Lausanne World Pulse – Rwanda—Bible Society NSW’s Project Making a Difference in the Heart of Africa
By Daniel Willis
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The teacher had her Bible open to Genesis. Her 8 and 9-year-old primary students opened their Bibles to the same passage—Genesis 3—and together they read the story of the fall of Adam and Eve.
I was in the Rwandan town of Gisenyi on the shores of Lake Kivu, near the Congo border. We had come from Sydney to see how Bible Society NSW’s Reconciliation project, run in association with local partner African Enterprise (AE), was working.
The project was developed by local AE staff and is funded by Bible Society NSW. Although it had only been running a short time, everyone involved, from the creators to the teachers and students, could see it was having a real impact.
Being Reconciled
As the teacher continued her lesson, she talked about the concept of reconciliation. An AE staff member from Kigali translated from Kinya-Rwandan into English. She spoke about the barriers that exist between all of us at times and then asked if someone in the class was prepared to nominate another class member with whom they might have a disagreement. After a moment or two, a student put up her hand and indicated another class member. The issue between them was quite minor, but the teacher asked them to stand in front of the class and “be reconciled.” After this first couple volunteered, others did the same. Soon, more than eight pairs of students had apologised to each other.
What a great way of helping children understand the meaning of reconciliation—not only as it is described in the Bible, but also as it is applied to overcoming the barriers between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes that had been the catalyst for over one million deaths in 1994.
None of these children had experienced the Rwanda genocide firsthand; however, they had heard of it from their parents and older family members. In many families, the memories of what happened were very real as they coped with huge gaps in the family structure. In fact, we did not meet one person who had not been personally affected by the deaths of family members in the genocide. In most cases, this was a mother, father, uncle, aunt, and/or grandparent. Teo was one of our drivers, and at twenty-seven, he was the only member of his family still alive.
After our school visit we dropped in on a class of local pastors being trained to run the course in their churches. They were looking at the same Bible passages we had seen discussed at the school. The lecturer developed the Adam and Eve story and shared that even though humanity had sinned against God and broken his laws, we are still able to be reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ.