Page 19 - Archangel

While moving quietly for another 200 meters before he dared start
the outboard motor, Skye thought back to meeting Layla, and her friend
Keesie. Both were church lay leaders in a Christian network organized by
Dr. Jack Lozi and his contacts to evacuate and resettle refugees regardless
of race, creed, color or tribe – as a witness of the friends’ faith. MacIain
estimated that both were veterans of at least 20 trips to ferry refugees to
safety. As the Hutu butchers discovered the mass exodus of Tutsi children,
the militia returned at night to murder the parents of those who escaped.
Kids who were able sometimes fled the massacres, seeking secret refuge
in the homes of brave Hutu Christians like Keezie and Layla. The heroes
often left that same night to rush the children to the DRC members of the
church network, that came to be aptly named ‘Operation Moses.’
Yet escape routes for Tutsis and moderate Hutus were closing quickly,
often confirmed too late to avoid massacres of those who didn’t know they
were compromised and betrayed. And while MacIain’s water route was
indeed dangerous in moving those in peril from the Rwandan shore of
Lake Kivu 20 miles away to Bukavu, Skye and Sean wondered if it was the
last open route to refugee redemption.

martyrs for those in need

Slowing the pace to prep and prime the motor, MacIain feared that a
similar tragedy that took Keesie had now claimed Layla. While helping
refugees she rescued to re-settle in a camp near Bukavu, Keezie was
recognized by a Hutu Interahamwe butcher living in that very camp and
posing as a refugee. Upon returning to her Hutu village in Rwanda, Keezie
was identified and publicly chopped to pieces with a machete to dissuade
others from aiding those fleeing the massacre.
After Keesie’s assassination, there was no one left trained and brave
enough to help – but Layla. Despite losing her best friend, Layla told
Skye over the radio before this run, “I want to continue doing the Lord’s
work, Skye. Do you know Isaiah 40:28-31? ‘I will mount up with wings
like eagles, . . ?’ I will be an eagle and fly as long as I can – for Keesie, for
my husband, and especially for my son.” So it was in trepidation MacIain
initially left the shore with no sign of Layla or her child. Regaining
hope with her ‘burning bush,’ his celebration was short lived when she
relinquished her son alone.

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