In a large open area of a Rwandan prison, Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana spoke to a crowd of killers responsible for the 1994 genocide. \u201cClose your eyes,\u201d he instructed them. \u201cGo back in your mind to 1994. What did you see?\u201d he asked. \u201cWhat did you smell? What did you hear?\u201d<\/p>\n
Many in the crowd began to weep. He told the men to see their victims\u2019 faces. The sobs grew louder. \u201cNow,\u201d said Bishop John, \u201cthat which made you cry, that you must confess.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s amazing enough that Bishop John, himself a Tutsi, would speak to the Hutu perpetrators of the genocide. It\u2019s even more amazing when you consider that John\u2019s own niece, Madu, was brutally raped and killed during the genocide. But Bishop John had a reason to reach out to these men in compassion \u2014 for he, too, had found forgiveness of his sins through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Bishop John found Christ while growing up as an exile from his native Rwanda. He puts it better than I\u2019ve ever heard before: \u201cI did not accept Jesus. Jesus graciously met me and accepted me.\u201d This is a man who understands how we come empty-handed to Christ.<\/p>\n
At a time when John wanted to pursue a degree, God led him and his wife, Beatrice, to start a school for 170 refugee children in Uganda. Today, some of those grown children serve in key posts in Rwanda.<\/p>\n
Studying in the States during the 1994 genocide, Bishop John wanted desperately to go back to the ministry he had left behind in Uganda. But instead, he responded to God\u2019s call to face the darkness by going back to his homeland \u2014 returning to Rwanda, finding bones bleached white by the sun littering the streets, open graves fouling the air. Still, Bishop John worked with others to establish Prison Fellowship Rwanda.<\/p>\n
He helped start the Umuvumu Tree Project, which has brought together tens of thousands of perpetrators and victims of the genocide, offering offenders the opportunity to confess their crimes and victims the chance to forgive. Many have done so.<\/p>\n
Most of all, Bishop John is a shining example of what it means to love our enemies \u2014 and to overcome evil with good.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2009 Prison Fellowship Ministries. (Adapted by Rev. David Holwick) Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a large open area of a Rwandan prison, Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana spoke to a crowd of killers responsible for the 1994 genocide. \u201cClose your eyes,\u201d he instructed them. \u201cGo back in your mind to 1994. What did you see?\u201d he asked. \u201cWhat did you smell? What did you hear?\u201d Many in the crowd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,653,4577,17,90,4595],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}