Teaching Photography - Ministry

Gabby and I started up our first arts ministry here in Rwanda a couple of weeks ago. We are teaching photography to 10 students (9 young adults ages 19 to 32 and one pastor who claimed his age to be "old").

We are having a great time together learning the basics of camera operation, how to hold a camera, different shooting modes, deleting pics, uploading pics to a computer, etc. Next week, I will teach the students some basics of photographic composition - this is where the real art comes in! I love teaching and seeing the excitement the students have for learning.

We meet every morning Monday through Friday from 8:30 to noon. Our classroom is the living room at a house that some young film makers use as their office/studio/home. Their business is called Almond Tree Films - you can check out their blog and see that our photography workshop is profiles on the main page!

Ok, back to talking about the photo classes. The first two days we each took a turn sharing about our life, family, and goals for the course. After getting to know each other a bit, we started teaching with the cameras. The first 30 -45 minutes are spent praying and discussing verses. Tuesday, we read Romans 12 which sparked a wonderful discussion about forgiveness. It was very fitting because Wednesday started the 100 days of remembrance of the genocide that took place in Rwanda 16 years ago.

We began watching a film documentary, Long Coat, directed by one of the men working with Almond Tree Films Rwanda. After watching the film, Eduarad (Edward) shared his testimony with us and how he lived through the genocide and later had to deal with the shame of being of the tribe who did the killing.

Here is an excerpt of the film that I found online:

Long Coat (dir. Edourad Bamporiki) is the tale of a genocide survivor and the son of a killer, and the problems and pressures they face in the attempt to put the past behind them. The narrative is simple, but cleverly constructed around an old coat and its mysterious, ominous presence.

We are taking a one week break from the classes, to observe the remembrance period (many people take the first week off of work to spend with family, attend memorial events, etc). On Wednesday there was an event in the main soccer stadium here in Kigali. I would estimate about 20,000 people showed up for the evening of remembering the lives of the people who lost their lives, listening to music with messages of God's hope through the death and despair.

The end of the evening we watched a film called "We are all Rwandans." Here is info from a blog dedicated to this short film based on a true story.

"In 1997, three years after the Rwandan genocide, a large refugee camp was disbanded over the border between Rwanda and Zaire (now the Congo), causing a mass repatriation of genocide refugees and rebels back into Rwanda.

A group of rebels bent on destabilizing the new government infiltrated the north, an area called Kibuye, and carried out massacres, mostly against Tutsis.

On the night of 18th March 1997 they raided Nyange Secondary school in the North West of the country. The rebels surrounded the school dining hall and classes when all students were doing their night studies. Students in class 6 were made to lie down and asked to separate themselves into two groups: Hutu and Tutsi.

They refused.

This is the story of those students - whose refusal to separate cost many of them their lives, and who have recently been honoured as national heroes ten years after their deaths."

Anyway, I recommend anyone to watch these films because I believe they truly represent the aftermath of the genocide 16 years ago. It looks like there are other films made which have similar story lines - As We Forgive is another documentary. It was meant to be shown on Wednesday, but technical difficulties prevented its showing.

The remembrance gathering on Wednesday was a somber event. So many people in attendance lived through the genocide and many witnessed their own family members brutal killings. Various sounds and images throughout the triggered serious trauma in several of the people in the stadium. This was expected and first aid teams were on site to care for the people reliving the past. Their screams brought tears to my eyes as I thought how much it still hurts God seeing his children in the agony of reliving the times during the genocide. I can't even fathom how many screams God listened to during the 100 days of killing. Thankfully, my mind is unable to comprehend such pain and grief. I praise God for that. And at the same time I have compassion for the people who lived through such an incredibly ugly time in Rwanda's history.

Well, that is it for now. I need to get home for lunch. Too much internet time makes my brain hurt :)

Thank you to everyone who is reading these blogs. I pray that my experiences teach you more of how you can trust God in a wonderful adventure in your own life.

Love you!