Amahoro International
A Model of Peace Building Mission in an Anabaptist Perspective
By George Makinto September 12, 2022
“Faith without action is dead”! The book of James is uncompromising in its bluntness. There cannot be a claim of religious belief in a purely spiritual expression without a physical deed attached to it, may it be in a swift response to an immediate need, or in a life-long calling led by a spiritual desire to please God.
Before becoming Christians, both Mukarabe and I were actively involved in secular struggles for social justice and peace initiatives. Mukarabe herself had to flee her native Burundi during the 1993 genocide in her country. After finding a job as Liaison Officer for the United Nations World Food Program following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, she was personally confronted with the choice for forgiveness, reconciliation and peace building within the historical construct of the conflict between Hutus and Tutsis both in Burundi and in Rwanda. I, Makinto, was actively involved in struggles against social injustice, first as a student during the 1970’s and 80’s in the fight against Apartheid in South Africa, and later as an international musician, accompanying world-famous South African singer Miriam Makeba around the world. I learned invaluable lessons from her artistic advocacy for racial and social justice whenever she raised her powerful voice.
Once we became disciples of Christ in 2000, we quickly grasped an essential element in our Christian walk: our allegiance to Jesus, our gratitude for His sacrificial love, demonstrated by His death on the cross, led us to emulate Him in ever increasing measure. The bible was clear: “Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 12:14) So, we started reflecting on the works Jesus did while walking this earth. Searching the Gospels, we found that Jesus was invested in multiple activities: teaching His disciples, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, dining with sinners, performing miracles and revealing to His people through deeds, that He was God incarnate sent to change people’s perspective and to turn their hearts back to Him. We learned that compassion is a physical expression rather than just a well-meaning prayer. Works are not a means to get saved but an expression of active devotion by the disciple for the savior, benefitting the people He loves.
In the early 2000s, we began our Christian journey at a charismatic Pentecostal church in New York. We learned about the power of the Holy Ghost and his transformational work within us. We witnessed healings, casting out of demons, and eagerly learned to speak in tongues. Charismatic worship was spectacular, but our hearts were longing for more tangible outcomes.
Several years later, we were enrolled in the Center for Anabaptist leadership in Los Angeles California, under the inspiring leadership of Jeff Wright. We learned about Anabaptist history and Jesus centered theology that had laid the spiritual foundation for Mennonites, Brethren, Amish, and other Anabaptist denominations. The refusal to bear arms or to use violence to resolve conflicts resonated with my own experience in Germany in 1983. I refused the draft to the German military and became a conscientious objector. Subsequently I enrolled in a civil service working on an emergency station in a hospital in Heidelberg. Equally, the quintessence of Mukarabe’s mother’s educational message to her children matched Jesus’ teaching found in the Sermon on the mount: ‘Love your enemies, bless those who curse you and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your father in heaven” (Matt.5:44-45).
We took Jesus’ teaching to heart and were energized by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Out of our own history of suffering injustice flowed our calling: Caring for the orphans, the widows, the fatherless and the downtrodden, raising our voice for those who couldn’t speak for themselves, and other motivational activities.
In 2000, our non-profit organization Amahoro International was born. “Amahoro” is a word in Mukarabe’s native language Kirundi that translates into the English word “peace” but is better rendered by the Hebrew word “Shalom”. Similarly, “Amahoro” conveys individual and communal greetings and blessings, physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and rich relationships. Between 2000 and 2015, through Amahoro International we catered to the physical and spiritual needs of hundreds of HIV/Aids orphans in Burundi and Burkina Faso, fostered relationships between Africa and the industrialized world and built bridges between various communities in view of long-lasting reconciliation.
In 2015, after violent repression on peaceful demonstrators in the streets of Bujumbura by an increasingly brutal Burundian government, more than 400,000 young people fled Burundi and became refugees in neighboring countries. Amongst them were many of the orphans we had supported in previous years. We literally followed the Holy Spirit leading us to Uganda and built up a refugee community called “Amahoro Life Center” (ALC) in Bombo, a small Ugandan town 20 miles north of the capital Kampala. To this day, young Burundians who experienced persecution and significant hardship in refugee camps can find shelter in a loving community and experience a fresh start. They benefit from an academic education, learn vocational skills, receive a Christian foundation in getting to know Jesus and learn to actively pursue peace and reconciliation. Reconciliation happens not just between the refugees and the local community they are embedded in, but mostly amongst the refugees themselves, as former ethnic identities become irrelevant within this new social context.
It is in this physical context that we are learning that peacebuilding, justice, and reconciliation can never be just spiritual values. They must be worked and walked out moment by moment in real life and real time. We cannot talk about peace, we cannot pray about peace, we cannot preach about peace only. Lasting Amahoro must manifest itself within the community and in the hearts of every member. It must be transformative; it must be lived in everyday situations. It must be real.
Over the course of the last seven years at Amahoro Life Center, we dealt with an onslaught of conflicts: frustrations of mentally and emotionally wounded refugees, conflicts within the local leadership, jealousies, work related disagreements and misunderstandings about the very core of our mission, to name but a few. Still, taking the example of Jesus and directed by the Holy Spirit, we valued relationships over rules, kept listening and talking even when the chances of reconciliation were slim. We valued grace over being right. We discovered that the Anabaptist principle of restorative justice and active peacebuilding rendered better results within an active context of reconciliation efforts than punitive measures and the application of unbendable rules. Yes, regulations and structures are necessary to provide boundaries within the context of an organization, but relationships ought to be valued on a higher level than laws.
Now, after 7 years of active ministry amongst a steady stream of refugees passing through our mission, we see the fruit of the Holy Spirit through our work: we see Transformation! Lives of many refugees have been changed. They have been transformed from a state of hopelessness to a place of hope, joy, peace and economic empowerment. Individually and collectively, they are experiencing the fulfillment of their calling. As one refugee expressed it in vivid terms: “In the refugee camp, my dreams were dead, my vision blurred, and my daily focus was on mere survival. Then Amahoro International allowed me to come to ALC and find rest and peace within my soul. Now I started dreaming again and can fathom a future of peace and prosperity which will allow me to give back the blessings I have received to my fellow refugees, enabling them to also dream again.”
We resonate with the Anabaptist concept of “Peacebuilders” as it relates to conflict resolution: “Peacebuilders seek to correct injustice and eliminate causes of violence….by addressing inequalities, showing compassion, and implementing programs of restorative justice that transforms enemies into friends” (p. 143, Anabaptist essentials by Palmer Becker). Thus, Amahoro International is a restorative, peace building mission operating in Africa in the tradition of Anabaptist values, expressing the nature and character of Jesus Christ.
It was an important milestone within our Christian journey to encounter and to embrace the Anabaptist theology of reconciliation and peacebuilding centered around the person of Jesus Christ. In sorts this was the missing piece, confirming our desire to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and carry out His missional and formational work by the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
James 3:18: And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
George Makinto
Los Angeles, September 12th, 2022