Back from Rwanda

hello, i hope you are doing great! i have had a busy 10 days traveling and attending a conference. i was able to attend to a conference in kigali, rwanda for about 6 days. the sixth day actually was a visit to the city and the memorial center, where the remains of the genocide has been put aside for historical purposes. the visit to this site is scary, for those who are light hearted. this was my 4th visit to this place and so i was a bit hardened [prepared].

the greatest question that most folks need to ask ourselves is where were we in 1994? that [question] came back and forth in the conference. Brian Mclaren encouraged us to ask ourselves what we can do now in rebuilding the lost glory of neighborliness in our society...since what happens in your backyard, it ripples far and wide and the society needs to come to terms with that.

the conference was awesome. we had so many people from diverse backgrounds, some of them highly educated. sometimes u could feel out of place in front of all the phd's and masters degrees, but we were all serving our creator in one way or another. i face this reality when i presented a case for the post elections violence in kenya and what the church did. it was a frightening moment to answer for the whole country .....but i was glad to get God's inspiration to be able to present the case that was agreed to by the folks from home and there in Rwanda. The painful truth was that the church was divided, and we had little or no training on conflict management. Thank God we could pray.

The hardest part of the journey was travelling as we took the whole 2 days to arrive home. it was so tiring, i had to rest for a day or two so that i could continue with my normal duties again.
thanks alot for your prayers......

Because He lives
Jonah
p.s. enjoy the pics. there was a report about the american indians as well.....it was so nice.

Reconciliation & Forgiveness

[Photo caption: Dr. Celestine, front, red shirt]

hello,

this past week has been really great...we have been bonding...with our friends from other communities and building peace from within. this was made possible through a meeting that over 16 denominations & and other opinion leaders were invited to...to think together about the future of our country. i was among those who were invited.

after the meeting, we felt like we were renewed afresh and that FORGIVENESS and RECONCILIATION was a must before the next step was made. we were taught that, forgiveness in itself was not understanding nor tolerating, but it was some kind of imaginative thought of letting go...of what happened and hoping for the best in the future thru God's help.

our main facilitator was Dr. Celestine

Musekura, who is the President of Africa leadership and reconciliation Ministries (ALARM). He is a graduate from Dallas Seminary ..but most of all....he is a 'graduate' of 'forgiveness' as he lost his own father to their [tribe's] rival communities....back in 1997,

after the genocide of 1994 in Rwanda. he told us he had forgiven those who killed his father, and that was fresh thoughts for us. at the end of the week, we felt that we needed to greet each other, and start the long way of foregiveness again....indeed it was a touching week.

Dr. Celestine has been tranversing the country teaching about forgiveness. i hope we 'catch' this and grab it [the vision] for ourselves. as we need this ....right now after the post-election violence. i felt really relieved......when i saw him fly out of Kisumu Airport to Nairobi on the way to another country. we need these kind of men ....the Most at now...

have a great day

God Bless

Peace, Jonah