Frederick Ndabaramiye - Frederick: A Story of Boundless Hope

Praise for Frederick

From an American perspective, its difficult to imagine the enormity of an event like the Rwandan genocide, how it changed and traumatized every single human life. But through Fredericks story, we see how trauma can bloom into triumph when watered with streams of hope. Its a story of transformation that can transform us all.

TRICIA GOYER

USA TODAY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF OVER 40 BOOKS, BLOGGER, AND HOMESCHOOLING MOM OF 6

Wowwhat a remarkable story! Frederick has all the elements that make a great biography: tragedy, persistence, vision, and redemption. Read this one. Youll be the better for it.

ANDY ANDREWS

NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF HOW DO YOU KILL 11 MILLION PEOPLE?, THE NOTICER, AND THE TRAVELERS GIFT

Frederick pulls at your heart from every direction. The trials he endured are unfathomable, yet his faith is unshakable. Amy Parker shares his story so vividly and candidly that the reader feels as if they are in Rwandaheart pounding, uncertainty and fear choking and paralyzing themas they not only dive deeper into Fredericks story of obstacles and overcoming, but also into their personal stories, causing readers to look inward, refueled to conquer their own disablements with boundless hope.

LAURA L. SMITH

AUTHOR AND SPEAKER

In only 10,000 days and counting, Frederick Ndabaramiye has lived through a genocide, lost his hands, found his calling, and eliminated the word impossible from his vocabulary. Id say hes off to an amazing startand Id say he has a lot to teach us all.

ROBERT D. SMITH

AUTHOR OF 20,000 DAYS AND COUNTING

When you need a dose of can-do spirit, remember Frederick! A powerful story of faith, trust, and overcoming severe obstacles.

DIANE STORTZ

AUTHOR OF THE WOMANS GUIDE TO READING THE BIBLE IN A YEAR

The drive and innovation of this one young man is astounding. Through Fredericks story, youll get a powerful look at the potential of the human spirit and a true representation of the resilience of the Rwandan people. And in the end, youll no doubt be inspired to put that potential and resilience to work tackling social problems around the world.

BRETT SMITH, PHD

FOUNDING DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT MIAMI UNIVERSITY

2014 by Frederick Ndabaramiye and Amy Parker

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

Author represented exclusively by Bill Reeves at WTA Services, LLC, Smyrna, Tennessee.

Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 9780718022389 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014942536

ISBN-13: 9780529101198

ISBN-13: 9780718031404(ITPE)

14 15 16 17 18 19 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to my mother and Madame Carr. Your faith and support have carried me through. And to the people of Rwanda, I hope that my healing will become a part of your own.

contents

from jack hanna

LORD, I have called daily upon You;

I have stretched out my hands to You.

Will You work wonders for the dead?

Shall the dead arise and praise You?

Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave?

Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?

PSALM 88:911 NKJV

When I first met Frederick, he was still just a kid at the Imbabazi Orphanage in Rwanda. I was immediately awestruck by the beaming smile of this young man who had been through so much, who had lost his hands to a group of ruthless murderers. I wondered how a kid could have suffered so much and yet still be smiling, still be filled with such a contagious hope.

And then the other question hit: How in the world is he sitting there painting a landscape with no hands?!

During his first trip to the United States, I watched him adapt quickly to a world that, before stepping off that plane, he had never even fathomeda world with car washes, five-lane roads, and a set of prosthetic hands just for him. He blew us all away with his abilities. And hes been doing it ever since.

When he headed back to Rwanda with those new hands, I thought, Our work is done here; Fredericks story has a happy ending. But then when I went back to see him in Rwanda, there he was teaching a group of disabled people how to play volleyballwith no hands. So we did a little filming and closed that storybook with another unbelievable happy ending. But then I went back again, and there he was in a two-room building teaching the disabled and beggars how to paint and speak English.

That moment was a turning point for me. Thats when this kid truly took hold of my heart. Thats when I learned to never underestimate Frederick Ndabaramiye; that no matter what hes doing, hes only getting started.

Over the years, Frederick and I have grown to be good friends. I see him at least once a year now, at the Rwandan Fte in Columbus or at his home in Rwanda. But no matter how often I see him, one thing never changes: my absolute astonishment at his abilities.

Whatever you throw at him, hell catch it. And hell do so with a smile.

A few years ago, Pastor Tom Mullins invited Frederick to speak at Christ Fellowship Church in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Its a huge church with about forty thousand attendees over the course of a weekend, including several big celebrities, and Frederick spoke at their services. As that young man delivered his story to the church, the entire congregation was completely mesmerized. No one moved. No one coughed. No one shuffled in their seats. You could have heard a pin drop. Afterward, Pastor Mullins came to me and said, Jack, I started this church twenty years ago, and Ive never had this kind of response from anyone whos been here.

At the Columbus Zoo, weve adopted a mission and a method to touch the heart to teach the mind. We know that to initiate change and generate awareness as advocates for the animal kingdom, we have to begin by touching the hearts of humans. Frederick, unknowingly, takes this same approach, and in doing so, has initiated great change in his town in Rwanda and quite literally around the world.

The Lord has to be with him for him to do all that he does.

When he came to Hanger Prosthetics to get his new fingers, they were all baffled by his ability to instantly put the prosthetics to work. And do you know the first thing he told them he wanted to use the fingers for? To build himself a house, of course. The entire team just sat in awe watching this young man as he operated those fingers with the agility and skill it takes most people months and years to learn.