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For most of us, learning proper syntax and correct grammar was as exciting as watching grass grow. We diagrammed sentences, studied subject/verb agreement…and hated every minute of it. But for Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young African girl caught in a civil war, learning English became a matter of life and death.
The last seven weeks of Immaculée’s life had been as close to Hell-on-Earth as it comes. Her small country of Rwanda in Central Africa was embroiled in genocide, with Hutus committing mass murder against her people, the Tutsis. Hundreds of thousands were already dead, including several members of Immaculée’s immediate family. The only reason she’d survived so long was because God had faithfully provided her with a hiding place in a tiny shower in a pastor’s home. But over the weeks, she’d lost a third of her body weight due to desperate food shortages and dire sickness. If the fighting didn’t soon end, she would starve to death, or worse, be discovered by the frequent raids of the murderous Hutus.
One day, as the pastor was quietly updating the women about the holocaust happening all around them, God suddenly impressed upon Immaculée the need for her to learn English. When the war came to an end, Rwanda would be flooded with English-speaking people, including journalists, politicians, celebrities, and members of the United Nations…and God wanted her to be ready to communicate with all of them.
As an educated young lady, she already spoke her native Kinyarwanda, and French, too. So she asked the pastor for any English books he might have, as well as a French-English dictionary. The only English books he owned were quite advanced, but she eagerly received them and immediately went to work learning how to communicate the simplest of messages.
“My name is Immaculée.”
“I am a Tutsi.”
“Have you seen my family?”
“I would like a job.”
Immaculée spent the next six weeks silently studying her Bible and her English dictionary. Finally, after a hellish 91 days cramped in the tiny shower with seven other women, she was taken to a UN camp. While there, she learned that her father, mother, and two brothers had been savagely murdered by their neighbors during the fighting. Members of her extended family had suffered a similar fate, and most of her friends from college and her hometown had been killed, as well.
She soon made her way to Kigali, the nation’s capital, where God blessed her with a job…at the United Nations. In her position, she helped families find loved ones and worked to make relief efforts as effective as possible. More importantly, she began to talk about the forgiveness God helped her offer her family’s murderers.
Just a few short years later, Immaculée immigrated to America so she could work with the U.N. in New York City. Since then, her message about God’s forgiveness has impacted millions of lives around the world through her books, interviews, and talks.
And all of it was in English, the language she learned in a shower.
For Immaculée, learning English was more than mastering a language. Learning English was a way to bring glory to God.
Resource’s Origin:
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée Ilibagiza. Hay House, 2006, Pages 115-118.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Africa
Communication
Death
Family
Forgiveness
Future
Genocide
God’s Plan
God’s Protection
Holocaust
Kill
Learn
Murder
Purpose
Suffering
Violence
War
Work
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
