FITZROY HARBOUR – Listen to the amazing story of a Rwandan refugee in Fitzroy Harbour on March 16.

Join the Men’s Ministry on Saturday, March 16, 9:30 a.m. at Bethel St. Andrew’s United Church, Fitzroy Harbour. Our guest speaker Jean (last name withheld to protect his identity), a Rwandan refugee claimant living in Arnprior, will talk about his life in Rwanda.

Jean said he was destined to advocate for peace because his mother and father come from ideological rivals Hutu and Tutsi. The 90 per cent Christian nation descended into civil war in the early 1990s. The 100-day genocide saw 800,000 Tutsis slaughtered by ethnic Hutu extremists. Among them was his wife’s father.

“I come from both sides,” Jean, 44, said in an interview last January. “I am in between. This compelled me to work for peace and reconciliation. The government says we are almost reconciled; the journey is about to end. I saw we are about to begin.”

Jean fled Rwanda last year after he was targeted for exposing misappropriation of $11 million at his Pentecostal church.

“They silenced us,” he said. “They arrested church leadership then silenced us. I was the most targeted because I was serving as the (anti-corruption commission) co-ordinator.”

He made it to Canada while his wife and three sons fled elsewhere.

All men of the community are welcome to hear his talk.

Contact Ken Stewart at ken@ferryroadfarm.ca or 613-623-3881 for more information or transportation assistance or to let us know you will be attending.