emilynghiem
Constitutionalist / Universalist
http://omg.yahoo.com/news/genocide-survivor-saved-member-enemy-tribe-221128196.html
I just found this story, of a woman who recovered from the tragedy of genocide that killed her entire family, and now uses her story to help others lead better stronger lives. Inspiring, I have nothing but respect.
She reminds me of Peter Loth who also inspires and teaches people to choose forgiveness in order not to be victims of angry wounds of war and injustice for the rest of the lives.
Craig Scott also, after the death of his sister Rachel at Columbine left him wracked with survivor's guilt that could have led to more violence if he didn't stop and realize he needed to forgive before he became like the very people who made him so aggrieved and angry.
Who are your favorite Heroes of Forgiveness? Any stories or links you would like to share?
Please refer any sources I should add to my blog on the
Steps of Forgiveness and Dangers of Unforgiveness
freespiritualhealing | Resources for Healing and Forgiveness Therapy
===================================
Genocide survivor: saved by member of enemy tribe
By VERENA DOBNIK | Associated Press – 1 hour 3 minutes ago.. .
NEW YORK (AP) — A Rwandan genocide survivor who became a U.S. citizen Wednesday says she was saved because her father trusted an exceptional member of an enemy tribe that slaughtered the rest of her family.
"My father always used to tell us, 'Never judge people by putting them in boxes, because of their country, their race, their tribe,'" Immaculee Ilibagiza, a Tutsi, told fellow immigrants at a Manhattan naturalization ceremony.
The 43-year-old mother of two is the author of "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" — a best-selling book translated into 35 languages that has turned her into a successful speaker around the world.
Eyes brimming with tears, she received her citizenship 14 years after being granted asylum in the United States. Then, as the ceremony's keynote speaker, she took 50 other immigrants on the personal journey that transformed her from an angry, emaciated young Rwandan hiding from ethnic killers into a radiant American who forgives them and feels "that no tragedy is big enough to crush you."
The 1994 civil war claimed more than a half-million African lives, with members of the Tutsi tribe pitted against the ruling Hutus.
Life for her family — four siblings with parents who were teachers — changed on April 7, 1994, when she was a college student visiting her village and her brother announced that the Rwandan president died in a plane that was shot down.
He belonged to the Hutu tribe, and the Tutsis were blamed. The killings began.
Ilibagiza said her father decided she should flee to the home of a neighbor he knew and trusted — a Hutu.
She told fellow immigrants from 16 countries that "if I am here today, it's because my father had trust in the man from that tribe" — whose members "were supposed to be our enemies."
She spent three months locked into a tiny bathroom in his house with seven women and girls, sleeping practically upright and eating what little he could shove through the door daily. She was 23 and weighed 65 pounds, her bones protruding from her limbs.
"I was angry a lot; I thought, if I ever come out, I was going to be a killer," she said.
In despair, she said her Catholic childhood prayers. But when she got to "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" — she stopped.
"How do you forgive somebody who is killing you?"
Suddenly, one day, something unexpected happened inside her.
"I felt God was showing me there are two parts of the world: a part that was love, and a side that was hate — people like Hitler, and like people causing genocide in Rwanda," she said. "And people like Mandela, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King — people who have suffered but who will do everything to make sure that those who are wrong change their mind."
She began to think of those doing the killing "as people who were lost, who were blind," she said. "And if I did not let go of the anger, I would not be here today; I would have tried to kill people, and they would have killed me."
The eight captives left their hiding spot when the genocide was over.
I just found this story, of a woman who recovered from the tragedy of genocide that killed her entire family, and now uses her story to help others lead better stronger lives. Inspiring, I have nothing but respect.
She reminds me of Peter Loth who also inspires and teaches people to choose forgiveness in order not to be victims of angry wounds of war and injustice for the rest of the lives.
Craig Scott also, after the death of his sister Rachel at Columbine left him wracked with survivor's guilt that could have led to more violence if he didn't stop and realize he needed to forgive before he became like the very people who made him so aggrieved and angry.
Who are your favorite Heroes of Forgiveness? Any stories or links you would like to share?
Please refer any sources I should add to my blog on the
Steps of Forgiveness and Dangers of Unforgiveness
freespiritualhealing | Resources for Healing and Forgiveness Therapy
===================================
Genocide survivor: saved by member of enemy tribe
By VERENA DOBNIK | Associated Press – 1 hour 3 minutes ago.. .
NEW YORK (AP) — A Rwandan genocide survivor who became a U.S. citizen Wednesday says she was saved because her father trusted an exceptional member of an enemy tribe that slaughtered the rest of her family.
"My father always used to tell us, 'Never judge people by putting them in boxes, because of their country, their race, their tribe,'" Immaculee Ilibagiza, a Tutsi, told fellow immigrants at a Manhattan naturalization ceremony.
The 43-year-old mother of two is the author of "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" — a best-selling book translated into 35 languages that has turned her into a successful speaker around the world.
Eyes brimming with tears, she received her citizenship 14 years after being granted asylum in the United States. Then, as the ceremony's keynote speaker, she took 50 other immigrants on the personal journey that transformed her from an angry, emaciated young Rwandan hiding from ethnic killers into a radiant American who forgives them and feels "that no tragedy is big enough to crush you."
The 1994 civil war claimed more than a half-million African lives, with members of the Tutsi tribe pitted against the ruling Hutus.
Life for her family — four siblings with parents who were teachers — changed on April 7, 1994, when she was a college student visiting her village and her brother announced that the Rwandan president died in a plane that was shot down.
He belonged to the Hutu tribe, and the Tutsis were blamed. The killings began.
Ilibagiza said her father decided she should flee to the home of a neighbor he knew and trusted — a Hutu.
She told fellow immigrants from 16 countries that "if I am here today, it's because my father had trust in the man from that tribe" — whose members "were supposed to be our enemies."
She spent three months locked into a tiny bathroom in his house with seven women and girls, sleeping practically upright and eating what little he could shove through the door daily. She was 23 and weighed 65 pounds, her bones protruding from her limbs.
"I was angry a lot; I thought, if I ever come out, I was going to be a killer," she said.
In despair, she said her Catholic childhood prayers. But when she got to "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" — she stopped.
"How do you forgive somebody who is killing you?"
Suddenly, one day, something unexpected happened inside her.
"I felt God was showing me there are two parts of the world: a part that was love, and a side that was hate — people like Hitler, and like people causing genocide in Rwanda," she said. "And people like Mandela, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King — people who have suffered but who will do everything to make sure that those who are wrong change their mind."
She began to think of those doing the killing "as people who were lost, who were blind," she said. "And if I did not let go of the anger, I would not be here today; I would have tried to kill people, and they would have killed me."
The eight captives left their hiding spot when the genocide was over.
