Episode 10: Shema Innocent, Chains broken by Jesus (Rwanda)

Born and raised in Kigali, Rwanda, Shema Innocent knows hardship most westerners can’t fathom. Poverty, a broken home, and a learning disability were some of the triggers that allowed anger to well up in him. But when his mother became a Christian, Shema started to see that he, too, needed Jesus. Hear how Jesus transformed Shema and brought him to the U.S. to study at Moody Bible Institute.  Be inspired by Shema’s testimony. 

Never miss an episode. Have One80 delivered to your inbox:
https://one80podcast.com/subscribe/

Moody Bible Institute:
https://www.moody.edu/
https://www.facebook.com/MBIChicago/

Pacific Garden Mission:
https://www.pgm.org/

History on Rwanda Genocide:
​​https://www.history.com/topics/africa/rwandan-genocide

Prayercast, Rwanda:
https://prayercast.com/rwanda.html

Be moved by the song that moved Shema!
Tasha Cobbs Leonard, "Break Every Chain"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucY6NwQTI3M

Sendoff, Here’s how to get the free song:
https://one80podcast.com/subscribe/

Shema’s Community College:
https://bluegrass.kctcs.edu/

Shema on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/shema_inno/

Shema on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/shema.inno

Shema's Church in Rwanda:
https://www.facebook.com/Divine-Destiny-Church-in-rwanda-330316090342502/

Follow One80 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Never miss a One80. Join our email list.
Follow us on Instagram.
Share One80, here's how!
OneWay Ministries

Transcript

One80 Episode 11: Shema Innocent, Chains Broken by Jesus

Transcript may have errors that do not reflect the audio recording and are meant for your convenience.

Ryan: Shema, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us on One80. 

Shema: I am really excited and humbled to be here. 

Ryan: Yeah, dude, 

 I just can't wait to jump into your story, but before we get there, we've got to ask you a random question. Okay. So if you were to open up your own store, what kind of merch would you sell?

Shema: Good question. I would say probably coffee. Really? 

Ryan: Yeah. Coffee with a picture of you on it, on the bag. 

Shema: Well, not, my face. Just the name of my company. My country is known to have one of the best coffee worldwide, actually. I think we are number 14 worldwide. What?

Seriously? Yeah. 

Ryan: Ah, that's cool. Well, I'm an avid coffee drinkers, so I'll have to try some, some of your coffee. Hey, I'll 

Shema: Get you one from Rwanda, okay. Come on now. 

Ryan: That's great.. 

We'd like to go back to the beginning so that our listeners can get a really good picture of what life was like for you and you coming from Rwanda. , you want to start , where you grew up. 

Shema: I don't know if many people know about this, but 1994, Rhonda had the worst genocide. I wasn't born at that time that was 1994, I was born 1996.

This was 1994 in July. It only lasted for three months and they killed a million people using traditional weapons, such as machete, hoes, knives, like any traditional weapon you may think of. It was really a horrific moment 

The whole country was affected by it. Hmm, according to the statistics every family was affected by this and this genocide and at then many young people, came together and formed an army.

They started the liberation war. The wall started in April. You went on until July and when the war ended, everything was destroyed. The country high to begin from below zero, like literally everything was destroyed because it was blood everywhere. Dead bodies everywhere.

By then my parents were living as refugees. So they came back after the genocide. My dad dropped out of college, my mom never attended high school actually. So when they came back to Rwanda, they couldn't get jobs with a government because they don't have an education.

It was really, really hard because one, you are in a country which just came out of war and everything is destroyed. Two, you have two young kids you're trying to raise. You have no job. It was absolute sadness. My dad would walk sometimes like 10 miles looking for a job and he couldn't find any, sometimes it would be hard to provide three meals a day , there was poverty. I don't know all this, but I, I love my mother. She, she is my best friend. So she tells me some of the stories of my family.

When I was born, my dad was an alcoholic. He will drink. Like all night, come back in the morning and he would mistreat my mom.

And this was a heavy burden for my mother. She's a stay-at-home mom. She doesn't have a job. My dad is looking for a job, stressed out, depressed trying to raise a family, but he's drinking too much. And he brings all this anger and stress and dumps it on my mom, by beating her or being rude. 

