A Day in the Great Rift Valley
The day started unexpectedly around 6:30 in the morning with a knock on my kitchen door. It was Yohani, from the carpenter shop, come to install the new counter in my kitchen. For a variety of reasons, the country has been experiencing severe electricity cuts for the past several months; we have only had power on weekends, late evenings and early mornings on weekdays. So Yohani was here to take advantage of the power to use the electric drill. I told him he would have to leave by 7:45 as I was going to the village that day.
We really weren’t leaving until 8:30, but I wanted to take some donated clothing and household items to the Mothers’ Union office for distribution to needy women. After turning over several sacks of things left by a friend returning to the States, I waited around for Claire, Peace and Blandine to arrive. We finally set off around 8:50 a.m. for the 50- minute drive to the Parish of Mutura, in the hills with Lake Kivu in the distance. The northwest corner of Rwanda, on the western arm of the Great Rift Valley, is stunningly beautiful with its 1,000+ hills, six volcanoes and Lake Kivu.
On arriving at the church, we parked the car and were greeted by the church leaders. A parish in Rwanda is a grouping of chapels all led by voluntary lay catechists. They are grouped into a parish and supervised by one ordained pastor, in this case Pastor Celestin who has 10 chapels under him. We were taken to Pastor’s home where we were given tea and cakes. We visited with Pastor Celestin, the Mothers’ Union worker in the parish and some other church leaders for around 30 minutes, while waiting for everyone to show up at the church. Most people had to walk from one to two hours to join us.
We were in Mutura for one of our storytelling workshops, today using the Prodigal Son. Although I really am aiming at reaching the women, all members of the parish are invited. Because Mutura is one of the larger parishes in the diocese, we were quite a large number gathered together. After opening in prayer and song, the guests were introduced, and then all those who came from each of the chapels stood up along with their catechists.
After a few words of introduction, we broke the group into five smaller groups, each around 20 people. Claire then read the Prodigal Son and we gave each group one part of the story. They were to spend 10-15 minutes looking at the part of the parable they were given and discuss it. Did they ever behave in the way the characters did? What was the interaction between people in the story? What did they learn from what happened in the small part of the parable they were given? I then went around to each group and informed them that they were to come up with a skit on what they had just studied.
The most fun part of the day was watching the creativity of the people as they presented their part of the story. As always with the Prodigal Son, the pigs stole the show. The group which had the last part of the story did not leave it open-ended as Jesus did. They had all the neighbors gathered around telling the older brother that he must reconcile with the Prodigal. One said, “If it is the money you are concerned with, then I have a calf which I will give you, but you must reconcile with your brother.” Another offered her goats to the older brother.
As always, the time after the skit is the most interesting. We give time for people to share testimonies about what God has spoken into their hearts. After listening to several testimonies, the theme of dealing with forgiveness was evident. Several people remarked that the father forgave the Prodigal even before he asked for it. This is a real challenge in a country which is still dealing with many issues regarding forgiveness in the aftermath of the genocide that happened 10 years ago.
The country has established traditional courts, gacaca (“ga-cha-cha”), to help alleviate the overcrowding in the prisons and expedite the judicial process. It is said that if all the genocidaires were to wait for a regular trial, it would take more than 100 years. The gacaca courts try those charged with looting, informing, and other lesser crimes. The national court system and the International Tribunal in Tanzania deal with the organizers and higher level crimes.
Gacaca trials take place in the communities where the crimes took place and are presided over by locally elected judges and the entire community attends. This of course raises issues of forgiveness and reconciliation. These issues were reflected in our discussion over the Prodigal Son.
So what in the world am I doing here in a little village overlooking the lake, talking about forgiveness? While at Trinity in the late 80s, I met another student, Fr. John Rucyahana from Uganda. We were in a spirituality small group together and he knew that I was planning on working overseas. He kept telling me to come to Uganda, but the Lord sent me to then-Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, instead. When Zaire blew up in 1996- 97, the Lord changed my direction. I was able to finish my MAR at Trinity in 1999 and then worked in the Business Office for another three years doing student billing. During this time, I was in prayer about what my future would look like, knowing that I wanted to return overseas, preferably to Africa.
In 1997, Fr. John from Uganda returned to the country of his birth, Rwanda, where he was consecrated as the second Bishop of the Diocese of Shyira. I had kept in contact with him over the years and eventually asked if there was anything I could do in Rwanda. We prayed and talked and I was invited to come work with the diocese in the areas of women’s discipleship and adult literacy.
There have been several Trinity connections over the years. Martha Vetter (MAR ’89) worked at Sonrise Boarding School just out of Ruhengeri town for three years and is now at the diocese doing curriculum development in religious education. Her office is next to mine. The Rev. Vicki Gladding (MDiv ’98) is my supervisor with Global Teams and has visited on several occasions. In October 2004, the Rt. Rev. John Rodgers, the Rev. Kevin Higgins MDiv ’86) and Vicki were here to give talks at a clergy conference for all of the Episcopal clergy of Rwanda hosted in Shyira Diocese. There have been other Trinity alumni who have passed through. It has been a delight to catch up and to hear what is happening on the other side of the world.
Sue McLain (MAR ’99) has been a missionary in Rwanda since 2002.
