Jeremy, Good Samaritan of Burundi
During Passion Week 2008 I met Jeremy, National Director of Good Samaritan Ministries in Burundi. I dropped by the international headquarters of Good Samaritan Ministries in Beaverton, within walking distance of my office at Evergreen Presbyterian Church, to visit with founder/director, Bettie Mitchell. She introduced me to Jeremy. He told me his story, the loss of his four sisters murdered during the genocide of 1993. The night before I watched “Beyond the Gates,” a BBC movie about the genocide in Rwanda. Last year I had watched “Hotel Rwanda,” and then read as much news archives as I could to remind me of what I and so many others in the safe and peaceful west had forgotten - over one million people brutally hacked to death by machete. Most of Jeremy’s counseling ministry is a ministry of reconciliation and the caring/healing of people in long-term shock as survivors of genocide. Continue reading »