My mom decided to divorce him because it was too much. To handle. She picked me up because I was a baby by then. I think I was one year she took me in the village to live with my grandma and she went back into the city and she worked so hard.

She made just a little bit of money, my dad was still drinking and my two brothers were always asking, my father was mom. We no longer see her where she at this hit my dad so hard and he decided to stop drinking and to get back on his feet and pick up the role of being a father and a husband. Wow.

Wow. Yeah. Life in the village. Wasn't easy. Like I don't, I don't remember most of the things. I don't know. This better. I remember I see this image every time I talk about my life in the village, I think I was probably by then, like three, maybe. Okay. But I remember crying.

I was hungry. It was late at night. I was hungry and my grandma picked up a bunch of peppers and laid them on fire. And she had a metallic cup try to warm up the milk by by putting it on the fire, on the burning papers to give me milk to drink. And she told me that's how she did it. I was like, the brain is just amazing to keep that image.

That is, that is the only thing I remember of me as a child. Wow. Everything I know. They are stories that tell me. So during the period of divorce my mom was living with his brother, my dad started begging high to come back home. But mama was like, I told you, once I leave, I'm never coming back. I told you so many times to treat me as your wife and respect me as your wife, but you never did all that.

So I'm never coming back to you. Yeah. My dad kept on trying for probably two years. And one day mom became a Christian. She gave her life to Christ and she was the first in my immediate family to be born again. Wow. Wow. Yes. I, this time when she became a Christian, she knew the Bible says no divorce and she had two.

Except to get married again to my dad. He was like, please. God told me if we get back together, our marriage is going to be nice and we'll have a blessing of married people. Hmm. Mom was like, Yes. I can take you as my husband again, So now the a grade to get back together, our family was going to be reunited. I think after a period of three years,

I was still in the village at this time. I was about to be fall. My mom brought me back into the city. They tried to put me in school. We were living together and this why still, when my dad was very poor, but the good news is he had stopped drinking.

Yeah. So every money he was making, he wasn't spending it on beer. He was trying to save on care for his family. . Yeah. But living in a family, which is full of love from your husband and hypocrisy from your sisters in law, it was really heavy for me.

Actually, there is a point where they stole her clothes and they think that took them to the witch doctor to put in some black magic. 

Ryan: Yeah. Wow. 

Shema: Yeah. All that, God is just amazing, man.

No matter what they did, no matter all the challenges, my mom first, she forgive them and she loved them and she gave them what it, when she never had enough.

But it was to a point when. Was so hard for my family. And we got kicked out of the house. We thought we are going to sleep on the street one night, but my momma went and begged his uncle to give us a place to sleep. It was a three and a half bedroom. And we living in that house when we were like 15 people.

Wow. Yeah. We would put mattresses in the living room every night. Cause we didn't have enough rooms. Wow. Still my dad never had a job, but by God's grace, we had food on the table. Hmm. I don't know how he did it. My mom had crazy faith maybe, and I'm like how?

Yeah, because she had another child, my young sister, when she was a baby, she would put her in the box, walk like two miles to go preach with another group of people. Wow. They brought revival to a whole neighborhood cause they would preach and probably 300 people in that neighborhood came to Christ.

Wow. 

Ryan: That's amazing. 

Shema: She was like, I saw God moving in the midst of my poverty. Your dad would go on streets looking for a job and I would go preaching. Cause that's all I could do. Yeah. And she said, when life became so hard, she was praying one day and God told her someday your kids will study in America.

And mom was like, you're kidding me. Right. We can't even afford enough food. They're telling me they're going to go on a plane and overseas. Right, right. Yeah. But she kept the word, the Lord told her. Yeah. And she told it to my dad. Now that was like well, you know, we were poor. I don't know how that's going to happen.

But in the midst of all that, that always tried to put us in school. Now here comes my story. When I went into school, we had three grades in one class. Wow. Yeah. We never had books or paints. We had a small chalkboard, probably a size of a paper. We would take notes, rub it off, put it in a small backpack, go back home.

Okay. Now I had a disability growing up as a kid. I couldn't read or write until I was probably 10 . Mm. I think it's something similar to dyslexia . Okay. . All I know is I could never spell the word mama or write my name or read anything. Mom. Now you have my family, which is struggling financially.

