As We Forgive: Week 3--Pages 94 - 131

Chantel’s story starts with a celebration. Wearing a new white dress her father had given her for her Confirmation and First Communion, she whirls on the hillside with her father watching her dance. The dress and her world spin around her and joy in the moment and beauty of the day take her breath away. To make her day completely special, John, a Hutu neighbor, was hosting a party in her honor. It was unthinkable that John--a man her father drank beers with--would one day brutally kill the man he stood with that day while they both enjoyed a little girl’s joy spilling over into dance.

This story is so sad—I struggle to understand how neighbors can enjoy meals together and then kill each other. It is also amazing to me how thorough the brainwashing was that somehow made it OK. John felt great guilt at killing Chantel’s father, and hid so he’d never be forced to kill someone else. But it wasn’t till the preachers began to come to the prison that John understood the depth of the evil he had done(page111). Crying out to God for forgiveness, he wondered if Chantell would ever be able to forgive him.

These pages tell the story of transformation—change that took these very real people into a hell we can’t imagine, and then brought them out again. They also tell the story of Pascal—a man God called to the mission of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is amazing what God was able to do through this faithful and obedient man. We’ve seen people like him in the preceding pages and more will come later in the book.

But, what I want to stress right now is that God used a very humble man to do incredible things for Him; however, the path was extremely hard. Who in their right mind would have accepted this assignment, moved their family to such a troubled nation, and walked into prisons and talked to people who had skinned their neighbors, raped their friends, brutally murdered children. Pascal. Amazing.

Can you identify in some way with Pascal?

Is God asking you to do something hard right now? Or, has He in the past?

Do you see how He is using you in a very ugly setting?

Let’s tell those stories this week as we post. Not to brag, or to be proud—but to rejoice that God invites us to partner with Him in His redemption/transforming work in this world.

As We Forgive: Week 2--Page 60-93

I don’t like scary movies or adventurous rides at the fair. My life holds plenty of drama and I don’t need anything else to force me to the edge of my chair or to put fear in my stomach. I don’t like being afraid—it is one of my besetting sins—one I often confess. With God’s help, I’m being transformed into someone more courageous—someone who is learning boldness. Still, I don’t know if I could watch a movie of these pages, let alone live them or relive them over and over again. I can’t imagine being Joy—living and reliving her life over and over again…

Joy was a little girl when violence broke out and neighbors killed her father and then hunted for her, her sisters and her mother. In that violence, many things broke for each of them, including the neighbors. Joy’s world fell apart—even when she was “safe,” she wasn’t. Her memories were tearing her apart and teaching her hatred, while her orphanage’s lack of food, kindness and its culture of meanness continued to reinforce her conclusions about life, adults, safety, and family.

I have to believe God never left this little girl’s world. The machete and the violence didn’t trample out His church or His people or His Holy Spirit’s power to move people into situations of reconciliation that they could not have imagined. As we read and then comment this week, please tell us where you saw God in Joy’s life—in the lives of the other people who populate her story.

Do you have experiences in your history that mirror what you see in Joy’s life?

What do you think of the steps to forgiveness that are presented in the interlude?

Do you have your own healing path of forgiveness?

Take a look at the questions on page 93. Would you like to answer any of them for us? Your thoughts are important to our discussion—please comment, OK?

As We Forgive: Week One--Pages 9-59

As We Forgive by Catherine Claire Larson

Welcome to the WOTH Book Club Blog. I’m so glad you are reading As We Forgive with us. I hope that each one who reads with us will take time to invest in this group by commenting each week. We will be a better book club because of the insights and lessons you share. May I please urge you to comment? The comments that were made during our last read really encouraged me and taught me to see things I would have missed on my own. Plus, I loved that we could pray for each other as we talked about different topics the book brought up. So, again—please share yourself with this book club. We’ll be better because of you! (If you have any trouble commenting, please email Cindy at: editor@womenoftheharvest.com)

This isn’t a light read—it isn’t a book you want to lull you to sleep at night. If you read it right before bed, your dreams may be filled with images too horrible to imagine as you read the words in black and white. This is an important read, though. It shows us the horror that people just like you and me faced when neighbors and friends became fearful enemies and family members were killed with violence we really can’t fathom. What makes this book important for us to read, though, are the redemption stories of forgiveness, mercy and grace that transform those who suffered from this violence—both those who held the machetes and those who saw their lives destroyed from that sharp blade’s destruction.

I first read this book over a year ago and could hardly put it down as the stories captured my heart with their incredible sadness and the amazing hope they offered. Now, reading it for the second time, I’m compelled to read it with more respect—the first rush read has been replaced with a solemn pace—and I have to take breaks away from the intense emotions these pages bring to my heart.

As I read, I’m pondering forgiveness in a whole new light—a light that shines where you would think it could never, ever in a million years shine. It shines from the mother, widow, dad, and son. It shines from the ones forgiven—and the ones facilitating the process. I’m reading this book in early June, when the oil spill has passed people’s patience limit and hateful words are spewing thicker than the oil is coating the marshlands. I’m reading while people are irate about what just happened in Gaza with the relief flotilla that was stopped by Israel. N Korea is making threats of war, the war on terror is still droning on producing more people who will have reasons to hate. Forgiveness in this world seems like a lost ideal. But, the people of Rwanda offer hope that from the darkest of evil, relationships can be reconciled through forgiveness, mercy and grace.

This book will teach us about forgiveness. And, my hope is that we’ll learn how to offer, practice, and receive it in new, deeper ways. I really can’t say, “Happy reading.” This just isn’t that kind of book. But, I do welcome you to this study. I believe our lives will be forever changed if we’re willing to learn new lessons in forgiveness from people who had so much to forgive—so much to be forgiven.

For our first week, please read pages 9-59. You’ll find questions for reflection on page 59 and you may want to comment on one or more of them. Or, you may have your own response to this chapter. I look forward to reading your thoughts!