Spirit in Action
Rwandan Witness - Friends at Ground Zero
Friends Peace House/Uguru Rw'Amahoro is a striking witness in a country so recently torn by genocide of nearly 800,000 people. The Evangelical Friends Church in Rwanda has firmly taken on the task of being workers for peace, healing and reconciliation in a land much in need of Divine Love.
- Broadcast on:
- 03 Oct 2010
- Audio Format:
- other
[music] Let us sing this song for the healing of the world That we may hear as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along And our lives will feel the echo of our healing [music] Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark helps me. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives Of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, Creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service Hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. [music] If you ask the average American what they know about Rwanda, the most likely response is Hotel Rwanda The movie about the 1994 massive genocide in Rwanda And they're not likely to know much more than that The Rwandan genocide was a staggering event, with something like 800,000 people killed in about three months If that's all you knew about Rwanda, of course, you would not think too highly of this tiny African nation But Rwanda is much more than just the genocide The reminders of that horrible event dot the countryside For me, when I think of Rwanda, I think of friendly, helping, smiling people And most of all, I think of Friends Peace House in Kigali, Rwanda's capital Friends Peace House in Rwanda is an inspiration to the world and a beacon of hope in a troubled world And that institution and the people who are part of it are the focus of this week's spirit in action I spent a month in Rwanda last year as part of a Quaker folk dance group called the friendly folk dancers Even though Rwanda is a relatively small country, we could only scratch the surface in the course of our brief visit And most of the time, I was visiting with people connected with the Evangelical Friends Church of Rwanda In common speak, these are Quakers, though they are a very different strain of Quakers than the group with which I am affiliated in the United States They are both of this distinctive variety of Quakers called Evangelical Friends, and they are Africans It was a delight to get to know them, and even more importantly, it was blessing to connect with them across the continents in the divine work of peace Let's first get you in the mood by setting the atmosphere If you haven't seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, I encourage you to see it If you have, you may recognize this music from the soundtrack for that movie Sit back, fasten your seatbelts, and join me for a visit to Rwanda and Friends Peace House [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] While I was in Rwanda last year, I was pleased to visit with David Butchura, who I had met briefly the year before while he traveled in the USA We had an ongoing discussion about the life of Rwandan Quakers and their churches, as well as their unstinting work for peace We were just talking a little bit ago, David, about baptism and how Friends approach it here in Rwanda Could you say a little bit about what you know of Friends, Attitude, and what you do here that's maybe a little bit different? Again, we're part of Evangelical Friends, which is somewhat different than the group I'm part of, Friends General Conference associated also known as Liberal Friends Tell me about what you think about baptism here as part of Friends I think Evangelical Friends and liberal Quaker, FGC, all of us you are from, George Fox, and you have some same core values as Quakers Here in Rwanda, as I said Evangelical Friends, we are Evangelical, but we do not put our efforts, or we do not believe much on baptism in water What we believe is the baptism of the whole Spirit We do here, we do baptize for people who want to be baptized, because if you see other churches around, they do baptism in water And sometimes, we found in Burundi, the Friends were going out to be baptized, to take baptism of water and coming back Even in Kenya, it's almost the same, and here we choose to baptize for people who wish or who want to be baptized But for us, we teach them not to believe the baptism of water, but the baptism of the whole Spirit And if we see what we had here in Rwanda, we're confident genocide Most people were baptized in water, but if they were baptized by the whole Spirit, I do believe we do not have what we had here But here, some people believe the baptism in water, but for us as Quakers, as Friends, the baptism of water is a signal, is a sample It doesn't change, it doesn't transform the person, the person must be transformed by the baptism of the whole Spirit David, you mentioned you serve as Chairman of the Peace Committee What does that mean? What role does the Peace Committee have to do for Rwandan Friends? Well, the role of the Peace Committee or the Peace Commission of Rwanda is here As you know, Quakers of Friends, we are peace-makers or peace-chaches One of the Quavallus is building peace over the world From what you had here in Rwanda, genocide, conflict, war And as Quakers, we need to contribute As peace-makers, as peace-chaches, we need to contribute In that, Rwanda is meeting elected Or set up a commission on peace and reconciliation here in Rwanda And the role of this commission is to see how Rwanda Friends may contribute for peace-building and reconciliation in our country For Rwandis, and for our members, and for our people in general The Peace Commission is there also to plan, to plan to the strategic plan for peace activities here in Rwanda And to see how we may work with other Quakers of the world to bring peace Not only here in Rwanda, but the Peace Commission of Rwanda may collaborate