And you have this kid who has a learning disability. 

Ryan: Yeah. That's a lot of pressure on you. 

Shema: It was really hard. Sometimes when you tell stories, you forgot things and remember them as you're going and going. Okay. Now what now? 

It's like the more I think about it, it blows my mind to know the goodness of God put in my life. Yeah. You have this kid who had a tumor, but never died.

When I was a child, when I was a baby in the midst of all financial crisis, my family was facing at the moment I developed a tumor at the back of my neck.

They couldn't afford surgery. They couldn't afford any treatment. They thought I was going to die actually, but my grandpa was a Christian yeah. He put me in his hands and just prayed for me, believing God would heal me.

Then as time went by, they thought I wouldn't live long enough, but the tumor went away and 25 years later, I'm here talking to you. 

Ryan: Come on, man. That's so good. 

Shema: The same kid has a learning disorder. He can't focus in class. He's not able to read. He can't write. They tried to do everything in their poverty to school me because my dad believes in education. 

 My dad went in a country called Burundi. He lived there for three months. It was a long time. When he came back, she started making a little bit of money. I went from a public school to a private school.

I was this crazy kid, man. Now, I was growing up. I was being rebellious to my mom, to my dad, to my grandma, to my teachers. One day , they told my mom I had a mental illness because I couldn't listen I was distributed as kid. You can't tell me what to do. I do what I want when I want and how I want. Yeah. Okay. There's a time in life when my mom would yell at me on this point. I almost beat my mom .

Wow. There is a time in life. I actually, man, I'm like, God, thank you. I never did it. Grandma was, was yelling at me and I walked over to grab her throat and she was like 80 years old, but , as I was walking to grab her throat, I tripped on an iron sheet and it cut myself. And I couldn't reach her and I'm like, God, maybe that's you trying to prevent me from killing my own grandma.

Cause you never know what would have happened. Yeah. It was so bad. I cut my cousin using a knife because he was angry at me so much. Yeah. At one point I had suicidal thoughts because of the pain I was living, again the poverty and all that stuff. Having a hard childhood.

After finishing primary school, I went into high school and when I was in high school, I became addicted to pornography, which really messed up my life so bad. And for some reason, my mom always told me Shema, never, ever, ever sleep with another woman apart from your future wife.

And I was like, what are you talking about? Why do we have to have this conversation? You know, like the awkward conversations between mom and the children. I don't want to talk about this with you. But she told me that almost every week, every month and I wasn't a Christian, . But yeah, but from there, God is just amazing. He protects us from things, but we don't know. Yeah, absolutely. And to my surprises, every time I try to sleep with a girl, it failed. I don't know how I would hear my, the voice of my mom speaking right through my ear. And I'm like, I can't do this. No. Yeah. And that's even before I was born again, even though I was addicted to pornography all into that scene. Yeah. 

Through freshman year of high school, I started thinking about God. I want you to change my life. Who are you coming to me? I see mom praying to you and mom tells me you speak to her. Like I need you God. Now there was a revival at the local church and I really wanted to go, but it was in a boarding school. I had to sneak out of school to go to church, not to go drinking, but to go to church.

When I went to that church. Okay, hold up. Let me, back up a little bit. Okay. My friends were like Shema. You're about to turn 18. You hope we have never seen you go crazy. We go dancing. Well, you know, you, you never drink. You never small. You're still a vagina. That stuff. They're like, you need to go at least drinking one night tonight.

You know, it’s your 18th birthday. That was like two weeks before. Okay. I was like, okay. Yeah, let's do it. Let's go. Crazy 

Ryan: friends. 

Shema: Gotta love. Yeah. But two weeks before my birthday, I start hearing about a revival meeting at the local church. And I felt the urge of going into that revival. Yeah.

I went to the church and they were singing this song. There's power in the name of Jesus to break every chain. And I was their closing my eyes. And I had a vision of chains falling off me. I didn't know what was happening. And when the pastor gave an altar call after giving the message, which I still remember today, I went there.

They prayed for me and they give my life to Christ. Wow. Two weeks before my 18th birthday. Wow. 

