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JEANNE CELESTINE LAKIN – our guest speaker. She survived the Rwandan Genocide. Here her story of faith and forgiveness.

Jeanne Celestine Lakin lived through the Rwandan Genocide that killed 1 million people in 100 days.

Her book is about her loss of innocence and the fight for survival in the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsis people, A Voice in the Darkness: Memoir of a Rwandan Genocide Survivor. Ms. Lakin’s book is a first-hand account of her fight for survival at the age of nine years.

Hear her story of FAITH in the midst of the storm and FORGIVENESS.

There is no wrong that cannot be forgiven through Jesus Christ, and through His gift of forgiveness we can have a closer relationship with Him. You see, she had something extremely difficult to forgive, in 1994 her parents, infant brother and most of her relatives were massacred during the Rwandan genocide which claimed the lives of over 1,000,000 people in 100 days. She was beaten, sexually abused, starved, nearly killed, and set to be sold into marriage as a child. Ultimately God spared her, but for a long time she suffered until she accepted the unconditional love and infinite comfort that her Savior Jesus Christ provides us.

Her story is not just about forgiveness and faith, it’s about redemption as well, as she has used the revenues from her book and donations to support orphans in East Africa and around the world. So far, Jesus has blessed our mission to promote blessings, encouragement and inform fellow believers and people in the community of His Love. And she humbly declares that many people of various ages and ethnicities have told her how Jesus has touched them through her story and stories like hers.

Passionate about the unmet needs of children, Ms. Lakin founded a nonprofit organization, One Million Orphans that raises money to provide care such as food, clothing, school supplies, counseling and medical care for orphaned children around the world. Some of the proceeds from her book are donated to One Million Orphans.

She also prides herself in being a wife to Paul of nearly 10 years, whom she credits for helping her through the dark times of her life when she was healing and for him co-authoring the book.