Join our Walk for Rwanda, beginning at 10am Saturday, Oct. 26. We will walk a trail to and through a portion of Condon Park. Our special guest this year on the walk will be Pastor John Rutsindintwarane from Rwanda, aka Pastor John, whose work we support.
Each year The Rwanda Connection Committee of Peace Lutheran Church sponsors a Trail-A-Thon to raise funds for ongoing healing work in Rwanda and other African countries and to promote the great local trails in this community. The walk will begin with a rally in the parking lot of Peace Lutheran Church, located at 828 W. Main Street in Grass Valley and will make a loop through Condon Park, returning to the Church for a special “Meet and Greet” and refreshments with Pr. John. Participants are invited to seek sponsors for the walk whose contributions will fund ongoing work in Rwanda, now expanding to Tanzania, Ghana, and Namibia, in the building of schools, health clinics and other community needs.
Pastor John’s work in Rwanda for over 25 years has helped many Rwandans strengthen their communities and reconcile after a genocidal civil war in 1994. This country saw the ultimate horror of neighbor against neighbor; slaughterer against previous friend, church member against fellow member, resulting in an estimated 1 million deaths and catastrophic destruction in approximately 100 days. This was followed by more death from disease and injury.
In neighboring Tanzania, newly-ordained Pastor John, whose family was already exiled there, witnessed the flood of refugees escaping their certain death. Many had been directed to the refugee camp where Pastor John was serving and acting as a translator with a Lutheran relief organization. There he met and worked alongside Tony Waters from Peace Lutheran Church in Grass Valley. Encouraged by Waters and others, Pastor John led one of the first groups of refugees back to a decimated Rwanda, through decaying, slaughtered bodies and ruin.
The death and destruction of a horrific genocide in a supposedly “Christian” nation caused Pr. John to experience a crisis of faith. Rather than giving up, Pr. John ultimately felt called to a mission of reconciliation and prevention of such a horror occuring again. First he assisted in establishing the Lutheran Church of Rwanda in 1995. He then traveled to the U.S. to embark on an educational path to study the subjects of reconciliation, conflict resolution and community development to rebuild and repatriate Rwanda.
When Pastor John visited Waters at Peace Lutheran Church in the late 1990’s, his commitment to rebuilding and reconciliation inspired the congregation to support his education and work. Peace spearheaded efforts in the United States to support Pastor John’s healing work by establishing their Rwanda Connection Committee that continues today. Pr. John developed a transformational model for rebuilding communities. He helps community members determine their greatest need, such as a school or a medical clinic. He then guides them through planning, fundraising and their own construction of facilities with the help of his team. The community then reaches out to the government with a request to staff their completed facility. This model has been remarkably successful; after completion of facilities in one village, that village often reaches out to neighboring villages to help them do the same. And so the model replicates itself continuing to rebuild a destroyed nation and people. And now his work has expanded to Tanzania, Ghana, and Namibia.
Now Rwanda is facing another powerful source of destruction and death – climate change. In early May of last year, torrential rain caused ferocious floods and landslides in portions of the Western, Southern and Northern provinces. The rains caused 135 deaths with many more injuries and destroyed at least 5,000 homes, farms and infrastructure including roads, schools, medical and other public facilities. Thousands of Rwandans were displaced. In Nyarubuye, Pr. John’s most recent project, a school, was getting ready to open for its youngest villagers under the direction of local leader, Charlotte Muteteri. Although the school was not destroyed, its opening was delayed due to the many homes and farms being washed away… and death. Over 13 people were hit by lightning and 3 died, including Muteteri’s daughter. Yet, amid the clean-up and grieving, the Nyarubuye school opened under the huge metal roof provided with funds from a Walk for Rwanda.
Please join Pastor John and Peace Lutheran Church in this year’s walk to provide funds to continue his inspiring work, with every penny raised or donated going directly to Pastor John’s work in Rwanda and beyond. Come experience his message of hope and reconciliation so needed in our own country now at this time of division and unrest. Be inspired! You do not need to walk to attend the “Meet and Greet” at Peace following the Walk at approximately 11am.
To join in the Walk with sponsors contact the Peace office at office@peacelutherangv.org for a pledge form to be turned in on the day of the Walk. Donations may also be made at www.PeaceLutheranGV.org/donate or mailed to Peace Lutheran Church, 828 W. Main St., Grass Valley, CA 95945; please include “Rwanda” in the memo line of both. For more on Pastor John and the Rwanda Connection Committee go to https://peacelutherangv.org/pastor-john-rutsindintwarane