Where Was God in Rwanda?
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
by Immaculée Ilibagiza
Hay House, 2006
216 pages, $24.95
Available in bookstores
“I was born in paradise.” So
begins the life story of Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young Catholic woman who grew up in
Based on her subsequent descriptions of the beauty of the African countryside, the love of her close-knit family and the centrality of the Catholic faith in that family’s life, it’s easy to see why she chose to begin her book with those five words. But Immaculée’s life in paradise came to screeching halt when her beloved country made a swift descent into one of the most shocking genocides in history.
After fleeing for her life, Immaculée found refuge in the home of a Protestant pastor who hid her, along with several other women, in a tiny bathroom. During the 91 days they spent there, the women huddled together in silence, barely daring to breath for fear of being discovered. Immaculée provides vivid descriptions of this petrifying existence, recounting numerous points at which she could hear the “hunters” calling her name, scraping their machetes and declaring their intentions to execute her.
“During my waking hours I was in constant communication with God, praying and meditating for 15 to 20 hours every day,” she writes before recounting how, in the midst of the genocide, “I’d found my salvation. I knew that my bond with God would transcend the bathroom, the war and the holocaust … [I]t was a bond I now knew would transcend life itself.”
When she emerges and makes her final run toward safety, Immaculée discovers that she has lost everyone closest to her. She responds with a profound act of faith, praying, “I’m putting my life in your hands, Jesus … [K]eep your promise and take care of me. I will keep my promise — I will be your faithful daughter.” Her words bear themselves out when she extends forgiveness to the man who orchestrated the murder of her family.
Some might find fault with this
book for dealing with the Christian life in purely personal terms: It is not a
work of evangelization, catechesis or even history per se (although the
first-person account of life inside
Read it as a real-life demonstration of Philippians 4:7: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Your faith will never be the same.
Patricia A. Crawford writes from Winter Park,
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- July 16-22, 2006