Born in Sierra Leone in 1980, Ishmael lived a normal, village boy existence until civil war broke out all over his country in his early teens. Away on a visit to a nearby town, his village was ransacked by rebels, and so Ishmael was separated from his family. He lived in the jungle and roamed from village to village trying to keep from starving and dodging either slaughter or forced recruitment on a daily basis. Finally he was forced into the service of the “army” (forces who fought the rebels). Then began an even more brutal existence for Beah. Apart from being trained to hate and kill the “rebels,” as a young man, Beah developed a quick addiction to “brown-brown,” which is a mixture of cocaine and gun powder. Staying jacked-up on drugs, going weeks without sleep, and constantly killing became his only known way of life. Seemingly out of nowhere, Beah was rescued from this lifestyle through the efforts of UNICEF and placed in a recovery community. It took weeks for him to go through withdrawals and to finally quit acting out against all “civilians” in aggressive, violent ways. To the leaders’ credit, they never quit loving him and telling him that all of this was not his fault. He progressed dramatically and ended up being a spokesperson to the UN on behalf of the children who are forced to be soldiers.

The horrors and pains that Beah witnessed at such a young age are incredibly unthinkable (p.80 – a disturbing and enlightening eyewitness account of the brutal, repeated rape of two sisters). Bloody violence, merciless killing, and rampant rape eventually numbed his senses until only that kind of existence made sense.

For me, ALWG reminded me to gratefully thank the Lord for providentially granting me such a worry-free, comfort-filled life.

For Beah, I can only pray that the memories of such horrors will have a saving effect upon his soul. It seems from the book that Beah’s main religious experience was a contextualized form of Islam that included the worship of ancient spirits. I do believe that Beah is not directly responsible for the killings he took part in. He was brainwashed, led into drug addiction, and forced against his will to serve in the army. However, at the same time, it was his finger that pulled the trigger. I pray that those memories will not result in Beah denying or rejecting God, but rather would graphically reveal to him to depths and consequences of sin. It is then out of the depths of depravity that Beah could find that the only solution to sin and the only lasting means of being whole is found in the only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.