Rwanda is a small landlocked country in Central East Africa. It is about the size of the state of Maryland. Uganda borders it on the North, Zaire on the West, Burundi on the South, and Tanzania on the East. The country's rich and varied wildlife includes Elephants, Lions, Chimpanzees, Antelopes, Zebras, and the rare Mountain Gorillas. It is known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, The Switzerland of Africa.

Agriculture is the major source of economy, with about 97% of the population engaged in this trade. About two fifths of the land are under cultivation and produce Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Cassava, Coffee, Tea, Sugar Cane, Rice, Sorghum, Potatoes and Bananas. Raising livestock is also common.

Rwanda has a population of about eight million people. The population is divided into three ethnic groups, the Hutus, the Tutsi, and the Batwa. The Hutus are the majority with about 85-90%, the Tutsi is about 10-15%, and the Batwa (pygmies) are about 1% of the population.

For centuries the Tutsi dominated the Hutus. In 1959 a civil war broke out and the Tutsi power was ended. Eight to ten thousand Tutsis fled the country to go into exile. In 1973 a military coup overthrew the government, it was at this time that General Juvenal HABYARIMAMA took control of the country.

In September of 1990 some eight-thousand Tutsi invaded Rwanda from Uganda. In 1991 a new constitution was signed calling for multiparty politics, freedom of the press and a limited presidential term. A peace accord between the government and the Tutsi rebels in August 1993.

We arrived in Rwanda on April 18, 1991. In the three years that we lived in Rwanda we witnessed tension as the country was flexing its new political muscles. These tensions continued to grow until that fateful day in April, when the President's plane was shot down and the war began.

That night as we went to bed the question of the future was on our minds. At five-o-clock the next morning Nancy, the young woman who worked for me in the Lab, called me to tell me that the President had been shot down. After talking with her for a few minutes I hung up the phone and went back to bed. As I crawled into bed my wife and I talked about what was going to happen next. We did not have to wait very long for the answer. At 5:15 a.m. there was a huge explosion followed by a fierce gun battle. We jumped out of bed and grabbed the kids and put them in the hallway, which was the safest place in the house. Then I went to the bedrooms and grabbed the mattresses from the beds to put over us to help protect us from any stray bullets that might find its way into our house.

Of course, when you least want it to, the phone always rings. I crawled to the kitchen to answer the phone. It was my neighbor and he wanted to know what was going on. As the senior missionary on our compound the other missionaries frequently asked me about the events that were taking place in the country. As we talked on the phone, the battle continued to rage just outside our compound.

That would be the way that we would spend the next several days. Hiding during the battles, passing information on the phones, and sleeping when we could. When the first battle let up, I went outside to see what had been damaged. Fortunately everyone was OK.

Things were fairly peaceful the rest of the day. During the day we heard sporadic gunfire all around us, but after a while you get use to it. Then at four-o-clock that afternoon another major battle broke out which lasted for about two hours. The rebels had finally decided to join the fight.

I need to take a minute and explain a couple of things right here. Part of the Peace Agreement and new constitution said that 600 rebel soldiers would be stationed in Kigali as an armed guard for the Rebel Dignitaries when they came into town. These soldiers had stayed out of the fighting until four-o-clock and only entered the fight to stop the killing of innocent people that was taking place.

That evening I called Nancy and talked with her for a few minutes. She was clearly frightened and was hiding with her brother and other family members in her kitchen, which was a separate building from the main house.

There were two more battles that night, one at 11:30 p.m. and the other at 3:00 a.m.. The one at 11:30 p.m. was right behind our compound. We could see the tracers going over the compound, but once again we were unharmed.

The next morning Nancy called us. As we were talking to her she told us that there were men breaking into the house next to hers. She said that they were going to kill the people in the house, and she was afraid that they were going to come to her house next. Shortly after that our phones went dead.

With the loss of the phones came a new problem, that of communication. Each family on the compound had a short wave receiver, but mine was the only one that could hear the two way communications that were taking place in the country. We could hear people talking about us and wondering how they could get in touch with us, but we had no way to answer them.

One of our missionaries lived about two hundred yards from the compound and he had a radio. We decided that we would have to take a chance and walk down to his place and try to set up some line of communication between our compound and his house. We would make several trips to his house in the coming days and it was on one of these trips that three of us went, Ranjan Kulasekera, John Reynolds and myself. The Embassy was asking us some important questions and we wanted to right by the radio to give our answers so that nothing would be lost through our communication line.

While we were there, we decided to go across the street and visit one of our church members. We told him what we knew about the situation and that there was a good possibility that we would have to evacuate. As we were leaving, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a key and gave it John. He said "This is for my front gate just in case you need to come down here again." With that we all left. Ranjan and I went back across the road and waited for the radio message that we were expecting and John went down to the compound to check on something.

After John left, a group of bandits broke into the house that was next door to our church member's house. I told Ranjan that we had to go back across the street and stand in front of the gate and make it look like it was our house. These bandits were systematically going from house to house breaking in killing anyone who was there and stealing their belongings. I thought that if they saw our white faces standing in front of the house that they would not try to break in. Ranjan didn't like the idea, but about this time John returned and he agreed with my idea, and so the three of us went back across the street. When the bandits saw us there they left the house alone and went on down the street.