with other peace-makers of the world And you have a plan, you have activities, and also we have Friends Peace House And Friends Peace House is a coordination of our peace activities And the Peace Commission is there to work with Friends Peace House To see if the Friends Peace House is making into practice the vision of the mission of Rwanda Yal meeting So is the Friends Peace House, is that a project of Rwanda Yearly meeting? Do you appoint the people who work for Friends Peace House? Is that done by the Peace Commission that you're the chairman of? Yes, Friends Peace House is established by Rwanda Yal meeting Friends Peace House works for Rwanda Yal meeting and for Rwandis And the Cordinta of Friends Peace House is appointed by Rwanda Yal meeting Even ada staff And the Rwanda Yal meeting of Peace Commission is there to see what Friends Peace House is working What are some of the other projects and other efforts that you're making as part of the Peace Commission of Rwanda Yearly meeting? Well, the Peace Commission, we have ada peace activities most are under Friends Peace House We have alternative to violence project or program We have a heroic, heroic is trauma recovering And you have women dialogue and you have other peace activities under Friends Peace House And you have other small programs over the country or up country And those programs must work under Friends Peace House And it must reach what the Peace Commission established in the plan So would you say that the Peace Commission of Rwanda Yal meeting established the plan And then the job is for Friends Peace House to implement, to carry out much of the work? Yes, you are true Yes, the Peace is the first Peace House to implement and the Peace Commission is to plan Do you have other witnesses? For instance, what is the Friends here in Rwanda? What is their attitude towards service in the military of Rwanda? Well, for that, that is a big question, because for us a ventricle Friends Because a ventricle Friends started by missionaries from US When they came, they emphasized on evangelism, planting churches And they seem to forget peace issue And after genocide, we found that we need to show our identity as Quakers And we started to know that we are peace church And now we are starting to teach our people to make violence and not to do this For that question, we are not yet discussing that But we have in our doctrine that Friends Church is a peace church And we need to continue to teach our people to read books on that But for us here, we do emphasize on evangelism, not conscience or rejection So would it be fair to say that there are members of Rwanda yearly meeting Who do work as soldiers in the military? Yes, we have and we have soldiers So even you have, "Trigera is a military", "Trigera of Rwanda, yet meeting" Yeah, "Bati is a peacemaker" If I understand correctly, though, what you're saying is The yearly meeting is still wrestling with this idea of how you are a peacemaker And you're part of the military, it's not clear yet how those roles go together Or if you can do both? Yeah, that I said for us, we discussed all that And we are still discussing all that And most people, we found that sometimes we must do both And it depends for your objective And for your vision you have if you go through the military But some who said, "We may go and other" They said, "We can't go as quick as" Again, thank you, David, for your time here Okay, thank you too, Mark. Thank you for your time (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) After that visit with David Buchura, chairman of the Peace Committee Of the Evangelical Friends Church in Rwanda, you heard a little bit of music from the region That was recorded at Cmange Friends Church, and was typical of their very lively, animated, and indeed spirited worship services With lots of singing and dancing, so different from the worship based on silent waiting on the Lord That is the norm of un-programmed Quakers like me in the USA We'll continue our Rwandan visit by speaking with the director of Friends Peace House, Cisely Marcellan A note about communications, the native language of Rwanda is called Kenya Rwandan And because it was a Belgian colony, French was a primary language Particularly amongst the better educated Rwandans English, like that spoken by their neighbor Uganda, is becoming more and more common And a significant number of Rwandans speak at least some Quiswahili To interview Marcellan, we decided to use the services of Joyce Akesu as translator Joyce is on the staff of Friends Peace House, and we will be speaking to her husband Gaston to round off our interviews I'll take you now to Rwanda for a visit with director of Friends Peace House, Cisely Marcellan Translated for us by Joyce Akesu Marcellan, your director of the program at Friends Peace House How long have you been coordinator, and what are the duties of your job as coordinator? I've been a coordinator since 2000, and the reason is to pay the coordinator It's because they coordinate all the activities in Friends Peace House What are the activities of Friends Peace House that you oversee? Which ones have you been involved with directly? We have so many activities in the Urugal Gama Hallo, that's a Friends Peace House We do consulting, we do conflict resolution We have different trainings, we are mediators, and we teach people unity and reconciliation We try to rebuild peace among the Rwandis About the activities I've ever done in Friends Peace House It's more specially got such re-integration I remember I'm the founder of that activity in Friends Peace House Again, concerning rebuilding and talking about peace I'm also the founder of that program Have you been a friend, a Quaker for a long time? I'm not the first member, but I started with the church, the time it started in Rwanda And the Vangrico Friends church started in Rwanda in 1986 And in 1987, it