Left To Tell

It is a beautiful evening here in North Georgia. It is amazing for the July 4th weekend. This of course is a time when we celebrate our Independence. Over the course of this week I completed reading a book about a country that struggled with freedom. It is a true story of a young girls journey through the civil war in Rwanda. The story takes place during the 1990's. The author of the book is Immaculee Ilibagazi. The full title of the book is Left To Tell Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. She was assisted with the book by Steve Erwin. It was a great story of an evil time in the life of the country of Rwanda.

The young girl is an amazing young Catholic girl and her family. She was a brilliant student with parents who expected her to achieve both scholastically but also as a beautiful young girl. I don't want to tell the entire story but her native country was thrown into a violent civil war between the Tutsi and the Hutu's. During the struggle her mom, dad and all except one brother were violently massacred by the Hutu's. Many of the killers were neighbors and people her family had helped. Over one million were killed in this slaughter. The goal of the Hutu's was to eradicate the Tutsi race.

This young girl survived by hiding in a bathroom at a pastor's home. She along with six other women hid in the 4' x 6' bathroom for over ninety days. Barely with enough room to move, bodies upon bodies they survived. She lived to tell the story and of her close relationship with God through this ordeal. One interesting highlight is that she taught herself English while in the bathroom with no tutor. She went on to work for the U.N. but the most important point is that she found a way to go to the prison and forgive the one's who killed her parents and brothers.

My point in reviewing this book today is to express my confusion as to why no country came forward to prevent this holocaust? After WW11 it had been said by many that we should never allow what occurred in Germany to happen again. Yet we stood by and offered no help to stop this conflict. In fact France was the only country to move in initially though it was very late in the conflict. Eventually the U.N. sent peacekeepers long after the killing had transpired. Why would we allow this genocide to occur? I would very much like to hear from our leaders at the time as to why this was allowed?

Many feel we have enough problems of our own and do not need to become involved in another country's business. I disagree. We should never allow the wholesale slaughter of innocent people who are killed simply because of their race or nationality. It is our duty as the greatest country in the world (I hope we still are) to come to the aid of those who cannot protect themselves. Another thought I had while reading the book was why did these people not have weapons to protect themselves? The Tutsi defended themselves with rocks and sticks while the Hutu's were armed with Machetes and Guns. Perhaps it was not fashionable to own weapons or maybe they had no fear from attack. Whatever the case I feel it is imperative that we never lose the right to bear arms in our country.

I plan to do more research on this war and why we did not become involved. In the meantime this book will break your heart but it will also encourage you as to how great our God truly is and how He intervened in this young girls life. I am happy to tell you that she is now married to an American, has two children and works for the U.N. in NYC. She lived to share a gruesome tale of mass slaughter but also to tell of the victory she claimed through it all. If you get a chance check out this book on Amazon. Hope you and your family enjoy a wonderful fourth of July and take a moment and thank God for our freedom and say a prayer for the people of Rwanda.