Baskets are one of the iconic images of Rwanda.
They are featured on the 5000 Rwandan Frank bank note.
As an object to fill an atrium space, the Rwandan basket was a fitting choice.
Rather than hang just one, Simon decided to hang seven baskets of different dimensions, with different colors, and at different heights from the center beam.
Simon is constructing the baskets at twelve times scale.
As we considered the basket as a token of Rwanda, we thought of Rwanda's tragic past
-- the genocide that occured in 1994.
Could we expand the metaphor of the baskets to the genocide?
We also wanted to honor the memory Dr. Kim Hyun Deok Foreman,
a remarkable wife and mother,
who died in Rwanda in 2010.
She was a passenger in a car driven by Franc Murenzi, director of Come & See Rwanda.
You can read this story as it was published in November 2013 issue of Guideposts magazine.
As we considered seven baskets, we searched to see how the number seven is used in Scripture. We then came across these words spoken by Christ in Matthew 18:21-22:
It all came together!
The project would be called Seventy times Seven (or 70x7).
Forgiving 70x7 honors Rwanda as it seeks to recover and reconcile after a horrific tribal genocide.
Forgiving 70x7 honors Kim as her family continues to recover from her fatal car crash in Rwanda.
We decided to embellish each of the seven baskets with word FORGIVE in 70 languages.
We are now collecting the word FORGIVE in 490 languages of the world.
Maybe you can help us with that part.
