I'm different, you're different, everyone's different

Today I am in awe. There are so many emotions running through my head right now as I sit here and reflect what I have seen today. You hear about WWII and the holocaust and think; I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be taken away from my family and put in a camp to die or be tortured. I learned about it in school and I have yet to go to the museum in D.C. which is only a few hours drive.

Sad, depressing, horrible, torturous, homicide, murder ...... genocide.

What does the word genocide mean? As defined by wikipedia Genocide is defined as: systematic elimination of all or a significant part of a racial, ethnic, religious, or national group.

In April 1994 this became real in Rwanda. The government decided who was acceptable in the country and based on your status, hutu or tutsi would decide if you would live or be massively slaughtered. If you were a Hutu, most likely you were part of the killing spree and if you were Tutsi...you were killed. I will not go into much detail on this on how people were killed or tortured, but please take it upon yourself to read up on it.

Today we visited a church in Nyamata which is now a memorial that stands as a reminder of the genocide and a place where people can come to lay flowers for loved ones killed. I think of my church (Muhlenburg Lutheran) as a safe haven. A place where community is built, worship is present, and I feel very comfortable. The people that came to the church here I could only imagine thought the same; when the Hutus took over the church as a place to kill I can only imagine the fear and devastation. People were killed here in mass amounts, somewhere around 10,000 just in this area to be exact. The emptiness, sadness and overwhelming devastation that I felt as I looked inside the church at piles of clothing laid out on the pews around the sanctuary is nothing like I have ever felt before. Blood splatters of where children were hit against walls, a child's shirt laid across a pew, bullet holes all over the walls, and a pair of leg braces. The virgin Mary on the wall still white and pristine with only a dot of blood on her. Down below the sanctuary floor are a display of skulls found at the site with marks of machetes, clubs and bullets that killed innocent Tutsis; and a woman in a coffin with a stick speared through her.

In the back of the church on the grounds is a memorial covered with flowers to remember the dead; and beneath the floor are shelves of bones, skulls and even some coffins filled with bodies. I could only walk down to the floor level and immediately took one look in each direction. I couldn't handle it.

This is genocide, it was real here in this country in April 1994 to July 1994.

The Lord works in mysterious ways; as I find myself completing the tour of the memorial I look towards a school yard next door and see smiling faces of children waving at me and excited to see me! Immediately I smile and wave back at them. They call us "umuzungu" which literally means rich white person. It was such a blessing to see a ray of light from God in a morning of complete disgust. This country is so impressive. In the past 21 years since the genocide they are moving forward everyday. People are no longer divided by their status; instead of Hutus and Tutsis, they are now all Rwandans. They hold their heads proudly high and are gaining confidence back in their country. There is much development across the city and the surrounding villages.

Romans 8:28
 ~ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Psalm 88
~ This is too long to post, but a very interesting Psalm for the day

Ezekial 37: 1-14 Valley of the bones.