Testimony from Rwandan prison.
The 6th of April 1994 was a fateful day in the history of Rwanda, to be remembered as the day that the genocide began. In the devastating 100 days that followed, an estimated 800 000 Rwandans were killed. Most of those killed belonged to the ethnic minority group, the Tutsi’s.
Today, Karuanda prison in the Huye district of Rwanda is home to many genocide perpetrators. During the Huye mission, Evangelist Albert Mabasi, AE Rwanda Mission Director, went to this prison to follow up with some inmates who had responded to the Gospel earlier in the week. Himself a genocide survivor, Albert was shaken by the experience:
“I am a genocidal survivor, and for sure it is my first time going in there… I immediately think of my family that I lost during the genocide against the Tutsi’s in 1994. I was so scared standing in front of them, imagining if they all wanted to tear me to pieces! But within that scary mood, I felt that compassion that Jesus had when he saw weary people, and the Holy Spirit told me to love them like Jesus. I took a breath and felt the spirit of love in me towards them, because they also needed the Gospel to set them free even though they were enclosed in prison. I thought of the scripture found in Matthew.9:36. ‘but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd’. Therefore, I started preaching to them freely with much compassion but surely it was not easy.”
At AE, we are so grateful that Christ died to save sinners, and we are humbled by the willingness of evangelists like Albert to carry His love into the most difficult of places. Praise be to God that He “uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere” (2 Corinthians 2:14).