The Final Week

Dear friends,

Today I am writing from my couch in Providence, RI—we are home safe and sound after another long but remarkably glitch-free travel day. The team parted ways gradually over the last 48 hours or so. Tati stayed in Kampala to begin another adventure, and Tracy and Marie left the group in London. Some of us traveled from JFK by car; others of us waited (and waited and waited, in some cases—I hope you are home by now, Mere!) for connecting flights. Thank you so much for your prayers for safe travels!

I never did get to write about Kigali before I left, so I wanted to fill you in on our last major adventure. As I mentioned before, we drove from Kampala, Uganda to Kigali, Rwanda for the weekend. (Any Ugandans reading this, it's okay to laugh!) The travel was much longer than anticipated—almost twice as long, in fact. We were hoping to make it in 8 hours, but it ended up taking more like 14. Somewhere along the way our faithful blue bus was dubbed "Eternity" by the group. ☺

The drive was absolutely breathtaking, however. Rwanda is known as "The Land of a Thousand Hills" and I'm sure we saw at least several hundred of them. We drove past brilliant green tea fields with huge "hills" (to a New Englander: mountains) cropping up out of nowhere on all sides, every one of which was cultivated patchwork-style to the very top. Here are some pictures of the drive:

Once in Kigali, we engaged in a jam-packed weekend of learning that reminded me in some ways of the Institute at the beginning of the project. From some previous travel and experience in Rwanda, I tried to line up a series of experiences that would help us understand Rwanda's history—in particular, the bloody genocide of 1994—and the remarkable ways that God is at work today bringing reconciliation between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.

Because of the short amount of time we had, the schedule was extremely tight. After 14 hours on the bus, I was sure that our Saturday evening program—a 6pm survivor story at the Genocide Museum—was toast. It was already a little past 7pm when we pulled into the parking lot, but we decided to try it anyway. And what we became fond of saying was that God provided us with a time change. It was an hour earlier in Kigali and we were right on time! Amazing.

The story we heard was heart-wrenching and painful, but helped us to ease into the reality of a post-genocidal society in a personal, tangible way. What became a theme for us throughout the weekend, and a helpful framework for thinking about our entire project, was the reality of suffering and pain (the "groanings" mentioned in Romans 8) punctuated with very real flashes of hope. When this young man was asked whether the nation had turned away from God after learning that several Catholic churches were complicit in the genocide, he described his own journey back to faith in recent years. He told us he came to a realization that though people and institutions in Rwanda had failed miserably, God never did. Through it all, God had been faithful. That kind of faith—a deep conviction of the goodness of God in the face of unimaginable suffering—was challenging to all of us and stayed with us long after we parted ways.

The following day, the miraculous provision of a taxi out of thin air when "Eternity" broke down meant that we were still able to visit the Genocide Museum as planned. We walked through exhibits detailing the various factors that led up to the genocide, the horror of those 90 days in 1994, the impotence of the international response, and what life in Rwanda has been like since. A mass grave outside (pictured below) provides space to mourn and remember loved ones, though only a fraction of the remains buried there were ever identified:


Needless to say, it was a heavy afternoon. Many of us left the museum with more questions than we had when we entered. Some of us wondered how we would ever find God in this place...

...and then we met with Antoine.

Antoine Rutayisire is the National Director of AEE/Rwanda (African Evangelistic Enterprises) and pastors an Anglican church in Kigali. He is also a genocide survivor and serves as the Vice-Chair of Rwanda's National Unity and Reconciliation Commission. As a college student, I worked with Antoine in 2000 and remembered his deep heart for reconciliation and contagious passion for Christ. I figured he would be the perfect person to speak to us about healing and reconciliation in Rwanda—but I had no idea just HOW perfect. Antoine was just exactly the person we needed to hear from. Our time with him was the highlight of the weekend and, for many of us, a highlight of the entire project.

He spoke to us about healing, about genuine repentance and forgiveness leading to lasting reconciliation, about the hope he sees for Rwanda's future, about forgiveness in his own life, about the cross of Jesus being the one place where both pain AND sin (from Isaiah 53: "sorrows" and "iniquities") meet and are lifted. I could never hope to do his words justice in this space, but suffice it to say that we were on holy ground that afternoon. We were deeply inspired, challenged, moved, and more aware of God's power and the reality of Ephesians 2 reconciliation than perhaps ever before. It was an incredible afternoon. We thank God for Antoine and for his ministry to the nation of Rwanda—and to us that afternoon.

From Rwanda, we traveled back to Uganda and spent the final three days of the project at a charming little place called "Banana Village" in Entebbe. We enjoyed hot showers (!), flush toilets, and a slightly slower pace as we debriefed together and prepared for reentry to the US. Here are a couple of shots from Banana Village:


One of the most exciting parts of this project is that reaching the US does not mean the end of NEGII. In many ways, this is just the beginning! Students were asked to come on the project with the expectation that they would bring what they learned back to campus in tangible, practical ways. We believe that there are many things we learned in Uganda—about God, about His people, about His purposes in the world—that our fellowships and campuses desperately need. And we also believe that there are resources on American campuses that could be leveraged and released to bless our brothers and sisters in Uganda. So part of our time together in Entebbe was used to brainstorm practical ways to serve as bridges between these two cultures for the mutual benefit of everyone involved. It was exciting to watch students dream and ask God how to use them in this process. Please pray for them as they bring these ideas and dreams back to campus!

I can hardly believe I've reached the end of our adventure and the final chapter of my journalism! It has been a pleasure keeping you updated—thank you so much for reading, praying, and walking with us. For my last and final post, I want to let the team tell you more about their individual experiences so do stay tuned for that!

Thanks again,
Sarah