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Rwanda: the Land God Forgot?

Vivid account

RWANDA: THE LAND GOD FORGOT?
By Meg Guillebaud
Monarch Books. 368 pages. £8.99
ISBN 1 85424 576 7

The multi-national continent of Africa with its kaleidoscopic culture is seldom out of the news, usually for the saddest of reasons. The central-eastern African country of Rwanda is no exception, and is the main focus of this personal account of its more recent history.

As might be expected, it covers the church revival that started around 1930 and was followed by a second wave in 1969. The tragic genocide, which shocked the world in more recent times, is also reported, with an attempt to examine the connection between these two contrasting phenomena.

The author belongs to the third generation of her family to become a missionary to Rwanda, and writes with its people engraved on her heart. Her style of writing is attractive and absorbing, and she succeeds in providing numerous valuable and intriguing insights into African beliefs and practices. As a result this book will be of immense help to anyone wishing to understand a culture in which the gospel needs to be relevantly proclaimed. It also highlights the resultant tragedies that occur when religious enthusiasm is divorced from an understanding of gospel truth.

I am not sure whether so much detailed attention needed to be given to the distinguished family life of the Guillebauds, though it may be of particular interest to evangelical Anglicans. Given these 'roots', it is not surprising that Meg is now an ordained priest who trains church leaders in Rwanda, and that her theological stance reflects this, alas! She attempts to answer a number of very pertinent questions on the revival/genocide issue, but while admiring her courage in doing so I am far from comfortable with all of the answers. Clearer understanding of the sovereignty of God, the nature of new birth, and the perseverance of the saints would have led to far better conclusions. Attempting to deal with how a professing Christian could become one of the worst killers during the genocide, we read: 'As with many other thorny problems, I believe that Scripture teaches both that we can lose our salvation and that God keeps us so that we will find our inheritance in the end. 1 Peter 1.3-5' (p.304). Not even an inadequate reference to Calvin (p.299) can justify such a conclusion!

Don't be put off, as I nearly was, by the official church status of the author, but read with discernment and with the determination to search those Scriptures alluded to in the text. There is much in this vivid account that can inform and stimulate prayer for anguished Africa.

Timothy G. Alford, Stowmarket