BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: We have a moving story today on reconciliation in Rwanda.  In 1994, for 100 days while the world looked away, one group slaughtered another at the rate of 10,000 a day.  This Spring for another 100 days Rwandans are reliving what happened with public trials and the unearthing of mass graves. There is also repentance, forgiveness, and hope.  Lucky Severson reports on Rwanda’s recovery and one of the remarkable men who’s helping lead it.

LUCKY SEVERSON: The dormant volcanoes that loom over the hazy Rwandan countryside can erupt as suddenly and violently as the country itself did 15 years ago. Over a million Rwandans, about an eighth of the population, were massacred in one of the worst cases of genocide in recent history. Then the volcanoes were silent, and it seemed that only the gorillas that live alongside of them were safe from slaughter.

Today Rwanda is a much different place thanks, in part, to this man—Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana

Bishop JOHN RUCYAHANA (Chairman, Prison Fellowship Rwanda): People are smiling because they have the hope, but the wounds and the healing is a process that we’ll continue to engage deliberately to tell people that they just can’t cover it up. We need to be able to unearth it and deal with it head on.

SEVERSON: That’s what the bishop has been preaching from the pulpit of his beautiful church in northern Rwanda since the killing stopped: deal with it head on. And it was personal for him. How could it not be after so many members of his extended family were murdered, including his niece?

Bishop RUCYAHANA: I have forgiven those who killed my niece, and they peeled off the flesh off her arms to the wrist, and they left bare bones, and they gang-raped her, and I forgive them because forgiving is not only benefiting the criminal, it benefits me.

SEVERSON: There are still tens of thousands of people convicted of genocide in Rwandan prisons, but as many as 30,000 have been released back to their communities through a restorative justice program that Bishop John chairs called Prison Fellowship Rwanda. These criminals, shown in a Prison Fellowship video, killed their neighbors and even there friends.

ANNOUNCERS VOICE (in video): Eighty-three-year-old John Hebian Berriff lost 187 family members in the genocide, yet he has forgiven all those responsible.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN (in video): The only child I had was killed but I have forgiven so I will be free and I will have peace in heaven.

SEVERSON: Prison Fellowship sends ministers into these penitentiaries to preach repentance, and then after a long period of counseling, if the killer repents, the victims, those who are willing, are brought into the prison to meet the perpetrators face to face. And then, if the victims can find forgiveness in their hearts, the process of redemption and healing begins.

JOHN HEBIAN BERIFF (in video): You killed my wife with my child. I will not do wrong to you. I forgive you.

SEVERSON: There had been a simmering hatred fermenting in Rwanda ever since it gained independence from Belgium in 1962. The Belgians designated Rwandans with at least 10 cows as Tutsis and those with less than10, by far the larger group, as Hutus. Tutsis became the ruling, privileged class, and when the Hutus came to power they began to exact their revenge. And then for 100 days, beginning in April of 1994, as the world and the United Nations sat idly by, Rwandans killed each other at the rate of 10,000 a day.

Bishop RUCYAHANA: I knew I was not going to get the gun and go on a rampage and shoot people as a bishop or as a clergyman. But I was bitter. I was seeking a bitter judgment on them.

SEVERSON: And then he says he remembered the story of the crucifixion.

Bishop RUCYAHANA: You know, when Jesus Christ was still hanging on the tree nails were still into his palms and feet, and he was naked, and he was being mocked by Pharisees underneath the cross, he did not wait for the pain to subside. He cried to the Father, “Forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” The fact that Jesus called within the pain is a guide and a teaching for us to forgive.

SEVERSON: Pastor John Richardson of the St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Birmingham, Alabama, has visited Rwanda four times, has seen what forgiveness and repentance can do.

Pastor JOHN RICHARDSON (St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Birmingham, AL): They have come to repent of their sins, and as part of that repentance they’re telling people where they can find their loved ones, and so they’re still digging up the bodies and laying them to rest, and these families were laying their loved ones to rest after 12 and 13 years. But it just occurs to me that for them there’s finally now some sense of closure.

