Last week, Immaculee Ilibagiza, survivor of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, spoke at a local high school here in Chicago. Her message exemplified the value of forgiveness and the power of prayer, and Rozann Carter reflects on her presentation here.
Thursday evening, I had the great honor of listening to the story of Immaculee Ilibagiza, author of the New York Times bestseller, “
Left to Tell,” and survivor of the horrible genocide carried out against half of the population of the small African country of Rwanda in 1994. While her book recounts the incomprehensible details of her experience, the short version of the story is that she and seven other women survived the genocide, “huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s home while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them.” The Rwandan killing spree lasted 100 bloody days wherein 1 million people, including Immaculee’s mother, father, and 2 brothers, brutally lost their lives...