For more than two centuries International Ministries (IM) has walked alongside political refugees from every continent. Eleazar Ziherambere, the former General Secretary of the Union of Baptist Churches in Rwanda (UEBR), has experienced this fact, saying, “International Ministries stood with me in the darkest moments of my life, exiled from my motherland.”
Before he was forced to leave Rwanda, Eleazar had already observed IM’s sensitivity to refugees in Africa. He remembered how in 1988 thousands of citizens from Burundi fled to Rwanda. Because of IM’s financial support, UEBR was able to provide food, medication and New Testaments. That same type of help came to Rwandan refugees in 1994-96, after Eleazar and others fled their homeland in the wake of the genocide that killed more than 800,000 Rwandans. Many of them sought safety across the border in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), where they stayed in refugee camps.
A number of the Rwandan refugees later left Zaire and traveled west, to the Republic of the Congo (known as Congo-Brazzaville). IM again responded to their needs with assistance that included seeds, farming tools and educational materials for children. Today, IM continues to help these former refugees who have established churches in their adopted country.
(from International Ministries ON LOCATION, Autumn 2010)
Before he was forced to leave Rwanda, Eleazar had already observed IM’s sensitivity to refugees in Africa. He remembered how in 1988 thousands of citizens from Burundi fled to Rwanda. Because of IM’s financial support, UEBR was able to provide food, medication and New Testaments. That same type of help came to Rwandan refugees in 1994-96, after Eleazar and others fled their homeland in the wake of the genocide that killed more than 800,000 Rwandans. Many of them sought safety across the border in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), where they stayed in refugee camps.
A number of the Rwandan refugees later left Zaire and traveled west, to the Republic of the Congo (known as Congo-Brazzaville). IM again responded to their needs with assistance that included seeds, farming tools and educational materials for children. Today, IM continues to help these former refugees who have established churches in their adopted country.
(from International Ministries ON LOCATION, Autumn 2010)
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