iRetire4Him Show 124: From Genocide to Good News

Jim Brangenberg: Did you know that when you retire, your calling doesn't retire? Your calling is for a lifetime. And if you're not dead, God's not done with you yet. You've tuned into iRetire4Him, the voice and resource of the Retirement Reformation online at RetirementReformation.org, Retirement Reformation.org, and our podcast on YouTube at iRetire4Him, just type in I retire the number four him and check it out if you wanna watch Bruce and I on video.

Bruce Bruinsma is with us today. He's the founder of the Retirement Reformation, and I'm Jim Brangenberg. We're just a little under three months away from Christmas. It's hard to believe. Have you started your shopping yet? I haven't. Do you have a list even? What's on your list? Maybe a new couch, a new video game console, maybe a new camper trailer? What if your dream for Christmas was simply to live? Or maybe to have a meal? And clean water. The truth is that most of the world's population doesn't look forward to Christmas because to most of the world it's just another day.

But Samaritan's Purse is hoping to change all of that for millions, in fact, tens of millions of kids all around the globe. Their Operation Christmas Child program mobilizes hundreds of thousands here of the United States of America in order to collect and deliver shoe boxes full of goodies and practical items to kids who will appreciate every single thing in the box And the box too.

We're going to focus this final episode of this podcast series talking with Alex. Alex Nsengimana from Rwanda got introduced to Jesus because of Operation Christmas Child, and I'm gonna let him tell you his story. Alex, welcome to iRetire4Him.

Alex Nsengimana: Thank you. Thank you, Jim, for having me. It's an honor.

Jim Brangenberg: Alex, where are you from?

Alex Nsengimana: I was born and raised in a small little country called Rwanda in central east of Africa and a beautiful country. Lots of hills. Very tropical. Growing up, I enjoyed I enjoyed my childhood in Rwanda.

Jim Brangenberg: So it was a good place to grow up. But then it became not such a good place to grow up. You survived the genocide in Rwanda, and I'm thinking those years, was that 1990? I'm trying to remember what year that was. It's been so long now. What year was that?

Alex Nsengimana: The genocide against the Tutsi tribe started in 1994. And it was, yeah, it was a result of hatred that had been created in people's lives. And many people believed in that hatred, to the point where that genocide all of a sudden broke out in 1994, but the roots of it go back to 1800s, when the people of Rwanda through the colonial time were divided in three tribes, the Hutus, the Tutsis, and the Toa people.

Jim Brangenberg: What happened after the genocide to you?

Alex Nsengimana: When I was a six year old boy, I was being raised by my grandmother, and my story goes to how God really protected me through the genocide. As a little kid being raised by my grandmother, my mother had passed away of HIV AIDS when I was a little boy. I never knew who my father was. So the people that I looked up to were my grandmother and my two uncles.

At that time it was me and my brother and my sister. But on April 7th of 1994, I remember waking up and we had noises from a distance and we didn't know what had happened the night before. But our neighbor came to us and told us, Hey, the Rwandan president was assassinated last night and they've started to kill all the Tutsis.

So do not leave the house because our family, we're among the Tutsi tribe. So me and my brother and my sister, we were so scared. Our grandmother was in shock. She had survived so many hatred and bullying in our village and to the point where she knew that this was not going to be an easy time. In our small little village, we were among the first people that they came looking for.

And unfortunately, our grandmother and one of our uncles were both killed in front of us. And we were thinking, why in the world would these people do this to us? Because these were not strangers. These were our neighbors. These were people we considered friends, people we considered close family friends.

And it was such a difficult place for a six year old boy, for me to fathom that my own neighbor would all of a sudden do this to us. And so we ran for three months altogether after our grandmother and one of our uncles were killed. The other uncle would bribe militias for the following week. And so when he had no money left, that's when he said, you need to pack up and leave the village and go live with your aunt.

But Jim, along the way, God was doing so many miracles to protect me and my brother and my sister as we ran. For example, when we would come to roadblocks and these roadblocks would have militias, and they would call us over and would threaten us by telling us to turn around. Then they would say, just keep walking.