SEVERSON: The Rwanda transformation is not just among the victims and perpetrators. The country still has a long way to go, lots of unhealed wounds, but Rwanda now has one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and one of the reportedly least corrupt governments. Identity cards classifying the holder as Hutu or Tutsi are no longer allowed.

Bishop RUCYAHANA: We cannot wait until we forget the genocide to build a nation. It’s now, and nobody will build that nation for us. Our destiny is our calling.

Pastor RICHARDSON: The one thing that is obvious about John is that he truly believes that the truth sets you free.

SEVERSON: This man now guards the gates at Prison Fellowship, and he knows about being set free. He was a genocide killer and says before he repented for his crime, every minute of every hour of every day a horror movie played in his head.

Bishop RUCYAHANA: You need to see the pain they have. They can’t sleep. They hear the voices of the people they hacked to death. Voices are still fresh in their minds, and the stink of death and the smell of death are still upon them. They feel it, and they need to be relieved of that by means of repentance.

SEVERSON: Fredrick killed seven members of one family. After eight years in prison, he now has a family of his own. The man with the guinea pigs is Matais. He killed five of his neighbors, even after they gave him a cow as a token of friendship.

SEVERSON: Jacquelyn lost 11 members of her family, but she has forgiven, and she says that has relieved her pain. Now the victims and the perpetrators live in the same village, side by side, in peace. In fact, this whole village was paid for by Prison Fellowship and constructed by the killers and victims working together. There are several reconciliation villages in Rwanda and more being built.

Everyone here has stories, but the idea that they would be sitting together sharing them, victims and killers, would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.

Bishop RUCYAHANA: You need to be able to have both parties, give them time, cry with them, pray with them, engage them until you bring them to the level of confronting the reality that we are living in this county, we are going to produce together, and we are going to live together again.

Pastor RICHARDSON: My 17-year-old observed as we left Rwanda, she said, “You know, Dad, some of those people probably didn’t repent.” And I said, “Yeah, you’re right.” I’m sure some of them were looking for a way out. But that doesn’t mean that many of them haven’t repented and that they don’t work hand-in-hand and side-by-side.”

Bishop RUCYAHANA: No, it doesn’t always work magically. We have to give it time. We have engaged a process. We have to hang onto the process until the work comes to completion. We may even die doing it. But we have to continue doing it anyway.

SEVERSON: There are nearly 400,000 genocide orphans in Rwanda, and they make up the majority of the 1,000 students at the Sonrise Boarding School, sponsored by the prolific fundraising of Bishop John.

Bishop RUCYAHANA: My school has become one of the best schools in the country, and we are training them. We are telling them they will be the leaders of Rwanda.

SEVERSON: This is a remarkable place, especially for kids who have never seen an indoor toilet or a computer. There’s plenty of food here, and beds, and classes on just about everything. They’re connected to the outside world with a satellite dish, and there’s even a working farm to teach them how to live off the land. The school is the focus of Bishop John’s fundraising these days as he makes his Sonrise School even bigger and better. The bishop knows all the school is doing to prepare Rwandans for the future won’t be enough unless they can also deal with their past.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Lucky Severson reporting.

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: International humanitarian crises have inspired high profile evangelical leader Rick Warren to launch a wide-ranging new global initiative. Warren is pastor of Saddleback Church, a megachurch in Southern California. But he’s best known for his mega-selling book, THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE. Since its release in 2002, it has sold more than 25 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books in history. Warren and his wife Kay are donating most of their earnings to help heal some of the world’s worst ills. Kim Lawton caught up with them in Toronto, Canada at the end of a month-long global tour.

Dr. RICK WARREN (Pastor, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California and Author, THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE): How are you guys? How are you doing? Thanks for being here.

KIM LAWTON: It’s a timeless Sunday ritual. After church, the pastor greets the worshippers. Never mind that this pastor authored the best-selling book in the world for three years running or that on any given Sunday more than 20,000 people attend his services. Rick Warren says Saddleback Church keeps him grounded.

