Guest Speaker - Pastor Antione Rutayisire

This morning our bus was "bumpin' ". The bus drivers (I don't know why they need three) blasted American hip-hop on the way to class. It was awesome. I get so excited when I can sing the words to songs. When "Fire Burning" played I thought about camp and the weekly dances. It was a great way to wake up before class.

We had our best guest speaker so far- Pastor Antoine. He came to talk to us about the role of the Church in the Rwandan genocide. He was incredibly interesting and entertaining. he offended a few people, but I thought he was wonderful. Here is a list of things he said that I thought were notable:

• The Church's main problem was that it lacked consistency. It preached love, yet supported regimes that discriminated against people. It wouldn't risk speaking out against injustice.
• The Church as an institution failed, not God.
• Not all leaders or members of the Church do good. The Church is made up of sinners. "We all must have our Peters and our Judas' "
• God is not a policeman, he is a judge. God is love. Real love is only achieved though free will. God gave us free will so that we could actually love him, if we choose to. It would not be free will if he came in and stopped us from making the wrong decisions. And if he did stop us every time we did the wrong thing, we probably wouldn't love Him very much.
• We should not blame God when people misuse their freedoms
• Rick Warren came up with a PEACE plan - Plant churches, Equip servant leaders, Assist poor, Care for sick, & Educate younger generation. (PEACE)
• Westerners ask him why the Rwandan Church let genocide happen. Pastor Antione points out that we are in the middle of our own genocide. Our government and churches stand by and let thousands of innocent and defenseless babies get murdered each day because they are deemed a nuisance. Isn't that what Hitler did to the mentally handicapped and lame people that became a nuisance to the Aryan race?
• $1 a day would feed, educate and cloth a Rwandan child
• President Clinton came to Rwanda to give a pitiful 2million dollars to help widows and orphans. When he came he stayed at the airport because Rwanda didn't have nice enough accommodations for him. Wow. That made me embarrassed to hear.
• There are families where the children take turns getting meals because there isn't enough food, and just a few neighborhoods away, a rich expatriate keeps his five dogs well fed.

What Pastor Antione said really struck a chord for me. So much injustice!!

After lunch we had a guest speaker from FH talking to us about the CDC child sponsorship program.

Tonight our Owning Poverty session was about grief. We talked about how Americans, for the most part, don't know how to grieve, or help each other grieve. Why are we so quick to dismiss each others' pain? Why do we tell each other "Don't cry", "Don't worry", "Everything is going to be fine", "You'll be over this in no time"?? People need to grieve and cry!! We need to support each other in our sadness. Instead of talking about our own issues, or trying to give advice, or dismissing their feelings, we need to be a loving, listening and supportive presence.

Afterwards a few of us prayed together for each other. I burst into tears just wanting to go home and see my family and be there when my brother arrives from Haiti.

Worked on our group project a bit..