Rwandan genocide survivor tells story of survival, forgiveness
NEW PHILADELPHIA — Alex Nsengimana escaped being shot during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 because he slipped in a cow pie. The bullet missed the top of his head by about an inch.
“Never underestimate the power of God and what he can do,” the 25-year-old told those who gathered Saturday evening at New Philadelphia Nazarene Church.
At the time of the nearmiss, he was running with thousands of people toward a city where they hoped to be safe. Nsengimana fled on the advice of an uncle who had bribed the militias to leave him alone.
The boy had lost his grandmother and another uncle to the violence that took place between April 7 and July 15, 1994, during the Rwandan Civil War. He and his brother and sister had gone to live with their relatives after their mother died of HIV/AIDS.
“Nsengimana” means “I pray to God” in Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda. He told Saturday’s gathering how God guided his steps along the journey that included escapes from death during the genocide that claimed nearly a million lives.
His story included receiving a gift in a shoebox gift through Operation Christmas Child — a gift that helped bring him to a strong faith in Jesus and led to the desire to return to Rwanda to build a church and minister to the people who killed his family.
“I want to be back in Rwanda so I can share the ministry of forgiveness, because that’s the only thing that has continued to heal me,” said Nsengimana, who left his homeland in 2003 to attend school in Minnesota.
He later visited the village where he grew up. He delivered shoebox gifts to children unaware of past distinctions between Hutu and Tutsi, and who do not feel the same hatred toward their neighbors as the generations who came before them.
Nsengimana believes that his nation can be reconciled with God’s grace and Christ’s example of forgiveness.
During his 2013 visit to Rwanda, he reinforced his words with actions by offering forgiveness, in person, to the man who killed his uncle. When he faced the man who was a neighbor and friend of the one he murdered and uttered words of forgiveness and redemption through Jesus, a burden he had carried for many years lifted from his chest.
Nsengimana said he realized that God sent his son to die on the cross for him and for the man who killed his uncle.
“God loves that person just as much as He loves you,” he said.
Jesus’ instruction to forgive 70 times seven isn’t a mathematical equation, but a message to “forgive, forgive, forgive,” said Matthew Reed, Great Lakes regional director of Operation Christmas Child, a part of Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational Christian relief agency.
Reed asked Saturday’s audience to pack an extra shoebox Christmas gift for children this year. He noted that a booklet about God goes on top of each package.
Nsengimana said the shoebox gift he received as a 7-year-old helped him and other war orphans begin to heal from their ordeal.
“That shoebox helped us create new memories in our minds,” he said. The memory is so powerful that he still smells the soap he received as a gift whenever he goes to a store.
It’s not too early to start shopping for small Christmas gifts for Operation Christmas Child, said Sugarcreek’s Esther Troyer, a volunteer regional manager for the organization. She said backto-school sales provide a good opportunity to buy supplies that can be packed into boxes.
Troyer said the reason she keeps doing the work is because the gifts bring hope to children now, as they did to Nsengimana in the past.
Nsengimana is the most sought-after shoebox recipient on the Samaritan’s Purse/ Operation Christmas Child circuit, according to Christy Bloom, who serves as a publicist tor Operation Christmas Child in Carroll, Coshocton, Harrison, Holmes and Tuscarawas counties.
He is traveling with the Amani Children’s Choir. The choir performed Saturday at New Philadelphia Nazarene Church. “Amani” means “peace” in Swahili, one of Rwanda’s official languages alongside French, English and Kinyarwanda.
They appeared Friday evening at Northampton Bible Church in Cuyahoga Falls, Saturday at the Walnut Creek Cheese and Sunday at the Encore Hotel in Millersburg.