As soon as my eyes opened I knew that this had been no ordinary dream; it had been a visitation from heaven. Segatashya had left paradise and come to me with an assignment: to tell his story and share his messages with as many people as I could.

Without even pausing to turn on my bedside lamp, I reached for the pen and paper I kept on my nightstand. In the dim light of early dawn, I began jotting down the images that were still burning in my mind from Segatashya’s visit . . . a visit that would take root in my heart.

Segatashya’s messages can be found in the words of Jesus as they are written down in the Bible. But hearing them from Segatashya himself is, in many ways, like hearing them straight from the lips of one of the Lord’s disciples, one of those blessed apostles who wandered with Christ in the Holy Land during his ministry. I say this because I know that Segatashya, like the disciples of old, truly is a boy who spoke to Jesus—a boy whom Jesus chose to speak to. Also, like the disciples, Segatashya had no idea who Christ was when he first appeared before him. That’s because Segatashya was a poor, illiterate, African peasant boy who was also a pagan.

Before Jesus appeared to him in the summer of 1982, the teenage Segatashya had never been inside a church, nor did he have any real notion of who Jesus Christ was. In many ways, the boy’s innocence made him an ideal candidate to receive messages from our Lord because he asked the same questions you or I might ask if we suddenly found ourselves face-to-face with him, such as: “Why is it so important to love God, anyway?” and “Between God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and Mary, whom should I love more? The Bible says I should love you, Jesus, more than I love my parents or anyone else . . . how can you be serious about that when I’ve just met you?”

Segatashya even went as far as to ask Jesus, “Why should I love my enemies like you tell me to, when God doesn’t love his enemy, Satan?”

This young man’s guilelessness and childlike innocence when questioning Jesus always warmed my heart and often brought a smile to my face. But most important, the Lord’s answers to those questions became a spiritual map for me, a map to which I have turned to again and again as I navigate my way through this turbulent world.

Whenever I have faced difficult and challenging situations in my life, situations that seemed utterly hopeless—like when I was hiding for my life in a tiny bathroom from machete-wielding killers during the 1994 genocide—I have often sought out comfort in the words of the visionaries from Kibeho, especially those of Segatashya. The messages Jesus shared with us in the Bible, which he shared afresh with Segatashya, can heal our bodies and hearten our souls . . . and they can provide us with courage, comfort, and the strength to transcend even the bleakest periods of personal sorrow and despair we encounter along life’s journey.

How I wish that those who are deeply troubled or beaten down by the pain of daily hardships would hearken to the comforting words Jesus shared with Segatashya when he was suffering his own personal tragedy, instead of giving up on life, abandoning faith in God, turning to drugs or alcohol for false consolation, or even contemplating ending the precious life God has given them. Our Lord said: Even though you are suffering like this now, know that I have gone through even worse suffering than this before you . . . take heart and do not give up hope. Hold on to me, trust in me, lean on me, and I will carry you through your darkness. Hold on to the truth, and I will be there for you . . . call upon me and you will never be alone, ask and I will listen to you. . . .

Any time I read messages like these, my life makes more sense. And while I sometimes laugh at Segatashya’s back-and-forth sessions with Jesus, both the questions and answers never fail to fill me with a great sense of peace, a peace that comes from knowing that God is always there for us, He loves each of us immeasurably, He will help us whenever we call upon Him, and He eagerly awaits meeting us all in heaven . . . just as long as our hearts are ready for that meeting when the day comes.