An Unbelievable Story of Forgiveness
Have you ever found it hard to forgive someone? Well, this story takes forgiveness to the next level!
Many years ago I met Madame Fauma Moona in Kenya. Emmanuel Namunyu, our CRF director in Bungoma, told me that her situation was the worst he had ever seen. Madame Moona lived near Bungoma on Mt. Elgon in the middle of one of the most brutal tribal wars that you can imagine. The conflict took many lives and left thousands of widows and orphans to fend for themselves.
But so much has changed since that day!
CRF began sponsoring children on Mt. Elgon and providing cows and Bibles to the widows of Madame Moona’s church. The widows used the milk from the cattle to support themselves. The church grew through the Bible program and a man named Alex Cheroben who had graduated from CRF’s child sponsorship program became the church’s minister!
Because of the large number of widows and orphans there, Alex and the church recently decided to host a grief and trauma seminar for healing. During the seminar, two women began crying so much they had to stop the session. The two women who were randomly seated beside each other were taken to separate rooms where they shared their stories with church ministers.
The two women are named Rose and Willbroda. During the tribal war in 2013, Rose’s husband shot Willbroda’s husband to death over a land dispute. Rose’s husband allegedly shot other people in the area until he was eventually killed by the police. Because Rose and Willbroda were connected by these tragic and violent deaths, they became bitter enemies…until one day when they unknowingly sat beside each other at church during the trauma seminar.
Realizing whom they were sitting beside, they were overcome with grief. After being counseled and ministered to, they decided to take the message of the cross seriously. They reconciled. They forgave each other. They decided to forge a friendship that could model the healing power of the gospel. They decided that there was no reason to hate each other when God had forgiven them!
It’s an incredible story. A CRF sponsored child became a preacher on Mt. Elgon. Bibles given by CRF sponsors led to salvation. Cows given by CRF donors led to new lives for widows. Church plants led to reconciliation.
It’s an elaborate true-life story of immense forgiveness. Doesn’t it make you want to ask yourself whom you need to forgive? You may have a deep hurt that you have been carrying for a long time that seems too hard to lay down. But I doubt it’s any bigger than the burden carried by Rose and Willbroda.
