Adele is one of the most remarkable women that I’ve ever met. Let me tell you her story. Pastor Rugelinyange, my host, said to me, “Pastor Mark, I want to take you to a woman who is so remarkable that you will be deeply impressed for the rest of your life with her story.Her husband was a pastor. He was brutally murdered, massacred, macheted to death before her eyes. And the story that she will tell you will change your life.”So we traveled on rough roads over ravines out to a little African village. As I entered Adele’s home, I noted the picture of her pastor husband on the wall. I stood there for a few moments looking at thepicture. And then I sat down and Adele and I made small talk. And then I said, “Adele, I know your husband was brutally killed, would you like to share his story with me?” And with a tear in her eye and her lips quivering, she began to share the story.She shared how the rebels came closer and closer to her village. She and her husband fled into a Catholic church. The rebels entered that church.
Adele thought they would find sanctuary there, they did not. As the rebels came in, they began screaming for the pastor to stand up. Nobody stood. They continued to scream because they were going to kill all the community leaders first.The pastor stood. And the rebels ran and began to flay at his body with the machete. They struck him again and again and again.
Finally, his throat was cut and blood was spurting from his body and he was breathing his last, praying for those who killed him. Adele began to scream and in that melee, in that confusion, 45 people were slain, and 15 fled. And as Adele told me the story, she pulled back her black hair and I saw a scar across her forehead, a scar that went deeply into her skull.
They had run at her with machetes, and she was left on the floor for dead. She had a large scar on her head. She had scars on her back, and her wrist was partially chopped off.For three days, Adele lay among the dead bodies. Her heart was faintly beating. When the towns people came to bury the dead, they found Adele lying there.
They picked her up in their arms, and they bathed her wounds. They brought her to the hospital. By now the rebel leaders had moved on .It took three years, but Adele recovered. And she began to think, “I can be a bitter, angry, resentful old woman, but I’m not going to do that. I’m going to go into the prisons and minister to the murderers.”There was one prison not far from her house and Adele became known as the mother of that prison.She brought in food. She brought in clothing. She ministered lovingly to the prisoners.
She told me, “Pastor Mark, one day a young man named Luis fell at my feet and he was weeping and kissing my feet. And as I looked down at his face, I saw that he was the young man who rushed in with the machete and killed my husband. He was the young man who put this scar on my head. And he looked up and me and said, "Adele, would you forgive me?’ I pulled him up and I embraced him and said, 'In the name of Jesus, I will forgive you.’”She continued, “Pastor Mark, my heart was racing, but I knew that Christ had forgiven me and that I could forgive this murderer. I began studying the Bible with prisoners, and Luis came to the Bible studies. He made a decision that he would follow Jesus and be baptized.
But he said, ? Before I’m baptized, I want to stand before the prison publicly and ask you, Adele, for your forgiveness.’”On the day of his baptism, he stood with Adele and said, “Adele, I brutally murdered your husband. I put a knife mark, a machete scar, on your head, will you forgive me?” She said, “Before those prisoners, before he was baptized, I forgave him. My son took his father’s death so hard. And Luis said, "I want to talk to your son.’ And my son went to his cell. And Luis said, "I want you to forgive me.’”“Luis became a model prisoner.
The grace of Christ was flowing through his life. He was a new young man. After three years, the government let him out of prison for good behavior. But he had no place to live because Luis had his father and mother murdered in the genocide.
”“And I said, 'Luis, you come and I’ll adopt you as my son.’ And for the last couple of years, he has been living in my home. Pastor Mark, would you like to meet Luis?”I tell you, friend, there was a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes as Luis walked into the room and Adele embraced him and said, “He is my adopted son today.
”I’ve thought so many times in my life that maybe I’ve been mistreated. So many times in my life people have said something and I’ve gotten upset. So many times in my life people have done a little thing and I’ve been angry. And I thought of Adele, how she could reach out in such a loving forgiveness?If there is somebody that has hurt you today and wounded you, in the spirit of Jesus, you, too, can forgive them.The lesson of Rwanda is the lesson of a nation learning to forgive, because Jesus has forgiven them.
