I discovered Immaculée Ilibagiza in a documentary called The Power of the Heart. I have seen this movie many times since it came out in 2014. But she came back to me this week in a very powerful healing.
Her lesson of Forgiveness and choosing God is so clear and powerful it shows me step step how to Return to God! It also doesn’t hurt that anytime I am suffering I can think of her story and see my own as not so bad!
One really should see her tell her story in her own words. But, a brief summary:
During the Rwanda genocide after the death of the president, there was a huge war between tribes. Men, women and children were massacred in their own homes, on the street, by machine guns and machetes.
Immaculee was one of the hunted. She was hidden with seven other women in a neighbor’s bathroom for THREE MONTHS. In this period of terror as men with machetes searched the house, as she heard friends, neighbors, teachers bragging of how many they had killed, she faced a choice between love and hate.
What moved me the most was her description of seeing two choices love or fear/hate. She saw on one side symbols like Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandala and on the other Hitler, the attackers… She noticed when she chose hate or fear, she felt horrible pain and suffering. When she chose love she felt peace.
In every moment I can choose again between Love and Fear.
Her description of this period has helped me in moments of extreme fear. She speaks of praying with her rosary beads but skipping the prayer of forgiveness. Asking God how she can possibly forgive these men. If we ask, if we are open to see differently, we will be shown!
But just as powerful is her telling of her life after the event. She speaks of meeting the man (a school teacher and family friend before the war) and how instead of beating him with a stick as expected by those around her, she said ‘I forgive you.’
She speaks of her time in the bathroom as a blessing and she thanks God for it. She had an awakening to Truth.
You can find videos of her telling her story on youtube . There are many but her telling in the movie The Power of the Heart is my favorite. It so clearly lays out the steps she went through.
My ACIM Journal 