After miraculously surviving the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, Anamaliya immigrated to the United States as a teenager. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire and a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from Southern New Hampshire University. She currently lives in the Atlanta, Georgia area with her two sons.
In her book, “Terrorized in Rwanda, Healed by Grace,” Anamaliya gives us an incredible gift. She provides a beautifully written, clear and deeply personal account of the experience of surviving genocide. As we are all parts of the body of God, we can only be healed by bringing those parts which have been traumatized into the light so that they can be healed. Anamaliya not only gives us the incredible gift of courageous truth, she also gives us awe-inspiring hope, that in spite of having survived the truly unthinkable, through grace, people can be healed.
“God pursued me long before I understood what it meant to know him or have relationship with him. During the genocide, the last place I hid was with a Seventh Day Adventist family. They prayed for me and read to me from the Bible. As they read to me from Psalm 23, it was as if God Himself was reading it to me. In my heart I felt assured that I would survive. I told God in my heart that if I did survive I would forgive the people who killed my family. Later, after the genocide, this initial encounter would help me greatly. Even though I was deeply melancholy, I didn’t have hate in my heart. Unfortunately, as time went on, I somewhat forgot about this encounter with God because I was engulfed with pain of losing my family and the abuse I had endured.
Two years after the genocide and shortly before I came to the United States, I was living in Kenya. I had been running around trying to survive and then finally my mind could not handle it anymore. I cried for a week, mourning for my family and myself. At the time I was living with a born-again Christian Kenyan family. Sonia, the lady of the house, sat me down and told me about Jesus. She told me that He could take all my sins and my burdens away. That I would not be have to carry them any longer. Sonia explained that if I accepted Him to come into my heart, He would take all the pain I was carrying and fill me with a love and peace I could not even understand.
In that moment I was reminded of the covenant I had made with God during the genocide when I was hiding with that Seventh Day Adventist family. I told Sonia that I wanted Jesus to come into my heart. She prayed for me and told me that I needed to try to forgive the people who had committed those crimes against me and my family in order to completely have relationship with Jesus. To be honest, that was an easy thing to do, because the Lord had already prepared my heart for that years before. From that day forward, my faith in God became a lifeline for me.
He protected me during genocide, He provides for me, and to top it off, He died for me so I can live in freedom instead of living in pain and fear of what life may throw at me! I am reminded daily of His love for me. Still to this day, my faith is the air I breathe. Even with all that happened I can still confidently say, God has truly been good to me.”
Anamaliya
Click Here to purchase Anamaliya’s book, “Terrorized in Rwanda, Healed by Grace”.
All Saints’ Refugee Ministries works with about 50 families at a time from East and Central Africa, the Middle East, Bhutan/Nepal, and Burma/Malaysia. Ours is a ministry of relationship where we work together to heal the effects of war so that we can strive towards a world that offers safety, respect, kindness, sustenance and thriving to all peoples.
With Great Love 