlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}