If you are keeping up with my teammates’ blogs, you probably already know that Uganda, at least the areas that we have been to, is beautiful. Traveling from place to place, we often stop in the middle of the road, walking or driving, to take in our surroundings.
So imagine our delight when our ministry host, Enoch, asked us to join him on a drive to a town about an hour away.
We pulled up to a primary school, but we soon found ourselves walking off school grounds, ducking under a wooden barrier (to prevent the cows from passing), and “hiking” up to an alcove in the mountains.
The waterfall is not as majestic as it used to be, they say, because the water now flows down the mountain in two directions. It was beautiful, nonetheless.
They used to push women off the edge of the waterfall, Enoch tells us in his matter-of-fact voice.
What?
The Ugandan church is shaped by Anglican influences, and their culture, like many others grounded in Christian beliefs, considers sex before marriage one of the greatest sins. If the signs hanging around the primary school were any indication, the Church of Uganda starts teaching abstinence at a very young age.
Photo by Alexa Anover.
So, when women become pregnant outside of wedlock, they are often shunned by their communities, disowned by their families, and left to fend for themselves. Those who try to secretly escape judgment through illegal abortions typically lose their lives in the process.
In this particular town, they lost their lives either way. Back when water poured down in one powerful stream, unwed pregnant women would be brought to the waterfall and forced off the edge. Sometimes, it was their fathers or brothers who pushed them.
Thankfully, the gospel reached the town and its people, and over time, the practice faded. But many women, in this town and others, continue to experience rejection and condemnation, an emotional and spiritual push off the waterfall.
Once a week, Team Liora helps out at Cherished Life Ministries’ teen moms program. These women first became pregnant as unwed teenagers, and made the choice to keep their babies and survive on their own. We spend time with the mothers and their children, share a meal and a message, and pray for their spiritual well-being and growth. We see such pain and strength in their stories, and more than anything, we want to communicate Christ’s grace and redemption over their lives.
The reality is that Liora’s impact at this program is unclear. We are still figuring out what it means to be a light here.
But the heart behind Cherished Life Ministries, and the other organizations we work with, is so clear to us. We have met amazing Christians, both locals and internationals, who work incredibly hard to communicate God’s message of love to every person in this community.
Just like we found a story of brokenness in the beauty of the waterfall, God has called them, and called us, to find a story of beauty in this brokenness.
