As We Forgive...

There's a movie that just came out that I am very eager to see. It is called "As We Forgive"
http://www.asweforgivemovie.com/

Here is a description about the movie:

"Could you forgive a person who murdered your family? This is the question faced by the subjects of As We Forgive, a documentary about Rosaria and Chantal—two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide. The subjects of As We Forgive speak for a nation still wracked by the grief of a genocide that killed one in eight Rwandans in 1994. Overwhelmed by an enormous backlog of court cases, the government has returned over 50,000 thousand genocide perpetrators back to the very communities they helped to destroy. Without the hope of full justice, Rwanda has turned to a new solution: Reconciliation. But can it be done? Can survivors truly forgive the killers who destroyed their families? Can the government expect this from its people? And can the church, which failed at moral leadership during the genocide, fit into the process of reconciliation today?"

"In As We Forgive, director Laura Waters Hinson and narrator Mia Farrow explore these topics through the lives of four neighbors once caught in opposite tides of a genocidal bloodbath, and their extraordinary journey from death to life through forgiveness."

I have not seen the movie, but hope to soon. The first pic in this post is of a long line of folks who were perpetrators in the genocide, that are now doing "community service." The other two pics are of the main river that runs into Lake Victoria. We read on several occasions that this was where a majority of the bodies were dumped during the genocide.

Forgiveness is a powerful thing. I discovered a deeper level of forgiveness on this trip. To hear the stories from people that suffered the genocide and apartheid, and yet were able to embrace forgiveness is deep. A good book to check out is, Desmond Tutu's book, "No Future Without Forgiveness." In the book he describes some of the horror of apartheid, and yet a Reconciliation committee was established once apartheid ended. With the committee both victims and victimizers were heard. Amnesty was even given to those who admitted with details the horrors they committed. They moved from retributive justice to restorative justice. We all have a lot to learn from our African brothers and sisters for sure.

- chris lahr