A higher learning, beyond football

By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Once upon a time there was an orphan girl named Pollyanna. She existed in a Walt Disney movie and became somewhat iconic with her beliefs that life’s most difficult problems can be surmounted with a positive attitude and a certain level of pragmatism. Her “Glad Game” was a constant source of inspiration: “I am glad that (something bad) happened to me because now (something good) can come of it,” is how the messaging went.

Imagine being a 6-years old orphan with genocide all around you in Rwanda, the small country in central Africa. The genocide resulted from an ethnic conflict that left more than one million people dead in 1994.

Alex Nsengimana, a survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, addresses the Watauga High varsity and junior varsity football teams on Oct. 29. Photographic image captured by Jared Everett, processed by David Rogers for Blowing Rock News and High Country Sports

You see an uncle and a beloved grandmother tortured and gunned down right in front of you as you stare, disbelieving, through a window. They were murdered not by strangers but by neighbors. You knew their names.

… driven by mankind’s indomitable will to survive.

Then, you start running with others across a pasture to escape the same fate. Suddenly, in full flight, you lose your footing, trip and fall face down in the soiled grass, “cow patties” and all. In that moment of falling, you hear and actually feel a bullet whizz by, within an inch of your head. You get up and start running again, avoiding the bodies of others who weren’t so lucky…

That might be the penultimate Pollyanna Glad Game story. “I’m glad I tripped and fell face first into cow manure because then the bullet missed me.”

It is not a funny story, even if Alex Nsengimana smiles just a bit in retelling it. Now a grown man, he was that 6-year-old child escaping genocide in Rwanda. And it was just the beginning of childhood hardship, losing his closest family members. It was a childhood during which he experienced a sense of hopelessness and despair that most of us in America can only imagine. Maybe we see it in a news reel or in a UNESCO television or magazine ad, but we don’t really know the reality of it unless we are there, living it.

Taken in by an aunt until she passed away. Going to an orphanage because there was nowhere else to go. Fleeing to Uganda. Living in other overcrowded orphanages or in the backstreets of a more populated city. Malnutrition was commonplace, just barely leaving skin and bones. We’ve seen the pictures, from National Geographic, NBC News, CNN and other media outlets. Even as a child, making do as best you can, driven by mankind’s indomitable will to survive…

The 1994 genocide Alex survived is well documented. Click on any or all of these links:

Life Lessons

Alex shared his story on Oct. 29 at Watauga High School during a community service event organized by parents of the Pioneers’ varsity and junior varsity football teams. After a meal and Alex’s testimony, they packed shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies and personal hygiene items, to be delivered to children in more than 100 countries by the Samaritan’s Purse “Operation Christmas Child” initiative.

Somehow, Alex escaped genocide at six years old. “I was really angry and searching for something,” he recalled. We can only imagine his angst and bewilderment in why this fate had befallen him at such a young age. What had he done to deserve this?

Then, still only seven years old and living in an overcrowded orphanage, in 1995 he received one of those Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. He said it was the first gift of any kind he ever received.

“That shoebox was the beginning of my faith in God and reminded me that someone out there cared for us,” he said.

For anyone who might be disappointed in what is under the Christmas tree for them this year, remember Alex’s first gift. Don’t be disappointed if you had your heart set on a Specialized or Trek mountain bike ($12,000 to $15,000) but got a Walmart-sourced special edition because that is what your parents could afford. You preferred a Rolex but got a Timex? Shrug off your disappointment and remember Alex’s genuine appreciation of his first gift: an Operation Christmas Child shoebox with a toy soccer ball, some school supplies, a comb for his hair that he treasured — and his first toothbrush.

Somehow, Alex survived the many orphanage hardships and despair. Then, at 15, he was adopted by a family in Rochester, Minnesota.

“The bullet missing me, receiving an Operation Christmas Child shoebox, getting adopted by a family in Minnesota… These were all God’s miracles,” he said, “in the darkest moments of my life.”

After a childhood not far from the equator, in the tropical highlands of Rwanda, it is not surprising that Alex would say of his adoption — with a laugh and a smile — “I liked everything about Rochester, Minnesota except one thing: the snow and cold during winter.”

Always appreciative, Alex said with an even bigger smile, “My (adoptive) Mom (Ellen Hongerholt) is a testament for the love of Jesus Christ and following God’s voice to be a mother to orphans. My grandmother, up there in heaven, is applauding her for what she has done.”

These were all God’s miracles, in the darkest moments of my life.

As an adult now working for Samaritan’s Purse in Boone, in recent years Alex delivered Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to the same orphanage in Rwanda where he once lived. He also visited the now imprisoned man who murdered his family, to forgive him and pray with him.

“God is a powerful God. The God who (helped me survive) the wars, is the God who is working in (everyone’s) life. He is with us each and every day. He is a God using something as simple as a shoebox to change a child’s life,” said Alex.

For the Watauga football players, the Oct. 29 event organized by parents in collaboration with the coaching staff was a valuable community service project. Not only did it provide significant volunteer labor for the Operation Christmas Child initiative but, hopefully, by including Alex’s story it provided the football players some perspective of what is most important in life, including God’s love for his people and the greater Samaritan’s Purse mission in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.