I was a bit apprehensive about taking Africa Youth Mission 2001 to Rwanda this summer. We had three days in which the team of American and African youth, working out of Kigali, were to launch our project, Solar Light for Churches of Africa. We were to be the guests of the Rwandan first lady, Jeannete Kagame, and the Anglican archbishop, the Most Rev. Emmanuel Kolini.

I was uneasy about going to a place which six years ago had undergone the holocaust of genocide, where in just four months more than 800,000 people were slaughtered by their neighbors. I looked forward to being with Archbishop Kolini. He is an old friend. I greatly admire his forthright defense of the gospel - and his courage. But I have been troubled by his recent interventions into the tangled affairs of our Episcopal Church, his support of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) and the irregular consecration of bishops for the United States.

I was not prepared for what I experienced in Rwanda. As soon as we crossed the border, I realized there was something special about this country. Roads were freshly paved, beautifully striped and signed, the shoulders and ditching constructed of stone. Villages were poor but clean and tidy. The capital city, Kigali, was beautiful with handsome public spaces and gardens, impressive government buildings and residential areas, working traffic signals and street lights; an orderly, bustling, prosperous city.

On Sunday, after worship in the Anglican cathedral, we were received with a luncheon at the State House with the first lady as host. We then were taken to a stadium filled with enthusiastic young people enjoying a spirited rally led by a team of Korean evangelists from Los Angeles.

I was perplexed by the message: "The Rwandan Church is singularly prepared to go to the countries of Africa, to Europe and to America to preach the gospel and bring people to the cross of Christ. You are called to be missionaries."

I thought, "How could this people lead others to faith? Just a few years ago they were slaughtering each other? How is this church prepared for mission, when some of its pastors had, even from their pulpits, encouraged members to kill their neighbors, and in many cases priests and religious betrayed to the killers people who sought the sanctuary of church buildings and the protection of those they thought they could trust?"

When I questioned Archbishop Kolini, I was amazed by his words. "I travel in America and hear preachers talk about sin," he said. "They talk about it as a small thing. Sin is not a small thing. The Rwandan church knows sin; she has seen it, even participated in it. She has tasted its bitter fruit. The Rwandan church knows her dire and utter need of the Savior's cleansing blood.

"On Sundays," he continued, "I see people by the scores walking to church past the places where the killings were done, where the bodies littered the road, to enter the buildings where so many were betrayed to the slaughter. They go to worship and to fall upon God's saving mercy. This is a church which has sinned and suffered, which has bled and died, and is raised by the marvelous resurrection of Jesus, a church that knows its dependence upon him alone. This is preparation for mission and power for witness."

I am humbled to see that this is preparation indeed.

The African situation has even more to teach. In Uganda, on the road to Kampala, billboards display pictures of Muaamar Qaddafi. The Libyan president is seeking to portray himself as the elder statesman of African unity. He is going to the tribal kings, seeking to persuade them that they are the legitimate traditional leaders of the African peoples. With offers of aid to build schools, hospitals, orphanages, Qaddafi is attempting to strengthen their influence and to bind them politically to himself.

Qaddafi is also proclaiming that the authentic religion of Africa is Islam. Christianity is portrayed as the religion of Western corruption and exploitation against which the way of the prophet is strong defense. There is a spiritual battle going on for the soul of Africa. The African church sees the moral laxity and doctrinal relativism of American self-indulgent Christianity as no match for the contest. In fact, it sees our unwillingness as church to stand against the perverse and dysfunctional accommodation to human sin, which pervades so much of American culture, as a real liability to its own spiritual credibility in the battle. The African church must make its strong witness to our repentance and redemption. She believes her very survival depends upon it; even our survival as well.

The 21st could well be the African Century. Either Africa will make it, or it will not. If she does, we all will prosper together. But if she does not, no longer will we in the West be unaffected. An Africa in flames will draw us all into the holocaust.

What is learned from the African perspective is that we are all engaged in a life-and-death struggle for the soul of the post-modern world. At issue is the gospel itself; whether we will not be ashamed to confess the cross of Christ and it alone to be the power of God for salvation; salvation to everyone, African and American, all of us together.

Could it not be that we, the American church, will find our renewal in the witness and courage of African Christian sisters and brothers; and in humble willingness to lend our amazing material and technical assets, the enthusiastic faith and dedication of our youth, to the vigorous spiritual engagement that will proclaim Jesus as Lord and establish the kingdom of his peace? o

The Rt. Rev. Alden Hathaway is the retired Bishop of Pittsburgh and is founding director of Solar Light for Churches of Africa.