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.
4 comments:
I think so far this chapter was my favorite. What I appreciated about it the most was that it showed the process of working through the pain and moving into a state of forgiveness. It felt more realistic to me than some of the other stories where the forgiveness seemed to come easier. I was reminded of the passage in Gal 2:20 that talks about how we are crucified with Christ and as we die to ourselves Christ can live in us. There have been times in my life where I have to tell the Lord that I didn't have the strength to do something. But knowing that HE lived inside me I could ask HIM to do it for me.
The role of Pascal was an interesting one. I think that every time I've had a successful experience mediating it was when I was a third party somehow removed from the situation. Where I could see both sides of the story and find a way to bring the two together.
But to be one of the victims, so-to-speak and then lead others in mediation is a pretty powerful testimony.
It's getting to the point where it's hard to put the book down. I look forward to next week's story and lesson.
I'm glad you liked this chapter, Michelle. I'm still finding it a hard emotional read, but at the same time, very compelling. You are right to point us to Gal 2:20--it really is Christ in us that makes it possible to live beyond ourselves. So true!
While out yesterday with the family, I saw a UN soldier with his Rwandan flag on his sleeve. Suddenly all of these somewhat distant stories that we have been reading were embodied before me in this one man. I found myself wondering if he was a Hutu or a Tutsi. I wanted to know his story because undoubtedly, he has one to tell. In the tragic event of a genocide such as this, everyone is affected. Everyone losses. Everyone has a story.
Linda asked "Is God asking you to do something hard right now?" I have been pondering lately, the extraordinary life. Longing to live one. And more and more it seems to me that the truly extraordinary life is one that is built, day by day by the one who commits himself/herself to doing the unseen, ordinary well. The one who devotes himself to being, not just doing. In our world of constant chatter: texting, facebooking, twittering and blogging, I hear Him asking me now to listen and to BE. This is what I am learning. This is what He is asking of me now. May I learn to fear Him more. And may I invest my life in things unseen, for it is the unseen things that He alone sees, and knows they are done for Him.
Wow, Pam, your visual picture of the soldier was powerful to me because, now, years later, he is who he is because of his history and story that cam from that history. It makes me very curious, but also I have to think he'd rather not be known by the tragedy but by who he is today. And, that is one of the big things God is asking me to do--to live in the present, not bond by the past or overly curious about the future. Live today fully. Part of that is learning to "Be" in today, to "Be" all I am becoming today, and "Be" a person who is confident in my God, not what tomorrow might bring.
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