Genocide Memorial

As soon as we arrived in Kigali we went to the Genocide museum. What can you say about the genocide? It is my personal belief that if it weren't for the genocide, e3 wouldn't be in Rwanda. I certainly don't think I would have felt the tug in my heart to go.

I'll be honest with you. We had to go through the genocide museum quickly. Still... To know what took place in Rwanda is just unfathomable. To read about the approximate one million people being slaughtered... to read the stories of real people and families being completely obliterated. To walk through the section that was completely dedicated to children broke my heart. To see their pictures, read their ages, read their favorite things (activities and foods), and then read how they were murdered... my stomach is turning as I think about it...

What happened in Rwanda is unacceptable and evil. Women were brutally raped and infected with HIV. Young girls were raped in front of their siblings and parents and then murdered (if they were lucky). Children (even babies) were killed by any and all means because the Hutus didn't want anymore Tutsis in existence. Children were murdered by being being slaughtered by machetes, being burnt alive (even in churches), or by simply being beaten into walls. Are you sickened yet? You should be.

Beneath each square stone is 50,000 bodies...

As we traveled through Rwanda children were alone on the streets everywhere. Orphans are literally everywhere you turn. Poverty and disease stand on every dusty street corner. There is no escaping it. These people need help. They need hope. They need Jesus.

Romans 10 is on my heart this morning, so I want to share Romans 10: 14-18 with you.

The Bible says, " How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."

Rwanda is open to the word of God. It's literally like they are sitting there waiting on someone to bring them the good news. Would you go? Would you tell them? God has commanded us all (not just some of us) to share the gospel. How are the people of Rwanda whom have suffered so much terror going to hear the good news of Jesus Christ if we don't go tell them? If you're interested in going, please visit http://hisgreatplan.com/ or http://www.e3partners.org/Page.aspx?pid=1130 for more information on how you can be part of what God is doing in Rwanda.

The torch in the middle is lit in remembrance for those lost (most of whom remain nameless) during the tragic genocide.