Friday, September 14, 2007

Immaculee Inspiration

I began Left to Tell with no awareness of how immersed and entrenched I would become in it's tale. By the end of the day, I was finished; unable to extract myself from its pages...

Immaculee writes a firsthand account of being raised in a loving, Catholic Christian home amidst her upstanding, educated parents and three strong, faithful brothers. Her world was a Christ-centered dream of innocence... only to be shattered by a genocide killing of over one million Rwandans in 100 days. She survived by hiding in a bathroom with 7 other women, praying fervently and relying on her Lord to see her through to victory, which He did.

While the book portrays every atrocity and brutality at the hands of the killers, I was never fearful. More was I completely overcome by the evident spirituality springing forth from Immaculee while she suffered. She prayed and prayed and prayed. She believed. She battled the enemy. She fought loneliness and resentment. She forgave her hunters. She found Godly closeness. She lived to tell.

As you know, I've been dealing with my own prayer journey, grappling with the meaning of prayer and how I fit into the Divine prayer picture. What a blessing this book was to me in the midst of my re-discovery!!! I was so struck by Immaculee's belief in the effectiveness of her own prayer. She prayed with her whole heart and acted with her whole being to meet God in His provision. And He always met her. She always had reason to rejoice in answered prayer. It was pretty overwhelming and very humbling to this saved-by-His-grace mama!

Overall, I totally recommend this read. I'll venture to say you'll come away with a lot more than just a provoking story. God might just use it to teach you something as well.

Happy immersing and entrenching (you really won't be able to put it down!)

God bless and TGIF.

1 comment:

scath88 said...

what an inspirational story! i'll have to check it out.

i'm always amazed when i read about how people have gone through so much and witnessed such atrocities, and are able to survive with their faith in God and humanity intact. i feel so weak in comparison...

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