carl wilkens was a missionary living in kigali, rwanda, in 1994 with his family when militia began killing members of an ethnic minority group, the tutsi. wilkens was encouraged to leave the area but refused. after evacuating his family, he stayed and contested the 800,000-person genocide. when the militia came to kill him and his tutsi servants, wilkens' hutu neighbors deterred them. despite repeated death threats, he spent his days running roadblocks to take food and water to orphanages and to negotiate, plead, and bully his way through the bloodshed, saving lives time and again. wilkens was exemplifying: