South Africa is known for its beauty, rich natural resources, it's stable economy, but perhaps the greatest export this country has given the world is reconciliation. The world watched as less than two decades ago Nelson Mandela, who had negotiated his own release, walked for the first time in decades as a free man.
What struck me as I walked through the Apartheid Museum with the other women on this journey, was that Mandela credited his time in prison with teaching him about forgiveness. Prior to his incarceration, Mandela had been a leader in the resistance movement as a lawyer, speaker and organizer. He had even trained with Haile Selasse's Ethiopian Army to prepare for armed protest - what he believed would have been the next phase of the resistance, had he not been arrested on his return.
When Nelson Mandela was later elected as the first black president of South Africa he chose not to exact revenge on those who participated in Apartheid but instead created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a model that other countries coming out of conflict have followed.
Reflecting on the power of his action, I'm struck by the parallel of 2 Corinthians 5, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come." Forgiveness breathed new life into impossible situations. Forgiveness allowed one man to leave behind centuries of racial oppression. Nelson Mandela was the symbol of the new to come for South Africa. And now in 2015 as I stand in the exhibit that is one of thousands of Mandela memorials around the world, I'm struck by how one man's forgiveness made new an entire country.
-- Kristen
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