31. Marie Claire

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Silver linings can be hard to fathom.

In 1994, when the genocide occurred in Rwanda, Marie Claire was a 15 year-old girl. She lost her father, a sister, a half-sister, a half-brother, nineteen uncles and aunts and two grandparents in the killings. Several attempts were made on her own life but she somehow survived. School was suspended. Life seemed to have no purpose and certainly no beauty.

But during this time, Marie Claire found a book. In the genocide, she tells me, there were books in the street everywhere. She found one with pictures that intrigued her. She began to ‘read’ it and couldn’t stop. She couldn’t really understand it but, without knowing why, she couldn’t stop looking through it. She kept it.

Six years later, an evangelist came to her house and explained the pictures in that book. The pictures told the story of Adam and Moses and David and Jesus, and the evangelist told her how the story all came together. Marie Claire believed and gave her life to Jesus that day. She would go on to become an evangelist herself, and then a pastor and builder of churches.

That book was a silver lining around a very dark cloud; a silver lining that would, in time, become a very great light shining across a very needy landscape.

But I get ahead of myself.

Marie Claire was born hearing. At the age of 5, she caught meningitis which caused her deafness. This didn’t only affect Marie Claire. Her parents divorced at this time and Marie Claire lived with her mother and sister. She was able to attend a school for the Deaf where she did well. She learned to communicate and excelled in her studies, but these were disrupted by the genocide when she was 15.

So Marie Claire began to make a living from hair dressing to support herself and her family. This was a good job but it wasn’t her calling. She felt called to be an evangelist; to explain that book to all who would listen. In 2006 she went to a Bible college in Uganda, graduated two years later then founded a church which ministered to the Deaf in the town of Rubavu, on the north-west border of Rwanda near Lake Kivu. 

Most of the people in Rubavu, including the Deaf, are Muslim. Ministering to Muslims with the gospel is not easy, but Marie Claire has both a passion and a gift for it. She explains to me how it begins with friendship, then social discussions, then slowly – slowly – she begins to share the Word with them. They ask the questions. She answers them. And so, many began to join the church. Most were Deaf. Some she visited were Deaf blind.

How on earth do you minister to Deaf blind people?! 

Marie Claire explains. “We use colour. Most of them can see colour. If you hold material up very closely to their eyes, they can see it. And then we teach what the colours can represent. Red means (the blood of) Jesus who died for us. Black is sin. White is holiness. Green stands for peace, and gold represents the love of God.” In this way, and using tactile signing, Marie Claire has led the Deaf blind to an abiding Christian faith.

Marie Claire’s ministry successes led her back to Kigali, the Rwanda capital. In 2014, she installed leaders to serve the church in Rubavu, and then moved on to minister in the Deaf church in Kigali which she was appointed to lead. There, she continued to minister to Deaf Christians and Muslims and those of no faith at all. 

What has been DMI’s role in all this?

“DMI has been instrumental in my work,” Marie Claire explains with a huge Rwanda smile. “DMI paid for my seminary studies and helped with my transport back and forth between Rubavu, Kigali and other areas, enabling me to plant, lead and support Deaf churches. I’m so thankful for the work of DMI in my life and in Rwanda.”

I ask Marie Claire what her hope is for Rwanda. What does she long to see for her country? She has no hesitation in answering this question. She wants to see the gospel taken all over Rwanda and Deaf churches established all over the country. “We need more evangelists,” she says, “more Bible students, more Deaf churches. The fields are hungry here. We just need the support.” She hopes to play a role in this herself but is humble about the prospect. “I don’t know about my future,” she says, still smiling. “Only God knows.” All she can say for sure is that she wants to keep serving God. 

As I close the interview, I pray for Marie Claire, thankful that the Deaf of Rwanda are in such faithful hands.

If you would like to know how you can support Marie Claire, or any of our students, teachers or pastors, or help meet any of DMI’s needs, please click on the donate button below, or mail to info@deafmin.org