A Surprise Meeting

November 21, 2009 4:48 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Yesterday morning I walked into the Prison Fellowship Rwanda office where I work part-time and saw a familiar face sitting at my colleagues desk. It was Mattias, a repentent genocide perpetrator who killed countless people in the 1994 genocide. His story of transformation is told in Catherine Larson's book As We Forgive. Mattias was also counseled and led to repentence by Pastor Gahigi,  featured in the AWF film.

Mattias came to our office so we could transport him to an African Leadership Conference in Kigali in order to share his powerful testimony to promote nationwide unity. I piled into our car with Mattias and other PFR staff to go to the conference and I was squeezed in next to Mattias. I noticed immediately his humble, quiet, and kind disposition. I could hardly believe this is a man who murdered numerous people 15 years ago.

We pulled off on a side road to pick up someone else who was to attend to this conference. I was stretching my legs while waiting when a woman on the back of a motorcycle taxi pulled up. She took off her helmet and immediately I recognized her... it was Rosaria, one of the main characters from the film As We Forgive! This was our first meeting and I rushed over to meet her and speak to her with my rudimentary Kinyarwanda. We soon became fast friends, and I was in awe of the love exuding from her touch, smile, and laughter. Mattias came over to greet her with a handshake, but she quickly pulled him in with a loving embrace. Here was a woman, who barely survived being hacked with machetes during the genocide, sharing a genuine friendship with a perpetrator. I was overwhelmed to see these two banter back and forth as old friends, laughing and holding hands.

During my three months in Rwanda, I have been confronted with skepticism in regards to genuine reconciliation in this country. It is not an easy process, and 15 years after the genocide wounds are still fresh and reconciliation dialogue must continue. But yesterday I saw proof through a loving friendship between a genocide survivor and a perpetrator that reconciliation is possible. The Living Bricks Campaign is slowly but surely shaking off the skepticism in Rwanda through practical reconciliation efforts that change lives.

- Rachel

p.s. Check out the unbelievable stories of Mattias and Rosaria on the Forgiveness Wall!