Carl Wilkens, American Christian Missionary, Adventist Development & Relief Agency Int'l in Rwanda — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:09carl wilkins
3. 0:11is an american christian missionary and
4. 0:14the former head of the adventist
5. 0:16development and relief agency
6. 0:18international in rwanda in 1994
7. 0:22he was the only american who chose to
8. 0:25remain in the country after the rwandan
9. 0:28genocide
10. 0:29rescuing many tutsi children we are
11. 0:32honored that he has chosen to appear in
12. 0:35tonight's program
13. 0:3731 years ago my wife and i moved our
14. 0:39young children to the center of africa
15. 0:41to this little nation called rwanda that
16. 0:44was really only known for the mountain
17. 0:46gorillas peaceful little country we went
18. 0:48there to partner with the rwandan people
19. 0:50to build schools and operate clinics and
20. 0:52it was a great place to raise our kids
21. 0:55and we had some amazing experiences in
22. 0:57the first four years
23. 0:59then this man-made tragedy
24. 1:02struck in april
25. 1:056 1994 the president's plane was shot
26. 1:08down and a small group of extremists
27. 1:10used that to launch this extermination
28. 1:13campaign saying that the minority group
29. 1:16the tutsi had
30. 1:18had killed the president
31. 1:20this extermination will soon be uh
32. 1:22become known in the history books as the
33. 1:251994 genocide against the tutsi where
34. 1:28more than a million people were killed
35. 1:30planes shot down wednesday night by
36. 1:32friday the american government is saying
37. 1:33we're all evacuate i mean we're taking
38. 1:35everybody out every every international
39. 1:39organization was doing that even the u.n
40. 1:42which is a massive tragedy 2500 u.n
41. 1:44soldiers were there they could have
42. 1:46stopped it but they evacuated well in
43. 1:49our house we had a young lady who lived
44. 1:51and worked in our home and loved on our
45. 1:53kids and she was of the minority group
46. 1:55my wife and i went the bedroom we talked
47. 1:58we prayed we're like
48. 2:00we can't just leave this young lady to
49. 2:01be tortured and killed or a young man
50. 2:04also who was there in the evening
51. 2:05trapped there as the night watchman part
52. 2:07of the minority group
53. 2:09with those two people we just thought
54. 2:10you know the rwandans give us so much
55. 2:12privilege
56. 2:14so much respect maybe we could leverage
57. 2:17that to help protect these two people i
58. 2:19don't know what we can do for i mean we
59. 2:21didn't even know the word genocide at
60. 2:23that point in the big picture but the
61. 2:25people right here maybe we can do
62. 2:27something and i look back on that and i
63. 2:29think that's probably one of the biggest
64. 2:31things in a crisis is you realize that
65. 2:33you really can do something you can make
66. 2:35a difference you might not you know in
67. 2:36the big picture but right in front of us
68. 2:39so my wife took our kids
69. 2:41to safety i stayed eventually i'll start
70. 2:44working
71. 2:45during the three months with rwandan
72. 2:48colleagues to bring food water and
73. 2:50medicine to groups of orphans around the
74. 2:52city
75. 2:53and you know there was one day where my
76. 2:56friend garcique alize and i showed up at
77. 2:58the orphanage with a truckload of
78. 3:00barrels of water and
79. 3:02within minutes we were surrounded by
80. 3:03about 50 militia guys they called them
81. 3:05intra homeway
82. 3:07it was two three hour standoff i don't
83. 3:09know why they weren't coming in because
84. 3:10i was there i don't know if it was my
85. 3:12connection with actually it sounds crazy
86. 3:14with some of the leaders of the genocide
87. 3:16in the city i mean i was working as a
88. 3:18humanitarian had to build relationships
89. 3:20with people in power
90. 3:22not sure why but they didn't come in and
91. 3:25long story short i actually ended up
92. 3:27asking the prime well not the real prime
93. 3:30minister they killed at the beginning of
94. 3:31the genocide this was like a coup that
95. 3:34the genocidal extremist guy that they
96. 3:37put in kambanda i asked them to stop the
97. 3:40massacre which i never would have
98. 3:41thought to do if it wasn't for the
99. 3:42secretary in this government office who
100. 3:44would love to meet someday but
101. 3:46crazy enough i think he had other
102. 3:48ulterior motives but he stopped the
103. 3:50massacre you know there were so many
104. 3:52times when i partnered with people i
105. 3:54never would have imagined that could
106. 3:56have
107. 3:57done something kind or save a life
108. 4:00and i think that fits in so well with
109. 4:02march of the living you know this idea
110. 4:04of light in the darkness when we believe
111. 4:07there's nothing good we rarely find good
112. 4:09but if we believe something's good i
113. 4:11think you have a better chance of
114. 4:13finding it
115. 4:14the genocide ended with
116. 4:16the rwandan patriotic front basically
117. 4:19children of refugees who have grown up
118. 4:20in other countries rwandans stopping
119. 4:23this genocide that the whole world
120. 4:25failed to stop then it's amazing to stop
121. 4:28it but how do you rebuild it how do you
122. 4:30put pieces together like this and rwanda
123. 4:33made this bold decision to go
124. 4:36restorative instead of punitive
125. 4:39to um
126. 4:40like with a pyramid instead of you know
127. 4:43looking for the truth instead of the
128. 4:44truth to blame we're looking for the
129. 4:46truth to understand the harm and then a
130. 4:48repair plan to repair that harm which
131. 4:50includes justice but the top of the
132. 4:52pyramid
133. 4:53is healing and that prioritizing
134. 4:57of
135. 4:59repair over blame is one of the most
136. 5:01important lessons i think we can all
137. 5:03learn one of the things that keeps me
138. 5:05going as i travel to schools sharing the
139. 5:07stories of rwanda then and now
140. 5:10is our potential to
141. 5:12choose repair over blame to go the
142. 5:16direction of restorative and healing
143. 5:19thinking which is really
144. 5:20counterintuitive takes a lot of hard
145. 5:22work but rwanda gives us a lot of
146. 5:24inspiration for that you know they have
147. 5:26a motto every year that says remember
148. 5:30unite renew and i think that dovetails
149. 5:33perfectly with the mission of
150. 5:36march for the living