Hope Rwanda Brings Message of Healing to Scarred African Nation
by Allie Martin
May 22, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The anniversary of a tragic and a deadly event in Rwanda has become an occasion to share God's Word and bring healing and hope to the still-scarred African nation. The Florida-based ministry Book of Hope is in its third week of its scripture distribution project in Africa, an initiative called "Hope Rwanda: 100 Days of Hope." Through this campaign, volunteers from the United States, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, and other countries are handing out more than two million copies of scripture to each child in Rwanda.
Rob Hoskins is helping to coordinate the campaign. He says Hope Rwanda is being held during the twelfth anniversary of the 1994 genocide in that country, a 100-day period of bloodshed in which more than one million men, women, and children were killed by extremist militia groups.
Participants in the international effort are trying to make a difference in the violence-devastated country "by working with the Rwandan government with an understanding that many people are still living with the pain and the scars of what took place 12 years ago," Hoskins says. He notes that many Rwandans still live in a state of hopelessness and despair.
"Rwanda is a country, like most of Sub-Saharan Africa, that is suffering from poverty, suffering from famine," the Book of Hope Ministry spokesman says. "Economic situations are fairly hopeless and unemployment is at nearly 50 percent," he adds. "And then, of course, there is the scourge of HIV/AIDS, which is affecting the country of Rwanda as well."
The Book of Hope is a scripture book that combines the stories and messages of the four gospels, told in chronological order. It has been distributed to school children in their own language in more than 125 countries around the world, each time at the government's request.
Hoskins notes that the Book of Hope ministry is hoping to dispel some of the despair left in the wake of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda by sharing God's Word. "So the initiative is to really try and bring hope, through the message of Jesus, to the entire nation," he says.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