Another moment a man's weapon didn't work when he went to pull the trigger. Instead his magazine fell out of the weapon. And the most humorous one, this is how God has a sense of humor. While I was running, I would slip and fall. I slipped in a cow pie and fell down to the ground and a bullet missed my head by an inch.

So miracles after miracles that God was doing to protect me, but at the end of that genocide, after, my aunt who was protecting us through the genocide after while we were running also got sick and her husband got sick and they both passed away within about five months, to five months nearby together.

And it was at that, at this time we had, we couldn't fathom any more losses. So they put us in, we were in an orphanage. And while we were in this orphanage, we lived with 250 other kids, and all of us had lost all hope. But it was during this time, in this orphanage, that we got a glimpse of hope.

Jim Brangenberg: Tell us about that hope.

Alex Nsengimana: Yeah. So we get into this orphanage, and it's a difficult time for all of us. Kids are screaming of nightmares after nightmares. And one day we were told to line up in the yard and they said today is a special day. Today you are going to, you're going to receive a gift. So we ran and we lined up. And now they handed out these gifts and then they said, don't open them until all of them have been handed out.

Now these gifts were Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Samaritan's Purse had responded to what was happening through the genocide, right after the genocide ended in July of 1994. And they had refurbished a hospital, the main hospital in Kigali, the capital city. And they started to treat people who were wounded physically.

Then, a year later, they brought Operation Christmas Shoeboxes to our orphanage. And that's when, for the very first time in my life, I got to receive a gift. And it was such a special day. Let me tell you, it was such a fun day when we got to scream of excitement. This time we were screaming not because we're being chased or we're running for our lives, but this time we could not contain the joy of receiving a gift. And this was the first gift I ever received in my life.

Jim Brangenberg: Wait. Hang on. Don't brush over things like you just said. Say that last sentence again.

Alex Nsengimana: This Operation Christmas Shoebox gift that I got was the very first gift I ever received in my life. And it was so special, it was so powerful for a seven year old having a gift, shaking the items and looking and so excited. Just imagine 250 kids. So we open our shoeboxes and we're seeing these school supplies, we're seeing hygiene items, and we're seeing toys. And I remember specifically in my shoebox gift, digging through and seeing an item that can actually no longer go in the shoebox gift. But this was my favorite - a candy cane was my favorite item in my shoebox gift.

And I remember thinking, what in the world is this? So I smelled it and it didn't smell good. I smelled it and it didn't feel good. So I had to eat it. So I ate the candy cane and halfway through it, I realized it tasted better without the wrapper. So I took off the wrapper and I enjoyed my candy cane. It was such a special moment.

Jim Brangenberg: I want to get back to Alex and his story. But I want to just ask you guys that are listening today to go out to SamaritansPurse. org and get signed up to be a part of Operation Christmas Child. Your small group, your Sunday school class, your church, your local community group, maybe your homeowner's association, your business, whatever it may be.

You can hear from Alex today, the impact that one shoebox made on one young man's life. The very first gift he'd ever gotten in his entire life at age seven. And you heard earlier on the earlier two podcasts that Mark and Cherry Brumbelow, how their church is going to give out 15, 000 shoe boxes this year alone . Be a part of changing the world and I think Mark said in his numbers, 5% of those kids are coming to Christ.

So the numbers monstrous of kids coming to the Lord as a result of just one impact with a shoebox. Samaritans purse.org. Get connected with them and connect with us online as well. Retirement Reformation.org. Retirement Reformation.org. Bruce, you got a question for Alex?

Bruce Bruinsma: I do. Alex, your story is almost overwhelming, clearly encouraging. And what happened next, to you, that allowed you to transition from that orphanage to what God had planned for you next in your life?

Alex Nsengimana: When I received that Operation Christmas Shoebox gift and got to receive that favorite item of a candy cane and by the way, I didn't get a chance to mention that the candy can no longer go in shoeboxes. But it brought me so much joy. But the items that I had in my shoebox gift, the item that I kept the longest was a hair comb. And I kept it for three years. But today, what I still have from that shoebox gift is not the tangible items, but it's the seeds of hope and love of Jesus Christ that was planted in my life.

