The wife and I watched Hotel Rwanda last night. I'm a little conflicted; it was a pretty well-made movie, but I kept thinking that, to get the impact that genocide ought to have, I needed more than just a microcosm of the story. While they did give some of the history between the Hutu and Tutsi (sp?) people, more would have helped.

Don Cheadle was great; I was glad to see him doing a public service announcement at the beginning of the dvd about the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. But back to Rwanda - I had a couple disturbing thoughts. The first was that all this happened while I was in high school, and I can't remember hearing a single thing about it (not that I was a newshound or anything). Did anyone else follow this story when it was going on? The second was that I am unable to emotionally comprehend genocide. I don't know what it's like to have anyone close to me killed; much less can I begin to comprehend what it would be like to have everyone around me killed. Does this mean I'm desensitized or that there's things we're not meant to fully comprehend until they happen near us?

The movie is, I think, trying so hard to be a message that it misses out some on being a movie (for other examples of this, see almost every "Christian" movie ever made). I would have been much more moved by a simple, vivid documentary of the Rwandan genocide. All in all, though, it's worth seeing, even if only to remember what happened. Caveat: It does play into the "anti-west" of modern Hollywood, but our reaction (or lack thereof) to genocide probably makes a good case for being just a little anti-west.

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On Sunday we had 8 college students over for lunch. We all shared our testimonies and it turned out that everyone around the table grew up in a covenant home; some were drawn to Christ later than others, but that covenant family played a central role in the conversion of each of us around the table. One particular family has three kids here at school, and they were each there - each of them believed and repented after their mother explained the gospel to them (for two of them, it was after a spanking!).

It was a great picture of the crown of glory that the kids of the covenant are (Pro. 17:6); I preached on that verse Sunday morning. It's so important to remind the mothers among us that they are not busy-for-now and can hope to do ministry in the future. They are on the frontlines of Christ's kingdom building. Each diaper, meal, soccer transportation and band-aid are a part of growing the next round of arrows. Everyone once in a while, it's just good to be reminded, it's good to lift our heads up and look down the road a little to see what the fruit of our labors will be. This lifting the head is one of God's great purposes for Sabbath-keeping.