The message was about the Israelites advancing and capturing the law, the the promised land. It was like a above from the 21. Mm. And the pastor was like, it's time for you to leave that day. Set that scene, that, that addiction you're having and go into the promised land and go praise God and accept Christ Jesus to take over your life.

It kept on hitting right through my heart, and I was like, I need to break these chains of pornography, anger, hatred my past life, my childhood, all that, , growing up in a family of poverty, full of hatred from family members, all that stuff. I went there, they prayed for me. I give my life to Christ.

Ryan: Oh, what was that like for you? I mean, at that moment, when you accepted Christ, did you, did you feel anything different? Did you know that he had come? Like, how did you feel? 

Shema: All I saw was me closing my eyes, seeing the chains falling, but going up there, the pastor praying for me, I felt this joy. I was like, God, I give you my life right now.

I can say it's the best decision I ever made all my entire life, the joy I have, I can't find the right words to use. I don't even have to explain it. It was the best moment of my entire life. 

 I felt the presence of God field inside my heart. I felt. So happy, so joyful at peace at ease.

And that was, I was like, God, just take my life. Come live inside me. Yeah. I felt like the best thing was happening to me. Right then at that moment it was amazing. It was so wonderful. It was exciting. I felt the joy of God in my heart all over me. I felt the Holy Spirit. Speaking to me, speaking inside me, it was, it was just wonderful.

And then on the powerful moment I had with God over there at the altar. Wow. From there, we went back to school and when we went back to school, I went back to my sinful. Pornographic moment. And it was God, what just happened? I thought we had a moment . Hmm. Then I felt this voice telling me if you accretion, but you don't walk, according to my ways you don't pray or read my word, then you will start to feel like you're being drained. Yeah. Circa was missing something and they made a decision to go into fasting.

Cause I, I grew up seeing my mom fasting like 20 days, 40 days, five days, I was like, ah, nah, I'm not my mother. I'm just going to do one day. Yeah. But I said, God, I'm going to come seek you with all my heart. I picked up my Bible, went and prayed and read my Bible.

 That day, I didn't know what had happened to me, but I read my Bible everyday prayed everyday. And the more I read it, the more the word of God kept on feeling my heart. My life's changed. I never told anybody I was a Christian, but I said, God, I want my character to reflect who I am, who you want in my life to my friends, to my parents, to my mom, a few months later, people were starting to wonder who is Shema?

I went to a school where I was suspended twice because of bullying and cheating in an exam. But my professors were like, who is this kid who was rebellious? I'll always in trouble, always in the Dean's office, the principal's office. And now he's here being one of the best kids in school. What has happened to him?

And I told him, it's Jesus, Jesus, that's it. It's Jesus who has come into my heart praise. My friends started hitting me and they, what do you want to talk to him about? I was like, I got good news for you. The same Jesus switch in my life can change your life too. From there, I started preaching from my high school.

Yeah. Too small for these 20 students, the crowds grow to 200 students. Whoa. I will look like I would really preach to a bunch of students. And I saw kids life changing through what God was using me in the same school, where I was suspended twice. I said the same crowds come. Oh, they knew who I was and it wasn't faking it.

Yeah. My mom was like, my mom was a with this kid. Yeah. Last semester he wanted to fight me and fight the grandma. And now he's here taking responsibility . Wow. Being a good child. And I said, mom, I didn't want to tell you guys that I'm a Christian. I wanted my character to reflect who I was.

Wow. From reading the Bible from praying. Because when you read the word of God and walk through the word of God, then you will see the change in your life. It's like what Paul said, we are live. Read by everybody and wanted everybody to see wow. The word of God in my life, through 

Ryan: my actions. Yeah. Your life is a letter.

Just, I mean, think about that, does that it makes us wonder. And for our listeners, it's like, what if your life was a letter and people were to read it? What does it say 

Shema: exactly? That's what I wanted. I wanted to pay for, to see God walking through me. Yeah. From there, I felt the calling of God upon my life to go into ministry.

And I got so scared. But I said, God, whatever it is that you want me to do, I will do it ' cause that's the best way I can live.