I didn't even know what God was up to, and the seed was planted. And then a year later, I joined a choir and I left to Rwanda and I was in Uganda. And while I was in Uganda, I was being discipled. So God had sent me people to water that seed that had been planted by that shoebox gift. And so as I started to struggle and asking, does God love me? Does God care? Where was God when all this was happening in Rwanda? Why would God watch while my grandmother and my uncle are being killed? Why would he watch while a million of his children are being killed in Rwanda? And so I struggled with these questions and I was blaming God for everything that happened in my life.

But the more I did that, the more I missed out on the specific miracles that he had done to protect me through the genocide, even from the day I was born. Those miracles being when that man's gun didn't work, when I was born to a mother who had HIV AIDS and I didn't get the virus. To being in an orphanage and receiving a gift from Operation Christmas Child packed by a person who I've never met to this day.

So when I was in that moment, I experienced God's presence for the very first time in my life. And that's actually when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And then I would come to the United States and I would travel with this choir, and then along the way, I would meet a family who would later on in 2003, adopt me into their family.

And God had a sense of humor, that he didn't send me to Hawaii, but I ended up in the coldest part of the country, Minnesota.

Jim Brangenberg: Ah, I love minnesota. I lived in Minnesota 30 years. That's fantastic. Where did you live in Minnesota?

Alex Nsengimana: I grew up, my family lived, still lives in the Winona area, south east. And I went to Carter High School, and then I went to college at Crossroads College in Rochester, Minnesota.

Jim Brangenberg: Wow. Fantastic. Yeah. I knew I liked you. I like you even more now. From Minnesota, Bruce. Come on. That's fantastic. Bruce, back to you.

Bruce Bruinsma: Yeah the time you had ... what's been the process of your continued growth in the spiritual side of your life while you've experienced the reality of Minnesota and places in Boone, North Carolina? So talk a little bit more about the continued - because all the seniors that are listening all the people that are listening - all of us are on a spiritual journey.

Alex Nsengimana: Amen.

Bruce Bruinsma: So tell us about yours.

Alex Nsengimana: Yeah, my spiritual journey started in those moments when I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. As a little boy, little did I know when you would ask me, Hey, what would like to be when you grow up? I would say when I grow up, I want to be a pastor and I want to travel around the world and share the gospel.

Little did I know that actually that really desire would go from my head to my heart. And that's how I ended up. And I never thought I would be back in the United States. And just God continued to orchestrate doors after doors. But along the way I was struggling because I could not process the God who loved me even though I had accepted him as my Lord and Savior, that he actually loved the people who killed my grandmother and my uncle.

So I was still living in bondage for many years after this, but God had sent me people to disciple me, to mentor me. And one of the mentors really challenged me and she, she asked me while we're traveling, she said, Alex, tell me your story. What happened in your life that you're able to be here today?

So I shared my testimony for the very first time, and then she would go on and she would say, Alex, what if you would speak with the person who has caused you the most pain in your life, what would you do? So that question started this audacious prayer in my life, Lord, help me to heal, that one day I can be able to see the people who actually cause me pain.

Because at that time, I really wanted to kill them as well. And that actually scared me, that type of hatred was i my n life. So years go by, came back to the United States, and while I was in Minnesota in high school, that's when I continue, I got introduced to Operation Christmas Drive to pack shoeboxes in high school.

And because I knew of the impact that a Shoebox gift had on my life, and I would continue to pack shoeboxes in high school and college. But along the way, I was still praying, asking for God to deliver me, to gimme that opportunity. So in 2008, I actually traveled to Rwanda. For the first time in five years, after living in Minnesota for five years, and I went back to Rwanda, and my goal on that trip was to be able to see where the people are who killed my grandmother and my uncle.

I went so close. The government of Rwanda was having this initiative of bringing reconciliation, and they were having people in their villages, people who did crimes, they were taken back to their village and you would have the victims would be able to meet the perpetrators and would be able to ask questions and have a dialogue.

I went to that same meeting that happened in my village that I grew up in and the only people who didn't show up that day was the guy who killed my grandmother and the guy who killed my uncle. And I was so confused and asking God, I'm trying to take my step forward. But you're not taking yours. It is not fair.

God knew that I was not ready. And so I came back 2010, I would be back in Rwanda on a mission trip with my college and I would try again. It didn't happen. But in 2013, I was in Rwanda with Operation Christmas Child, this time delivering shoeboxes in the same orphanage that I actually got mine as a seven year old. And that was a powerful moment.

