Luke Parrott

Charles and Nyamata Church

There are stories that are destined to grab the attention of all the world.  To fall on the ears of all humankind.

Elie Wiesel had to write “Night”. The story had to be told. Immaculee Ilibagiza had to write her story “Left to Tell”. She was burdened to do so. And Charles has a story that God has called him to share. But he needs a platform to get it out. Will you be his voice for this story to reach the world? He is asking you to be his platform, his voice.

His name is Charles.  He was 9 years old when 10,000 of his Rwandan people were killed all around him.  He found himself in a church amidst the stench of his own people.  They were killed by their neighbors.

It was mid April of 1994 and Charles heard them coming with whistles and shouts from the north, from the east, and from the south.  They were surrounded and they were trapped.  All 10,000 of them on the small property of the Nyamata church.  As all the men were slaughtered on the outside of the church, the women and children and remaining men inside braced for what would come next. 

They broke through the northeast window and also through the main entrance.  With a few rifles, some grenades, and mostly clubs and machetes, they began to take down one Tutsi at a time.  Charles’ 9 year old eyes saw them take no mercy on man, woman, or child.  All were doomed to destruction, but also humiliation.

The side room by the entrance was given one of the greatest punishments in the massacre.  For they had locked themselves into the room and had stalled the process of the killers.  For that, each one was cut up limb by limb, with their body parts being tossed into the crowded sanctuary of blood, horror, and utter chaos. 

Charles saw grenades fly into the huddles of people as the explosions shot their blood to the ceiling leaving splatters that are still visible today.  Women were brutally murdered as Charles recalls two supporting beams inside the church that were points of torture for two precious women.  The woman to his right was pierced with a spear from the genitalia on up through the mouth.  He described it like he saw it happen yesterday.  He was bold to share such graphic detail.  He had to.

It was behind a small baptistry to the right of the pulpit that Charles found sanctuary amidst a pile of dead bodies.  For some gracious reason, his body was assumed to be among the dead and so his life was spared along with 7 others.

7 of 10,000. 

He stayed there for 2 days amidst thousands of corpses.  Both family and friends.  Neighbors and acquaintances. 

15 years later, Charles is sharing his story.  He escorts both domestic and foreign visitors through this very church now a memorial site.  He relives this horrifying tragedy with every group that comes to visit Nyamata.  Why?  He will tell you.  He wants you to be an ambassador of this atrocity.  He asks you to tell this story to others so that it will never happen again. 

Today he lives in the same community with many of the men who participated in the killings.  But they are a part of the community.  They have been forgiven.  The hatred has not built up.  The guilt has not strangled the perpetrator.  Forgiveness and reconciliation have been the anthem of Charles’ community.  Also, the anthem of his heart.

Will you be an ambassador for Charles?  His story must be shared.  It should fall on the ears of everyone of us so that we can learn to love and not hate.  Forgive and not avenge.

This story of tragedy and reconciliation must spread.  Be the voice of Charles.  Be his ambassador.

Rwanda Video Extras: "Rwandans Say Hello To Americans"

Rwanda Highlight Film

Rwanda Video Extras: "Bishop of Rwanda Personal Visit"

The Bishop of Rwanda, John Rucyahana, allowed us to pay him a pool side visit after we saw the Kids Across Africa campground for the first time. Here he challenges us all to deeply process what we have seen. He resides in Musanze and labors hard to build up this community. You see how God continues to use him in the church, in the school, and in the community. He truly brings the whole Gospel to his community. We were blessed to steal even a few minutes of his time. I hope his words challenge your heart as they did ours.

Rwanda Video Extras: "Worship Night with Rwandan Youth Group"

Rwanda Video Extras: "Buhoro, the gate keeper"

Rwanda Video Journal #12: Annonciata's Orphanage

It's an orphanage of 50 children.  There are 9 volunteers.  They operate at about $1000 a month.  but they have no formal source of income.  The Lord just provides in random ways each day.  The last group that came was able to give them money to build a kitchen.

Annonciata's husband died in 2005.  Now she runs the orphanage on her own with the help of others in the community.  1 child has been adopted last August of 2008. 

It's not easy to walk out of this experience without a tear in your eye and a tug on your heart. It's also another community connection for Kids Across Africa to develop to allow these orphans an opportunity to come to the camp and become Rwanda's next leaders.

On Problems and Progress

Today we visited an orphanage, packed our bags, and headed to the airport.  Special thanks to Tim and Jonathan for putting together such a great trip!  Also to Claude and Dieudonne, our bus drivers.

Stay tuned for more "deleted scenes" when i get back to the US.  For now, I'd like to sign off from Kigali with these final words.

As I head home there is one message (among many) that keeps ringing in my ear that I must share before I return home to America.

