After 10 Years... reconciliation is coming slowly to Rwanda. Click the map to read the story... Phyllis Sortor Africa/Nigeria leadership development, International Child Care Ministries Phyllis is concerned about the plight of children in Nigeria, many of whom are sold as slaves by their families and end up in lives of prostitution, slavery or as child soldiers. Phyllis will be accompanied by her husband, Jim, who will serve under VISA Ministries. They hope to go to the field in early 2005. Phyllis plans to work through leadership development and International Child Care Ministries (ICCM) to help make a difference in the lives of Nigerian people. The Sortors spent nearly six years in Rwanda ministering through community development, discipleship and overseeing Rwanda's ICCM. They also facilitated the work of missionaries and medical services at Kibogora Hospital. Sheridan Elementary Welcomes Rwanda Visitor Phyllis Sortor and Principal Kelly Evans help students present gifts to Rev. Rugirangoga at the assembly. What started out as a visit to Phyllis Sortor's second-grade French classroom became a school-wide assembly and reception for Anastase Rugirangoga, an ordained minister of the Free Methodist Church of Rwanda. He works with the Peace, Healing and Reconciliation Program, an association working in Rwanda and Kenya, and was in the United States to attend a peace meeting in Colorado. Rugirangoga has many friends in the Seattle area, including the Sortors, whom he came to visit. Sortor and her husband, a special education bus driver with the district, spent six years in Rwanda as missionaries with the Free Methodist Church helping place orphans created by Rwanda's genocide. Sortor speaks fluent French and, on return to Washington, substituted at Sheridan and then became a full-time classroom teacher. Rev. Rugirangoga sings a song for Sheridan students. Sheridan students welcomed Rugirangoga at the assembly with French songs and dances. He then talked to Sheridan students about the lives of children living in Rwanda, and questioned them about how they would create peace. One young boy said, "By respecting others." "By caring about people," said a second. In return for the children's songs, Rev. Rugirangoga sang in French about a bird. Students from various classes presented him with numerous presents to take back to Rwanda. A reception was held in the school library after the assembly for families to meet the minister. Students also gave him letters they wrote in French, which he read aloud. (This story appeared in the Dec. 5, 2003 edition of Webucator — a web publication of Sheridan Elementary School, Tacoma, WA.)

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