was recognized by the government of Rwanda Then, the next year, I decided to become a member of the church It seems to me that peace and reconciliation are very important to all of the Quakers I've met all over Rwanda Is that part of what attracted you to become a member of the Friends church, or was there another reason? The reason as to why I decided to become a Quaker is, I saw that the Quakers are peacemakers Then the second reason is that I'm also a peacemaker and I like peace Those are the main two reasons as to why I decided to become a Quaker Who actually founded Friends Peace House? When was it founded? And were you part of that founding of Friends Peace House? The church was started in Rwanda by missionaries from Burundi I decided to join the church, I became active and started using my talents in the church Were you one of the people who founded Friends Peace House? Yes, I'm among the founders of Friends Peace House because by then I was a clerk And it was so easy for me to take a decision with some few other people And that's why we managed to start the Friends Peace House What are some of the most important results that you've seen Friends Peace House have? The things that have changed because of Friends Peace House Actually, Urugal Gammaholo has built important and beautiful fruits like unity and reconciliation And after the genocide, people's hearts had wounds And we can say that people are recovering slowly by slowly because of trainings from Urugal Gammaholo Conflict resolution is also important to our country and it's more especially done by Urugal Gammaholo And the government is appreciating our activities since we are helping the citizens and the citizens of the government So I can say that we have fruits because of Urugal Gammaholo What plans do you have for the future? What projects and what do you hope that Friends Peace House will become? Our country, first difficulties of genocide, we had the first actions to make people feel the least We also had the second step of training people and showing them where we have been and where we are going So the third step on which we are now is to encourage people to rebuild their country and developing their country So we have dreams of development now And we will do that through gathering all people who Urugal Gammaholo have worked with And we will start teaching them doing developmental jobs and activities And if I talk about development, I don't mean developing like the country has it in its programs I mean development but including peace in our activities We needed to develop but peacefully not doing other things which are contrary to our peace I think that not everyone who works at Friends Peace House is Quaker But are there ways in which you do your work at Friends Peace House which are Quaker Actually the activities of Urugal Gammaholo began from the church And later we had workers from other churches But the main reason that made us have workers from other churches is that Friends Church or the Quakers themselves do not isolate people, they don't segregate in ethnic groups That's why we decided to bring them in so that the activities should be spread to more and different areas We wanted to spread peace to other churches also If for example we have a Catholic worker with us, he or she will spread our activities and talk about peace in his or her church That's the main reason why we decided to work with other different people who are not Quakers And actually if the Quakers have peace, when other churches do not have peace, that is not peace So real peace is when we share what we have with other churches Another thing is that as we go out for trainings of Urugal Gammaholo We introduce ourselves as people coming from Friends Peace House But when we are different people and from different religions If I introduce myself and say that I'm a Quaker Then the second they facilitate say that I'm an Adventist Another one would say I'm from a Pentecosto church The participants feel themselves at home and since we go when we are from different religions They also feel like we feel If we have a participant who is an Adventist When we have a facilitator who is an Adventist She or he will feel free and will relax in the workshop So that's why we decided not to work alone like Quakers But instead spread peace and bring all people into our activities I wanted to come back, Marcella, as to why you became a Quaker And you said it was because of peacemakers This was before the genocide by some years Were you afraid that something like the genocide would happen? Were you trying to change how the Rwandan society existed? Why was peace important to you? Thank you for the good equation In fact, I had not seen something that scared me a lot But in our families as one is People understood things differently And I remember I started resolving conflicts in my real family When I was still a very young boy So I cannot say that we had no conflicts And I cannot say that we stayed peacefully That's why I think made me become a Quaker Because I had seen conflicts when I was still a very young boy As I said, I started resolving conflicts between my family members When I was still young And then I had started going to school But actually, I did not get a chance of getting educated After that, I had decided also to become a Catholic father But the leaders of the church refused me to become one So that made me hate the Catholics fast When the Quakers started the church in Rwanda They came evangelizing and they phoned me When actually, I had no stand So they brought me in the church And that made me feel free to use my talent Because I phoned them peacemakers And I was a peacemaker, I felt I loved peace And from there, I grew into the church But peace, though, the genocide had not yet started That's how I started Up to now, I'm a peacemaker, I can't say Few years before the genocide, they drew