John's Story - A Rwandan Returns Home

This is the story (really pieces of the story) of John B Gasangwa. A Rwandan born in a refugee camp in Uganda, who returns to his homeland and overcomes injustice in mighty ways, giving God the glory along the way. This is only half of John’s story. What is largely missing in this narrative of his life is John’s passion to follow Christ and serve the oppressed and fight against injustice. His life desire is to serve the widows, orphans and those who are hungry. His humbleness is what makes his story even more powerful!

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Born in a refugee camp outside of Kampala, Uganda in 1981, John lived with his mother and father, two older sisters, and an uncle. After 3 years in a refugee camp, his family was “kidnapped” by Ugandan government militia. While running to escape the soldiers, John’s uncle was carrying John on his back when he was grabbed. John fell to the ground while his uncle was beaten to death. The family was taken to the equivalent of a concentration camp. Each day, approximately 20 people were killed in the camps. For no reason, other than people needed to be killed. Thankfully most children were spared from the deliberate execution. However, in this ‘camp’, John’s two sisters died of disease and hunger. This camp and “war” is known as the Luweero Triangle war which took place in Uganda from 1980-1986.

John and his family lived in the concentration camp for at least 3 years. Other years they were in the bush hiding. His uncle who died is one of many of my family who died during the war. When his two older sisters died, his mom took him to a feeding program in the hospital started by the German Emergency Committee Doctors. On two different occasions during the Luweero Triangle [war], over 500 people, including John's family, went to hide in the hospital for refugee because soldiers had planned to kill everyone in the community. The soldiers attacked the hospital and a German lady known as Barbra stood at the doorsteps of the hospital and said “You will not kill them unless you kill me first”. That’s how they all survived! John says: "I will never forget how she was such a hero to die for Africans who were being killed by their fellow Africans!"

Back in Rwanda, the minority Hutu population was lashing out against the majority Tutsis through various massacres. In 1990, John’s dad returned to Rwanda to fight with other Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) troops to stop the Genocide.
Through the assistance of World Vision sponsorship, John attended primary school. However, World Vision only paid for half of his school fees. To get the additional money for his school fees, John worked for a Catholic priest for 2 hours after school. Even from a young age, John’s determination shone through his family's struggles and past experiences.

In Spring 1994, the mass-scale genocide against the Tutsi’s occurred. Over 1 million men, women and children were killed over 100 days. In September 1994, at the age of 13 years, John, against the wish of his mother, boarded a bus in Kampala going to Kigali, Rwanda. A 10+ hour bus ride…alone…at the age of 13! Upon arriving in Kigali, having never previously been in his homeland of Rwanda, he got directions to the military barracks to find his father. He arrived and was informed his father was killed while fighting during the genocide. John then headed to the eastern region of the country to seek out an aunt and uncle. If he were to stay with his aunt and uncle he would have not been able to attend school. And John had a huge desire to attend school. He heard on the radio that the International Rescue Committee (IRC) was accepting children (into an orphanage) and putting them in school. John immediately left his only known family in Rwanda for the chance of attending school.

While at the orphanage with IRC, they discovered John had excellent language skills and he started helping with translation. You could say this was his first job in the International NGO community. A job many adults would work years to get. John was 14 years and conversational in 5 languages; English, Luganda (from Uganda), Swahili, Kinyarwanda(native to Rwanda), and French (widely spoken in Rwanda).

John attended his first year of secondary school at Gahini Secondary School in the town of Gahini (which is also the site of the first Christian revival and Anglican church in Rwanda.) There was no SI (freshman) class, so he started immediately as an S2 (sophomore). During his S3 school year in 1996, John and some fellow Tutsi students, became aware of a planned plot (organized by the Hutu students) to kill all the Tutsi’s at the school. The army was alerted and soldiers came to the school. The following school year, John requested to change to a better school (and hopefully safer school) in Kigali. In 2000, he completed his secondary school at Lycee de Kigali.

John was a very bright student with big dreams. His secondary school scores qualified him for a government scholarship at university in Rwanda. During his time as a university student, his holidays were spent at the IRC orphanage. That was his home. When the orphanage was closed, John and his friends (who were like brothers) decided to build a house for them all to stay in during holidays. Yes, they built a house! While being a full-time student at university, he and his friends also saw a need for Vocational/Technical schools back in their [adopted] hometown. They built not one, but two vocational training schools in the area. They were all children of the genocide. Most all were orphans themselves. They searched for funding and created a training school and also a center for street kids to live. Many of the kids John helped get into this center are now in secondary school or university. Both vocational schools and the center continue to run in a sustainable way, by locals, to this day in 2010.

John will tell you that he is not a program-driven individual. His goal is not to create programs or projects. He is driven by the people and the desire to assist them in whatever way possible. He sees a need, and creates a solution. He’s never walked into a region to do months of research to assess the needs of the people and then take months to create the best plan and fundraise. He simply goes in and gets it done!

Upon graduation from university John spent a number of years in Kigali helping to serve those who are underserved. He worked for World Vision Rwanda assisting in telling the stories of the kids who needed sponsorship just like he was gifted with years prior. Later he worked with World Vision’s Micro-Finance programs. He also worked for Opportunity International within their microfinance department.

In 2008, John was requested to visit the United States with World Vision (WV). He spoke at various WV events sharing his story and the work of World Vision in East Africa. During this trip, he became connected with someone who thought John would be an excellent candidate for Colorado State University’s MBA in Global Social Sustainable Enterprise. After much paperwork and effort to find financial support, in Aug 2009, John moved to Fort Collins, Colorado to start the 1.5 years MBA program.

In 2008, after returning from his first trip to the U.S., John’s pastor [in Kigali] was inspired by his story and wanted him to encourage the congregation. When John went o speak, he was moved to tears and felt God saying “What can you do?” for these people. He remembered his childhood and the feeding program that enabled him to live. He closed his Bible and notes and instead of speaking he served the people in the congregation, many who were young hungry children. He announced that he would start feeding the children one meal a day. This feeding ‘program’ later turned into creating a school for the children. To this day, the children are still feed daily through A Bowl of Porridge Ministries and there’s a school at that church.

In Colorado, after going to church with his host family, a friend took John to a church in Longmont, CO, LifeBridge Christian Church. After the service, he meet one of the pastors who asked him “How can we [as a church] help you; spiritually, financially?” John knew this place was Home. That same pastor, Brian Mavis, continued to mentor and patiently answered all of his questions. While John had grown up going to church, believing in Jesus and thanking God for all he had, he never gave his life to Christ. In 2009, Brian baptized John into God’s Kingdom and John professed giving his life to Jesus Christ!

Through his MBA program, John is working to bring affordable fertilizer methods to farmers in Ethiopia which he hopes will transfer to Rwanda and other nations.

Read even more about John's amazing story please go here: http://www.devinholterman.com/?p=197