6th April, 2006

DAVID ADAMS

It was a dark moment in world history. A hundred days of unbridled evil when more than 800,000 Rwandans died in a systematic slaughter that took place between April and June, 1994.

Described as one of the bloodiest chapters in Africa’s history, the world watched as the majority ethnic group - the Hutus - mutilated, tortured and killed those of the minority Tutsi ethnicity and moderate Hutus in a calculated genocide that saw women raped in sight of their own families and parents killed in front of their children before the children themselves were mercilessly murdered.

Now, 12 years on, a new initiative has been launched to help bring hope back into the country as it rebuilds itself.

A FUTURE OF HOPE? Fifteen per cent of Rwandan children are orphans as a result of the 1994 genocide. Hope: Rwanda is “not just recognising the problem but about making a stand and making a point about hope” says director Mark Zschech.

Called, appropriately, Hope: Rwanda, the 100 day initiative, which runs from 7th April until 15th July, will see thousands of people from across the world travel to the central African nation to work on a myriad of different projects - from humanitarian work to evangelistic outreaches to providing training for professionals - all with the aim of showing Rwandans that the global Christian community cares about the future of them and their nation.

Mark Zschech, who conceived of the initiative with his wife Darlene Zschech - singer, singwriter and worship leader at Hillsong Church, says the idea of Hope: Rwanda is to provide a “whole regime” of programs to address a range of needs across the country and is about giving the global church an opportunity to show they care about the nation.

The 42-year-old, who is on the board of directors for Compassion Australia and for the last few years has been working at Mercy Ministries - a residential charity he and Darlene founded for people with eating disorders, says that in contrast to 1994 when the world turned it’s back on Rwanda, the Hope: Rwanda initiative was about “not just recognising the problem but about making a stand and making a point about hope”.

“Different industries, like the music industry and the fashion industry, have all stood up for causes which is great but really the global church has never really made a big statement about anything,” he says.

“I’m not trying to scale this up at all but I think, more symbolically than in terms of size, this is a great vehicle or opportunity and we could possibly even go forward and do lots more things like this around the world.”

Several thousand people will be involved in projects which fall under the Hope: Rwanda umbrella, and are heading to the nation from a range of countries including Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, Singapore, New Zealand and South Africa.

They come from a range of professions and backgrounds - from doctors and dentists through to teachers, musicians and church pastors - and will be involved in scores of projects ranging from building schools, homes, orphanages and wells to training teachers, nurses, builders, doctors, pastors and business leaders, providing medical care including open heart surgery and dental work as well as supplying medical and food resources, Bibles and bicycles along with educational resources on issues such as nutrition, hygiene and AIDS. There will also be Christian concerts and outreaches.

Christians of numerous denominations are involved in the project - from Anglicans and the Salvation Army to pentecostal denominations - and numeorus high profile church leaders and musicians - including Joyce Meyer, Hillsong’s Brian and Bobbie Houston, Bill Hybels, Steve Grace, Michael W Smith as well as bands such as Delirious? and Third Day - are also taking part.

“There’s a whole broad spectrum,” says Zschech. “I actually don’t even fully understand the scope (of the initiative) because as one person tells one person and their story grows, then there’s all sorts of different levels of involvement.”

He says his role is not to deliver programs but to help open doors for other people to minister.

“A lot of people said to me ‘I want to go’ or ‘I want to be involved’ because I’ve always wanted to do something in Rwanda - I was ashamed of what we didn’t do so what should I do?’ he says.

”And I say, ‘Well, that’s sort of the wrong question because really the question is what’s God gifted you with or what’s God called you to do? That’s what you should bring to Rwanda. Just as the Bible talks about 'every joint supplying', it’s the same in Rwanda. It needs all sorts of different initiatives and ministries being worked out in that nation. I believe God’s providential and He’ll join all the right dots at the right time.”

Those organisations involved include Christian mission organisations such as Youth With A Mission, and humanitarian organisations like UNICEF, World Vision Australia and Compassion Australia as well as numerous Christian media organisations, churches and musicians.

