This is a re-post of a blog that my teammate Emily Watkins recently
wrote. I wanted to re-post it to share it with all of you. This is the story
from a woman that we met one day during ministry. She has a powerful story, and
she wants YOU to know it.
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My name is Josephine. I was 17 and
there were 8 in my family. I am the only one to survive the war. I did not know
how I survived at the time, but now I give all the glory to God for protecting
me and giving me discernment on what to do in every situation…Here is the story
of how I escaped the Rwandan Genocide…
It was 8pm.
The night was growing dark when the news reached us that the president’s plane
crashed very near to our home.
It was then that we knew… the war had
started.
They were coming for us, at this time there were 15 of us
hiding in my house, when we heard the soldiers coming we ran. They caught a few
that were too slow and started beating them and began shooting at the rest of
us. I had been shot on the top of my shoulder; I thought I was dead for
sure…They told the soldiers to finish us all off and then bury us in a pit, and
cover us with dirt. This was only because people were coming around and
photographing and the soldiers didn’t want anyone to know what they were really
doing. I think I was just in complete shock because something inside of me was
sure I was dead, but something else was telling me that I should act as if I
were dead, in order to survive. I did not know which was real. I could not move
my body, I had no control over anything and before I knew it I was being thrown
into a pit on top of other dead bodies and covered with a small layer of dirt.
I stayed there, unable to move for around 5 hours until it was around 1 in the
morning. I regained strength, not much, but just enough to get up and see what
was going on…
I looked around and there were tons of dead bodies, some of them covered with
dirt so they couldn’t be seen, there were also dogs that began feeding off of
their flesh and would not eat them if the dirt covered them. There was a 3 year
old still alive in the pile of bodies and I found him and carried him with me
as I tried to cover more bodies with dirt. Then something inside of me told me
I needed to leave the area quickly, so I fled with the child to the coffee
plantation. I stayed there for a few days, surviving on only the dew from the
leaves in the early morning, and trying to find a way to nurse the baby.
While hiding at the coffee plantation the soldiers came back and found the
refugees there…they took the baby and killed it on the spot. Then they were
called away by their commanding officers and I was safe again, but I had lost
the child. I remember the next time they came back for us, they started beating
us all with sticks…They treated us as though we were not human, but referred to
us as ‘cockroaches’ and wanted to kill us all.
During this time we started to hear shooting, and I was very scared again, I
thought for sure this time would be my last. I was weak and had barely any
energy to survive…I had lost a lot of blood and had almost given up. My family
had all been murdered and even the baby I tried to save was gone. But this time
the soldiers shooting were firing at the people beating us…The new government
had come in and I was saved. Not many people escaped compared to how many
people were tragically killed, but God rescued me. He kept me just strong
enough to survive. And now, even though I am sometimes haunted by my
nightmares, I have found happiness and joy in my life because the Lord has
placed it upon my heart.
In 2002, God gave me a dream where I followed a bright light which lead me to a
nearby church. When I woke, I went and found the church and it was here that I
gave my heart to Jesus. I didn’t know until that day, that He was the hope and
joy I had been searching for all my life. I realized that day God had saved me
for a special purpose. So now I have given my life to serve Him.
I now have a family of my own, my husband and my 3 children. I married at age
21 and have a good life. If you want to pray for me, I would like to have
enough money to go back to school and finish my education, I pray that my night
terrors are gone for good, and that my husband will find Jesus and become a
Christian like me.
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Josephine
is pictured in the middle, dressed in all red.
(from left to right: Madisson, me, Josephine, Emily, Ruth, and Josephine’s
friend Alys).
