A NEW LIFE after GENOCIDE
By Frank King
“I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists and therefore I know there is a God.”
― Retired Canadian lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire
If anyone can speak authoritatively about this quote, from the general who witnessed the 1994 Rwandan genocide, it’s Jean Mudenge.
The 41-year-old Calgary resident and his family experienced the horror of that time, when simmering tribal tensions in the African nation exploded into a genocide. During a 100-day period in 1994, more than 800,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi tribe, were murdered and at least 250,000 Tutsi women were raped.
The fatalities included Jean’s parents and four of his eight siblings.
Despite the scale of the atrocities, the international community failed to act. Indeed, General Dallaire and in his troops, in Rwanda as part of a United Nations peacekeeping initiative, were not permitted to intervene.
“When I think about what happened to my parents and siblings, I understand exactly what General Dallaire meant,” said Jean, a soft-spoken social support worker who’s been attending Centre Street Church for two years.
“We saw evil so real and brutal, it could not be explained by human hatred alone,” said Jean. “It was a darkness beyond anything I could comprehend and it convinced me, even as a child, that if the devil is real, then God must also be real.”
Jean’s childhood in Rwanda was uneventful until 1991, when his father and grandfather were accused of being part of a group fermenting political unrest and imprisoned by the Rwandan government.
After that, as Jean puts it, “fear crept into our home”. The tensions between the Hutu extremists and Tutsi citizens continued, even after a peace agreement between the government and Tutsi rebels.
Those tensions turned into genocide after a plane carrying Rwanda’s president (and the Hutu president of Burundi) was shot down, killing everyone on board. The same night, the genocide began.
Ten-year-old Jean and one of his brothers escaped through the backyard of his home, even as other family members were being killed. A teenage from a different tribe, Jean Baptiste, found them and, at great personal risk, guided them across the border into what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo in May 1994.
In the Congo, Jean lived in various places, including an orphanage, before finally returning to Rwanda in August. Despite somehow picking up the pieces of his life and getting an education, he struggled to spiritually deal with the genocide and the death of so many family members.
“My faith was bruised, my prayers felt empty. I survived physically, but spiritually I wandered through the shadows,” Jean recalled.
His journey back to faith in Christ began at age 17, when a schoolmate continually invited him to attend church. Jean finally said yes, expecting very little, “yet God met me there. The Holy Spirit opened my heart and the message of salvation became clear.”
As the Lord revealed the truth of Scripture, Jean recognized many heroes of the faith in which he could identify:
• Joseph, who was betrayed, imprisoned, then helped save the Jews of Israel.
• Job, who lost everything, yet encountered God in a life-changing way.
• David, who sinned deeply and spent years escaping persecution, but was called a man after God’s heart.
• Ruth, whose grief led her into God’s redeeming story.
“Through these people, God whispered this to my heart: ‘If I restored them, I can restore you’.
Jean learned to be grateful for living, for strangers who risked their lives to help him, for 10 beautiful years with his parents and for Rwanda rising from the ashes of hate and violence.
In 2009, Jean left Rwanda and came to Calgary, joining one of his sisters who arrived two years before with her husband.
Jean went into social work school, first to help himself, then to help others. At Centre Street Church, he is part of a community family group that has provided encouragement, friendship and spiritual growth.
He met fellow Rwandans at church; brothers and sisters in Christ, each carrying stories of pain. Some had lost family members; others bore wounds that were invisible but no less real. Yet in that sacred space, surrounded by worship and prayer, Jean witnessed something miraculous.
“Today we stand together simply as Rwandans,” he said, his voice steady with hope. “In Christ, we rise above the divisions that once destroyed us. My faith didn’t just teach me to forgive, it gave me the strength to seek reconciliation, even with those who took so much from us.”
He has been back to Rwanda only once, in 2015 to visit a terminally ill aunt who helped raise him. “When she met me, she said ‘I’ve been waiting for you so I can die.’ Three weeks later she was gone,” Jean recalled.
Today, Jean regards himself not as a victim, but as a witness. “A witness to suffering, yes. But also, a witness to miracles, to courage, to protection and to the redeeming power of God.”
Jean sees Philippians 1:6 as his “life verse”. I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
“Knowing the good work, He did in me, means God can extend His work through me,” Jean explained.