Believe

In the spring of 1994, Immaculee Ilibagiza packed up her books and headed home for a few days rest from her studies during Easter break from classes at the National University of Rwanda. Just after she arrived at the home, she heard the news that the plane carrying the president of Rwanda had been shot down. Within days, most of her family, friends, and neighbors had been brutally murdered. Their only crime was being Tutsi--a virtual death sentence in the Rwandan Genocide.

In her memoir, Left to Tell, she recounts how she found God and learned to forgive the people who killed her family. It's almost unbelievable.

I talked with Ilibagiza about a month ago for RNS. Here's a bit of the story.



Ilibagiza said that before the genocide, she was never really sure
if God exists. Now she knows, she said, and she believes God loves all
people, including victims and killers alike.

"If God is our father," she said, "that means he is suffering with
us, with both the victims and the killers. Those people who killed in
Rwanda are his children. If I am a good sister, I want to pray that they would be
released from this evil -- rather than cursing them to hell.

"I want people to hold onto God and to understand how big, how wide and how high God's love is. It's much bigger than we can understand."