Gripping reality

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

During Lent, The Compass ran an eight-part Everyday People, Everyday Faith series on reconciliation. In the church, reconciliation is a sacrament that seeks to restore right relationships between an individual and God and between an individual and others. Real reconciliation demands forgiveness.

Last year, Immaculee Ilibagiza wrote an incredible testimony to forgiveness, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (Hay House, Carlsbad, Calif. 214 pages). It won a 2007 Christopher Award.

Ilibagiza's gripping account tells how she survived the Rwandan Holocaust in 1994 by hiding for three months in a tiny bathroom with seven other women. From their cramped quarters the women could hear their would-be killers, who several times searched the room just outside their door (a wardrobe concealed the entrance). They also could hear the angry men outside their small window brag about their ruthless killings - including that of Ilibagiza's brother.

Ilibagiza also describes her life in Rwanda before and after the genocide.

Ilibagiza, a Tutsi - though she did not know that until an incident in school with a teacher - grew up in a loving Catholic family. Her parents were community leaders respected by both Tutsi and Hutu.

When the genocide began, Ilibagiza, a college student, sought refuge from a Protestant Hutu pastor - one of the story's few heroes. He agreed, even though he too would be killed if the Tutsi women were found in his home.

Both before and during their ordeal in the bathroom Ilibagiza shows how people went from being the folks next door - or even best friends - to a bloodthirsty mob incited by radio broadcasts calling for the extermination of every Tutsi in Rwanda.

But Ilibagiza's story is more than an account of slaughter, survival and what was. It's also an upbeat and moving account of her spiritual growth, the product of hours of daily prayer and meditation that allowed her to forgive the people who killed her family, friends and other Tutsis.

It's common for people to ask "How could God allow this to happen?" as they watch a tragedy, often from afar. That was not Ilibagiza's focus, despite being in the middle of evil, despite being unable to move for most of the day, despite having so little to eat that her weight dropped from 115 pounds to 68.

Though her life was constantly in danger, she used her time to build a relationship with God - in whose loving presence she placed herself - and in envisioning her future.

Ilibagiza has done the world a tremendous service by sharing her story. It deserves to be read and discussed widely.