away Just very small signs which showed people that something was going to happen But again, the genocide, I can say, made me or supported me As a backburned support and individual Because it encouraged me more to say out or to do the activities I'm doing now, through Hugo Maho Because had it been that genocide did not take place I wouldn't have called it the coordinator of peace house So I became one because of what happened in our country The reason as to why I said that genocide helped me to implove On to what I had in my heart Is that by now, though I did not have a chance of getting educated I feel I can help any child through Hugo Maholo to go to school Second to that, I try to teach and become an example Of how people should respect each other's rights Thirdly, I feel I can be talking on behalf of people who do not have a stand like I was Another thing I can talk about is that I'm among the genocide survivors But though I am, I tried to gather people and brought them into groups Those groups, genocide survivors and the ex prisoners or the genociders And the one who started that activity and up to now, it's known by the government For all the programs that you do at Friends Peace House How many people have been involved over the years since 2000? How many people's lives have you affected with all of the programs at Friends Peace House? The question is a bit difficult for me to answer Because I did not cram the number of the people in my head except if I try and give you some written reports But as I know, in the Gachacha integration, we have like 2,000 members in the Cangugu 70 in M Sovo and another big number, I cannot say that the real number is this one or this one But actually, I assure you, we have held many people through rural-gorgamajaro activities Thank you very much for taking your time with me today Thank you also for having this time with me too And thank you for taking your time listening to what I've been telling you This shows that you are with us, spiritually and physically You are encouraging us to do more activities and good ones, not bad ones Thank you again That was Cisele Marcellan, director of Friends Peace House in Rwanda translated for us by Joyce Okesu You may have noted a kind of hissing that came on at the end of that interview No, that was not an equipment malfunction, it was an abundant tropical downpour I want to remind you that this is Spirit in Action And I'm your host, Mark Helpsmeet, for this Northern Spirit Radio production Go to our site, NorthernSpiritRadio.org to listen to this and others of our broadcasts And you'll find information about and links to our Gus on that site You can also subscribe to our programs via iTunes We love to have your feedback, so please consider posting a comment on northernspiritradio.org We've won more in Rwanda than we're going to visit with And Joyce Okesu is his wife His name is Gaston Hector Shaka And you'll have to excuse my poor pronunciation Gaston danced with us last year when the friendly folk dancers visited Rwanda And he joined us this year for a dance tour of that group in the USA So I had a good chance to get to know him Who would have thought that this generous loving man could be the same child whose parents and siblings were murdered in the 1994 Rwandan genocide Few of us have such powerful adversity and rise from it with divine help to be a worker for peace and healing We'll speak to Gaston Hector Shaka, staff member of Friends Peace House by phone after a little dance music Picture Rwandan women dancing with baskets on their heads as we get ready to speak with Gaston [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Gaston, thanks for joining me for Spirit in Action. Yes, thank you, Max. I'm so happy to. Gaston, you've been working at Friends Peace House. How long has that been now? And what is your position there with Friends Peace House? I have Friends Peace House for nine years. I work as a facilitator in hearing and rebuilding your community in the heroics. And I work with the Street Kid and Children. Yeah, you know, we have many, many kids in the streets because of different programs caused by genocide, poverty, HIV/AIDS. Many programs, conferences from families, those caused children to go in the streets. So Friends Peace House and Banjo Cultural Church in Rwanda have baden to help those people, to help those kids. So I work with them and I help people in hearing the wounds and in consideration, you know, because in different ethnic, you know, caused by genocide, 1994. And when you say you help the street kids, what kind of things do you do for them? How do you help them? We help them in different ways. We give different skills to them so that they can support them themselves. Those who are still young, we teach them to write, to read, and we take them to primary schools. That's the basic best of the studies, primary schools in our country. And the others will try to take any high school or secondary school, that's your core. Others who are already enough and who can't afford normal studies, we train them in different skills like sewing, clothes, using machines to set the market to serve. So we need to try to solve uniforms for our schools, for our students, you know, the Friends Church in Rwanda have different schools like primary, secondary, or high schools. So those people, those young, those kids, boys and girls make uniforms so they can gain money or rent money for supporting themselves and the way they live. And we train them to make bricks or blocksima in France to build houses, you know, this time in our country they are building houses, not using woods or trees because of environment, protect environment. So we teach them to make bricks to build houses and where things, how to make those windows, metal metal things, you know, for houses and the other materials and other things. We teach them to make garden and