Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE joined a group of students from Boston College and Northeastern
Massachusetts student travelers with the Rev. Philbert Kalisa and staff members at REACH Rwanda
University and their Episcopal chaplain, the Rev. Judith Stuart, for a pilgrimage to Rwanda, Dec. 27-Jan. 7, to "learn about the ways in which Rwandans have lived not only through the dark time" of the 1994 genocide "but beyond it with hope and a vision for a peaceful future in which the beloved community of God is experienced as a reality," Boston College Ph.D. student Shan Overton wrote in the group's travel blog.
That future is being ushered in, in large measure, by the group's host, the Rev. Philbert Kalisa and his organization, REACH Rwanda, which trains counselors and offers programming that promotes reconciliation between offenders and victims.
The Massachusetts students visited the Kigale Genocide Memorial Centre, which Boston College student MacLean Cadman described in a blog post as "a beautiful and sobering place" whose "heartbreaking exhibits" provided "a depth of understanding of the genocide and its aftermath that cannot be matched by any movie or textbook."
The students get dancing lessons from women in Nyamata who are trained as REACH counselors and have formed a soap-making collective whose profits provide care for local orphans. (Courtesy PHOTO)
The students then had the opportunity to see the remarkable fruits of reconciliation in action a few days later when they traveled to Kirehe, near the Tanzanian border, to take part in the dedication ceremony for a home built by genocide perpetrators for a survivor.
"For us, this experience of witnessing the results of this remarkable journey into the heart of forgiveness is inspiring and causes us to ask questions of ourselves," Shan Overton wrote. "We take these questions home with us, and we will ponder what we have witnessed here in Rwanda. The home dedication has given us a tangible and community-based approach to reconciling across differences that seem insurmountable from one angle. We are grateful for the opportunity to learn from Rwandans about what it means to be humans and to be Christians. They have taught us what Baptism really means."
Read about the group's journey and see their photos here.