I believe we need to stop telling the story of problems in Africa without also mentioning the growing progress.  We create self-fulfilling prophecies when we stereotype a nation like Rwanda and stigmatize them based on what we know of 1994.  But if you travel here you get a great sense of hope and progress.  I hope you caught that message if you have been following this video journal. 

There are many subtle ways that Westerners demean Africans and take away their dignity without realizing it.  We prefer to entertain ourselves with pictures of poverty rather than progress.  We think in generalizations as we look at all Africans as the same rather than seeing the distinctions within each country and nationality.  We think we can solve their problems if they let us come in with our money and our knowledge.  We ultimately take away their dignity as human beings and see them as “less than human” in all these aspects.

I know you and I do not intend for this, but it is what happens.  Until we see the uniqueness, the progress, the hope, and the love of every Rwandan, we will continue to stigmatize a people based on their past history (1994 genocide).

If you still see Rwanda and the whole of Africa in this way, then I suppose I have failed to truly show you what I saw on this trip!

If I could choose 2 words to describe this what I saw in Rwanda it would be HOPE and PROGRESS.  Then, I would follow that by saying you can be a part of it all.  It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a global village to continue to raise a nation. 

You and I have seen it together.  Now let’s get our hands dirty together. 

Where to start?  How about with the 1.5 million dollars that is needed for the first phase of construction at Kids Across Africa Camps?

Why?  Because they are the youth of the nation.

Rwanda Video Journal #11: Rwandan Youth Group

The youth of Rwanda met the youth of America today.  The future of Rwanda met the future of America today. 

It was a cool thing to taste as we all converged on a Thursday night youth group in Kigali.  We worshipped together.  We both shared stories.  We both preached to each other.  We both smiled.  We called each other brother and sister.  And we were together as one because of Jesus Christ.

Both of us were encouraged and challenged by what was shared of the problems and progress in both our countries.  They envy us as they imagine America to be perfect with no poor people.  And we envy them because they have community, togetherness, and simplicity.  We both found ourselves with a “grass is greener” mentality.  The fact is both our cultures have beautiful things and not so beautiful things.  We both have problems.  We both have progress.

Tonight we saw each other as ONE.  And so we spent most of our time worshiping together!  “How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.”

Hopefully, many of these teenagers will have a chance to be trained up at Kids Across Africa.  Good connections were made tonight.

Rwanda Video Journal #10: North to Musanze and the Campgrounds

Everything we are doing here has been strategically planned by the ministry of Kids Across Africa Camps—Rwanda (KAAC-R).  But why have we traveled all the way south to Butare to look at coffee fields?  Why have we traveled to a small village outside of Kigali to paint the houses of widows?  Why did we take so much time to see 2 genocide memorial churches and a genocide museum?  And why just now have we finally traveled North to Musanze to finally see the site of the future camp?

Here’s why:

60% of Rwandans are under 25.
20% of the 890 million Africans are under 15.
Rwanda was destroyed by the youth in 1994.  Young people are full of energy and will apply that energy to whatever they are taught to do.  In 1994 they were told to kill. 

Rwanda was destroyed by the youth, but now it will be rebuilt by the youth.  They are the future of Rwanda.  KAAC-R understands this and sees the sense of urgency.  There is a need to rebuild trust.  To overcome fear. To be equipped with leadership skills.  To prevent Rwanda from relapsing, the youth must find the Gospel and be equipped to lead their country into a continually brighter future.  But the window of time is short. KAAC is rooting themselves in communities all across Rwanda.  By investing in their economic needs, they are becoming a neighbor and locking arms with families who have kids and orphans who need the camp experience to be trained to overcome fears, renew trust, and restore Rwanda with the Gospel driving them from the inside out.

It’s a complex strategy.  Nothing is easy or simple when you apply yourself to the Gospel.  It involves all of you and all of the community.  It is both physical and spiritual.   It is holistic in nature.  Because God’s concern is for the ‘whole’ of us all.  It is ‘Good News’ for both body and soul.

So perhaps today we reached a climax on the trip.  We see the view from the top of the mountain.  We see the vision.  We see the need.  We see the hope.  We see the progress.  And we face the current problems.

The land we visited has been purchased.  Next phase is construction.  Notice the mission is Kids Across Africa.  Not Kids Across Rwanda.  Because if the mission works here, it can work elsewhere.  And Africa can continue to progress through pouring into a community the whole Gospel as you prepare the youth to rise up and be agents of change. 

The ball is rolling.  The bandwagon is growing.  I’m jumping on this thing.  This is how I can help Africa.  The average American Christian gives away 2.5% of their income.  The American Church on average only gives 2% of their budget to ministry outside the states.  I want more of my money to go across the pond to Africa.  And I can’t think of a better place for it to go then Kids Across Africa Camps—Rwanda.