cultivating, you know, to create a bed, making a garden, kitchen garden, kitchen garden. It's many, many skills to give to them. And what is your role in working with them? Are you actually one of the trainers? Do you train for the sewing, the welding, all of these other tasks? Or is it your job recruiting? These are street kids and I think by that you mean that they are not living with family, they don't necessarily have regular kind of homes that many people have. Okay my post is assistant coordinator in that program, but as I work with them, I charge to visit some kids and try to find people who can help them from outside, who supports them, you know. And where are these children living? Are they living on the streets? Do they have some families left yet? I'm not sure what you mean by street kids. They don't live in a street anyway when we have a chance to get all to arrive in our center and try to find my friend's school or center. You know, we try to find some people, kind people through the churches or government, government readers we work with, so that people can help them, who can decide to take one or two at home, so that they can even help workers activities at home like washing, dish the prints, like fetching or activities at home. So, as we try to find relative friends, anyway, they are those who stay themselves, who live themselves, who have brothers or sisters, and he must take care of them. Because we make follow-up and, yeah, we help them in that way, but we wish, we wish, we wish that they can stay in our center, in our school, but you have no dormitories, you have a land, a big land, a big port, so if we can find means to build buildings, we can help them, or wish they can stay in our area, in our local, but means means. So, yeah, that's how. I think that this experience, I mean, you've had your own experience with needing the church to take you in to help you out. Could you speak a little bit about the personal history you have, Gaston, and that got you involved eventually with friends and with friends' peace house, starting from the time back at the time of the genocide? How old were you then? I was 15 years old in 1994. I was born in North Province in Jumba. So, I came to hear that people are killing each other, I know we were supposed to be killed. So, I fled, I left my family, they were killing each other, they killed my parents, my sister, two sisters, and one brother. So, I went so that I came with those army, all soldiers, of RAPF to Chigari. The killing was happening too, but the RAPF tried to stop it in that time. So, you know, after that, the war continued to come off, but I came to join me. The Martinez Pass is an organization, American organization, some now, which helped young people or children who lost their parents, their families, relatives and friends during the war or during the genocide. They took me and they took care of me, they gave me everything. So, I went after, as the war was continuing, reducing or stopping. I went back, I went back to school. I went to Quaker School, Evangelical Church School in Rwanda. So, that I went to meet with a missionary, helped me a lot to my studies in high school. So, after I came to work in 2001, I joined a French Peace House program because I was involved in it. And in different workshops, like key locks, healing and rebuilding our community, and the LGBT, alternative to the audience. So, helped by those programs or those workshops, those programs, I came to forgive, or take care, or call my enemies. Those who kept my family, my parents, you know. So, that is my life. So, and after that, I came to married, I felt again married with my wife, my beautiful wife, Joyce. That's an amazing journey. Your parents, your sister's brother are killed. You're involved with these military people, but you were not a soldier, is what I understand? You know, I was not and I'm not towards the refugee, any of them, they helped me, they helped me, let's say that. And then you got back down to Kigali, to Kigali. There you found people to help you, continuing on the Samaritan people. Did you take part in some of these workshops, the hierarchy, the healing and rebuilding our communities, or the AVP, the alternatives to violence programs? Were you one of the participants in those workshops first? Is that how you first got to learn about what they do? No, I came to participate after that. But you sat in with those groups as a person who had suffered the ravages of war. You had been hurt by war, so you went there not first as a staffer or a volunteer, but as a person who had been hurt by the genocide. Isn't that true? Those programs, the French peak house in Rwanda, its purpose is to build the lasting peace, the lasting peace in Rwanda. So what they do is, in those workshops, they try to invite survivors and people who play the law in genocide, who kill the people or leave the prisoners. And they come and meet that day of a workshop almost takes three days. No one knew or knew he was going to meet with somebody else, who killed him or who killed his family or who caused this. So you always see you are sitting together and the workshops start and giving lessons. No one can talk to others, you are angry, you are fear, you are afraid, you feel fear. But you came when you see that sometimes those people who committed the ask forgiveness, the ask forgiveness, according to what they have learned, from the reference, from the workshops. They can say, okay, ask forgiveness for killing people in the genocide. So that's what they do and you try to think about, they show you where they put your person, you know. They are bodies. So that is helping is a process, giving forgiveness is a process. It's not come directly to something you think about as human beings, as people who everyone has good side or bad side. Yeah, you know, and you decide to forgive people, we forgive, we forgive, but you