I wanna leave for your God. Yeah. Yeah. I decided to go into ministry training and sometimes I, I came to Chicago last. Last semester was my first year in Chicago and I I've been walking with a Pacific Garden Mission. It's a homeless shelter. I have pushed that a few times and I have seen about 20 homeless people giving their life to Christ.

Wow. Praise line last night, they approved to about 130 people unless so five people come coming to Christ and that was like, God, I just ask you one thing. I don't want to be famous. I don't want to be rich. make me your vessel, your instrument, and I need you. To pick me up and wash every dot that is inside me and blow through me like the way Joshua blew.

And the walls of Jericho fell down. I want you to blow your word through me and people will be changed by your word when I preach the gospel. Wow. That is my number one desire for God's calling my knife the best thing I can do for God is just serve him.

I have seen God changed my family. Yeah. We still have challenges sometime, but seeing the faith of my mom, seeing from where we came from, seeing myself right here. When now was this kid, people thought I was going to die. I wasn't going to make it , but here I am today.

Yeah. I wasn't able to read the right and they can speak two languages right now. It's just a blessing to me, such a blessing. God has been so gracious and has been so good to my life. I feel my word for my salvation in this world is to stand and proclaim the good news. Come 

Ryan: on, man. That's yeah, it's so good.You know that song. All my life. You have been faithful. Oh, that's like, you're I love that song. I break down every time I sing that song. 

Okay. . So, so let me get this straight. Okay. So, you know, you're caught up in this addiction you know, pornography, you realize , you're lacking something. You've seen your mother as a Christian. Remind me, was your father a Christian yet?

Shema: No, he is not through today. 

Ryan: But, but you go to this meeting instead of going to get drunk on your 18th birthday two weeks beforehand, you're like, you know what? I'm going to go to this, this revival meeting, you give your heart to Christ. Couple days later, you're re you relapse. You go back into the old sin, but then you feel this call on your life that you need to, obey God, to take it seriously.

You start to fast. And as you start to fast and pray the power of God starts to move in your life because you become basically what you eat. You know, the old saying you are when you eat, you know? And so you start to eat the word, digest the word, and all of a sudden you see this big change and you know, and your character, 

 you become this letter of Christ to those around you, this beautiful fragrance. And so, I mean, so powerful. I want to know though, how did you get, why, what happened for you to come here, to come to Chicago, to become a part of moody? 

Shema: Now? When I finished high school, my dad was struggling finish the actual at the moment, and I didn't want to come to America tall, but mom put me on the side and said, son, in 2000, I was praying and God told me would go overseas.

Maybe God has a blessing for you in that country. You don't want to go because he said, you're going to America. And that's when he was a baby, he was a kid. And I said, mom, but I don't want to go to America. At least I would go to Europe plus that doesn't have money. How am I going to go to Europe? He said, never, ever worry about money when God speaks, live it to God I don't know how it happened.

When I applied, I was like, okay, mama, I'm going to deal with y'all my mother. I love you so much. I'm going to do it. when I tried to go to Europe, everything was failing every door I tried to knock on to was closing. Yeah. But the moment I applied in the us, I was admitted immediately. And I don't know how God did it, but my dad made money to send me to the, into the us.

And , when I came into U waist, I lived in Kentucky for two and a half years going to community college. But if you ask me, how did he get the money to send you the, your ways? Honestly, I can say God provided the money. Yeah. Okay. At that point he was trust me. Like the government came after us.

We lost all the money. We have. Because my dad was now walking and making enough money, but we lost everything. Like we went back to zero, but when I finished high school in that year, that made enough money to pay my tuition in America. Wow. I don't know how he did it. Yeah. Grace, when I came to America, I went to Kentucky and he paid for my tuition.

He paid for my food. He paid for my rent. He paid for everything I needed. I don't know how he did it. 

Ryan: This is the same father who used to spend all of his money on alcohol? 

Shema: Yes. And now he's spending his money on his son. Praise go overseas. That's when you call a favor, what guy? Not. When I come in America, I went to a business school first year. I hated it. I started to feel lonely, sad, depressed. That was, I felt I was chasing the wrong thing. I changed it. I went into psychology and living in a foreign country for the first year. It was a challenge for me. I felt lonely. I felt depressed.

