To complete in the Olympic Games is a great achievement for any sportsperson. To reach the Olympics having overcome the difficulties that Dieudonné Disi of Rwanda has faced is nothing short of a miracle.

One day in 1994, the 14 year old Dieudonné and his brothers were called together by their father. He said, ‘We are all going to die today. Let us pray and prepare to go to heaven.’ While the family prayed, Dieudonné went outside and hid. Not long later the rebels came to the house and within minutes his parents and all his brothers and sisters were dead. All his neighbours were killed too. ‘I lay down in my father’s garden and waited for night. It was perhaps 7.00pm when I set off through the forest to Burundi. I had never been to Burundi in my life but I knew the direction. It was about 15 miles from my home.’

When he later returned to Rwanda he joined the army. He followed the 1996 Olympics on the radio - there was no TV at that time where he lived. Mathias Ntawulikura from Rwanda came 8th in the 10,000 metres. Disi thought it was amazing for a Rwandan to come 8th in the world. It inspired him.

A few years later he was working in an office, which overlooked a running track. He wondered if he could run fast. He could and was soon one of the best runners in Rwanda. This was confirmed when he won a silver medal in the Junior African Games in 2000. In 2004 he achieved the qualifying time for the Olympics and ran in the 10,000 metres in Athens. ‘I was not expecting to win a medal. Getting to the Olympics was a big achievement in itself. It is not easy to achieve the Olympic qualifying time. Because of my lack of experience 17th was the best I could achieve in the Olympic final.’

The following year he took gold and bronze in the Francophone Games. Even that was not straightforward. When it came to the presentation of his gold medal, the organizers told him that they did not have the music for the Rwandan National Anthem. Did he mind if they played the All African anthem? Yes he did mind and insisted on singing the anthem himself!

Losing his family raised many questions in his mind. He asked himself: ‘Where are my family now?’ He remembered his father praying the day he died with a certainty that he was going to heaven. ‘In the Bible it says that there is only one way to heaven - Jesus Christ. If you are to get to heaven, it can only be through Jesus Christ. For me Jesus Christ is the way to heaven and the way to God.

‘After my family died I stopped praying and turned away from God. One day I realized that if I was ever going to see my family again, I needed to start praying again. I knew that Jesus Christ was the answer and since then I have believed and prayed to him every day.’ Whether Disi can win a medal in Beijing or not, it is an amazing achievement to put behind him all the problems he has encountered and become a world-class runner. Out of his tragedy has come a strong faith in Jesus Christ, which will take him through death.