REMINDERS FROM RWANDA
By Rayola Osanya-Nyyneque
Recently, my wife, Georgeanne, and I had the opportunity to return to the city of Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, together with a recording crew from KNN, a couple from New York, and Herve from Nairobi. My wife and I initially went to Kigali in 1997 to plant a church there, and lived in Rwanda for two-and-a-half years. It had been almost three years since we were last there, and although we didn't spend more than three days there this time, there was so much we experienced, from which I learned a lot of spiritual lessons, a few of which I would like to share.
Remember the Things You Did at First
It was moving to see some of the disciples who became Christians in 1999, and the many whom they in turn have helped to come into the kingdom. Even though we had baptized some people prior to 1999 and the church had grown in membership from 2 to 10, I was held captive by fear, doubt and all manner of insecurity. I clung to excuses like my inability to speak Rwandese, the poor level of my French, the history of the country, the culture of the people, our lack of finance. The list went on and on. It made for impressive reading but depressing reasoning. Most of the members of the church at the time did not remain faithful for very long.
In 1999 things changed. With the help of many disciples, my wife and I learned to have faith, just like we'd had when we ourselves had just been baptized. Just like we had when we first went into the full-time ministry. Just like we had before we clogged our thinking with barriers and obstacles. Just like we'd had at first.
In response to the challenge before us we remembered that "if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:31,32) Once more was rekindled in us the attitude of the apostle Paul when he said, "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation." (Romans 15:20) And he "who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20) came through in a big way.
We grew in our walk with God, I gathered the confidence to preach in French, we met people who'd previously been stubborn and unopen but now wanted to study the Bible with us, people hardened by the genocide were softened by the grace of God, we converted people of solid character and deep conviction, the church rapidly outgrew its midweek service venue, people started to enjoy their Christianity and develop kingdom dreams, the fellowship was filled with an air of enthusiasm, hope and expectation. As the turnaround unfolded, in a period of 11 weeks, the 7 disciples saw 11 people get baptized. Returning to Kigali this time and seeing the church there reminded me to do the things I did back then - to walk with God with an unwavering faith.
In the honeymoon period of our discipleship, just after baptism, we have great dreams, great faith and great plans for our kingdom walk. But with time, in many cases, we lose it. We complicate our Christianity, or choke our faith altogether, with obstacle-focussed, defeatist thinking - "I can't change, I can't grow, I'm not cut out for this." We allow a few setbacks and trials to rob us of our joy. We replace confidence with cowardice, enthusiasm with skepticism, and allow commitment to be dashed upon the rock of disappointment.
But we can all change and be renewed in our zeal for God. Get back to the Bible, to prayer and to fasting. Get back to studying out the power, love and purposes of God. Get back to refreshing, insightful study of the Scripture, that opens up your mind, expands your vision and draws you closer to God. Trials and hardships? Well, Paul said that we "rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character,; and character, hope." (Romans 5:3-5) Find varied and creative ways to pray as you spend quality time every day with the Lord. Remember what you did at first and do it all over again - and you will experience the joy that you had at first.
Remember the sins of the past so that they do not recur in the future
In Kigali we were able to visit a memorial that has been set up in honour of those who died in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that saw about 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus (out of a total national population of about 8 million) butchered in a 100-day bloodbath. This particular memorial, one of many throughout the country, houses the skulls and bones of about 2500 of the slain. The goal of setting up this and other such sites is that everyone remember the tragic events of 1994 in order to ensure that such a thing never happens again.
In many ways, this needs to be our approach to sin and righteousness. We are not to glory in our past sins or in any way wallow in them, but it is important to remember where we came from so that we can take all the steps necessary never to end up there again. Sometimes we so quickly start to envy those in the world. Because of our poor memory we start to imagine that we were better off before we became Christians than we are now in the kingdom. We buy into Satan's lie that life in the kingdom is boring, monotonous, too restrictive, too demanding, and kills opportunities for personal advancement. Remember where you were before you became a disciple. Have you so quickly forgotten the injuries and scars inflicted on you by sin, emptiness, selfishness and deception?
Life outside the kingdom was a nightmare, that's why we gave it up. Paul describes the emptiness and helplessness of it in these terms: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing…making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members." (Romans 7:15,19,23) That's exactly what life was like in the world for all of us. Wake up from the nightmare and live God's dream of purposefulness and fulfillment for your life.
Observing the skulls at the memorial, it was easy to identify how the victims were killed, either by slashes from machetes, a blow from a hammer, or being bludgeoned with crude, blunt instruments. The horror of what their last moments must have been like was more vivid to me than it had ever previously been. As gruesome as that is, the spiritual reality is just as stark. Remember how Satan beat you down - either through failed relationships, false religion, moral corruption or the desperation of wandering around aimlessly, searching for direction and meaning in life. Remember this, and resolve not to let sin get the better of you and drag you down ever again.
Remember the Lord
As I sat through interviews that the KNN crew was conducting with different disciples, and heard once more, in greater detail than I had originally known, the facts of what some had to work through in becoming disciples, I was reminded that God can change any heart.
One sister recounted how in the genocide she hid in the bush and in a banana patch for two months. Her entire family had scattered as they sought to escape those hunting for their heads. She had a baby with her and at one point was forced to stuff mud into its mouth to stop it from crying and being heard by the murder militia. During this entire period, it was raining and she had no shelter. Her clothes were caked with dirt and riddled with insects. At one point she witnessed, from her point of refuge, her father being made to dig a grave then being stoned and beaten to death. Having also seen a priest carrying a gun and being aware that he raped some of her friends, she resolved, after the genocide was over, never to espouse Christianity. Bitter after all that had happened, she also hated Hutus.
When she studied the Bible to become a Christian, her biggest hurdle was to forgive. She fought to be righteous, learned to forgive, and was able to experience God's love and forgiveness towards her. God word can get us through any barrier. God's love comforts us in all our trials. God's promises guide us to a happy future. Remember the Lord. If God's word can soften this sister's heart after all that she had to endure, surely it can soften mine. Surely it can soften yours. We need only to turn to God in faith.
"I am not ashamed of the gospel," Paul says in Romans 1:16, "because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Remember how much God's word changed you initially in helping you become a Christian and how far it has brought you since then, and look ahead with visions of greatness for all that lies promisingly before you, if you only remain in him and his words remain in you.
Remember that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) Never forget, as Paul reminded the apostles, that "in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)