Some may wonder: Is the principle of the SDA Reform Movement regarding complete non-participation in acts of war and bloodshed really necessary? Living in a world where bitterness, revenge, and hatred run rampant, what would Jesus do at those times when unthinkable violence breaks out? The following personal testimony is a poignant illustration of our great need to uphold His standards consistently and reflect Christ’s miraculous quality of peaceable, merciful love.

My name is Mukahirwa Stephanie. I was born in 1968 in the city of Mushubati, in the former province of Kibuye (now West Province), Rwanda. The name of my father is Munyambibi Jacob and my mother’s name is Mukabaziga Suzan.

I was married in 1987 to Rukerikibaye Yohana. We were blessed with two children: Chantal Nyirarukundo, a girl born in 1989; and Fizz Hakizimana, a boy born in 1991. Rukerikibaye, my loving husband, was a very good Christian man. We were a happy family, living peacefully in the church and with the neighbors.

Unfortunately my beautiful family was almost completely destroyed in the 1994 genocide, when almost one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus lost their lives in Rwanda.

The genocide had begun on Thursday, April 7, 1994, just one day after President Juv...nal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down. Rapidly the news spread all over the country, and the Interahamwe, the Hutu militia group, started the genocide. As a Seventh Day Adventist member at that time, on Friday, April 8, 1994, I went with my family to welcome the Sabbath in the church of our village. I had a very big family - we were eleven relatives in the same church. As soon as we welcomed the Sabbath, some members of the church with others of the Interahamwe locked the doors and announced: “Nobody can go out, nobody is allowed to leave the temple; all the Tutsis are enemies of the country and enemies of the church as well.” We were shocked and astonished to realize that we were being betrayed by our own fellow members. We were terrified, and we remained all that night in the church.

On Sabbath morning the soldiers and others of the Interahamwe, well armed with machetes, spears, guns, and so forth, came and ordered everybody to put down whatever we had. We had nothing besides our Bibles - no weapons except the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. At that time my children were at home. Then we were ordered to move out one by one and to lie down on the ground. Outside the church a soldier selected and separated the members. We were extremely sad to see that the very people who were betraying us were our own brethren in the faith. After the selection process, we were pushed to the nearby pit latrine where they opened fire at us, killing many members of the church including my relatives. We, the survivors of that shooting, were cast into that pit latrine to die drowned in the human excrement. It is with deep, heartfelt understanding I can declare the words of David in Psalm 40:1, 2: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.”

After being taken out of that horrible place, I ran to the hospital where I found a godly doctor who hid me in a deep hole, which he had dug near the hospital to be used as a hiding place. From that place, I was moved to different hiding places around that hospital. When the genocide intensified, the Lord provided another godly Hutu man who hid me in other places in the village until the genocide ended.

When the genocide ended I was very sad, very depressed. I had no news about my husband and my boy. I knew nothing about them. Finally I was informed that they had died a violent death together with other relatives. I survived with Chantal, my beloved daughter. However, their deaths were for a long time a mystery to me. I did not know where they had died and who exactly had killed them. Some people used to tell me that they were killed in the stadium where they had been taken by the government soldiers and Hutu militias. Others used to tell me that they were killed in the Bisesero village. Still others, who are converted now and are in the church, told me: “In the genocide we went to your home to kill your husband and your children, but we didn’t find them there.”

I am so thankful to the Lord for providing a godly person who hid my dear daughter Chantal until the end of the genocide. You cannot imagine the unspeakable joy of my heart the day I met and received my beautiful girl back in my arms. The reencounter with my daughter relieved a little bit the pain of my heart. Now I am greatly blessed for having her company.

In 2006 I received the reformation message and became a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement Church. I feel safe and comfortable in the Reform Church for its standards and Bible doctrines against war, against participation in politics, against worldliness, and also for the health message, and so forth. I found here those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith in Jesus. Now I am very happy with the remnant people of God. My life was changed completely, both spiritually and materially. Before, I was living in an extreme poverty, in loneliness, depressed, traumatized, and hopeless. Now, I found comfort in Jesus and in His church. Now, my spiritual and physical needs are being met. Now I have fellowship with very nice people, and I am part of God’s family. The most important thing is that now I love and feel loved. Now I am happy again. Now I have peace and hope.

On Sabbath, June 9, 2007, more than 13 years after the genocide, Elder Jorai Cruz visited us and presented a very touching message about the second coming of Jesus and forgiveness. In the afternoon I and many other widows from our church were interviewed by Elder Cruz, who was deeply impressed by our experiences here in Rwanda. On that Sabbath afternoon, I told Brother Cruz my experience as one of the surviving widows of the genocide.

On June 18, 2007, Elder Jorai Cruz invited me to come to Gitarama Church because he wanted to talk to me. I came and met Elder Cruz and Brother Bosco. That day Brother Cruz, through Brother Bosco, the translator, told me that Brother Evaliste, one of the members of our church in Kibuye, would like to talk with me and confess to me that he was involved in the murdering of my family. It was not easy to accept that meeting, but I was impressed by the Holy Spirit to agree. Then the meeting was arranged and held that same day.

Finally, I was there, face to face with Brother Evaliste. I was shaking and shocked when I heard from him that he had killed my family. He confessed that he was a wicked man, that he was not converted, that he was possessed by demons when he killed many people, including many members of my family. At the beginning, I did not know what to do, what to say, when he said: “I am very, very sorry for what I have done. I am repentant. I want and need your forgiveness. Please, Sister Stephanie, can you forgive me?”

I need to confess that it was not an easy task. What Brother Evaliste was requesting of me was very, very hard. I was astonished. I was shocked. Satan worked in my mind to harden my heart not to forgive. But, praise the Lord, the Holy Spirit prevailed and I was led to forgive Brother Evaliste completely.

I felt a great burden falling off my heart when I stretched my hand to Brother Evaliste and told him: “Brother Evaliste, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you. I want to be in heaven. For my eternal and your eternal salvation, I forgive you.” Since that day I have been at peace with the Lord. I don’t keep any resentment or bitterness in my heart. The Holy Spirit helped me to overcome this great trauma in my life. The great wound of my heart was completely healed. Now, in peace with myself, even with those who hurt me the most, I am waiting for the second coming of the Lord to receive my family back, to meet my husband and my boy again.

I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to thank Brother John Bosco, our spiritual leader in Rwanda. Brother Bosco knows very well the real conditions of the widows and orphans of Rwanda. He also is a survivor of the genocide. He has contacted our people in different parts of the world to share our life conditions. As a result of his contacts, some widows and orphans, including myself, have received financial assistance. Now, we have a house to live in and we are able to shelter other widow sisters who still have no place where to live. We thank all of you who have been merciful to us. May the Lord richly bless you all.

Above of all, I thank the Lord for His great mercy to me. I am a survivor of the Rwanda genocide by the grace of God. The Lord had a beautiful plan for me. I needed to know the message that I know now. I needed to know the people that I know now. I know the Lord still has a great plan for my life. Now I have hope. Hope to meet and reunite my family again. Hope to live eternally in God’s kingdom, where “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things passed away (Revelation 21:4).”

Many times Satan tries to depress me with the sad remembrances of the genocide. Then I pray to God and He sends the Holy Spirit to comfort my heart. He lifts me up with the wonderful thoughts and promises of the heavenly home, where eternal harmony and happiness will reign among God’s saved people. From the bottom of my heart I wish to be eternally saved with Jesus, with my family and with all those for whom He has died. There, only there, in the eternal home of the saints, will be effective the well-known sentence written in almost all the memorials in my country, Rwanda: “GENOCIDE, NEVER AGAIN.” Amen.