Mother Ajayi Rekindles Hope Of Rwanda’s War Survivors

By Seraph Muyiwa Adeyemi

The memory is still fresh and tears yet to dry!

Twenty five years after genocide in Rwanda, an East African country where about one million people were brutally massacred in the ethnic war that debased humanity, the world renowned Evangelist and Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the White Garment Churches, Reverend Mother Esther Abimbola Ajayi and her husband, Reverend Ademuyiwa Ajayi on Wednesday brought smiles to the faces of many orphans and widows with messages of hope and unprecedented philanthropy.

Accompanied by their children, Adewunmi and Michael, the Ajayis  were invited to Rwanda, a country that is still struggling to recuperate after the war, by Dr Aderemi Banjoko who is supporting Solace Ministries, a non profit, non-denominational Christian organization dedicating to comforting widows and orphans in response to the overwhelming needs of traumatized survivors of genocide especially HIV/AIDS victims.

Apart from helping Rwandans to heal their wounds, the organization is essentially committed to reconciling them with Christ.

A leading religious sect in that country, had during the war, disappointed  the faithful by playing obnoxious roles in the gruesome killing of thousands of their members that seek refuge in the church. 90 per cent of Rwandans are confessed to be Christians.

Solace Ministries founded in 1995 by Jean Gakwandi had practically taken over  Rusoro District about 20 kilometers to Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda by not only providing spiritual therapy for the traumatized Rwandans  but providing hospital and means of livelihood to the community inhabited by over 50,000 families.

After visiting the patients in the hospital and its new structure under construction, the Ajayis and their entourage joined them in the fellowship to praise God for the lives of the survivors.

Welcoming the Ajayis to the church, Gakwandi, who narrated how he survived the war by miracle and special grace of God said, “Today is a special day for us. Though we are small but we have a very big God. I heard of what Rev Ajayi is doing around the world but I thought we are not in the category of people she could have time to visit, but she is led by Holy Spirit to visit us today.

“I was told of what she did in Liberia, but her coming here should be seen as her love for Christ and Christians. 25 years ago, devil struck but you have come to see what you might have watched on TV or read on newspapers.

Mother Ajayi who had been so much elated with the hymnals, “Pass me not by gentle saviour” and Nearer to the my Lord” sang in Kinyarwanda, their local language, charged them not to be hopeless but look onto Jesus who is able to wipe off their tears.

Her powerful and spirit-filled thirty minutes ministration did not see Madam Nyinawabega Xabena who lost her seven children to the war clapping and praising God but reaffirmed her faith in Christ.

Mother Ajayi said, “Devil will always want to remind you of yesterday to get you stuck in pains but forget yesterday and thank God for today and be assured of greater things God will do for you tomorrow. Jesus is the great healer, believe in Him and whatever that has happened to you will end in praises”.

She used the story of her life, as once  an homeless and jobless Prophetess in England,  but now  with abundance of God’s favour and mercy to assure them of greater tomorrow.

She said, “It is only person who had suffered will understand what you are passing through. There was a time in London, I was a Prophetess without any work, my husband who was working became sick, we were sent packing by the council and became homeless with four children. If God can change my story today, He will surely visit you and give you reasons ro smile. Do not despair, Jesus is alive”.

During the ministration, she said, God told her that some of them were  with no hope of “what to eat this afternoon”. The number of people who raised up their hands with  tales of woe spurred the human kindness in her and gave each person in the church some dollars that brought out tears of joy from many widows and orphans.

She said, “In this kind of situation, you don’t just preach to hungry people, you have to demonstrate the kindness of God by providing succor to them”.

Mother Ajayi also donated hugely to the completion of new structure in the hospital.

The congregation became ecstatic and their praise worship was never like before as many of them were rolling on the floor thanking God for sending Mother Ajayi to rekindle their hopes and proved  that God has not forgotten them in their travails.