I was privileged today to make my first trip with Xtra Mile. It is a service organization working with the Africa Transformation Network here in Rwanda with the purpose of encouraging and providing services for orphans of the Rwandan genocide.

Today we went to the village of Nyamata. There we met with around fifty young men and women who, because of the genocide were the only surviving members of their various families. Many are without aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, and especially parents.

Xtra Mile purposes to teach these young men and women how to be a supportive unit to each other along with encouraging them to take part in God’s offer to accept their place in the family of Jesus.

In today’s Mobile Family outing we handed out gifts to many as encouragement for having done well in school, held a time of counseling and sharing, enjoyed a meal together, heard God’s word, and listened to the testimony of an orphan that had survived having his legs crushed by the militias of 1994 and has now graduated from the national university. The “we” I am talking about was myself along with Charles Kabesa (founder of Xtra Mile) and older genocide orphans that accompanied us from the capital.

After we ended our scheduled program we loaded up to head for, I thought, the capital and home, but we had one more stop to make. Charles announced that we needed to visit the genocide memorial there in Nyamata. April, you see, is the month of remembrance for Rwanda and this year marks the fifteenth anniversary of that horrid event. The last thing that I wanted to do, today, was to go to that memorial. It is a catholic church positioned at the southern end of town. Over ten thousand had fled to it hoping to find a safe haven, but after a few days there this refuge became a cemetery. So, we went to the Nyamata Memorial, myself along with twelve others who had all been orphaned by and survived the genocide of Rwanda.

You can see pictures of this memorial at the following website: www.museum.gov.rw/2_museums/kigali/nyamata/pages/nyamata.htm.

I was overwhelmed to be there with those who had made it as we gazed upon the remains of those who didn’t. I can’t explain the experience as a whole, some of us, especially myself, cried quietly and I kept asking God for mercy and grace.

Afterwards when we got back to Kigali, Charles came up to me thanked me for the day and said, “Welcome to Xtra Mile.”

I guess my initiation is over.

Please pray for healing for Rwanda.