Paul Rusesabagina left many inspired by his story of hope and encouragement as he addressed hundreds in the KU Ballroom Tuesday night as part of the UD Diversity Lecture Series.

'The most important thing in my life I have learned to use is words,' he said. 'I can assure you anything is possible. Where there is a will there is a way.'

Rusesabagina used his status as temporary manager of the Hotel Mille Collines in Rwanda to house and save more than 1,200 people during the genocide in 1994. His story can be seen in the Oscar-nominated movie 'Hotel Rwanda.'

Rusesabagina was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award, among other humanitarian awards. His 2006 autobiography, 'An Ordinary Man,' offers an account of keeping his hotel open to refugees during the genocide. Part of this account was shared with UD Tuesday.

The presentation began at 7:30 p.m. with three dancers from Rwanda performing a cultural routine. Josiane Niyomukesha and Albine Bizimana attend Chaminade-Julienne High School and Clementine Igilibambe is a junior international studies and human rights major at UD. Igilibambe left Rwanda in 1994 when she was 8 years old and arrived in the United States in 1999. She had the honor of introducing Rusesabagina.

'Tonight we are going to go back in history,' Rusesabagina said as he began the talk.

He continued to explain Rwanda's small size and location in Africa. Eighty-five percent of the population is Hutu, 14 percent is Tutsi and 1 percent is Batwa. Despite the distinction, they all share the same language, the same culture and the same land.

Rusesabagina, the son of a Hutu father and a Tutsi mother, explained how friends came to him for shelter at the beginning of the genocide in 1994.

'I never understood what was going on,' he said. 'Many of my neighbors came together in my house. Why to my house? I never knew why.'

He was able to move his family and friends to the Mille Collines in April 1994.

'With words you can civilize; with words you can kill lives,' Rusesabagina said. 'Even today I do not know how to use a gun. That day, I'll tell you one thing. I learned one of the most important lessons of my life.'

He spent 76 long days in the hotel housing his guests. His first two challenges were to get security for the hotel and remove the road block. He accomplished both on the first day.

'Life became so different,' Rusesabagina said. 'Even the electricity was cut off. Without electricity life becomes paralyzed.'

One hotel guest, Thomas Kamilindi, was reunited with Rusesabagina Tuesday. Rusesabagina invited him on stage and explained how he had been a radio journalist who was ordered to be killed.

Rusesabagina described his heart as 'breaking and busting' when he made the tough decision to evacuate his wife and children from the hotel. He remained behind with the refugees.

'If I leave and these people are killed, I'll never be a free man,' he said. 'I'll be a prisoner of myself.'

The trucks with his family never made the entire trip and were forced to return to the hotel.

Rusesabagina went on to explain how 'God had performed a miracle in that hotel.' Tutsis and Hutus were saved from being slaughtered by the Interahamwe militia.

The genocide ended in July, but the massacres continued. He shared with the audience the moment when he and his wife drove to the south to see his mother-in-law who they found out had been killed.

'All over you could see dead bodies,' Rusesabagina said. 'There was nothing moving. They think that I had never been sad in my life. We sat down in the weeds and we cried like babies.'

In September 1996, Rusesabagina and his family moved to Belgium after he was almost killed.

He concluded his talk with encouraging words for the future.

'Young people, today's world is yours,' Rusesabagina said. 'Do you want it to be a better world? The ball is yours and I know you are good players.'