"I've read in Plato and Cicero sayings wise and beautiful, but never in either: Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden." - Augustine
FROM THE DESK OF: the Director of Communications
Last week we hosted our annual World Briefing. Our staff outlined updates, projects and challenges for the coming year. We had a blast introducing Uttermost to new friends as well as long time supporters. We're thankful for this time every year.
For the Win[dow],
Bubby Bryan, DOC
VERSE OF THE WEEK: Romans 5:6-8
"For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare to even die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
COUNTRY OF THE WEEK: Rwanda
In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in a state-orchestrated genocide, in which Rwandans killed up to a million of their fellow citizens, including approximately three-quarters of the Tutsi population. The genocide ended later that same year when the predominantly Tutsi RPF, operating out of Uganda and northern Rwanda, defeated the national army and Hutu militias, and established an RPF-led government of national unity. Approximately 2 million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and former Zaire. Since then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but several thousand remained in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, the former Zaire) and formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF did in 1990. Rwanda held its first local elections in 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in 2003. Rwanda in 2009 staged a joint military operation with the Congolese Army in DRC to rout out the Hutu extremist insurgency there, and Kigali and Kinshasa restored diplomatic relations. Rwanda also joined the Commonwealth in late 2009 and assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2013-14 term. (CIA World Factbook)
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Pray for the Church to lead in national repentance, reconciliation, and healing.
- Pray for the provision and hope for widows, orphans, and other continued victims of the genocide.
- Pray for committed believers to stand firm in the face of cultural and tribal pressures.
- Pray for the Uttermost workers in the field.
- Pray for the US office.