As nearly 1 million people were killed in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide, Laura Waters Hinson was a high schooler. But the aftermath of Rwanda’s horrors have shaped her career, and much of her faith. The 32-year-old documentarian spent months there creating the film “As We Forgive,” now shown to students and leaders throughout Rwanda as part of the nonprofit As We Forgive Rwanda Initiative. Waters Hinson shared with The Washington Examiner thoughts on her faith, and its deepening amid human tragedy and reconciliation. Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
I am a follower of Jesus, and part of a network of churches called Renew DC, which are seeking the renewal and restoration of the city on multiple levels — spiritual, cultural and economic renewal. Most precious to me is the Christian concept of grace — the idea that ultimately, salvation doesn’t rest on my works, or my goodness, or what I’ve done or not done on Earth. What ultimately matters is what God has done in me, and through Jesus. God extends to people free grace that we do not deserve, and that invitation to be a child of God through free grace is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. God’s grace is profoundly beautiful, and freeing.
Did anyone or any event especially influence your faith?
I think one definitely would be my time in Rwanda. I went there in 2005 at a time in my life when I was very discouraged, and in a very dark place. I believed God existed, but I questioned if he cared about his people. In Rwanda, I discovered people healing after genocide, and overcoming things I could not have imagined anyone overcoming, and I saw life come out of that. I began to see how little my faith was compared to the faith of people who’d had everything destroyed. I came back so assured of the reality of God, and that God wants to see our lives renewed and restored. I came back with so much hope.
What did you learn about the nature of reconciliation, and the qualities that forgiving and forgiven people possess?
Reconciliation is two-sided, and requires seeing the humanity and brokenness even in the killers themselves. For the survivors, oftentimes when they just heard the truth, the confession of what took place, that was enough to get them to a place where they could forgive. But I hadn’t thought about the survivor’s act of forgiveness — it’s an act of wounding themselves again, of hurting themselves for the sake of this person who doesn’t deserve it. And yet through that, they find incredible healing.
Reconciliation is a day by day decision, and a lifelong process. It’s not a completed thing. But as we forgive, we heal. And as we forgive, we move on.
Where does your faith come into play in your daily work as a filmmaker?
Artists have big visions and small budgets, and that leaves a lot of room for God to work — and I’ve seen that again and again and again. Being an artist allows a lot of opportunities for prayer, because you’re met with limitations, and yet this passion for something bigger. The space between those things are filled with many prayers, and many answered prayers.
As to the film, it’s really hard to interview people and ask them to tell me how their whole family was killed, or how they killed an entire family. My faith played a huge role in my ability to interact with those people by seeing them all as children of God — the killers and the survivors. My faith helped me to see myself in the perpetrators — to see that they’re humans, and that most of them never planned to become murderers. Given the right circumstances, any of us could have ended up holding that machete. I do believe God wants justice, but he also wants to see his people restored. There’s this incredible love extended to all of us, and that’s pretty awesome.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
I believe that the reconciliation between God and human beings is the greatest hope we have in the world. And when I see survivors of genocide forgiving and reconciling with the people who destroyed their lives, I see that grace as a direct reflection of my understanding of faith.
– Leah Fabel
