I have a bunch of new best friends. My heart has completely broken for these girls. I love them so much and cannot stop thinking
about them, so I thought I would just talk about them and my experiences with
them for a bit.
They’re all very shy at first, and a few of them speak very
poor English. They are polite and quiet,
sewing their brown paper dresses and blouses because they cannot afford to
learn on fabric. Until they get excited
about something, and then they just cannot stop giggling.
Judy is the best dancer and by far the silliest. She loves to randomly do crazy, funny little
things and cannot stop giggling whenever we are having fun. She is super outgoing, but has the worst
English, so we are always just goofing around and playing in ways that don’t
require speaking the same language, which is always a ton of fun.
Helen speaks English the best, is the best at sewing, and
was the first one to ask me to sing.
She’s 18, and she never got to go to high school because her parents
couldn’t afford it. She felt abandoned
and alone, without friends and without a future. Her parents made her come to take the sewing
classes at the BCC, and she went reluctantly, ashamed and angry at God. Through the teaching, mentoring, and Godly
guidance of Zippie (the girl’s amazing teacher, who I will talk about later),
Helen found Christ and found hope. She
is now one of the most joyful girls I have ever spoken to and is so on fire for
the Lord. She is a part of
a community
of friends of girls in the same situation as her, she’s excited for her future,
and she has found her joy in God. She
loves Him and trusts Him with her life, always wanting to praise Him and thank Him
for the blessings He has given her.
Agnus is the youngest, straight out of 8th grade,
and is always smiling. She is quick to
participate in whatever fun we are having and gives everything her all. She has one of the most joyful spirits I have
ever seen and is always up for
anything, spreading her contagious joy for life
and eagerness to learn to everyone around her.
Violet’s the newest member of the class, so she is a bit
quiet and reserved still. She dreams of
one day becoming a doctor, but she ended up in the sewing class for the same reason
as Helen: her parents couldn’t afford to send her to high school. She loves singing more than anyone else and
will gladly join in with a beautiful, loud voice, but always shyly and after
enough other people have started singing together. She is kind and gentle, but always glad for
an excuse to have fun with the rest of the girls.
I could go on and
keep talking about the rest of them individually, but I will save that for a
later day and get onto my time with them.
They teach me their worship songs, how to dance, some words in Swahili,
and how to sew. All I’ve taught them are
a couple of worship songs, but I hope I am encouraging, loving, and giving them
Jesus. I certainly know that I am at
least making class a lot of fun!
On Friday morning, Zippie gave a devotional to her girls on
Jeremiah 29, giving them hope for their futures through Christ and telling them
that they can rise out of the slums and live a life that is not so full of
pain, sorrow, and tears anymore because God has great plans for them. She used my trip to Kenya as an example of
things we never knew could happen to us happening for us, and told the girls
that my life is evidence of the amazing things that God can do and that their
lives will be full of amazing things like mine and they will get the chance to
live their dreams, whatever they are. I
could not stop crying.
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