Hard to say goodbye

I have been interning at PFR for the last six months and with a week left to go you can imagine the building excitement of going home and being reunited with my friends and family. But last night it finally hit me, I am leaving behind another family. Over a leaving dinner at our favourite local restaurant sharing the usual jokes, brainstorming new ideas with Guma (my boss and PFR’s Communication Director), and tucking into a delicious meal, every member of the PFR team stood up a told me what I had meant to them. It was without a doubt one of the most touching evenings of my life, and why am I telling you this? Quite simply to allow myself the opportunity to put into words what this organisation means to me and why they are so worthy of your support. So how do I summarise the past six months without sending everyone to sleep? In three words...spirit, dedication, and love.

Spirit

The PFR team have an unbreakable spirit, and when confronted with the numerous challenges they face they are not discouraged. They talk problems through in fast-paced Kinyarwandan (which then gets translated for yours truly) and everybody gets a say. They are some of the hardest workers I have ever met, finding time in their busy schedules to not only take care of families, but to attend prayer daily, to work 10 hour days, and even make time to socialise with one another...demonstrated by the fact that despite the birth of a new baby boy for our Project Manager Felix (congratulations!) he still made an appearance at my leaving dinner. You would think that with all this going on the office environment might, on occasion, be a little tense, with tired and irritable workers...I’m picturing a typical London office come Monday morning, but no, it’s smiles all round, constant upbeat chatter, and a ‘ready to face whatever is thrown at me mentality’, sometimes it’s hard to keep up! You certainly need a lot of what follows to maintain this incredible spirit...

Dedication

PFR’s dedication to the causes it supports is inspirational. I honestly think that if no money was available, some of the staff would offer their time for free. It is refreshing to work in an environment where everyone is genuinely passionate about what they do, and the people they are championing....our HIV + women, the street children of the AAC, communities going through the long process of reconciliation, or prisoners who are repenting for their crimes. Every group and every person counts. Sometimes I wonder if PFR tries to do too much, to support too many people (this is normally when I am overwhelmed with tasks myself) but then I remember that everything they have accomplished so far...the six successful reconciliation villages, the 33 child sponsorships, the marketing of women’s goods, and the evangelising of once hopeless prisoners, proves that they can succeed at whatever they set their mind to.  And moreover, they cannot say no, or turn away someone in need. And this leads me to my last point...

Love

When you walk into the PFR office, whether as an old friend, business partner, or new acquaintance, you are greeted with a warm embrace from Jacqueline, and you instantly ‘feel the love’. Suddenly your language, your skin colour, your different culture, disappears into thin air and you are just another person, which is rather refreshing when you are having to adjust to getting stared at on a daily basis and chased by small children. In my time with PFR I have been described as many things but what I will remember most is being described as a daughter by our Executive Director Pastor Deo, who not only ensures I get the best treatment when sick (which inevitably happens rather a lot over here) but also offered me a room in his family home when he found out I was paying an extortionate rent. The staff show their love to me and to one another in so many different ways...from an invite to a family wedding, to visiting a new born baby in hospital. From teasing one another about boyfriends or girlfriends (sorry ‘secret friends’), to all chipping in to help someone pay rent on a new house. It is a pleasure to work with such wonderful, warm, and loving people. I will treasure every moment.

So there you have it. Three words that should assure you that supporting PFR is a wise decision. The team will work tirelessly to ensure your money is spent in all the right ways, no project or new idea is too much for them, and not only do they truly appreciate the kindness you show them but they will welcome you to Rwanda and into the office with open arms and hearts.  To support us or share ideas with us please email info@pfrwanda.org. 

One Man's Story

Those of you who have had the pleasure to spend time with PFR’s Founder and Executive Director Pastor Deo Gashagaza may have already been rendered speechless by his amazing and inspirational story. For those that haven’t had this opportunity Pastor Deo has been persuaded to put pen to paper and begin to write it, in the hope that this may one day lead to an entire book, his stories could certainly fill one...

‘I was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1963. My parents had fled there from Rwanda during the massacres of 1959. Many members of my family did not make the same choice, they stayed in Rwanda. It was their home and they did not want to leave. I first saw Rwanda, a country that I had grown up hearing about, in 1995, in the wake of the 1994 genocide. After 32 years of living as a refugee I had come ‘home’, to a country that was devastated. Personally I was going through a lot of trauma, 45 members of my family had been murdered, including my sister who had returned to Rwanda prior to the genocide. She had been killed in the southern province of Bugesera where she was living with her family. I don’t know why but I felt that this is where I needed to go, maybe in the search for answers and for closure. Whatever it was, it led me to Bugesera prison where those who had killed her would be being held. I asked to enter the prison as a Pastor to speak to the inmates about the word of God, it was something they needed to hear. They had committed the most horrendous crimes but they were still people, and I still saw them as people. 

Pastor Deo telling his story for an exciting documentary

I was the first Pastor to be permitted entry. The genocide had finished not so long ago and genocide ideology was still fresh in many perpetrators minds, some justifying their actions to themselves, others to try to save themselves from punishment. When I walked in many of the prisoners took one look at me and asked ‘why is he still alive, this Tutsi?’ others said ‘we should finish him off.’ I was terrified, shaking, sure that I was going to die and asking why God had wanted me to do this, just to be killed like all the other members of my family. There were so many prisoners, and so few guards that really if they wanted to kill me they could do so easily. After much discussion the prisoners that seemed incharge decided that they would let me speak first, and kill me after. This was really my one chance, I had no other option, so I began to speak. I told them that God loved them no matter what they had done, I spoke to them about sin, confession, repentance and hope. I asked them to have faith that this was not the end of their lives, that the damage they had caused could be mended and that maybe once again they could return to their families, their villages, and live a normal life again. I did not trivialise their crimes, but I wanted them to know that with time, and with work that maybe one day they could be forgiven, if they really understood the error of their ways, and were truly and deeply sorry for what they had done. They needed to understand that we are all sinners, nobody is perfect, and whilst yes their crimes were to many, incomprehensible, if I could find it in my heart to talk to them and perhaps even one day forgive the very people that had killed my own sister, then I thought that maybe others could too. 

When the moment came for me to finish I was so scared, I wanted to go on talking forever, but I knew that if I was killed then it was doing something that I believed passionately in. So I finished, and to my great surprise many prisoners began to approach me, hug me, shake my hand, some were in tears. They asked me to come back again, to tell them more stories from the Bible, to teach them to word of God. Of course I was overwhelmed with happiness and agreed to come back the following week. I had put my life in God’s hands and he had protected me, my faith was stronger than ever.’

Today Deo takes his message around the globe

If after reading this you simply think it is unbelievable then trust me I know the feeling. When Pastor Deo first told me his story I could not even respond, I had so many questions...why would you put your life at risk when you had escaped the genocide? How could you bear to be in the same room as people that had killed members of your own family? Did he really think they could be forgiven? But I knew what the answer would be to every question...everything is in God’s hands. Pastor Deo is a deeply spiritual man and he seeps kindness. Just being in his presence makes you feel good and loved, so really it should come as no surprise that he offered this incredible level of compassion to the prisoners of Bugesera.  PFR today owes everything to Pastor Deo and to this first brave venture into Bugesera prison.