12 Nations, 1 Family

I had the chance to join (last minute) Mercy Ministries' International School of Reconciliation where leaders from all over the world (DRC, Burundi, Nepal, Myanmar, India, Kenya, France to name a few) came for 3 weeks to learn about reconciliation in Rwanda. The 20 participants were trained to be facilitators of a workshop called "Healing Wounds of Ethnic Conflict" in order to bring it to their own contexts. This workshop has been one of the main tools used to heal both perpetrators and survivors of the 1994 genocide. It came from a vision immediately after the genocide ended that Rwanda would one day be “a light for the nations,” as hopeless as that dream seemed at the time. But these 3 weeks were proof that God fulfilled His promise to Rwanda as He brought world to come learn from Rwanda.

I told one of the facilitators from Cote D’Ivoire that I study cultural anthropology. She asked me what I thought of the training and our international group dynamics. I told her I came to Rwanda to see how cultures and people are different, but I’m learning we are even more the same.

For me, I thrive learning from other people’s differences. My favorite memories of these last 3 weeks were finding myself in conversations about what reconciliation looks like in Kenya, or the affects of the genocide in Burundi, or the role of the church in reconciling Myanmar. So many times these incredible leaders shared stories that matched exactly a breaking news headline; only they lived through the disaster and I only read about it.

It was easy to see how we were different from each other, and this brought hours of laughter as we lived life together. We sympathized for the people who weren’t used to toilet paper, the cultures that didn’t consider the food a meal without rice, and the many language miscommunications (for example: Kayla means banana in Hindi and Pashto. “Banana, pass the Kayla!” never got old.)

But underneath all these differences, we were united as human beings. 

A survivor of the genocide taught me that suffering is suffering, no matter where you are in the world. We all experience suffering. We all struggle with guilt. We all long to see peace and reconciliation in our nations. Most of all, we all have a common hope in Jesus.

I think the closer the Church strives to represent unity through diversity, the closer the Church is in bringing God’s Kingdom here on earth. It is a beautiful thing to have our identity first in Christ. It means our perception of family expands to an incredible new level.

We are 12 nations, 1 family, working to see the Church as an instrument of reconciliation.