It was a revelation that struck me hard at first. During the Easter Morning service I was trying to sing a song in Kinyarwanda and came across the word gituro, which happens to be the name that the government gave to the village that now houses the 70 returnee families that we are working with.
When I asked what it meant I was told that “the gituro was empty, Jesus had risen”. Gituro means grave, or tomb!
I felt strangely discomforted. We were working with people who have been evicted from their homes, and forced to co-exist in a new and barren land. Many of them feel a sense of hopelessness and helplessness (and why wouldn’t you?), it were as if they were confined to a tomb.
I believe that words can be a powerful influencer on our lives, but I want to believe that in this case it is just an unfortunate coincidence. Isaac (my team mate) and I were discussing this when he said to me, “Well, Daryl, we will just have to pray for a resurrection in, and for our Gituro”.
He’s right isn’t he? The Salvation Army has an opportunity to be part of a process of resurrection for this community. They don’t have to be confined to a grave, they don’t have to be entombed by the raw deal that has been dealt to them, we have the privilege of transforming (resurrecting) their circumstances, even if it’s only a small part, it’s a part we must play.
[Sorry that there are no new photos, for some reason I am unable to upload photos to the server.]
