(¾) “Our base was only twenty kilometers from the...

(¾)  “Our base was only twenty kilometers from the border with Burundi.  After the first day of killings, I rode to the border on a bicycle, just to study the route.  I knew that I was taking a giant risk.   But I was a religious person.  I was a Christian before I was a soldier.  So for me, killing innocent people was more of a risk than trying to help them escape.  Many Tutsi families were part of my church community.  I had prayed with them many times.  So when one of them reached out for help, I could not refuse.  They told me their neighbors had just been murdered.  They feared they were next.  So I told them to gather in one place and meet me at midnight.  I snuck out of the camp.  I told my roommate to tell everyone I was sick on the toilet.  When I got to the meeting place, I was expecting to find one family, but there were twenty-three people waiting.  Many of them were too scared to come out of the bush.  They saw my uniform and thought I was leading them to their death.  But the mother of the family gathered everyone together for prayer.  She said: ‘Lord, we are frightened.  But we are going to trust our brother in Christ to take us to safety.’”
(Kigali, Rwanda)