Page 39 - Archangel

pledge for moses

That night, Collins and MacIain examined Layla’s son with the
attention and tenderness of Michelangelo and his famed Pieta.
Miraculously, Layla’s two-year-old boy was in perfect shape with the
administration of fluids, and he was eating heartily. They both
considered his quick recovery a miracle.
The staff kept Moses’ presence in camp a secret. Those Tutsis and
moderate Hutus whose lives Collins and MacIain saved had confirmed that
there were literally thousands of Interahamwe informers within Bukavu’s
plus 250,000 population. There were militia bounties on the heads of
MacIain, Collins, their public health staff and administrators. Both were
resigned to the fact that one day their threats would no longer be empty.
Thirty-six hours after they barely escaped the Rwandan shores of Lake
Kivu with their lives, Collins and MacIain bundled up Moses with all
necessary medicines, supplies, clothes and toys. Their accomplices were
Isa and the Operation Moses Reverend whose wife they rescued after she
was left for dead in a Rwandan killing field. Borrowing two horses, the
Pastor led the two humanitarians and Moses along little-used trails which
brought them to the rear entrance of the Catholic Seminary in Bukavu.
At the prescribed time, the Mother Superior walked to the rear entrance
with a novice. Greeting each other warmly, the pastor and nun from a
physician order conversed in French as the novice cuddled and cooed with
Moses. With Collins in silent tears, Mother approached MacIain, smoothly
transitioned into Irish Gaelic spoken as if still in the Armagh countryside,
and shared, “God will bless you both for what you are doing in His service
to save lives from the genocide. As the Lord is our witness, we will hide and
help the child as long as it takes to find his home that Christ intends.”
“Thank you, Mother,” MacIain slowly replied in his grandmother’s
inherited and quaint Scottish Gaelic ‘of olde’ to the Mother Superior’s
delight. “I will communicate with you through the Reverend on when and
how we’re ready to move Moses to safety, arrange transport, and spirit him
to his new home.
“I will pray that Archangel Michael himself will protect this child from
evil in the interim,” she offered.
With that, the Mother and novice carried a giggling Moses up the
rock path and into the sanctuary. Barely able to stand with the grief of
separation from Layla’s son, MacIain helped Collins onto his own horse.

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