Rwanda

Dave and I just returned from several days in the tiny country of Rwanda in central Africa.

Twelve years ago right now there was a horrible genocide going on there--unspeakable killing, beating, raping, torturing of neighbors, friends and family which lasted 100 days. All because someone said one kind of people was inferior to the other and must be eliminated. Including the children...

We were there to be a part of Hillsong's great plan to bring Hope and Peace and Forgiveness back to Rwanda after all those horrific days. Mark and Darlene Zschech felt God leading them to organize 100 Days of Hope this year to counter those awful hopeless ones.

While there we visited a genocide Memorial in Kigali (the capitol city). It was one of the hardest things I have ever done--to walk through those rooms and hallways of videos and pictures and stories of the dastardly deeds. The hardest of all was the room dedicated to the memory of children. I wept as we walked through, reading the captions on the giant-sized photos. Name, age, favorite food (ranging from chocolate to potato chips); favorite toy (a ball, a stuffed animal, a truck); best friend (quite often "mommy" or "daddy" was the answer); and finally, the way they died..."bludgeoned" and "hacked" and "shot" and "stabbed" were common answers.

Needless to say, I couldn't take any more. I had to go outside and wait for Dave on a little bench in a small garden just outside the building. I felt like vomiting.

You can imagine how the survivors must have felt (and actually still feel) when it was all over. There's not a person on the streets today without a story to tell. Not that they want to tell it--shame and guilt weigh heavy on their souls. Everyone has suffered--the victims as well as the victimizers.

It is time for a change.

Joyce Meyer and her team were holding services in a huge stadium while we were there. The stadium was the same place where people had hidden during the genocide, hoping for safety--only to be attacked with guns and grenades--and no way to escape. This past weekend was different.

The praise and worship music wafted its way to heaven as the voices of thousands of set-free Rwandans lifted their faces to the God who brought them through the disaster and now promises them new Hope. P&W leader, Jackie, radiated the love of Jesus as she led us all into the presence of God.

Special music by Delirious! was heavily anointed--bringing us even closer into the presence of the Lord. (Okay, Delirious! isn't my type of music--I still prefer Southern Gospel--but anointed praise gets my attention!) It was so easy to just let Jesus minister to our hearts.

On the last night God poured out His Spirit in such a marvelous way that everyone was saying God has begun a new thing in Rwanda. That hurting place has become a healing place. Even after the service was over, thousands of people hung around, not wanting to go away from that wonderful presence of the Lord, and enjoyed another hour or so of more praise and worship with the JMM music team.

Not everything went easy in the planning of the events of that weekend (the devil was scared of losing his playground)--but in the end, the Lord accomplished what He wanted done in the hearts and lives of hundreds of thousands of hurting Rwandans.

Something new has begun.

In July Hillsong will wrap up the 100 days with a concert in that same stadium. Boy, would I love to be there!