“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
~ Matthew 5:23-24
Marcos and Felicity (above) ride a bike from village to village in Rwanda telling their story of reconciliation. In the 1994 genocide, Marcos murdered eight people, including several members of Felicity’s family, while she hid in the nearby bushes.
When the genocide ended and Marcos ended up going to prison, Felicity says she wouldn’t have hesitated to kill him. When he was released several years ago, he faced a community “gacaca” court, where he confessed his crimes in detail and seemed truly repentant, but Felicity wasn’t ready to forgive.
Over the next couple of years, though, she became a Christian and began considering the possibility of forgiveness. Marcos came to her home, got down on his knees before her, folded his hands, and begged for forgiveness—which she granted while putting a hand on his shoulder. Marcos told CT it felt like a “holy shower,” that he felt clean on the inside for the first time in many years. And Felicity said it was like having a crippling burden released from her back. Today, they ride the bike around, telling their amazing story of reconciliation, and many others throughout Rwanda have similar stories to tell.
2009 marks the 15 year anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide.
