Living and serving in a country that has experienced
genocide can change one’s opinion, career path and life. Just ask the 11 volunteers who’ve participated in the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program in Rwanda since 2014. Back in Racine, Wis., after a year in Huye, Laura
By Anne Basye
Hermanns is trying to avoid the tendency “to sit here in the U.S. and make judgments about how other countries are being run or doing things.” Rwanda operates under a more authoritarian version
of democracy, but Hermanns realized after living there that “the value of stability over personal freedom right now is totally understandable. It’s important to realize the complexity of situations and try to refrain from judgment.” Rwanda’s drive for unity and cohesion can be seen in
the Lutheran Church of Rwanda’s congregations, where Tutsi and Hutu sit side by side 22 years after the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people. YAGM volunteers can’t tell them apart. Rwandans can. “We’ve put aside our difference and come together to
Savanna Sullivan plays guitar with Johnson (last name withheld), a student at the Rwamagana (Rwanda) Lutheran School.
build our country,” said Gerard Muvunyi, the church’s director for capacity building and community development. “YAGM talk about the changes they see even in one year as we work together for the betterment of everyone.”
Shaping the body of Christ When the volunteers arrive, country program coordinator and ELCA pastor Kate Warn shares her mantra: “It’s not about you anymore. It’s about you in relationship.” In this small country they build strong relationships
with each other, the communities they serve and church leaders like Muvunyi, who opened his home to Stephanie Engel last year and Mary Braisted this year. Life in a household that includes Muvunyi, his wife,
During his year of service, Ben Warner built relationships with children who attend a preschool in Rukira, Rwanda.
grandmother, four children and a YAGM volunteer underscores “that we are one body of Christ,” he said. “What Stephanie had she could share with us, and what we had we shared.” Relationships also shaped Savanna Sullivan’s daily
routine in Rwanda. She often spent extra time with a student at the church’s Rwamagana School or would linger in the morning to chat with her housemother, Mama Erik. “My schedule was really dictated by the people I was with rather than the activities I was doing,” she said. That wasn’t easy for the self-described type-A
personality who values punctuality and productivity. Sullivan said she eventually realized that people perceived her competence “not by how much I produced, but by how caring I was, how much time I spent in conversation trying to get to know them. It was great for me to learn that.” Ben Warner served a preschool sponsored by the largest
Sullivan (right) and Laura Hermanns take a selfie with youth, fellow YAGM and the pastor of the Lutheran church in Kigali, Rwanda.
40 DECEMBER 2016
Lutheran congregation in Rwanda and lived with Martin Habiyakare, working alongside the retired Lutheran pastor in his fields to produce food for the household. The hospitality he experienced was a game changer, he said.
Photo: Courtesy of Savanna Sullivan
Photo: Courtesy of Ben Warner
Photo: Courtesy of Savanna Sullivan
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