Immaculee Ilibagiza, grew up in a loving and devout Catholic family in her native Rwanda. Although there was tension building between two groups of Rwandans known as the Hutu and Tutsi, Immaculee loved her country and the beauty that she saw there. But in 1994 at the age of 22 Immaculee found herself in the midst of a three month war which led to the massacre of an estimated 1 million Rwandans. In Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, Immaculee tells the incredible true story of her survival. Immaculee spent 91 days hidden in a cramped bathroom of a local Hutu pastor with seven other women as the genocide raged on all around them. Despite the senseless murder of her family, near starvation, and countless hours of fear and horror, Immaculee never abandoned faith in a God who never abandoned her. While locked in the bathroom one night Immaculee had a dream in which Jesus spoke to her saying, "be at peace and trust in me, for I will always be at your side". Fighting against despair and desperate for an end to the violence Immaculee drew closer to God in prayer and incredibly found the courage to escape.
Left to Tell is a firsthand account of one woman’s journey through a living nightmare in which all she had to hang on to was her faith. It is a difficult book to read since it reveals the depths of evil and depravity that humankind is capable of, but it also reveals a living God who walks with us even in the midst of our most dire circumstances. By God’s grace, Immaculee found the strength and courage to forgive the Hutu who destroyed her family and her testimony in Left to Tell serves as an example of how one woman through faith shone the light of Christ’s love, forgiveness, compassion and unyielding mercy.
