Sonrise School/Orphanage

Dan Cruver:

In part two of my interview with Catherine, I asked her if there are some ways that American churches could partner with Rwanda’s churches to serve their genocide orphans. One of the Rwandan ministries that Catherine mentioned in her answer is Bishop John’s Sonrise School/Orphanage. Since Bishop John’s story is a remarkable testimony to the amazing forgiving grace of God, I thought it would be good for us to consider some of it today.

John heard the news about his niece when he was preaching to a group of prisoners who were members of the genocide death squads. He learned that the night before, rebels had stripped her naked, gang rapped her, peeled off the skin of her arms with machetes, and then cut off her head. Upon hearing the news John immediately collapsed and began to weep bitterly, tormented by the thought of what had happened to his niece just the evening before. It is in the deep darkness of this tragedy that Jesus met him and the idea of Sonrise School/Orphanage was born. Catherine writes:

In the days and weeks that followed, John wondered how he could go on preaching in the prisons to men like those who had killed his niece. In the midst of this, a clear picture came into John’s mind. He could see Jesus hanging on the cross: stripped, beaten, mocked, despised, nails tearing through his flesh, and a crown of thorns on his head. And John could hear Jesus cry, from within the pain, “Forgive!” John realized this message was for him and for his fellow Rwandans. He understood that neither he, nor they, could wait until the pain was over in order to forgive. Jesus had cried out for the forgiveness of his killers when he was still in the midst of the pain. John knew, even as the loss of his niece was such a fresh wound, that it was then he needed to forgive and preach hope, because they didn’t have time to waste.

So John did. He continued preaching repentance in the prisons, and the message of forgiveness to victims. And soon another idea about how to achieve practical reconciliation came to him. He decided he and those from his diocese could build a world-class school for orphans, a place where they could be healed from their trauma and taught the history of their country. The school would help build the children in character and develop them as citizens. It would be a place where Hutu and Tutsi children would live and grow together (As We Forgive, 70-71).