To preface, my wife and I are involved in the organization that the authors helped to found in Nashville, Tennessee, but what this essay lacks in objectivity, I hope to regain in honest intimacy. This memoir relates the story of how Hartley’s family escaped the “Brentwood Bubble” (Brentwood is a well-to-do suburb of Nashville) while encountering the Mwizerwas. Having fled the genocide in Rwanda during the 1990s, the Mwizerwas became refugees in Nashville and rebuilt their lives serving other refugees in this community. Their tales intersected and changed them both.
Hartley’s family had encountered some life challenges with one of their daughters, and a mission trip with the Mwizerwas – to be repeated several time in years hence – changed their concept of what life consists of. Through serving others, their daughter overcame her challenges and found a calling on the continent of Africa.
The even more moving story consists of the Mwizerwas’ overcoming horrific genocide in Rwanda, a piece of history that still haunts that country. They were almost killed, and most of their friends were killed. Eventually, they escaped to Kenya and after a lengthy struggle, were let into America under a refugee visa. With nothing but skills and faith, they rebuilt their lives by helping others fleeing similar situations.
Many Americans still don’t know of the horrors of the Rwandan genocide. (In his memoirs, Bill Clinton called not intervening through sending American troops the biggest mistake of his presidency.) This book can bring many of those tragic experiences to light. It can also remind Americans of the precariousness of a functioning country, how political rhetoric can sometimes raise up murderous hatred, and how the religious disciplines of love and faith can heal. Thematically, it shows how love overcomes hate in depth, with a distinctly evangelical and Christian twist.
The biggest weakness of this book is that the American side of the story can still seem caught up in the so-called Brentwood Bubble. That is, it does not deal at length with larger current news like the rise of refugees in the world, the amazing economic revival in Rwanda since the genocide, or the relative isolationism of many Americans. While the journeys of these characters can and do inspire, I hope they’d lead us to carrying more of the world’s hurt together, (as the authors would remind us) in God’s love.
This book, also a major motion picture by the same name, aims to reach mainly religious audiences through Christian language. Thankfully, it avoids many of the political pitfalls that has embroiled the American church in recent years. Instead, by dealing with many heavy human issues like sexual abuse, genocide, forgiveness, and human worth, it seeks to remind us of the essence of a common, faithful life. It appeals to neither the theological left nor the theological right, but to all those who see humans as created in God’s image. Hope for the world exists not in staying safe but in becoming beautifully broken.
Beautifully Broken: The Story of Two Father Fighting to Save Their Families and the Unlikely Journey That Changed Them Both
By Randy Hartley and William & Ebralie Mwizerwa
With Ken Abraham
Copyright (c) 2021
The Fedd Agency
ISBN13 9781949784602
Page Count: 195
Genre: Religious, Memoir
www.amazon.com