Dr. WARREN: That’s why I’ve never moved from where we started the church. People say, “Oh, that’s old Pastor Rick. He’s been there nearly 30 years.”

LAWTON: “Old Pastor Rick” may be a local minister at heart, but now he’s going global — leveraging his position as megachurch leader and best-selling author to mobilize churches to tackle some of the biggest problems in the world.

Dr. WARREN: Nothing comes close to the size of churches — the broadest distribution network, the most volunteers, local credibility — all these different things that make the church poised to deal with these issues of spiritual emptiness and corrupt leadership and poverty and disease and illiteracy, which are problems that affect billions of people, not just millions.

LAWTON: Warren and Saddleback members have been developing a model of action in Rwanda that they hope will be applied by other churches in other places. Warren calls it the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, one of his many trademark acronyms and lists.

Dr. WARREN: P.E.A.C.E. stands for P-E-A-C-E: Partner with congregations or Plant a congregation, if there’s not one there; Equip servant leaders; Assist the poor; Care for the sick; and Educate the next generation.

LAWTON: He and Kay, his wife of more than 30 years, are not deterred by criticism that their agenda is too broad and perhaps a bit naive.

Dr. WARREN: I think we often set our goals too small and try to accomplish them too quickly. This is not something we intend to do in five years or 10 years.

KAY WARREN: Or by ourselves.

Dr. WARREN: Or by ourselves. It’s giving the rest of our lives and mobilizing the network that’s already there.

LAWTON: It’s a path they never could have imagined when they first met as teenagers.

Ms. WARREN: I know it sounds really cheesy, but it’s the truth. I knew when he was 17 that there was, that God had his hand on this young man in a way that I had not experienced in other people that I had met. Of course, I had no idea what that was going to look like. I just knew that –

Dr. WARREN: Neither did I.

Ms. WARREN: No, we had no idea. We’re both, you know, from small churches, lower middle income families. I mean, we had no idea. I say it’s both exhilarating and terrifying. It’s exhilarating because we’re partnering with God, and it’s terrifying because we’re partnering with God, you know? It’s both of that.

LAWTON: Warren divides his ministry in 10-year increments. In the first decade, he focused on Saddleback. The church that he and Kay started in 1980 is now spread over 120 acres. It’s affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, although the word “Baptist” doesn’t appear on any signs. A network of small groups keeps people connected to the huge congregation and each other.

There are multiple services every weekend. Worshippers can choose from eight venues. There are different atmospheres and styles of music, all with the same sermon broadcast over a live video feed from the main sanctuary.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN (at microphone): Well, let’s join Pastor Rick and the other venues for the worship sermon.

Dr. WARREN: (to church): Good to see you guys. My name is Rick Warren. I used to be a pastor here. I’ve been on the road for 48 days, 14 countries, 34,000 miles. I have a lot of extra air miles if anybody needs some credits.

LAWTON: In the second decade, the ministry went national. Based on Saddleback’s success, Warren began training other pastors, borrowing heavily from management guru Peter Drucker. Then, in 2002, he wrote THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE. Some critics called it a simplistic, slogan-filled view of the faith, but it became a publishing phenomenon that even Warren can’t fully explain.

Dr. WARREN: (in Pittsburgh speech): Now let me just be honest with you folks. There’s nothing new in the book THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE that hasn’t been said in historic Christianity in the last 2,000 years. I just put it in one book and said it in a real simple way.

LAWTON: The book’s runaway success brought him tens of millions of dollars and worldwide attention that Warren says scared him to death.

Dr. WARREN: (in Pittsburgh speech): So I began to pray about this, what I called the stewardship of affluence and the stewardship of influence. What do I do with the money and what do I do with this notoriety?

LAWTON: It was Kay who became the catalyst for what came next. While recovering from treatment for breast cancer in 2002, she randomly picked up a magazine article about the more than 12 million children in Africa orphaned by AIDS.

