I'm back...
…and I leave again soon but that’s for a gastronomic roller coaster rather than a spiritual one!
I think I’m gonna work on something of fuller length about what happened in Rwanda and put that up later, but for now I’ll keep it short. The trip was amazing and fun yet heartbreaking at the same time.
To see somewhere that has gone through so much, seen so much evil committed, is never easy. The people still carry their scars both physical, psychological and spiritual. Even the country itself bears scars. From the concrete markers of mass graves to the bullet hole in one of the display cases in the Kigali International Airport souvenir store.
Yet children can still smile. Adults too. Teenagers play football and friends share a Fanta in the cool shade. People who suffered through being hunted can find the strength to overcome the pain they have suffered. Those who have hunted others in the past, some have been able to seek and, sometimes, receive forgiveness. The Lord carries out great works of healing and redemption. The Heavenly Father continues to offer hope and change to a broken place through his unfailing love for the people of Rwanda who, like all of us, fall far short of heaven but by grace are saved.
In a land with such a dark past, there is the light of God’s Kingdom unfolding and I feel privileged to have seen part of it.
Around Thursday I found myself singing this:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Guess the melody I sang it to. Not the Christmas one. But that’s besides the point.