We got to share the gospel with the kids who are there. But it was on this trip that I tried, it actually wasn't even in our plan at all. But I would say, I said, you know what, I'm here, let's try again. And so we went to the prison and found, and I found out that the guy who killed my grandmother had fled, but the guy who killed my uncle was still there.

And this was a divine appointment because the process of getting permission to go to the prison, and it takes about three weeks. But in about three hours, we had all the permission and the lady who was in charge of all the prisons in the country escorted us to the prison and made the meeting possible.

And all of a sudden, I'm so nervous, I'm so hot, I'm so cold. But I find myself seated across the table from the man who had killed my uncle and I was able to ask him, do you remember me? And he would say, no, I don't remember you specifically, but I remember three children being there. And he would say, especially that older girl, the older girl was my sister.

It was in those moments that I all of a sudden remembered he was confirming that he was right there when that happened and I lost it. I was in tears, but I know that God took my healing process at a different level. Now, you may be listening and thinking, my goodness, I cannot do that. That's, that is crazy. Or why in the world am I sharing this today? I share my story and I share this experience not to show my goodness. Look what Alex has done, but to show what God did in my life. The transformation that he did, it challenging me in my own journey. Helping me realize that God loves me, loved me just as much as the guy who killed my grandmother and my uncle.

God didn't love me more, God didn't love them less, but God loves us the same. And the seeds that really transformed my life came from an Operation Christmas Church shoebox gift. When I received that shoebox gift and the seed was planted, and you may be thinking, okay, how did that happen?

The orphanage director actually used that opportunity to share with us about Jesus Christ. And at that time I received it, it went in my life and that was it. But it was years later, God sent me people along the way to disciple me, who challenged me, seeing older generation that really actually really encouraged me, like seeing their, seeing them living out their faith really challenged me to continue to even grow my faith.

Jim Brangenberg: So how did you become a spokesperson though, for Operation Christmas Child? You go from your life being transformed by a shoe box, but now we're talking 30 years later, not quite 30 years later, but almost. You're a spokesperson going all over the country, including going to Wild Peach, Texas, with Mark and Cherry Brumbelow. How did this happen? Because people need to know how they can get connected, but how did you end up working with Samaritan's Purse?

Alex Nsengimana: Yeah. So when I when I was in college, I was packing shoeboxes and I've always loved packing Operation Christmas Child shoebox and I still do to this day. And right after college, I had already been connected with the ministry with the local team.

So Operation Christmas Child has these area teams and volunteers all over the country. And the head office for Upper Midwest at that time was in Minneapolis and I went to a processing center to see shoeboxes being inspected before they are prepared for shipment. And that's when I got connected with the ministry again, with headquarters.

And so when I finished college, I got an internship and I packed my six years of college in from Rochester to Boone, North Carolina. And I started to do the internship and because I love the ministry and I hear that some people get people who pack shoeboxes , many of them never get an opportunity to hear the other side of the story, so it is such a huge privilege and an honor for me to be able to, in my role as a spokesperson, to stand in front of a church congregation or a school or a business group and say, look, what you're doing when you pack that operation Christmas gift. It represented a child like me when I was seven years old, lost all hope.

And that shoebox gift became a glimpse of light that God used. And one of the, one of the moment was going to Wild Peach, being connected and meeting Mark and Cherry Brumbelow and getting a chance to see how God uses a small community to make a great impact for the kingdom.

Jim Brangenberg: Bruce?

Bruce Bruinsma: I had no idea when I asked you the question about, tell me about your spiritual journey, what the dimensions of that would be. So what was one of the takeaways when you went to, when you went to Texas to that small church - which couldn't be any more different than your background - what did you learn as a result of your time there? Not just what were you able to share, but what were you, what was your takeaway from that?

Alex Nsengimana: Yeah. When I went to Wild Peach and connected with Mark and Cherry , one of the most powerful moments that I took away, the most lesson that I took away, is that God can use anyone. God can use anyone. A small group of people that are faithful to the Lord. A man like Mark and Cherry that's so faithful to God's call. And it is so evident. And seeing the community come together for a cause that's specific for packing Operation Christmas Shoeboxes. A church, I believe at that time when I went, it's been at least, I believe it was like 2016 that I went there. And just seeing them, a group of 30 people, a community, small community, doing something incredible for the Lord.

