Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza

This was an incredible true story about surviving the worst thing ever, genocide. I don't think I will forget this story for a long time. A young woman named Immaculee Ilibagiza tells about how she survived the 1994 idyllic killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million in her country of Rwanda.

For over 3 months, she and seven other women huddled quietly together in a tiny bathroom while hundreds of killers with machetes looked for them. They were being hunted and their families were slaughtered by their neighbors and friends but they couldn't do anything but hide or else they would meet the same fate. Usually the women were raped and other evil things and when you die by a machete usually it is torture by getting your limbs chopped off and bleeding to death. It is so sad and so overwhelming I don't know how anyone could do such horrible things unless they were possessed with a bad spirit. Nazi Germany stories are bad and this story is bad.

The best part about this story is that during the time she had to go through unspeakable frighting things she was able to discover the power of prayer. She was able to be brave and prepare herself for the future. She came to know God and His great love for herself and everyone. She discovered the meaning of true unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers later in life. She was also able to help others by her example.

I was so impressed with her story. She lived through the darkest and worst things ever yet was able to not blame God but praise His name. She lost so much but gained such a unique perspective on this life and the after life by the experience. I don't know if I could do what she did and I never want to have too but I hope that I learned something from her story she was left to tell. I cried so hard reading it and I don't understand how it was allowed to happen in world we live in. I would have been graduating from Highschool going to college and then on my mission while this was all happening in Africa in her small country of Rwanda. I never heard about it. Why was it kept so secret and ignored by the world? It should have never been allowed to happen. Just like the holocaust in Germany. So sad.

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