Samaritan’s Purse is one of the organisations involved. For the first time, it’s sending Operation Christmas Child boxes - which contain toys, clothes and reading and writing materials and are usually given at Christmas - to children in Rwanda.

Leigh Brown, executive director of Samaritan’s Purse in Australia and New Zealand, says that Rwanda is a country in “desperate need”.

“It’s our privilege to be able to send 60,000 or 70,000 boxes to be distributed to children there,” he says.

“These boxes will probably come from Canada or the United States - Australia would have loved to have sent them over there but 60,000 boxes is a lot to get together in a short period of time so we’re happy to send them from anywhere.”

He says that while the organisation was moving into Rwanda this year anyway, it was great to be able to do so in co-operation with other organisations.

Zschech said the idea for Hope: Rwanda came about after a 2004 trip with his wife Darlene and two eldest daughters - Amy, then aged 15, and Chloe, then aged 11 - in which they visited some children they were sponsoring in Uganda and Rwanda.

“It’s a process that we go through every couple of years where we take our children to some place like that in the Third World,” he says. “We’d never been into Rwanda before and I suppose once you are there...and gain a better understanding of what happened in 1994 - the genocide - you cannot help but go ‘I’ve got to do something positive’ knowing that the world really didn’t do anything at the time.”

Zschech says that while he initially felt frustrated - thinking “what can we do, we’re just one or two people” - it was while on a subsequent visit to Nashville in the US that God placed the seed of an idea in his mind.

“That idea developed over the next couple of days to the point where it was like ‘Sure, we can only do something but if everyone in the music industry did something, that would be great’...Then we started to extend that - ‘What about our friends in churches all around the world and different ministries and NGOs?’.”

He says that while many organisations have been doing “good work” in helping those in Rwanda, there’s a sense that in focusing on one country at one time, “we can really make a statement and also be a great catalyst for many other people to roll off the back of that”.

BIRTH OF AN IDEA: Mark and Darlene Zschech with daughters Amy and Chloe and two children they sponsor in Rwanda via humanitarian agency Compassion during the Zschech's visit to Rwanda in 2004. "What they need is just some encouragement and some help. They don’t need us to rewrite the nation for them but they just need really to know that everyone else cares," says Mark Zschech.

“The thought was to replace 100 days of mourning with 100 days of hope."

Zschech says he can recall hearing about what was happening in 1994 at the time and thinking “that something bad had happened and it was terrible".

But he adds: "I suppose even like what was portrayed in Hotel Rwanda, it was just in a news item and by a couple of days later it was all forgotten about”.

Zschech says it was only when he visited the country and was able to understand the heart of the people and the spirit of what had happened there, “I was amazed, in a way, that we had been able to ignore it”.

“The stories are horrific. A lot of those people saw their parents and their brothers and sisters being murdered and we’re not just talking about being gunned down - they were hacked to death or (killed with) grenades or buried alive and all sorts of horrific stories,” he says.

Zschech says that as well as being confronted with the pain in people’s lives during his visit, there was also a sense that people wanted to move on.

“I suppose when you hear those sorts of stories, you go ‘How could you move on?’. But they really have and what they need is just some encouragement and some help. They don’t need us to rewrite the nation for them but they just need really to know that everyone else cares. One of the biggest comments I get from people in Rwanda about the work that we’re doing there is ‘Thankyou for thinking about us’. Not what we’re going to do, but just ‘Thanks for thinking about us’. That’s a powerful testimony I think.”

While the project is initially focused around 100 days, Zschech says there are already some commitments to keep working in Rwanda well beyond that timeframe. A group of doctors have already said they will be returning every year for the next three years, there will be ongoing building work and Opportunity International, which is moving into the country for the first time during the 100 days, is among the humanitarian agencies that will continue their work well beyond July.

“I feel like once people go and have that same experience that I did, they can’t help but actually have (Rwanda) as part of their life,” he says.

“They may never go back there again, but it will be something they will be thinking about, praying about, talking about and lifting the whole idea up...I just know that the experience I had was so profound and, I know how God works, that it will trigger something in them that they just won’t be able to shake.”

~ www.hoperwanda.org