Ms. WARREN: It was as though someone just ripped this huge blindfold off my face, and it haunted me. I realized that God was calling me to care about people with HIV, and I did, and it began this incredible journey. It changed the whole direction of my life. It changed what I care about and –

Dr. WARREN: I’ll say.

Ms. WARREN: — what I talk about, what I think about, what I read, what I do.

Dr. WARREN: She’s a very disturbed woman.

Ms. WARREN: Yeah. I became a seriously disturbed woman, and it started so small and then has mushroomed into a huge ministry.

LAWTON: HIV/AIDS has become a defining issue for the Warrens. They’ve made it part of virtually every aspect of their ministry — at their church, across the U.S., and around the world. They began a new HIV/AIDS foundation which ministers to those suffering from the disease and urges evangelical churches to get more involved with the issue.

Ms. WARREN (at church concert): Do you know how completely out of the ordinary it is for a church to be full on World AIDS Day saying, “We care about people who are HIV positive”? It’s amazing. Amazing.

LAWTON: Last year, on World AIDS Day, they sponsored an awareness concert at Saddleback with high profile musical guests, including Wynonna Judd. They also organized a conference urging church leaders to overcome the stigma that often surrounds HIV. As part of it, Warren discussed his own risk factors.

Dr. WARREN (at World AIDS Day briefing): I’ve never had sex with anybody except my wife. We were both virgins when we got married, and it is great, by the way. Can I say that?

Ms. WARREN (at World AIDS Day briefing): Well, you did.

LAWTON: Then he publicly took an HIV test to demonstrate how easy and important it is. The test was negative. In August, the Warrens attended the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, where Rick was the keynote speaker at a forum for faith-based groups.

Dr. WARREN (at Toronto conference): So, I wasn’t wasting my life, but God just said, “Rick, you don’t care about the people I care about the most. I care about the poor and the sick, and the needy, and the oppressed.” And I said, “God I’m sorry, and I will use whatever affluence or influence you give me to speak up for those who have neither.”

LAWTON: And no matter where it takes him. He raised eyebrows earlier this summer with reports that he planned to preach in North Korea next spring.

Dr. WARREN: I knew that I’d be criticized. And people say, well, you’re being a pawn. You’re being used, and things like that. Well, the truth is, I want to get the good news out.

LAWTON: He doesn’t want to get pigeonholed by politics, despite his well publicized friendship with President Bush.

Dr. WARREN: I want evangelicals to be known not for what they’re against, but what they’re for. My agenda is to be as big as the agenda of Jesus.

LAWTON: Warren puts his money where his mouth is. With the proceeds from his book, he repaid Saddleback for every penny they had paid him in salary, and the Warrens are reverse tithers. They give away 90 percent of their income and live on 10.

Dr. WARREN: I find the generosity the easiest part. I find the most difficult part is this constantly being under the spotlight. I think being under the spotlight all the time blinds you. I don’t think it’s good for your character.

LAWTON: He says he tries to stay disciplined in daily Bible reading and prayer, taking frequent stock of where he is spiritually.

Dr. WARREN: The one that can run out for me the easiest is the emotional gauge, which is the gauge that when you’re always with people, always giving out. There have been days in the last 38 days when I was in 13 countries that I thought, “If I have to take another picture, or sign another book, or just be compassionate to one more person, I’m going to run out of energy.”

LAWTON: The Warrens say Kay’s battle with cancer reminded them of the frailty and preciousness of life. Now that doctors say she’s fine, they want to make every moment count.

Dr. WARREN: You know, when the book came out, we could have gone and bought a tiny island and retired and had people serve us drinks with little umbrellas. But, you know, when you write a book and the first line is, “It’s not about you,” then you figure, okay, the money’s not for you that comes in, and the fame’s not for you either. You’re supposed to use it for good and for God.

LAWTON: I’m Kim Lawton in Toronto.