Columbia International University

 

Bilindabagabo (pronounced: Bah-LIN-dah-BAG-ah-bo) chronicles his survival of the Rwanda genocide in a book called, Rescued by Angels. The Anglican Bishop and his family were holed up in a diocesan compound during the genocide for three months. Waves of armed and reckless Hutu mobs passed his way, yet they did not harm him. Even after the Hutu- controlled military took over the compound, he found favor with them. Known simply as “Bishop Alexis” around the campus of Columbia International Universitywhere he is serving as missionary-in-residence, the bishop is a friendly, approachable man who talks excitedly about his past – especially the part about why he survived the genocide – a time when he experienced what the Bible calls, “peace beyond understanding.”

 

“The peace of God does not depend on the prevailing outside circumstances. It just depends on your relationship with God,” Bilindabagabo said in an interview.  As reports of Tutsis being murdered filtered into the compound, Bilindabagabo turned to deep spiritual reflection and prayer. He accepted that he and his family may die at any moment. But a flood of peace came over him. It changed his frame of mind.

 

“I felt completely recharged. A completely new person. I accepted death,” he recalls.  He told himself, “OK, I’m going to die. I’m going to heaven.” 

 

But daily, God protected him and his family from harm. When peace returned to Rwanda, he was continually asked the question, “Why have you survived?” “Because God wants me to take care of the orphans,” was his reply. Instead of accepting offers to get away from Rwanda and relax, God impressed on him that he would be “a father to the fatherless” to the millions of Rwandan children whose parents were killed in the genocide. He founded the Barakabaho Foundation. 

 

The Barakabaho Foundation (Barakabaho means “let them live”) places children, not in an orphanage, but within a family.  The idea is to integrate orphans into society, by helping them remain in a family unit, and provide them with food, education and counseling through a network of indigenous foster parents. Where possible, these foster parents have been adult friends or relatives to the orphans. The foster parents also have care and oversight of a number of child-headed households.

 

“I think what these children needed most was acceptance, love, a feeling that somebody, somewhere cares,” Bilindabagabo said.    

 

He describes meeting children who developed serious speech impediments brought on by the psychological trauma after witnessing the genocide, and others who lost their speech entirely. Still other children, who somehow survived the massacres, were suffering serious wounds left by machete-hacking attackers.

 

“Initially, the most important thing was to treat the wounds, to provide food, clothing, and schooling. But we needed to accompany that with counseling which is very much needed.”   He is working on setting up the counseling program through contacts while here in the United States. 

 

In the meantime, he has counseled a few of the orphans himself – and gained new spiritual insight. His main message to the orphans was to let them know that, despite being orphans, they still have a Father – the God in heaven. 

 

“Why don’t you challenge Him?” he would tell them.  “Make God a friend so that you can go into the details of life. The things you can only tell your very close friends.”   

 

And as he challenged the children, Bilindabagabo himself was grasping the full concept of God as his Father.

 

“I don’t know how else I would have learned what it means to have God as your Father. I was a bishop – in leadership. But I had never, never, never learned what it means to call God my Father. I was taught by the orphans.”