Half a million of his countrymen and 78 members of his family slaughtered. This is Rukundo’s experience of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Now Rwanda is struggling to cope with the aftermath of the genocide and people are asking searching questions.
I sit up when Rukundo speaks and recently he and Deo spoke at our Jesus Army marquee event. This is the gist of Rukundo’s message:
“People in Rwanda are asking deep questions these days: ‘Where was God when people were being killed in the genocide? He did nothing! He’s not powerful! How did this terrible chain of events happen in a country which is supposedly 95% Christian? What went wrong?’
“‘Burundi, the Congo and Rwanda are 90% Christian; they are also very troubled areas. Does Christianity really have no effect on this huge area of Africa?’
“If we can carefully answer these questions and the question, ‘what really is the church?’ we can be a blessing to the church in Rwanda and the wider church.
“Missionaries brought us Catholicism and Protestantism. We have worship centres and miracle centres – but all these are not the church. Evangelists have managed to get people out of sin but haven’t taken them anywhere. We need strong, apostolic ministry to bring about God’s design in the church.
“In past days we tried to build a local church but we remained in the Kingdom of Self. Church has to be an alternative culture, an alternative way of life, a different people – distinct from that which surrounds.”
Deo elaborated on Rukundo’s theme. Financially, he has done well working as a senior bank manager in Rwanda but has found success alone does not satisfy him – indeed, far from it. Now he has decided to move into a Christian community, the New Humanity Mission, and share his life and resources with others, including Rukundo and his family. His decision has been fired by a vision: “God opened my eyes to see two countries. There is the country of our natural life; there is also a spiritual country. We have to step out of the first country into the spiritual country; only then will we taste the fullness of what God has for us.”
Reflecting on Deo and Rukundo’s thoughts, the words of Jesus come to mind: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." (Matthew 5: 14-15)
Jesus calls us, as His people, to be a city on a hill and a lamp that cannot be hid. Our mission is to beam light into the dark places and see many drawn into our light. Yet, we must, as church, carry our own very distinct God-centred and God-driven culture, engaged and yet separate, identifying with but not imitating, mingling yet set apart, caring deeply for people but disdaining so much of what this world is offering them ... to use John Stott’s words, “like a lily growing in a manure heap.”* Then, in times of great adversity, as in the Rwandan genocide, people will know who the true Christians are, where to find the church (God’s gathered people) and will realise a ‘Christianised’ society is not the kingdom of God.
*The Contemporary Christian.
