Rwandans Rebuild with Church in Mind
By George Thomas
CBN News Reporter
July 6, 2008
CWN.org - Kigali, Rwanda - It has only been14 years since the horrific genocide in Rwanda.
If ever there was a nation in need of reconciliation and peace, it is this tiny African nation.
Best-selling author Rick Warren is teaming up with Rwandan church leaders to initiate a plan for lasting peace.
It's called the P.E.A.C.E. Plan - an ambitious effort by Warren's Saddleback Church in California. The goal? To mobilize one billion Christians worldwide to fight some of the country's biggest foes: poverty, disease, corruption and spiritual emptiness.
"We have a preaching, teaching and healing faith," he said. "We serve a Savior who was also an educator and a healer."
And Rwanda became the first nation to sign up.
The 1994 genocide killed nearly one million people, most of them as they sought refuge in their churches.
"They hacked through the walls with axes and then started throwing grenades in," Warren explained. "There was blood everywhere. It is sad for me to talk about it."
Today, the killers and the victims live side by side with the mental, physical and emotional scars of war.
Recovery is painstaking, but the people here seem determined to rebuild their country, thanks in large part to the country's president, Paul Kagame, and his unique relationship with Pastor Warren.
"We didn't choose Rwanda. They chose us," Warren said. "President Paul Kagame read the book Purpose Driven Life. He wrote me a letter and said 'I am a man of purpose and I want you to come to Rwanda and help us rebuild our nation.'"
Rwandan church leaders are hoping an innovative P.E.A.C.E. plan an created by pastor warren can help
"We know that we have a nation to build. And we don't have any luxury to wait until the pain is over. If we are to make a nation, it is now," said Bishop John Rucyahana.
The "P" stands for promote reconciliation, "E" for equip servant leaders, "A" for assist the poor, "C" care for the sick and the "E" is for educating the next generation.
Nurse Cristy Wiggins is a member of Warren's church who answered the call to partner with Rwanda seriously.
"I am the 'c' - caring for the sick," she said.
Back in october, Wiggins moved to Rwanda and hasn't been home since.
"I think we are all given gifts and it would be a waste not to use them in a culture that really needs you," she said.
Wiggins is working with the nurses, bringing her experiences working in the states into the small field hospital in the town of Kibuye.
"But really this isn't my project. This is a Rwandese project. I am just here to support them," Wiggins proclaimed.
WIggins is part of the P.E.A.C.E. Plan's flagship project called the Western Rwanda HIV-AIDS healthcare initiative.
It is a prototype of how the P.E.A.C.E. Plan should look and work in other parts of the country.
In this region, there are only three hospitals to serve hundreds of thousands of people.
It takes about two days to walk from the villages here in the hills of western Rwanda to reach one of the three hospitals. So, Pastor Warren's idea is to turn the 726 churches in this region in to sort-of healthcare centers.
The program trains local Christians to use their churches as distribution centers for medicine and basic healthcare.
But the P.E.A.C.E. Plan encompasses more than just medical projects. Short-term P.E.A.C.E. teams come from the states to help train rwandans in various business and development projects.
Who does the training? Everyday Christians who have expertise to share. Like businesswoman Marianne Phillips who's in Rwanda on a short-term P.E.A.C.E. mission from California.
She's teaching women how to manage small businesses and earn a sustainable income for their families.
Phillips says you don't have to be a "superhero" to do a P.E.A.C.E. trip.
"There are people on our team from all walks of life," she said. "God does the work of matching task to talent. All we have to do is show up."
The idea is to join churches from the west with churches in other countries to help train them to serve their communities.
Warren's Saddleback Church in California has sent about one thousand members on short-term missionary trips to come along side the churches in Rwanda, laying the ground work for outreach by local believers.
Another important component of the P.E.A.C.E. plan is to bring a country's three sectors of society together to work on developing the country.
"The component of faith and Christianity, government and business. I don't think you can have better complimentarity than having these three things converging to enable people realize their higher goals," President Kagame said.
This P.E.A.C.E. model at work in Rwanda is one that Warren hopes will prove successful and will one day be replicated in other countries.
Saddleback is already laying the ground work for peace to be replicated in 68 countries.
They've sent out nearly 8,000 of their members in small teams around the world.
But for now, they are focusing on Rwanda.
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