Photo: George Zubick 

A Canadian mission agency has been invited to return to Rwanda this April to minister to a group of women devastated by genocide. SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad) is an Anglican-based mission agency which desires to see Christians of all churches renewed in the Holy Spirit. SOMA Canada was first invited to minister to the women in the Diocese of Cyangugu in 2005 and the first mission took place in 2006.

The women were the survivors of the horrific 1994 genocide recounted in the film Hotel Rwanda and in Canadian Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire’s book, Shake Hands with the Devil. From April until July 1994, the Hutu-led military and Interahamwe militia groups killed about 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Women lost their husbands and children, their parents and relatives and their homes. Many people had lived in mixed-marriage families and these were torn apart. Society as they knew it no longer existed.

Before the mission The Rt Revd Geoffrey Rwubusisi, Bishop of Cyangugu, said he doubted if the women would open up and tell their stories after twelve years. But he reported that during the first two missions God accomplished many healings, freeing many of the women from internalized pain, anger and hate. These women were from the Anglican churches in the Diocese and they went home to their villages and began talking to their neighbours. Some of them formed groups for prayer and healing and practiced what they had learned during the mission.

Others in the region noticed what was happening and some pastors from other denominations approached Bishop Rwubusisi saying, “Something is happening in the Anglican Church and we want it.” As a result SOMA Canada was invited to send another team to minister. The team members will raise their own funds or pay their own way. The Anglican Diocese of Cyangugu has a very good facility and dormitories for the mission but not the funds to transport women to the mission or feed them.