never forget, you know. That seems amazing, I think, to most of us to be able to forgive people. I don't know if you actually know the people who killed your parents, who killed your family. Have you been able to talk to them and say, you hurt me badly but yet I forgive you, have you been able to talk to those people directly? Well, some who died, some died during the war, others are prisoners, are still in prison. But two of them are outside, they were released. We talked about that and they helped me, they tried to help me some problems I had. So they are friends of mine, they are friends of mine. Yeah, you know Gaston, I know you have a very big heart, I know you as a very compassionate and loving person. I try. But is it because you are such an incredible loving person that you were able to forgive? Because I think many of our listeners to this radio program, they are going to say, I could never forgive like that, that would not be possible. What made it possible for you to forgive? As a human being, okay, to me I didn't know, I lead the Bible, that's what I want to tell you that. I lead even the Bible. The Bible says, please forgive and don't revenge. So I love your enemies, so as I have committed to forgive those people and forgive other people who committed genocide because of that. But it's a human being, some can forgive others, it's not easy, it's a process. It's a step slowly but slowly, you know people we are different, some are weak, others are strong. We don't live in a same condition, yeah, but to me forgiving is very important form in my life because if I don't forgive, my future is very difficult for me. I forgive to create my future, to create my hope, to help my family, to build a strong hope in me. If you think about things past, things past, you will continue to think and you will fall away. You fall down, nothing you can do to help you, to protect you, you know, you don't have a hope for future. So me, I decided to do that for creating my good future with my family, my children in society, in my country, and God helped me in it. I did bible, I loved the Lord, I trust me God, God is my father. Let me say that, God is my father, yeah, yeah, me I do others do too, yeah, others can't do because we are different. What I think is not what you think, it's not other thing, but yeah, it happened, it happened, people forgive others. Yeah, we are one people, we are creators of God, of the Lord. Well, it's a very inspirational effort, an inspirational life journey you've lived from a person who could have been embittered, could have been angry, could have carried that weight with him, to someone who is doing so much to heal the next generation after you. About how many street kids do you end up dealing with or does Prince Peace House end dealing with? Now we have 130 children, they are in different programs, some I have told you, some are in the primary school and the secondary school or high school and others are following skills, are studying skills. But the total is 180 children. Right at this moment, but how long, this program has been going for some years, so you must have dealt with perhaps thousands of children? Yeah, we have, yeah, all yes, we have almost 500, 500 children, yeah, two kids, but now they are grown up, some are already married, they have children, they have family, you know, women and husband. As I was walking in different jobs, some we supported them in quicker activities, they are garden making, you know, they are making different jobs because of skills they aren't in our school. If people here in the United States want to help Prince Peace House, what webpage should they look at, how can they help contribute money, or maybe even travel over to Rwanda and volunteer? How do they make those connections? Oh, thank you, that's a good information on location. Okay, if anybody is interested to visit us, to come in Rwanda or to see what we are doing, you can find our address in our website, Prince Peace House, you know, the Prince Peace House, you know. And that's where you can find more information and please, we need you, we need people to listen to us, we need people to help us, our programs, you can even come to study, to make research, we have a big library, we have books to read, yeah, yeah, we have a library, you can learn more from our country, from our programs, thank you very much. Well, it's wonderful work you've done and I wish you well on the rest of your travels in the United States before you return home to your lovely wife Joyce and your two darling daughters, please take our love back to them with you. Thank you, thank you very much, Mark, may God bless you already. Yeah, thank you for giving me this chance to say my desire. That was Gaston Hector Shaka, staff worker at Friends Peace House in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, rounding out our visit with workers for peace and trauma healing in Rwanda. Their website is friendspeacehouse.rw, R-W for Rwanda, and you can find a link by my northernspiritradio.org site, where you can also leave a comment. Let's close with a little modern Rwandan music in a combination of Kenya Rwandan, Kishwahili, and even little English. Yeah, uh-huh. Mr. D. Mr. D. Yeah, nasty. Yeah, nasty D. If you want to go up a tough track, fresh, mukorade. Yeah, there we go. What do we do? Whoo! Once again, do. Yeah, have a good son, do, shine your light boy hands. Hey, L.D. I got a tough paper, so I'll have to add a few words to write notes. Yeah. (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) The theme music for this program is Turning of the World, performed by Sarah Thompson. This Spirit in Action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. With every voice, with every song, we will know this world alone. With every voice, with every song, we will know this world alone. And our lives will feel the echo of our healing. You