The least of these...seriously

Today we started a bible study for women. By we, I mean my friend Esther and another friend here in Kenya. I had asked everyone to pray for this group. I thought we would be small and I thought that it was going to take a very long time for people to open up with their stories.

You see, I knew that most who would attend would be considered "worthless" in our community. By worthless, I meant multiple types of issues. Prostitution, alcoholism, abuse and the list went on and on. While I have prayed about this for weeks and felt that now was the time to begin, and while I prepared as much as I could, I was not prepared for what happened today.

First let me say - there will be NO pictures of these women. They suffer enough from extremely poor self esteem without my adding to their anxiety. Other than Esther and myself, the names I use will NOT be the real names of these women. They have tough stories and tough lives and they deserve privacy. But I do want you to know their stories and I pray that through this blog I can share with you the transformation that the Lord will provide in the lives of these women. So let me describe them to you.

There are no "fancy hairdos." That's one of the first things I learned from Kenyan friends. Hair is an indicator of social status. So, in this group, none of the attendees had "hairdos." Some had cut their hair very short, others had very tiny braids that can be done by a friend. Some of these ladies had stopped going to church because they had been ridiculed for their "lack of smart hair.)

They all wore their best. For some of them, that mean an ill fitting t-shirt and a skirt of some sort. I could see the feet of each of them. These were feet that have walked many miles just to look for work.

Nobody looked me in the eye. As they told their stories, they did it with their head down. But there were no tears even though these stories were unimaginably difficult.

Each woman had at least one child with them. For some, the other children were in school ( praise God) but for others, their children were finding work ( one of them was 10 years old and has never been to school because the $50 per year is prohibitive.) This is the child of one of the ladies who never went past first grade.

Today was our get to know you day. I thought that if I shared a little of my story, it would help these women open up. What I was not prepared for was how incredibly open they appeared to be. We were 10 total including me and Esther ( my dear friend who is an integral part of this group.) Each and every one had a story beginning in childhood of abuse, neglect, abandonment... the list goes on.
Of the 8 attendees, more than half never made it past 2nd grade for various reasons.

I had gone to town to pick up bibles in the local language as well as in Swahili. Guess what? More than half of these ladies cannot read. I just sat still as each lady told her story.  When everyone was finished and it was just Esther and me - I just said wow. And she said to me, "there is so much more that they are not ready to tell."

I have been here for several years now. Most of my "evangelism" has been in and through the church of some sort.  Most of the evangelism I have done has been through some tool - clean water/buckets, medical camps, large groups for training.

 A group was started last year for the youth in this community. When school is out for holidays, those who are between 14 and 21 or so come to our house for praise and worship and bible study. Most of these children have been brought up in church. Most are either in school or working somewhere.

This group of women have NOTHING. They have no family support. Most of their family either abandoned them very early on, parents have died - they just have no one.

For this group of women, just being invited to this group is something they have never experienced before. As we asked each woman some of the reasons why they did not come to church, the list sounded much like what you might find in the US.  Because they have sins that are apparent to everyone, or the entire community knows about them, they are shunned.

These are "the least of these." They are the least of these because that is what this society - including christians and the local churches - define them as . This is the story the community has created for them.  We intend now , through the love and teachings of Jesus, to create a new story for each. I will pray this verse over them for them next however long we are together. I do not usually like this translation of the bible, but for these women God has sent our way  - this is what I pray for them.

 Romans 12:2
New Living Translation
Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.


Please pray for these ladies daily. Their lives are more than difficult. But we pray God will allow us to bring the peace of His son in to the lives of these women and their families.