It was so impactful in my life, it challenged me to go back and pack more shoeboxes myself because I saw, I remember I saw it with my own eyes how God can use a group of people who are faithful. And that encouraged me to stay faithful in my own faith, in my own calling, in my own packing shoeboxes as well. And it's encouraging to see that they haven't stopped. They keep on going. They keep on raising the bar. They are a great example to so many people all over the country who are thinking, Oh my goodness, God can't use us. We're a small church that God cannot use us. No, he can. He can and the resources are there and yeah, it's incredible to see that.

Bruce Bruinsma: Your story and the way that you have framed that is really very encouraging and our audience, we are, God has called us to speak to 48 million Christ followers, many of whom are doing nothing for the kingdom and to be able to encourage them that God has a plan and if you walk through the open door that he provides for you, absolutely amazing things for the kingdom can happen.

And in your words that he can use any of us and all of us, and we just need to be open and available. So I just thank you for that message. It's a Retirement Reformation message and the methodology.

And the ability to impact people through a shoe box that is packed here and sent there. And we see in your life, a real example. So thank you for sharing your story. As you well know, it is very encouraging. So please let me encourage you not to stop and to be able to continue to be open to the lessons that God brings to you that you can then share with others.

Alex Nsengimana: Thank you. It is it is a deep privilege and honor to be able to share what God has done. And when I'm traveling around the country and seeing. One of the privilege I've had is to even go into nursing homes to be able to interact with the people who have retired.

And it's such a joy to be able to see them and ask them their story. And one of the things that I like to do, Jim and Bruce, is to ask them to tell me their stories. I think there's, they carry so many stories. So many stories where sometimes those stories are not told. And so I'm encouraging them so that there's so much insight.

So I get to hear this story and I get to share with them, Hey, let me share with you something that you can be part of that will bring out that story of what God is doing in your life. And that's the story - you telling your story by packing an operation Christmas shoebox gift and being part of another someone's story, another child's story, planting the seed of the gospel in another child's life. It's such a joy to be able to see their smiles and those that are packing boxes already.

It is so incredible to see them be encouraged knowing that their work is not in vain, right? That what they've been doing, packing boxes year after year and, um, mobility may be slow, but God doesn't see that. God sees the obedience to the heart.

Jim Brangenberg: That's right.

Alex Nsengimana: And they take their time and they pack that box and they pack it with love. When I came to America, I learned that the best cookies are grandma's cookies. And I believe the shoeboxes packed by the older generation and especially I'm alluding to the nursing home that I've gone to, to visit. It's incredible to see them just being obedient. And they pack it full. It's incredible.

Jim Brangenberg: And Alex didn't learn about cookies in Rwanda. He learned about cookies in Winona, Minnesota, along the Mississippi River. Alex Nsengimana from Rwanda and Winona, Minnesota via Boone, North Carolina. Alex, thanks for sharing your story today. Thanks for bringing a real live Operation Christmas child shoebox story to our audience today. Alex, it's such an honor.

Alex Nsengimana: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Jim Brangenberg: Please check out Samaritan's Purse online, Samaritan's Purse.org, samaritans purse.org. Get involved now. Grab some of your friends. Start out small, but maybe one day you'll be like wild peach grace baptist church and have 55 people producing 15, 000 shoe boxes . Bruce, incredible conversation. Incredible podcast series. So inspiring . I'm just glad we partnered up with Samaritan's Purse to get this done.

Bruce Bruinsma: Oh, absolutely, and we look forward to continued relationship with them as we encourage the audience that we have to be part of the packing, the delivery and the messaging.

Jim Brangenberg: Check them out online, samaritanspurse. org. You've been listening to iRetire4Him, the voice and resource of the Retirement Reformation. I'm your host, Jim Brangenberg, and of course, Retirement Reformation's very own founder, Bruce Bruinsma, who has been with us all along. We're Christ followers, journeying from retirement to reformation so we can ultimately say, iRetire4Him.