EUGENE SANGANO - Kigali, Rwanda
(This story also appears on the upcyberdown website)
(This story also appears on the upcyberdown website)
GOD'S TRANSFORMING POWER
A few years ago, having been motivated by ethnic hatred to take up arms, Eugene Sangano was a teenage soldier in a rebel army that eventually toppled the Rwandan government of the day. Today, though, he has put that all behind him and is a loving, giving disciple of Jesus. He is a modern-day embodiment of Isaiah 2:4, which reads, "…They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more."
War broke out in Rwanda in 1990 as an army of exiles principally from the Tutsi ethnic group fought the government, which was dominated by members of the Hutu tribe. An atmosphere of ethnic hostility quickly took root in the country and it gave way to persecution of Tutsis, who form 14% of the population, by Hutus, who make up about 85%. This came to a bloody head in 1994 in the form of a 100-day genocide, in which about 800 000 people, mostly Tutsis, were killed.
In 1993, with ethnic tensions high, Eugene and some friends at school, all Tutsis, got into a misunderstanding with a group of Hutu students. Some of Eugene's friends were beaten up. This brought Eugene and his friends to a dramatic decision. "We decided to join the rebel army. The ethnic-based torture and killing in the country at the time motivated many young Tutsis to join the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front, the rebel force) to fight for the peace of the nation. I left the country to train with the RPF and went to the frontline on the 25th of April 1993 at the age of 16."
But there was more than a schoolyard physical confrontation to stoke the fire of hatred that burned within the young Eugene. His mother was killed in the genocide. Many close relatives were also massacred. The issue was very personal. "Thoughts of hatred would come to me mostly when I would recall the fact that my mother and many relatives of mine were killed because of what tribe they were," recalls Eugene.
After the war ended with an RPF victory, Eugene decided to demobilize and return to civilian life. He was eventually able to enroll at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, where in April 2001, Rita Mutabazi, a classmate of his and member of the Kigali church, invited him to Sunday service. "We were in a bus coming back from an academic trip and Rita was sitting next to me. She had invited me to church two years earlier and I didn't take her up on it, but I hadn't forgotten about that invitation, so I asked her where she went to church and she took advantage of the opportunity to invite me to the Sunday service that weekend." After coming to church and starting to study the Bible with brothers, the healing from hatred began.
It wasn't easy, as Eugene attests, "especially because my family members around me felt like people involved in the genocide should not be forgiven but should pay with their lives for what they did. But since I loved my nation, I had to fight it." And like the fighter he had become, fight it he did, not waging war as the world does - and as he had up to then learned to wage war - but with weapons of righteousness and a heart bent on godliness.
At the time that Eugene first came to church his attitude was that Rwandans needed to share their nation and its resources, which was more reconciliatory than many other Rwandans felt. But after studying the Bible he saw the need to take it even deeper and to not just co-exist with people but to love others deeply and sincerely regardless of ethnic background. He is now bent on helping people to share not only their nation, but God's vision - His vision for a Rwanda where people learn to forgive, just as he has learned to do.
"It has been a victory to be able to forgive, though there is so much pressure from my relatives not to. My grandmother, for example, recently told me that I associate too much with 'the enemy', and she is afraid that I will marry 'the enemy'."
Eugene has grown spiritually since his baptism. (He is pictured left drumming during congregational singing.) A Bible Talk leader on campus, Eugene "socializes with people of all ethnic and social backgrounds," says Charles Omollo, leader of the Kigali church, who disciples Eugene. "He is a great servant, keen to encourage others as he sees the needs around him."
Steve Mukenya from the Nairobi church oversees the work in Kigali, and after a recent trip there he said, "When you go to the genocide memorial in Kigali and see the scope of the massacres - the skulls slashed by machetes, the skulls beaten in by hammers, etc. - and then you go see how in the church the disciples are happy, healing and interacting freely regardless of ethnic differences, it is testimony that God is alive and at work."
Eugene, like many of the Kigali disciples, illustrates how far we can come in our faith and our love when we let God's word move us, regardless of how deeply we may have been hurt or how much we may have been through. Let us follow such a godly example as we seek to give God our best.