Somehow. My family was overseas. Yeah. I felt missing my home country. Yeah. And they wanted to fly back and they called my mother. I was like, mom, I think I want to come back to Africa. I feel like, I don't know. I don't know what God told you 2000. I want to come back to Africa, but mom said, God has a blessing with that country.

I don't want you to make. I was like, can I probably go to Europe? If God wants to bless me, convinced me from Europe sign, I'm done talking to you. You do, you that's. Yeah. Yeah, but I tried to go to Europe and again, it failed for the second time. But from there I decided to settle in America and see what God is going to do.

That's what I decided to do. So I lived in Kentucky for probably two years now. The longer I lived here, the more connections I made, the more friends and made. And I started to realize God was blessing me into this country. And I started planning for my future ministry. Now something happened last year, last year.

The church I was going to Kentucky. I knew the pastor I knew his family. We had a conversation, we sat and talked. He said, Shema, God has a plan for your life. I know you love ministry. And I know you a Christian, and I want to let you know whatever ministry you want to start.

My church was going to partner with you and we want to see what God's going to do with you in Africa someday. Wow. Unnecessarily to remember and realize mom saying this is going to be where you will find your blessing. Wow. Here. And I felt like Abraham, whom God called to leave you his country to go to Canaan.

That is how I felt like inside me. And he told me there's a school called Moody Bible Institute. They trained ministers. I want you to go there, get your training. 

And I said, what is Moody? I never heard about Moody before he said, I know you don't have enough money, but the school is free. And I said, hold up, education in America, first of all is expensive. If you tell me the school is free, then it has to be a scum. What is going on? I said, no, they give scholarships depending on if you deserve it, like if you married. And I was like, okay, pastor, I will look into it. I went home. I sent in an application, 

I was like, here's my pastor. You know, I'm going to respect him as a pastor. And to my surprise, I was admitted like really fast. And I said, maybe God wants me to go to. 

And then I started making research about DL Moody about the school. And to my surprise, it was a legit, one of the best schools of the Bible. So I decided to move to Chicago last year for fall semester. And when I came to Chicago, God, I've been in here for one semester so far.

God has blessed me so much. I go preaching once a week. And like I told you, I have seen about 20 people come to Christ praise and they said, This is where I was supposed to be all along. I understand what you told my mom and 2000 mean coming in America. Wow. 

Ryan: Come on, man. It's so good. Yeah. And you know, it's cool is that the Lord is doing something amazing and so to know your backstory and what God has done to bring you here, a man of God, who's passionate for the gospel. It just makes my heart just burst with joy and gratitude, 

And there's so many people who really need to know the gospel. And I saw, I'm just thankful that you were obedient and here you are, you know? Wow. What a story, man. 

Wow. Amazing, amazing story . And I just know that this is just the beginning for you, but I just want to ask you are before we have to go. Our last question. If we could, if you could go back to the Shema, the, the guy before that revival.

 You know, right around that time you had that choice of, you know, are you going to go out and celebrate for 18th birthday? If you can go back to that pre revival, meeting Shema and say something to him, what would you say to him?

Shema: . That's a tough one, man. I didn't think about that. I would say God has a lot in store for you. Don't give up on him, trusting him. I know he still has a lot in store for me right now. I don't know what he has, but I feel what else I would tell Shema.

Don't give up on God. He has a lot in store for you. Beautiful man. 

Ryan: Before we leave today, would you pray for your people? I know you have a heart for your people, your home country, which you pray in your native language for them. 

Shema: (Prayer in Kinyarwandan.)

Ryan: What did you pray just now? Just give us a summary 

Shema: Summary. I said, God of Rwanda, the God of my people, I pray that people would get to know about your son. Jesus. I pray that you raise up a young generation, which fears your name.

A generation of future people who praise your name. God bring teachers who fear your name. God, I pray that your gospel will be spread across Rwanda. I pray that Rwanda will be a nation, which fears you God. 

Ryan: Amen. Well Shema, thank you so much for being on the show. It has been so good listening to your story, man.

You are a blessing and I can't wait to see what God does. 

Shema: Thank you so much for hosting me guys. I love you so much. Bless you, brother. Bless you. 

To hear the show, select Episode 11: https://one80podcast.com/listen/