The battle was starting to pick up and was moving closer to us so we decided it was time for us to go back to the compound. As we were walking down the road, a soldier stopped me and asked to see my identification papers. I told him that I didn't have any identification and so he turned to the other two and started talking to them. This soldier had started talking to me in French, but Ranjan and John didn't understand French, they only knew the native language, Kinyarwanda. As they talked to the soldier I tried to get them to tell me what was being said, but they wouldn't tell me. I was getting tired of this so I turned around and walked off. John and Ranjan followed me.

After we entered our compound, the soldier shot his gun into the air. It wasn't until we arrived in Burundi that I heard the rest of the story. This soldier had been threatening to kill us. He said "You're not afraid, I'm going to make you afraid." John told me later that it was because I had the courage to walk off that gave them the courage to also walk away. However, both John and Ranjan thought that the minute we turned our backs the soldier would shoot all three of us.

On Saturday the Embassy made the decision that we would be driving out to Burundi. They told us that we would have an UN escort that would take us to the Ambassador house, but no escort arrived. As it grew dark, we decided that we would wait until morning before we try to move.

Saturday night was calm, as a matter of fact it was to calm. As the others slept, I roamed the compound. The last few days had been difficult to say the least. The decision to leave had been a painful one. There were so many unanswered questions. What would happen to our workers? How would they survive this ordeal?

Sunday morning the escort arrived and took us to the Ambassador's house. But there was still a problem. Three of the cars from our compound didn't have enough gas to make the trip. It was decided that the first convoy, those who had gas, would leave at 10 a.m. and go straight out of town. The second convoy would leave at 11:30 a.m. and drive to the Embassy where we could fill our tanks and then we would leave town.

At 9:45 a.m. a gun battle broke out next door to the Ambassador's house. I was outside talking to the Ambassador, his wife and several other people. When the fighting broke out we all started heading for the safety of the house. I was following the Ambassador and was several yards behind him when I felt a bullet pass behind my back. I started running toward the house and yelled at the Ambassador to hurry and get in the house as there were bullets flying all around us. He ran and got in the house and his wife entered just behind him. As soon as the Ambassador's wife entered the house I felt three more bullets pass by my right shoulder.

I say that I felt these bullets pass by. You can hear the bullets when they pass, but when they get really close you can also feel them. In total counted six bullets that came near me during this whole experience. The first landed about ten feet from me. I heard the second one as it went over my head, and felt four of them pass me at the Ambassador's house.

Because of the fighting that was taking place, it was decided that we would all leave immediately. We drove to the Embassy where we were able to fill our gas tanks and then we drove out of town.

I can't tell you very much about the drive out of town. There were some bodies along the road, people were shooting over our heads, and there were several roadblocks. How many I don't remember, but I do remember the last one.

At the last roadblock we had to wait for what seemed like 45 minutes, although several people say it was only 10 - 15 minutes. It was in an area that was crowded with people. As we were waiting there were several young men that would come up to the car and harass us. They were all carrying machetes, clubs and hand grenades. The radio had staged a hate campaign against the Belgium people and because of this, these young men were coming up to the car and asking people if they were Belgian.

Fortunately, I had an American flag tied to the front of my Land Cruiser and when these men saw that I was an American their attitudes changed and they became real friendly. At one point a man came toward my car with a board that had a nail sticking through it. He was planning on putting the board under one of my tires. Out of nowhere a soldier appeared and pointed at this man and said "OHYA( "NO" in Kinyarwandan),you are not going to put that under this cars tires."

Then as we were waiting I saw the most horrible sight that I have ever seen in my life. A truck loaded with bodies and body parts past us, and in the back of the truck was a little boy maybe ten or eleven years old with a bullet hole in his forehead. I can still see this picture in my mind today.

They soon let us pass through the last road block and we headed for Burundi. It was a ten hour drive to Burundi and we arrived at about 9:30 that night. After we checked in at the Embassy we were taken to a house where we could rest. The next morning at 7 a.m. we received a phone call that told us we had one hour to get to the airport to catch a military transport plane to Nairobi, Kenya. When we got to the airport the Marines greeted us with open arms. They had food and water for us and it was then that I realized that I had not eaten in the last several days. We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya later that day, where we stayed for the next two weeks.

After the war had ended the reports of the losses started to filter through to us. Fourteen of my close friends were reported killed and countless others have been reported missing. Three were burned to death in their house, eight were beaten with clubs and machetes and then buried alive. Those who survived have told horror stories of there ordeal. Nancy had lost her mother and all five of her children. Several of the girls who worked at the Clinic had been killed as had several of our other workers.

In November 1997, Ranjan Kulasekera was shot and killed by burglars who broke into his house. Ranjan had gone back to Rwanda to continue the work in the Dental Clinic.

As I look back on the war in Rwanda, I remember telling a news reporter that this experience would change my life forever. Little did I realize how true that statement would become.

"For I know the plans I have for you." declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 It is this promise that I live by today.