Forgiveness and Healing
Well, Michael Cassidy's book is a great story of God's gospel prevailing in difficult and dark times. Very inspiring, and I hope you'll read it - I've hardly even scratched the surface of all the deep things that he shared. I'd really encourage you to get it and read it.
Perhaps most strongly, it's a story of forgiveness. Because he did ministry in a time where there was much hate all around, and sharing the gospel of grace and forgiveness was a challenge. But him and his African Enterprise colleagues did it in an amazing way.
Story of Forgiveness
One of his colleagues was the Archbishop Janani Luwum, a Ugandan clergyman. In 1977, the Ugandan church challenged Idi Amin, who was a brutal and violent leader, who promptly arrested Luwum, tortured him, and while he was praying aloud for his captors, Luwum was shot dead and prison vehicles were driven over his body to make it look like an accident.
And one of Michael's other colleagues Festo Kivengere struggled immensely with forgiving Idi Amin for this horrible act. But one day sitting in church, Festo heard a sermon based on Jesus' words in Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Cassidy writes “Festo felt the spirit of God speaking to him and saying, ‘If all those people around the cross at that time had included Idi Amin, would Jesus have said, ‘Father forgive them all except that big Ugandan?’ Festo realized that could never be, and there and then he decided to forgive Amin, at which point his spirit leapt into freedom and joy.”
He went on to write a book called I Love Idi Amin. A skeptical journalist asked him if that was true. He said “yes, because Christ loves him and died for him. I'm obliged to love him and want God's highest and best for him. It doesn't mean I like him or have to like him though.”
And the journalist said to him, "If you were with Amin and he handed you a revolver, what would you do?" "I'd hand it back to him and say, ‘Sir, this is your weapon. Mine is Jesus and the Bible.’"
Power of Forgiveness
What a story of forgiveness! And there are many similar stories in this book, such as Leonard Mbalini’s story, the African Enterprise leader in Tanzania, who told of a soldier who came forward in one of their missions. He'd seen all of his relatives killed and was feeling very bitter, and was also finding himself hating his wife because she was a Hutu woman, and it was the Hutu extremists who had seized her and her children and forced her to throw her own children into a river to be drowned.
So, this man felt such bitterness towards her and was longing for the power from God to forgive her and live peacefully with her. And he asked Leonard to pray for him. Cassidy writes “As Leonard broke down, so too did Nathan Kamosliani of our Ugandan team. So too did team member Chi-Anne. At this point, a spirit of brokenness and weeping swept over the whole gathering—the tears of Jesus surely. Never in our ministry before or since have I seen anything comparable. One colleague said, "The Lord has said to me, ‘go and listen to them and weep with them.’”
Reconciliation in Christ
And so, through the work of African Enterprise, people all over Africa learned that through Christ, forgiveness and reconciliation are possible. I thank God for the work that Michael Cassidy and his team did because just reading his book brought it all home to me.
Do you need to forgive someone today, friends? The bitterness and unforgiveness that captures our hearts only poisons us and gives the enemy a place in our hearts. Let it go and forgive as Christ has forgiven you.
I pray that you'll read this book and enjoy the stories like this and the many more.
