going through the front door. I wanted to go
through another door—a side door, a back door.
I wanted to have a different perspective. I think
it was the second week that I went to the village
of Kibeho. There was a beautiful shrine called
“Our Lady of Kibeho,” a huge church in the
middle of seemingly nowhere, and it was
awe-inspiring. We took a tour of the shrine,
and one of the priests told us this incredible
story about a young woman named
Alphonsine, who at that very spot we
were standing in, had spoken to the
Virgin Mary. I thought, “What is he
talking about, this is crazy!” But the
more he told of this remarkable story,
I knew it was the door I had to walk
through. I learned not only of
Alphonsine, but of Anathalie
and Marie-Claire, three women
who eventually became confirmed
by the local diocese as actual
visionaries in 2001. I thought the
story was a gem in the midst of
all this horror and terror I was
experiencing—a beautiful light
I had stumbled into.
After doing more research, I found
out that the young women actually
had a premonition of Rwanda
descending into chaos and
murder and hell. I think that is
one of the main reasons why
the women were confirmed
as visionaries. So when I went
back to Rwanda in 2010,
I decided to track down one
of the visionaries who I heard
was living in Kibeho. I got to
Kigali and hired a driver. It took
6 hours to get to Kibeho,
I thought the story was a
gem in the midst of all this
horror and terror I was
experiencing—a beautiful
light I had stumbled into.
6