A few years ago, having been motivated by ethnic hatred to take up arms, Eugene Sangano was a teenage soldier in a rebel army that eventually toppled the Rwandan government of the day. Today, though, he has put that all behind him and is a loving, giving disciple of Jesus. He is a modern-day embodiment of Isaiah 2:4, which reads, "…They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more."
War broke out in Rwanda in 1990 as an army of exiles principally from the Tutsi ethnic group fought the government, which was dominated by members of the Hutu tribe. An atmosphere of ethnic hostility quickly took root in the country and it gave way to persecution of Tutsis, who form 14% of the population, by Hutus, who make up about 85%. This came to a bloody head in 1994 in the form of a 100-day genocide, in which about 800 000 people, mostly Tutsis, were killed.
In 1993, with ethnic tensions high, Eugene and some friends at school, all Tutsis, got into a misunderstanding with a group of Hutu students. Some of Eugene's friends were beaten up. This brought Eugene and his friends to a dramatic decision. "We decided to join the rebel army. The ethnic-based torture and killing in the country at the time motivated many young Tutsis to join the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front, the rebel force) to fight for the peace of the nation. I left the country to train with the RPF and went to the frontline on the 25th of April 1993 at the age of 16."
But there was more than a schoolyard physical confrontation to stoke the fire of hatred that burned within the young Eugene. His mother was killed in the genocide. Many close relatives were also massacred. The issue was very personal. "Thoughts of hatred would come to me mostly when I would recall the fact that my mother and many relatives of mine were killed because of what tribe they were," recalls Eugene.
After the war ended with an RPF victory, Eugene decided to demobilize and return to civilian life. He was eventually able to enroll at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, where in April 2001, Rita Mutabazi, a classmate of his and member of the Kigali church, invited him to Sunday service. "We were in a bus coming back from an academic trip and Rita was sitting next to me. She had invited me to church two years earlier and I didn't take her up on it, but I hadn't forgotten about that invitation, so I asked her where she went to church and she took advantage of the opportunity to invite me to the Sunday service that weekend." After coming to church and starting to study the Bible with brothers, the healing from hatred began.
It wasn't easy, as Eugene attests, "especially because my family members around me felt like people involved in the genocide should not be forgiven but should pay with their lives for what they did. But since I loved my nation, I had to fight it." And like the fighter he had become, fight it he did, not waging war as the world does - and as he had up to then learned to wage war - but with weapons of righteousness and a heart bent on godliness.
At the time that Eugene first came to church his attitude was that Rwandans needed to share their nation and its resources, which was more reconciliatory than many other Rwandans felt. But after studying the Bible he saw the need to take it even deeper and to not just co-exist with people but to love others deeply and sincerely regardless of ethnic background. He is now bent on helping people to share not only their nation, but God's vision - His vision for a Rwanda where people learn to forgive, just as he has learned to do.
"It has been a victory to be able to forgive, though there is so much pressure from my relatives not to. My grandmother, for example, recently told me that I associate too much with 'the enemy', and she is afraid that I will marry 'the enemy'."
Eugene has grown spiritually since his baptism. (He is pictured left drumming during congregational singing.) A Bible Talk leader on campus, Eugene "socializes with people of all ethnic and social backgrounds," says Charles Omollo, leader of the Kigali church, who disciples Eugene. "He is a great servant, keen to encourage others as he sees the needs around him."Steve Mukenya from the Nairobi church oversees the work in Kigali, and after a recent trip there he said, "When you go to the genocide memorial in Kigali and see the scope of the massacres - the skulls slashed by machetes, the skulls beaten in by hammers, etc. - and then you go see how in the church the disciples are happy, healing and interacting freely regardless of ethnic differences, it is testimony that God is alive and at work."
Eugene, like many of the Kigali disciples, illustrates how far we can come in our faith and our love when we let God's word move us, regardless of how deeply we may have been hurt or how much we may have been through. Let us follow such a godly example as we seek to give God our best.