Page 51 - Archangel

pledge for moses

That night, Collins and MacIain examined Layla’s son with the
attention and tenderness of Michelangelo and his fame 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 was keeping 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 +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.
36 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

45